Why not? Because it doesn't trust itself to use the funds for the directed purpose instead of buying fancy SUV's or cell phones, DirecTV subscriptions, boats, laptops and video cameras? The Miami Herald broke the story in early February, 2010. The release of the Dec 21 audit report dryly notes; "we consider this audit closed with exceptions." What are those exceptions?
In its report to the OIG, the Miami Dade Police Department explains why it cannot reimburse the Trust Fund that was looted for inappropriate purposes: "Over an eight year period, from the inception of the Environmental Trust Funds in 2002 through 2009, the MDPD paid the salaries plus fringe benefits and overtime expenses for multiple sworn officers and supervisors conducting environmental investigations at a cost of approximately $27 million."
In the Herald report, Alvarez long-time friend and division chief Frank Vecsin was singled out for criticism. "Vecin had asked the Chevy Tahoes be purchased for environmental investigators to respond to crimes in rural areas. But after giving those SUVs to top brass instead, he told The Herald in an earlier interview that the cars weren't given to ``little investigators'' because command staff is integral to fighting environmental crimes."
Unfortunately, the Inspector General did not close the loop. The final audit should include what cases were investigated, and the results of those cases including the number of cases resulting in prosecutions with fines, and the percentage of those fines that were finally collected. Why stop being embarrassed, now?
25 comments:
They have to start by indicting Glen Theobald, then chief legal council of the mdpd who authorized the release of the funds from the trust fund.
Hmmm... wonder if Mr. Theobald made any home improvements, or maybe just paid down a home equity line of credit during this time the environment was used to pad the police department quality of life.
Theobald was all about padding his pockets, he was also the chair of the mayors mortgage fraud task force which was nothing more than a tool for Alvarez and Theobald to pick up millions of dollars in federal funding to fight mortgage fraud. The biggest fraud was the task force itself, the arrests they made were nothing but window dressing and their cases ended up with nothing more than probation for the offenders despite tens of millions in fraud. I'm surprised their hasn't been more written on the mayors bogus fight against the rampant mortgage fraud that bought the sfl economy to it's knees.
Don't you remember what Alvarez did when his Police Director Robert Parker was investigated and found to have violated the state anti-nepotism statute by hiring his son?
Alvarez did nothing.
Dont hold your breath.
Julio Robaina would have knocked some heads!
Yeah there's a zero tolerance policy on environmental crime in Hialeah, like dumping or nuisances so you can move the udb.
Mortgage fraud? Remember the majority of the mortgage fraud committed down here was by builders and developers trying to clear out their inventories as the bubble was bursting. With that in mind do you think it was a mere coincidence that Rodney Barretos sister, Nancy Hogan, was on the mortgage fraud task forces board? The same task force board that steered the prosecutions and decided who should and who shouldn't get investigated?
How does that go, something about the fox guarding the henhouse?
Now there's some dirty laundry!
Where is the required response from the Mayor's office mentioned in the report? Has anything come out of the MDPD's internal affairs investigation and has anyone been disciplined? Where is the followup from the Herald?
Well Genius? That’s your boy (Alvarez) in action… at a lack words? Your strong mayor at work… of course he can do no wrong... please go ahead and indulge us with what I bet will be a very lengthy defense.
I'm told that all the mayors command staff that was involved in the trust fund mess were allowed to resign and chose to pick up there pensions lump sum rather than paid out annually. I was also told that the feds were looking into Vecin, Theobald etc. Any news on that Genius or am I the only on that thinks that the fact that most of Mr. Strong Mayors command staff having to step down is of any interest?
My defense is, I didn't write this blog. Read the heading putz. I am busy with my own posts.
A lot of these anonymous comments are suspiciously similar to the kind that infect a couple other local blogs that like to harp on local government officials. One person having a conversation with themselves, most likely.
Good luck with them, EoM. They're nothing by spam as far as I'm concerned.
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Real cute Rick. If you and your buddy Genius don’t agree were considered spam. I suppose all the ones that agree with your comments aren’t?
BTW stop brownnosing Genius, he does a pretty good job at defending his views… Kiss ass Rick.
Does anyone else find if funny to be using the worlds "SUV" and "Environmental" in one sentence? Why SUV's?
It is interesting, of course, that under cover of anonymity the blogs fill up with views that are more entertaining and sometimes more informative than the mainstream press. Apparently some of our readers have in depth and detailed information and when they share that information, we also protect our sources.
Don't get me wrong, Gimleteye, there's nothing wrong with anonymous comments. But when they create nothing but noise and distraction from the discussion at hand, I think they become a nuisance.
Just my 2 cents.
By the way, anonymous #350, genius is a genius. He really is that smart.
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Rick, where's the noise? As far as anonymity, there is no such thing as evidenced by those two little words at the bottom right of the main page, "Stat Counter". Genius and Gimeletye know who everyone who visits and comments on this blog is, they have everyone's IP addresses.
Carlos Alvarez has always appeared to be soft on corruption, especially when the corruption involves Alarez and his cronies.
As of right now, there doesn't seem to be any investigation of environmental crime in Dade County. The MDPD Intergovernmental Bureau, of which the Environmental Investigations Unit was a part, was dismantled after this scandal broke. EIU staff - "the little investigators" - were scattered throughout the department and elsewhere. Non-sworn members of the EIU, who were the ones trained to process environmental crime scenes and respond to incidents involving hazardous materials, were sent back to DERM where they are no longer engaged in criminal investigations. Dozens of investigations that were in progress are now in limbo and may never be prosecuted. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Were any of the criminals who infested the Police Department indicted for illegally diverting tax money to themselves and their friends?
Interesting article just hit the New Times:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2011-01-06/news/julio-robaina-dade-s-next-mayor/
Anonymous said...
As far as anonymity, there is no such thing as evidenced by those two little words at the bottom right of the main page, "Stat Counter". Genius and Gimeletye know who everyone who visits and comments on this blog is, they have everyone's IP addresses.
Before everyone gets nuts over the stat counter: it simply shows the IP address, provider and city, state info -
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
IP Address: Bellsouth.net (74.252.64.3)
And depending on the way the thing is set up, the length of time you were on a web page or what page you "landed" --- There is nothing there that would ID you personally, unless there was a court order involved and then it would have to be a serious thing to get a court to allow them to search for a person. Almost all website track us one way or another - that is why we have to dump our cookies and use ad ware cleaner...(That's a different cookie dump from the one caused by the reaction to politics)
If nothing else, Statcounter records the IP's of people commenting on these blogs which will prove or disprove Rick's theory of all the comments coming from the same person.
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