Email: “Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina now can add financial mismanagement to his record of charges -- loan sharking, income tax evasion, mortgage fraud, and property taxes delinquency.”
Speak Up Miami – FACTCHECK:
Hialeah’s strong Mayor Julio Robaina was in fact found GUILTY of violating contract rules when he fired 16 firefighters; as reported by the Miami Herald: Hialeah ordered to rehire laid-off firefighters.
An independent arbitrator, found that Robaina failed to show "any" analysis of savings from the layoffs, even though Robaina said the move would save $2.5 million.
Mayor Julio Robaina (in what is now commonly viewed as a political ploy to favor his campaign for County mayor) misrepresented to taxpayers the savings -- knowing full well at the time that Hialeah would have to give separation pay and then rehire to maintain staffing.
In addition, Hialeah taxpayers have had to pay $470,000 more in overtime.
Now Mayor Julio Robaina must rehire the firefighters and reimburse their back pay -- costing millions.
The arbiter also decided that the city failed on various counts (basic principles of fiscal responsibility), including:
* to make any cost analysis showing what savings the terminations would generate;
* to establish the cost-savings were legitimate reasons and financially efficient;
* to account for related costs that would reduce any savings, such as separation pay to the laid-off firefighters;
* to give proper advanced notice; and
* to include any employees who were not enrolled in the city’s deferred retirement program.
