Police Powers in Line for Tweak

By Charles Rabin, The Miami Herald

Feb. 16–A significantly watered-down version of a proposed ordinance to strip Miami-Dade Police of powers to investigate corruption at County Hall passed a key committee Thursday after being endorsed by the mayor and police director.

County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez had stirred controversy two weeks ago by proposing to bar the police department’s public corruption unit from County Hall investigations.

Facing mounting criticism, Gimenez subsequently met with County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and law enforcement agency directors to recraft his proposal.

The one passed Thursday calls for an outside law enforcement agency to oversee any investigation involving the mayor or any of the 13 commissioners. The county’s 30,000 employees still fall under the jurisdiction of the public corruption unit.

The Health and Public Safety Committee passed the measure by a 4-1 vote.

"I absolutely have no disagreement with the arrangement if it’s done with the collaboration of the mayor and the commissioners," Police Director Robert Parker said. "That’s really not far off from what we’re doing presently."

The ordinance would allow the county police department to make its resources available to a lead agency. It also would authorize Parker to negotiate agreements with outside agencies like the state attorney’s office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI, and to determine which outside agency would take the lead in any investigation.

Joe Centorino, the state attorney’s chief of public corruption, said he may suggest some fine-tuning before a final vote. But overall, he said, "I don’t see any major problem."

Voting for the ordinance were Commissioners Gimenez, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss. Commissioner Javier Souto voted against, and Rebeca Sosa was absent.

The ordinance now moves on to the commission for a final vote, likely in early March.

"This is in no way, shape or form an indictment of the work done by the Miami-Dade Police Department. But I think there need to be checks and balances," Gimenez said.

Late last month, the commission voted 10-2 in favor of the original ordinance, with Heyman and Souto voting against. That proposal would have set more restrictions on the public corruption unit, which has handled several high-profile cases involving elected officials over the years.

At the time, Gimenez said he had drafted the proposed law out of fear that a strong mayor with the power to fire the police director could use corruption investigators to score political points — or to protect his or her office.

But the plan landed Gimenez in hot water with Alvarez — the county’s former police director and the man responsible for creating the unit — and with Parker and a host of law enforcement officials up to the federal level.

Questions remained unanswered: Who would initiate investigations? How would they be paid for? And why weren’t Parker and Alvarez part of the process?

Adding fuel to the fire, Gimenez said that with Alvarez as Parker’s boss, it was like "the fox guarding the henhouse."

That enraged the usually subdued police director, who quickly issued a memo to County Manager George Burgess outlining the public corruption unit’s job performance and deriding the Gimenez plan.

Alvarez called the proposal "absurd" and said he’d fight it to the state Supreme Court if need be. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was worried about personnel and funding, and the FBI said they’d deputize county police if necessary for an investigation.

Alvarez was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday and unavailable for comment. Victoria Mallette, his communications director, said Gimenez and Alvarez had reached a compromise "that is in the best interests of the residents of Miami-Dade County."

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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