MIAMI LODGE

F R A T E R N A L thO R D E R O F P O L I C E
710 Southwest 12 Avenue. Miami, Florida 33130
Phone (305) 854-5019
Ortiz@fopmiami.com

Javier Ortiz
PRESIDENT

Thomas Reyes
SECRETARY

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Javier Ortiz
Phone: 786-290-1183
September 28, 2016
A Shadow Government Destroys Public Trust, Victoria Mendez Isnt To Blame
There is a shadow Government being operating in the City of Miami, violating Sunshine public and
records laws. The City Attorney has created a number of enemies in successfully defending the City of
Miami against a few who chose to sue her at every turn for every illegitimate reason because those
serial suers have much to gain financially.
Steven Herbits and Grant Stern are 2 individuals who are serial unsuccessful litigants against the tax
payers of Miami. Herbits, Donald Rumsfelds former chief of staff, has even filed unsuccessful ethics
complaints against the City Attorneys office. Both these individuals were big supporters of Russell in
his bid for the Commission 2 seat. Herbits demonstrates an uncanny power over Russell just by
watching him at Commission meetings. These two have a personal vendetta against City Attorney
Mendez for her protection of Miami residents. The summary termination of Mendez by Russell has
nothing to do with the Grove issue or documents Russell requested of her with 1 days notice, if that
were true he would have turned over the instant public records under demand for the past 15 days by
members of the Cuban American Bar Association. Only one Russell staffer, Leah Weston has
complied with the 119 request and turned over her personal records conducting official City Business;
that request in and of itself shows the shadow Government conducting its affairs away from Sunshine
and public records all in contravention of Florida law.
On 9/13/16 Hector Lambana (former CABA President) issued a public records request to
Commissioner Ken Russell for all communications between him and his staff for the past 6 months.
Equally the same request was made to Stern as well as Russells campaign manager Orlando Diez. To
date, Russell and his staff with the exception of Weston has turned over any records. Weston,
ironically Sterns previous attorney and upon her hire was still suing the City of Miami tax payers,
records reveal:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Russells staff conducts City Business on personal emails obstructing public records that would
be generated by the City of Miami server in contrast to Chapter 119 and Sunshine.
The reason for promoting Kluger Kaplan was to oppose Keon (Hardemon) the fool.
Stern has no regard for the City of Miami Commission referring them as toothless bastards.
The other 2 commissioners Keon is lost and Gort is hopeless.

At the time (9/8/16) Russell was demanding Mendez to be terminated, it was without benefit of
investigation or apparently without the benefit of her explanation. That is why the Fraternal Order of
Police supports civil service protections for all government employees in order to protect them from
political influence.
We live in a democracy and are only one of two States that conduct its business in the Sunshine. The
use of private servers and text messaging while Commissioners are conducting City business leads to
secretive results.
The FAILURE OF RUSSELL TO TURN OVER HIS EMAILS AND TEXT MESSAGES AS WELL
AS COMMUNICATIONS IS PER SE A VIOLATION OF SUNSHINE AND THE FLORIDA
PUBLIC RECORDS LAW. RUSSELL CLAIMED HE WAS ABOUT TRANSPARENCY BUT HIS
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN HIS WORDS. HIS CHIEF OF STAFF ELAZAR MELENDEZ
CONDUCTS
CITY
BUSINESS
ON EDAVIDMELENDEZ@GMAIL.COM,
RUSSELL
CONDUCTS HIS CITY BUSINESS ON HOW MANY VARIOUS SERVERS. THE REST OF
RUSSELLS STAFF CONDUCT CITY BUSINESS ON HOW MANY SERVERS. A FULL
INVESTIGATION MUST NOW BE CONDUCTED BY THE STATE ATTORNEYS OFFICE FOR
EACH STAFFER WHO VIOLATED SUNSHINE AND PUBLIC RECORDS LAW.
Victoria Mendez wasnt intentionally hiding emails. There is no evidence of that. Apparently the word
transparency means something else when it comes to those that are being told to turn over their
public records, but wont!
A copy of the documents are attached.
Sincerely,

Javier Ortiz
Javier Ortiz, President
Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #20

A Proud Tradition in Law Enforcement