May2007 Newsletter

The

Hispanic Pulse

Hispanic Police Officers Association

May 25, 2007

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Bill Hernandez

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Director Robert Parker in identifying true leaders within our ranks. His recent appointments clearly show the direction the Miami-Dade Police Department needs to take in order to mirror the demographics of our community, and these appointments are a clear reflection in accomplishing that goal. That being said, I would like to congratulate our new leaders.

HPOA MEMBERS Assistant Director Chief Chief Major Major Major Major

Oscar Vigoa Victor Ramirez Frank Vecin Alex Casas Arturo Loynaz Carlos M. Garcia Veronica Ferguson

NON MEMBERS Chief Sheila Thomas Major Greg Terp Commander Robert Sitko

Additionally, I would like to congratulate those individuals, who took time out of their busy schedules, studied hard for the promotional process, and accomplished their goal. For that I commend the following HPOA members on their promotion: Major Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain Captain

Richard Amion Delma Noel Pratt Darin Rock Jose A. Fernandez Ronald Rebozo Margo Wright Carl Wright

1st Lieutenant 1st Lieutenant

Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant

Carlos Espinosa Richard Mestre William Hellman Mike Kirkland Ricardo Rodriguez Glenn Lester Denise Bernhard John E. McLaughlin Jorge Carreno Alain Sanchez Gadyaces Serralta Lisa Villa

Master SergeantPamila Johnson Sergeant Pete Taylor Sergeant Javier Rodriguez Sergeant Ronell Middleton Sergeant Yolanda Lombrage Sergeant Monica Diaz Sergeant Daniel Santana Sergeant Warren Williams Sergeant James Johns Sergeant Eddie Valdes Sergeant Waell Farraj Sergeant Helly Caraballo

Saima Plasencia Gustavo Duarte

Hispanic Police Officer's Association 1470 N.W. 107th Avenue Suite P Doral, Florida 33172 Phone 305.594.1173 Email: [email protected] The Hispanic Pulse We are on the Web: www.hpoadade.org

We are available 24 Hours HPOA HOTLINE

(786) 924-0100 Association Attorney's Mark Seiden

In speaking of individuals who have accomplished their goals, I want to congratulate Antonio Palau on his recent retirement. Retired Lieutenant Palau was honored at our last meeting and was given an Honorary Medallion from the association for honorably serving the HPOA for more than twenty five years. Congratulations!!!!!!! If anyone of our members is retiring anytime in the near future, we want to hear from you and honor you in the same way. Please e-mail me at [email protected] with your information.

Tim Martin Toby Soto Joel Kaplan Larry Ploucha Al Milian Next meeting: Monday, June 25, 2007 at 7:30pm, at the Doral Park Country Club located at 5001 NW 104 Court

Message From The President (Continuation) Bill Hernandez Last month Assistant Director Naim Erched spoke at our meeting. He mentioned several issues the Department will face in the coming years. He states that those issues can only be resolved with commitment and foresight. Therefore, it is up to us to mentor our members. We need to guide them, teach them, and help them get promoted. The HPOA has dedicated itself for years in helping our members get promoted. Now I ask you, those who have benefited from the HPOA to reach out to someone and mentor them through the promotional process. Don’t stop there. Mentor those individuals who just got promoted. Look at the list of names I have provided and reach out to them. I know it is no easy to give up your spare time to assist someone, but think how you felt when you first got promoted. Wouldn’t it have been great to have a mentor who you could call and get advice from or answer a simple question? I am sure you would have appreciated their assistance. Now it’s time for you to be that mentor. We are still accepting applications for this year’s HPOA Scholarship. In fact, the Honorable Mayor Carlos Alvarez (retired HPOA member) has provided an additional $5,000 of discretionary funds to assist our members’ children with additional scholarship. I sincerely thank Mayor Alvarez, Denis Morales, and the mayor’s staff for all of their hard work and commitment to the HPOA. Deadline for this year’s scholarship is Saturday, June 30, 2007. You can simply apply by downloading the application from our website www.hpoadade.org and go to the documents page. There you will find the application. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. For those of you who have been asking about our new office space, it is moving along very well. With the help of Joe Gonzalez, Eric Garcia, Arnold Palmer and his son, Rene Avila, Rene Bello, Amy Alvarez and I, the office was moved from our old location to our new one. Eric has had the locks changed to Medco locks and we are now in the process of demolition. With a little help and good fortune, we should be moving in sometime in the late summer. Though I will keep you informed. Domino Tournament This was one of our best tournaments ever. We raised nearly $10,000 for Pat Pedraja and we had the pleasure of having Pat and Willy help us throughout the entire event. Over 120 people showed up, contributed, danced, and won incredible prizes. I would also like to congratulate our Domino Tournament winners. First Place Second place Third Place

Tony Carvajal and Rene Bello Ariel Rodriguez and Enrique Perez Jose Gonzalez and Juan Carlos Iglesias

Lastly, I want to remind our members that La Liga Contra Cancer Telethon is Sunday, June 3, 2007. For those of you who have volunteered to help with security, I want to personally thank you for you time and commitment.

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MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY A Degree of Wisdom The Miami-Dade County’s Tuition Refund Program was adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on August 27, 1963 to Eric Garcia encourage County employees to improve their effectiveness by obtaining additional training and education. In my opinion police officers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. To do it well requires guts, brains, maturity and heart. Two years of college, four years, even 10, will not in itself turn anyone into a gifted police officer. But that doesn’t mean a college education is of minimal value in policing. Good police work demands good to excellent reading, writing, decision making and speaking skills. Math is essential for accident investigations; ability to work with the latest technology is necessary, too. But college is also good for an officer in another sense; it helps to enlarge his or her perspective, counteracting the depression and isolation that tends to darken and shrink an officer’s world into us versus them. College also helps people map the vastness of their own ignorance, inspiring a desire to learn more, or at least a certain humility. It helps to cultivate flexibility and versatility. Police officers need a degree of wisdom that college alone can’t provide. But college can help both individual officers and police organizations such as the HPOA flourish. I strongly urge all of you to take advantage of the County’s tuition refund program and if anything else it’s five percent more that you’re making and a requirement if you are considering going up the ranks. Please visit the following site for more information on the Tuition Refund Program, http://www.miamidade.gov/emprel/ tuition_refund.asp or contact Veva Dennis at the Training Bureau. On May 29th the HPOA will be hosting an Internet Safety presentation which will be presented by the Sexual Crimes Bureau, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. The presentation will inform parents on Internet Safety, computers, chat rooms, and social networking sites such as Myspace. I strongly urge all members, along with their spouses, to attend and learn how to keep the children and teens in your life safer both on and offline. So take advantage of what your organization is offering for the safety of your children

President Bill Hernandez [email protected] First Vice- President Hiram Rodriguez [email protected] Second Vice-President Jose R. Gonzalez [email protected]

Secretary Eric Garcia [email protected] Treasurer Arnold Palmer [email protected] Sergeant At Arms Alex Alfonso [email protected]

The Hispanic Pulse

MESSAGE FROM THE SERGEANT AT ARMS The last meeting was held on April 30, 2007 at the Doral Park. During the meeting Morgan Stanley conducted a very informative presentation regarding retirement and various investment plans. A large amount of our members were in attendance seeking guidance and advice. Alex Alfonso

We are still searching for volunteers. One of the major complaints that we have heard over and over again, is that members have a hard time getting information about organization events and news. We have come long way updating our website, primarily through the efforts of Bill and Eric, but sometimes that is not enough. We are asking for members, ideally two from each locations of assignment within the department, to volunteer to become HPOA District Representatives. These representatives would be required to attend monthly meetings and disseminate pertinent information back to the rest of the members of their respective assignments. It is our hope that this would encourage member participation and make this organization better for all of us. Any one interested may contact Alex Alfonso at [email protected], Eric Garcia at [email protected], and Bill Hernandez at [email protected]. Remember with out you we have no organization.

that taxable values even if you sell that residence and purchase a new one. For the consumer, it sounds great. The problem is that it is not good for government funded agencies. The county is funded through various revenues streams. The largest one is called the “General Fund”. It is funded primarily through taxes that are collected from the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area (UMSA, aka unincorporated Miami-Dade County) and Countywide (all municipalities within Miami-Dade County). The Department consequently is 85% General funded. In essence, the lower the amount of revenues that come in each year, the smaller the General Fund becomes. The first thing that we must acknowledge is that “this is not a test”. The prospects of budget reductions are more than likely, but the degree and intensity of the cuts are what remains to be seen. In a best case scenario is that the impacts will likely reduce overtime, operating and capital expenditures. Simply that means less GSA supplies, less toys (computers, distinctive polo shirts, wireless air cards, new furniture) and yes, unfortunately less overtime.

County, you can cut what ever you want, but don’t touch my budget!!!

However we must be vigilant. The more progressive the tax roll-back the more amount of revenues that will not be collected or be available. If that trend continues, additional reductions will be sure to follow and we may all need to prepare to tighten our belts. Hopefully this will not be the case. Historically, public safety is generally the last to receive such severe reductions and in many cases usually end up in a state where no growth occurs until financial climates improve.

Over the last few weeks, all of the elements within the county have been asked to review their FY 07-08 budget submissions and assess the impacts of the pending tax reform legislation by the governor, the house and the senate.

Despite all of these looming challenges, we must continue to do what we do best and that is to serve and protect. What can you do? Be calm, watch what happens during the legislative special sessions and be more informed.

But what does this all mean? How will we be impacted? Will we still be employed?

Below are few links to websites about the reforms and how other smaller local governments are attempting to address these financial challenges:

For those of you who don’t know, there are three major proposals being discussed on capital hill by the governor, Christ, the House, and the Senate. Each proposal would provide tax relief to all property owners in Florida. One of the proposals deals with a “Tax-roll back”. If this was to come to fruition, our taxable property values would be reverted back to what it was between 2000-2005. In addition, there is another proposal that would provide for unlimited portability of the assessed taxable value of you homestead residence that would allow you to maintain

The Hispanic Pulse

Florida Property Tax Reform Committee http://www.propertytaxreform.state.fl.us/ National Center for Policy Analysis http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14 236 Florida House of Representatives http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/contentViewer.aspx?Ca tegory=WebSite&File=property_tax_reform.htm Florida Counties Association http://www.fl-counties.com/

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Hispanic Police Officer Association

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1470 NW 107 Avenue Unit, P Doral, Florida 33172

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