The

Hispanic Pulse
May 25, 2007 Hispanic Police Officers Association

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Hispanic Police
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Director Robert Parker in Officer's Association
identifying true leaders within our ranks. His recent appointments clearly show
the direction the Miami-Dade Police Department needs to take in order to 1470 N.W. 107th Avenue
mirror the demographics of our community, and these appointments are a clear Suite P
Bill Hernandez reflection in accomplishing that goal. That being said, I would like to Doral, Florida 33172
congratulate our new leaders.
HPOA MEMBERS NON MEMBERS Phone 305.594.1173
Assistant Director Oscar Vigoa Chief Sheila Thomas Email: Bill@hpoadade.org
Chief Victor Ramirez Major Greg Terp
Chief Frank Vecin Commander Robert Sitko
Major Alex Casas The Hispanic Pulse
Major Arturo Loynaz We are on the Web:
Major Carlos M. Garcia www.hpoadade.org
Major Veronica Ferguson
Additionally, I would like to congratulate those individuals, who took time out of their busy We are available 24
schedules, studied hard for the promotional process, and accomplished their goal. For that I
commend the following HPOA members on their promotion:
Hours
Major Richard Amion 1st Lieutenant Saima Plasencia HPOA HOTLINE
Captain Delma Noel Pratt 1st Lieutenant Gustavo Duarte
Captain Darin Rock
(786) 924-0100
Captain Jose A. Fernandez
Captain Ronald Rebozo Association Attorney's
Captain Margo Wright
Captain Carl Wright Mark Seiden
Lieutenant Carlos Espinosa Master SergeantPamila Johnson
Lieutenant Richard Mestre Sergeant Pete Taylor Tim Martin
Lieutenant William Hellman Sergeant Javier Rodriguez
Lieutenant Mike Kirkland Sergeant Ronell Middleton Toby Soto
Lieutenant Ricardo Rodriguez Sergeant Yolanda Lombrage
Lieutenant Glenn Lester Sergeant Monica Diaz Joel Kaplan
Lieutenant Denise Bernhard Sergeant Daniel Santana
Lieutenant John E. McLaughlin Sergeant Warren Williams
Larry Ploucha
Lieutenant Jorge Carreno Sergeant James Johns
Lieutenant Alain Sanchez Sergeant Eddie Valdes
Lieutenant Gadyaces Serralta Sergeant Waell Farraj Al Milian
Lieutenant Lisa Villa Sergeant Helly Caraballo
In speaking of individuals who have accomplished their goals, I want to congratulate Antonio Next meeting:
Palau on his recent retirement. Retired Lieutenant Palau was honored at our last meeting and was Monday, June 25, 2007
given an Honorary Medallion from the association for honorably serving the HPOA for more than at 7:30pm, at the
twenty five years. Congratulations!!!!!!! Doral Park Country Club
If anyone of our members is retiring anytime in the near future, we want to hear from you and located at
honor you in the same way. Please e-mail me at Bill@hpoadade.org with your information. 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
Bill@hpoadade.org.
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 Tony Carvajal and Rene Bello
Second place Ariel Rodriguez and Enrique Perez
Third Place 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.
Page 2
MESSAGE FROM THE
SECRETARY
A Degree of Wisdom
The Miami-Dade County’s Tuition Refund
Program was adopted by the Board of County
Eric Garcia Commissioners on August 27, 1963 to
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 Secretary
Bill Hernandez Eric Garcia
bill@hpoadade.org eric@hpoadade.org
First Vice- President Treasurer
Hiram Rodriguez Arnold Palmer
hiram@hpoadade.org arnold@hpoadade.org
Second Vice-President Sergeant At Arms
Jose R. Gonzalez Alex Alfonso
joegonzalez@hpoadade.org alex@hpoadade.org
The Hispanic Pulse
 MESSAGE FROM
THE SERGEANT
AT ARMS
The last meeting was held on April
Alex Alfonso 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.
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 Alex@hpoadade.org, Eric
Garcia at Eric@hpoadade.org, and Bill Hernandez at
Bill@hpoadade.org. Remember with out you we have
no organization.
County, you can cut what ever you want, but don’t
touch my budget!!!
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.
But what does this all mean? How will we be
impacted? Will we still be employed?
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
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.
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.
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.
Below are few links to websites about the reforms
and how other smaller local governments are
attempting to address these financial challenges:
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/
Page 3
Hispanic Police Officer Association PRSRT STD
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Doral, Florida 33172 MIAMI, FL.
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