Civil Service Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the May 5th, 2026 Civil Service Board meeting. We'll begin with a Pledge of Allegiance. The adoption of the agenda. We'll entertain a motion. Motion.

Second.

Motion by Board Member Soliman, second by Board Member Jimenez. All in favor? Aye. Approving of the minutes. Motion by Board Member Soliman. Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor? Aye. C, military leaves of absence. C1. Jimmy L. Rodriguez, police sergeant, requests military leave without pay from February 8th, 2026 for a period of 365 days. Copy of order submitted.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez. Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor? Aye. C2. Vanessa Moreno, police officer, requests military leave without pay, effective January 17, 2026, for a period of 211 days. Copy of order submitted. Motion. Motion by Board Member Jimenez. Second. Second by Board Member Soliman. All in favor? Aye. C3, take note. D, disciplinary matters. D1 through D5, board members, please take note. E, general items, E1, copy of a request for appearance before the board from Jose Mena Crespo, former heavy equipment mechanic, pursuant to Civil Service Rule 2.7, concerning an untimely request to appeal a termination effective March 13, 2026. He isn't at the board, no, he wouldn't.

Hi, good morning. My name is Melissa, and I'm here to translate for my dad. Okay. If you guys allow me to.

Sure.

Hey, my name is Jose Mena.

Mr. Mena, if you could just come to the podium. Okay. State your name and your position.

Your name and position.

My name is Jose Mena, Jose Valdo Mena. My position is Heavy Equipment Mechanic. I work for the GSA and the NYCHF.

I'd like to shed some light on this through the chair.

Yes.

All right, so this individual, his daughter asked Angela Roberts for the email address for the civil service. The email address that she gave her was wrong, so they sent it to CBS instead of CSB. Looking at that email, her request for a hearing would have been timely from the date of termination. He also did not receive the email from the city, so he responded based on the date that he got his letter. But either way, it would have fallen within the 15 days. I recommend that he be allowed to have a hearing. His son was charged with criminal charges. They were dropped against him. He had nothing to do with the criminal activity. He lost his job over that. So this man is one that definitely deserves to have a hearing because he's completely innocent and his hearing request was sent timely. Thank you. Right, yes, and I mean, Tameka reminded me that we just found out today, because she showed us the emails, because we had never received them, so we didn't know, because they were going to CVS instead of CSB, so for that reason, but she also showed us the email from Angela Roberts that gave her the wrong email address, so I think this is one that the board should allow.

Do the chair.

Board members, all in mind, you recognize?

Just for clarity, you said that all charges were dropped against him and his son was filed?

No, no, no. So his son apparently was filed with charges, had nothing to do with him.

Oh.

So, I mean.

So the son was the one that.

Regardless of what the charges, I mean, it wasn't him, so. Yeah. It's a moot point.

Yeah, I mean, is it dropped completely or is it?

So basically, my brother was the one that is running with the charges. He has a whole background check. You guys are allowing him to see. They have the paperwork. So everything that my brother had illegally, it was inside of his house. That's how the whole case began. Everything was in his house, so he had to take... penalty for it. Until now he's free of charges. He hasn't got any charges. We have the proof that from all the charges that they had put it for him, 20 of them have been dropped. So basically his case is going to be closed. God first with free of charges.

I mean, we're not at that evidentiary phase really. It's just, should he be allowed a hearing and looking at what she presented to me today, would strongly recommend she get a hearing he gets a hearing because she did show us the email it was dated appropriately she sent a follow-up email I haven't heard from you and that was even timely we just weren't getting these emails and it's not through her fault or his fault because the email address they got was wrong perfect so stick for the order of the day here what we're at we have somebody that's coming to request a hearing they were

quote-unquote not timely on it there's a description uh or discrepancy whether they were given the right email whatnot is that on the record the email that was sent like from hr from angela roberts that it was sent incorrectly she just emailed it to us she showed us to us on her phone and she just emailed it to us so we have the emails so we have an email coming from HR from the city, incorrectly to the employee with the incorrect email address, which then they didn't get over on a timely basis over to us. Correct, we have both emails. I think that's the important matter before our board today. We can print those, but we just got it.

We can print those, we just got them, but I think you can rely on my representation.

Right, now let's give an opportunity to hear from the city.

Yes, if I may, Lynette Aguirre on behalf of the city, I do have an objection to this request for hearing today. I understand that we got emails, proof today that Mr. Mena had sent an email to Angela Roberts discussing his termination and that she gave him the wrong email address for civil service. And yes, that is part of the email that we received. However, Mr. Mena did receive an email from GSA, the department, on March 18th with a copy of his termination letter. That termination letter details specifically how he can appeal this. He has 15 days to appeal with the Civil Service Board, not through HR. Further, if you were to look at the email and the attachment that was attached to the email that was sent to HR, it's not a request for an appeal. It looks like more of an explanation of what was going on. So it looks like it's a rebuttal to the termination as opposed to a request for an appeal hearing. And so for those reasons, the city is going to be objecting. The procedure wasn't followed. He missed the 15-day deadline, and the specific procedure of how you request an appeal hearing was not followed, and that's why we're going to be objecting.

Question. So if you contact the HR department at any place of work, much less something as great as the city of Miami, and, I mean, would it fall under the job description? right, or the duties of HR, if an employee, a grieved employee, comes before and says, hey, I need to file a complaint or whatnot, you know, I got a letter. Obviously, it's somebody that's even coming with their daughter for a translation when it comes to, I'm assuming the letter came in English, is that right?

The letter came in English, but also Mr. Mena's been employed by the city for some time, and there had been no English barriers before, and we I would recommend that we have an evidentiary hearing to really find out with evidence and with proof testimony from everyone in the department, testimony from Mr. Mena, so that we can, you know, the board can fully be advised of everything that's going on.

Perfect. So, but for me, for the betterment of the board here and for myself, if you contact HR and you say, hey, I'd like clarity on how I can go ahead, is this what took place? I'd like clarity on how I can go ahead and... get a hearing or challenge this letter that I'm getting of termination. Is that something that HR can guide you through what your options are? Yes, of course. In addition to a letter, because I know we mail a letter. But if I go to HR and I say I'm having these problems, because we say all about we always want to educate the employees and all the ECO and all these other places and things that take place. If you ask HR, hey, what are my options? One of them would be to delineate. You can contact the civil service. You have civil service rights. And here's the email. And then when you send an email, which we all make mistakes, even HR, they send the incorrect email. That would open an opportunity to come before a body like ours for exactly the reason why we exist and be able to say, man, just like HR made a mistake and didn't do that, maybe it's HR. Maybe. If HR had given the correct email, maybe the employee could have understood that part in English to say, I could send an email timely and go within my rights, since I've been an employee for so many years here.

Completely understood, and respectfully, the problem is here that Mr. Mena wasn't requesting an appeal through HR. He was trying to... From my understanding, and I'm just assuming, obviously, because I don't know, I'm just assuming based on the emails and the letter that was submitted attached to the email, that he was trying to explain what the situation was. It looks more like a rebuttal to a discipline as opposed to requesting an appeal hearing. And that's just the argument that I'm making before this body today.

Well, and sitting up here, right, looking out for the best interest of the city, and also for the best interest of the good employees of the city of Miami, making sure that they have every right exhausted to them. Most employees, they could serve a lifetime here, and you're not gonna know the ins and outs of HR, the process of exactly your rights, until the time of need, right? I don't really know how 911 works, and I really don't wanna find out. I don't really use it. I haven't used it, thank God. If I needed to, I hope that somebody can guide me exactly through what my options are in a moment like that. So it seems like you're in a distressed moment and a challenging time in your career. If they tell you something, you want to know when you contact HR, I mean, what do you go to HR for? If it's not for that, it's to say, hey, I'm applying for a job. Hey, I want to know what this is. What's the promotional process? Oh, I'm being terminated. What options do I have? You know what I mean? It's kind of, I don't think he worked for the legal department. I mean, he was heavy equipment operator. He's coming to HR and he's saying, Yeah, I want to challenge it. So part of the challenge would be like, well, you can't just come in here and challenge it. These are your rights. Go to civil service. This is a correct email. And this is where you, you know, ask them. You're a civil servant, you know, guide it in that way. And so when I'm up here, I'm going to take that in. I'm going to take that all into, weigh it into my discretion and in my opinion. So, but I'm only one of five.

That's why I'm asking for the board to hold an evidentiary hearing so that you can all be apprised of all of the information and know exactly what happened and who, you know, with the email that was sent and what the thoughts were behind the email, everything. And I think we can only obviously get that from Mr. Mena.

I think maybe we could help, you know, if nobody has an objection, maybe we could see the emails and see the interaction change just so we could see it for ourself. Give us an opportunity just to review that. And at the end of the day, we're here just evaluating whether Mr. Mena should be granted a hearing. I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for everything else after that.

May I speak for one moment? Maybe I can assist them if I can see a copy of the email and see if we can try and take care of the legalese. maybe in a different argument or a different perspective for the day. Sure. Just give them an opportunity to have somebody that can kind of speak the same language. Sure.

Maybe state your name and record.

My name is Kristen Mena. I work for the South Florida Police Benevolent Association. I'm staff counsel there.

Wonderful. If there's no objection, I think get a copy. I think we're requesting the same thing. We'll review it and move forward.

Chair, if I can be recognized, I have a question.

Board Member Cabrera, do you recognize?

Can you clarify, maybe this is for us too, what's stopping us from having an evidentiary hearing now, since we have them here?

I mean, you're kind of getting it as we're speaking, because he's spoken, he's providing documents, I disagree with the city's calculation because he got the email on March 18th. He sent his email on April 2nd. That's 14 days. So even if you're going from the date of the email that we sent him, that's it. If you look at the termination letter, it doesn't tell him an email address. It just says you have a right to appeal. And there's an email between him and HR, where she tells him, if you want to appeal, send it to CBS at Miami-Dade Gov. And so, I mean, there's a chain of documents here. This, to me, to have a full-blown hearing with witnesses on this issue, I think you're getting enough evidence to make a decision. That's the board's discretion if you want to have a hearing on this. I think there's been, the ball has been dropped by the city and that the employee should not be penalized.

So just to echo here, I mean, and we can go on and ask as many questions, but in black and white, Mr. Mena, this is coming from HR Director Angela Roberts. Mr. Mena, per the string of emails below, the attached letter has been brought to my attention. Please be advised that HR does not have the authority to overturn a termination. However, you may email the civil service office at CBS, the wrong email, at miamigov.com to request an appeal of your termination. They will inform you if that is a possibility. If you were a union member before you were terminated, you may still email the union at local1907union at gmail.com to also request for them to appeal your termination. They will also inform you if that is possible. There is nothing more for HR to respond to this matter. So I think it seemed there was a timely response from HR and they were seeming to indicate them in the right way. He said, you know, thanks for contacting us here, but we can't help you with this termination to overturn it, but these are your rights within it, assuming your options.

And they just happened to send the wrong thing.

So I think based on that, unless there's something else that the city can bring forward and stuff, at least from how I see it, I mean, it would only seem reasonable that you say, you know, I mean, it seems he was intending to do that. He tried to send an email to the wrong thing to appeal it that way to the best guidance he was given through our director of HR. Here we are. I mean, give me something to compel me to feel otherwise to say, why shouldn't I grant this employee that option that he has? I don't see it. It's in black and white. I mean, and I just listened to you say something before. Now, I had to request to get a paper to say, let me see it. And it's like. I don't see how a reasonable person could say this is not.

So I just want to be clear that what I was saying was not that Ms. Roberts was saying that he wasn't requesting an appeal. What I was trying to say is that his email to HR was not a request for appeal, and that's based on his letter. That was the city's argument.

Absolutely. Absolutely it's not. But as an employee, as somebody that's not a subject matter expert, terminations or civil service rights or whatnot if you're just an average employee in the city of Miami if we take a poll of average if you have an issue with your employment the place that you go if you are harassed if you're anything you go to human resources 101 like that's that's what you do and when you go to human resources they tell you hi welcome you know what we actually don't handle this if you want to apply for a promotion you want something else but you can contact civil service your union member do I think it was beautifully responded by the by the HR director I think you know she made a mistake like anybody else did on an email and that's okay he made a mistake now when we're the right that an employee has right with a there's a reason why this is funded and and and and created here in the city for fairness now we're looking at we say well that's reasonable HR director made a mistake it's okay We're not going to terminate her. That's okay. It was a mistake. So you had a deadline. You kind of didn't meet it. You were clearly showing intent that you wanted to pursue. You didn't agree with it. These are within your rights. You're not giving that email. All he's asking for right now is not saying, hey, don't terminate me. Do not give me a hearing. And then at that point, you know, go at it. And we're going to end the city's going to say now don't grant them the hearing. I mean, I don't want to send that kind of message. to this employee, to any employee in the state of Miami. I don't want to send that, I mean, that's just, I think this is an easy one, personally, but.

And just as a point of one more clarification, sir, I apologize. The times that I have sent documentation to the wrong person, specifically with this board and other appeals in the police department, I have been directed in the right direction to be able to file that in the right, with correct email. So I think that, like you said, Chairman, this is not a situation where you guys are giving him his job back or, well, I'm sorry, I apologize. are not giving him his job back immediately. All he's asking is for an opportunity to present his case after his charges were dropped when he shouldn't have been charged originally. So I think in the best interest of the city and its employees and sending the right message, it is to allow him to speak his piece, give him the opportunity to present his case to this board, and you all make a decision after that. But the fact is that he didn't. They reached out, they tried to get the information that they needed to get before the city of Miami to be able to have the opportunity to present his case, and that's all he's asking for today.

Any other board members?

Yes, I have a question.

Board member Lanier?

Did he follow Angela Roberts' instructions in an attempt to contact the Civil Service Board? And I'd like to file a motion to grant him permission to have a hearing.

Second it. We have a motion by Board Member Lanier and a second by Board Member Jimenez. Any discussion? Seeing none, we call the roll or just, okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing's granted. Thank you. E2. Findings of fact concerning the appeal hearing on behalf of Liz Linda Bremer, police sergeant, as it relates to her 10-hour suspension effective March 19, 2023.

Board members, we did receive an email from Attorney Gibbons stating that he had no objections to the findings. Okay. I'm not sure the department still does.

Is there anybody here from the department or the city on the finding of facts? No objections. No objections. Okay. So it seems on E2 we have finding of the facts. It seems that the employees council reached out, said they had no objection to it. The city seems to have no objection, so we'll entertain a motion on the finding of facts for E2.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez. Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. Solomon. It doesn't matter. Solomon. It doesn't matter. Adjoint. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. F1, hearings pendings list as of May 5th, 2026. Board members take note. Our next board meeting is next Tuesday, May 12th. 2026, we have two hearings scheduled. H, today's hearings. H1, we have an appeal hearing on behalf of Daniel Crocker, police officer, concerning his 10-hour suspension, effective July 19, 2024.

Good morning. Griska Mena on behalf of Officer Daniel Crocker from the South Florida Police Penumbral Association.

Good morning again.

Good morning again. We're ready to go forward. I've made an attempt with the city to try and resolve this matter before today's hearing for probably a few months now, and I don't believe that we've been able to reach an agreement. City?

No, the city's ready to move forward.

The city's ready to move forward. You're ready to move forward. With a two-minute recess, is there any possibility of any kind of coming to an understanding, a last second ditch before you come before... Our board?

Yeah, if we can have a two-minute recess. I also wanted to address the chair. If we can bring back up Mr. Mena's case. I just have a quick request. I know that the board granted him a hearing. If we can set it in August, if possible. I know he said that the charges are all going to be dropped by next month. Everything's going to be done. So if we can get a quicker date, I think it would be beneficial for everyone.

I believe that they're gonna try and retain a lawyer, so I think August would probably be a better option for them to try and... Would you mind coming back up?

So the city's asking, so we've granted the hearing, and they're asking if we could kinda expedite it if our schedule allows to schedule you for a hearing in August. Is that something, I mean, maybe you wanna discuss it with your father and see if that's something that would work with you guys.

That would be August 4th?

Would August 4th?

18th, I think, is the date.

No, 18th, we have three hearings scheduled.

Oh, we do have cases set on the 18th, but is there a hearing on the?

There's a meeting on August 4th?

August 4th, yes.

Okay, that's fine.

Would August 4th work? That works. Would August 4th work? That works? Okay, it seems they're in agreement, so we'll try to then schedule them for August 4th.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Thank you. So two minute recess before we start the hearing?

Yeah, see if there's any way you guys can come to an agreement there on this 10 hour.

Thank you.

Who wants to proffer the good news? Okay, I'm sorry, are we officially back on the record? Yes.

We're officially back on.

Okay, I've spoken to the department and at this time they're gonna be rescinding 10-hour suspension, but keeping it as a reprimand, so it's moot for a civil service right now. I'll prepare the memo and everything and send it over so everyone has a copy of it.

We're all in agreement. Great. What a great day. If there's no other orders of business or any other discussion, we'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Lanier. Second by Board Member Solomon. All in favor?

Aye.

See you all next week, May 12th, for our next Civil Service Board meeting. See you next week.