Civil Service Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the July 21st, 2026 Civil Service Board Meeting. We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll begin with the adoption of the agenda. We'll entertain a motion.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Soliman.

Second.

Second by Board Member Jimenez. All in favor? Aye. Approving of the minutes.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Lanier.

Second.

Second by Board Member Soliman. All in favor? Aye. B, Personnel Matters. B1. Copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hevia, Director, Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Ricardo Hiera, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Please state your name and your position.

Firefighter Ricardo Hiera. Firefighter. If you could pull them. Firefighter Ricardo Hiera, firefighter, badge number 2124.

Anyone from the city? Good morning.

Good morning, board members. Steve Perez, chief, City of Miami Fire Rescue.

Morning. Do you understand what's being proffered here today?

Yes, sir.

Are you in agreement? Yes, sir. All right. City, we have a reason, I guess, why we're extending for probation here.

Yes, so we have a few members here today. The purpose of this member in particular's extension is going to be The purpose of this member's extension particularly is we have identified some deficiencies on performance areas that we'd like to evaluate further. And therefore, once we have some more time, we hope to have all these members become permanent.

Wonderful. All members will entertain a motion.

I have a question. You requested an extension for how long?

This one is for six months.

All right. Motion.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez.

I'll second.

Second by Board Member Soleiman. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. Good luck out there. We look forward to having you out here for a long time.

Thank you, sir.

B-2, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hebbia, Director, Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Daniel Portes, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026. Good morning, everyone.

Firefighter Daniel Portes.

Good morning, sir. Do you understand what you're here for today? Yes, sir, I agree. You're in agreement? Yes, sir. Wonderful. Chief, same...

Board members, this member is no different than the last one we just spoke of. We've identified some areas we can improve on. We want to evaluate them a little bit longer just to make sure that they reach those standards that we're expecting.

We'll entertain a motion. Motion.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez. Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Good luck, sir. B3, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hevia, Director, Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Joshua Quintana, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026. Morning, sir.

Morning. Firefighter Joshua Quintana on badge number 2121.

Excellent. You understand why you're here for it? Yes, sir. Are you in agreement? I agree. All right. Same type.

Yep, similar. These members have all been identified through their monthly evaluations to have some deficiencies we want to address.

All right. We'll entertain a motion.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Solomon. Second. Second by Board Member Cabrera. All in favor? Aye. Good luck, sir.

Have a good one, sir.

Before, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hevia, Director of Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Jalen Shepard, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026.

Good morning, everyone. My name is firefighter Jalen Shepard.

Good morning. Do you understand why you're here today? Yes, sir. Are you in agreement? Yes, sir. All right. Can you just one more time state your name, position here?

Firefighter Jalen Shepard.

All right. Shepard, same name. Same thing here, Chief? Yes, sir. All this group?

Board members, Ms. Sheppard here, we'd like to evaluate her a little bit longer. We have requested that six-month extension so that we can evaluate and see if we can get these members up to standards.

All right. Excellent. We'll entertain a motion. Motion. Motion by Board Member Lanier.

Second.

Second by Board Member Jimenez. All in favor? Aye. Good luck, ma'am.

Thank you, sir.

B5, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hevia, Director of Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Jesus Tornez, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026. Morning.

Morning, sir.

Morning. Please state your name, position.

Firefighter Jesus Tornez.

All right. Mr. Tornez, do you understand why you're here today?

Yes, sir.

Are you in agreement?

Yes, sir.

All right.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez.

Second.

Second by Board Member Cabrera. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Thank you, sir.

B6, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hebbia, Director of Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Joseph Garcia, firefighter, for two additional months beyond August 4, 2026.

Chair, he's on Zoom.

On Zoom. All right. Mr. Garcia, can you hear me? I don't think we can hear, yeah, I don't think we can hear you very well. Stand by there. No, very faint.

Turn your volume up.

Can you turn your volume up? No. My volume's all the way up. All right. Now we hear you just fine. Good morning. Good morning, sir. How's it going? Good. Can you please state your name and your position?

Yes, sir. My name is Joseph Garcia, firefighter. Badge number 2112.

Excellent. Do you understand what's being proffered here today?

Yes, sir.

Are you in agreement? Yes, sir. All right. City, on this one, you're asking for two additional months?

Yes, this case is a little bit different. Firefighter Garcia was on light duty for a couple months while he was in probation. We'd like some additional time, specifically that two-month period that he was out, to evaluate him further. Understood.

Thank you.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member, was it Solomon? Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor? Aye. All right, Mr. Garcia. B7, copy of a memorandum from Chief Robert Hebbia, Director of Fire Rescue Department, requesting an extension of probationary period for Nicholas Grant, firefighter, for six additional months beyond August 4, 2026. Morning, sir. Firefighter Nicholas Grant. Morning. Do you understand what's being proffered here today?

Yes, sir.

Are you in agreement?

Yes, sir.

All right. This falls with like the rest of his...

Yes, Mr. Chair. This is a similar case to the previous ones. He is identified against some deficiencies within their evaluation periods. We just want to make sure we can bring these members up to standard. Also, just to add, if at any point we recognize that they can be made permanent before that six-month period, that is an availability that we have. Thank you.

Understood. Board members?

Make the motion. I'll second.

Motion by Board Member Jimenez, second by Board Member Soliman. All in favor? Aye. Good luck to all of you. Good luck, Mr. Grant.

Thank you. B-8. Thank you, Board Members.

Thank you, Chief. Good to see Wilbur Jackson in the house here with us. Good morning.

Good morning.

B-8. Copy of a memorandum. Good morning. Copy of a memorandum from Chief Edwin Lopez, Director, Department of Police, requesting a second extension of probationary period of Janita Milhoman, police officer, for three additional months beyond July 24, 2026.

Good morning. Good morning, Officer Milhoman.

Morning, Officer Milhoman. Do you understand why you're here today?

Yes.

Okay. Are you in agreement? Yes. All right. Do we have anybody here from the city? Okay.

Yes, you have to come to the podium. Good morning.

Good morning. Kiana Sanders-Bell, Police Department, Personnel Manager.

Okay. Can you elaborate on the request for the probationary period, the second probationary period?

It's just for light duty. She was assigned light duty for approximately a month and a couple days, so we're just extending the probation in accordance with CBA.

Excellent. All right, so we're asking for three months, and if it can be done before, then...

Correct.

Awesome. We'll entertain a motion. Motion. Motion by Board Member Lanier.

Second.

Second by Board Member Jimenez. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. C, military leaves of absence. C1, James Klein, detective, requests active duty military leave effective June 25th, 2026 for a period of 400 days. Copies of order submitted. Motion. Motion by Board Member Jimenez.

Second.

Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. C2. Michelangelo Rojas, Police Lieutenant, requests active duty for training without pay effective June 29, 2026 through July 10, 2026. Copy of order submitted. Motion. Motion by Board Member Jimenez. Second. Second by Board Member Solomon. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. As always, thank you to the men and women that serve our country here from our city. D, disciplinary matters. Board members, please take note. E, general items. E1 and E2, board members take note. E3, status update concerning the appeal hearing of Alfonso Davila, heavy equipment mechanic helper, former, as it relates to his termination, effective July 11, 2025. Good morning. Good morning.

And we have ACA Aguirre on Zoom.

Excellent. If both, Mr. Davila, you can state your name, position. My name is Alfonso Davila, heavy mechanic helper for GSA. Good morning. Good morning. Ms. Aguirre.

Yes, good morning. Lynette Aguirre on behalf of the city.

Good morning. Okay. Do we have a status update on where we're at?

Yes, at this time, I do not have authority to settle this matter. So I would just request that we schedule the continuation of the hearing so we can finalize it.

All right. You guys want to take five minutes on Zoom and see if you can figure it out?

No, I just don't have authority from the client, which is the city at this time.

Understood. Understood. Okay. So then I guess we will look for our next available date to schedule our hearing and reach out to Mr. Davila to coordinate and the city and see if we can coordinate on a date.

I think there's availability on September 1st.

So it looks like September 1st we have availability. Okay. I would ask the city to see if that's available for your remaining, I guess, witness. Yes. That should work for me. Okay, excellent. Mr. Davila, September 1st. Is that something you can accommodate in your schedule? I understand. I mean, the sooner the better. Yeah. Okay. So, um, is that as of now, can you confirm September 1st, your availability? It's important because obviously we schedule it and I will definitely be there.

I want to, like I said, I've been wanting to get rid of this matter for quite some time now. It's been over a year already. So. The faster we can get it done, the better.

Okay. So September 1st, it seems like both parties are in agreement and we have the availability. So I guess we'll set the hearing for September 1st, 2026. I'm sure our civil service team will be reaching out and just confirm it, but it's confirmed September 1st, 2026. Thank you. All right. Thank you both. E4, copy of a request to continue from Chelsea Lewis, attorney on behalf of Frankitha Roberts, legal assistant former, as it relates to her appeal hearing concerning three-day suspension, effective September 17, 2025.

Good morning again. I'm not sure if Ms. Lewis is present. I believe she was going to be on Zoom this morning, but I have been in communication with her in her office. She's requesting a continuance at this time because I'm not sure if the board remembers, but the last time this case was up, she had communicated that she had a pending EEOC charge and she wanted to wait until that EEOC charge finalized before going forward with the hearing. And I do not have an objection to that. I prefer that as well.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Aguirre. Is Ms. Lewis online available?

She... I know when we spoke, her office did inform me that she had a mediation this morning, so maybe that's why she's not on. But again, I have no objection to a continuance. And I can show the board the emails if need be.

Thank you, Mr. Geary. Civil service, have we been notified? Have we made contact with Ms. Lewis?

She was advised, and I sent the link to her, and as ACA Geary did state, she did say that she had a court appearance this morning.

Okay, so is that something that then we can reschedule based on the fact she, I guess, had contact letting us know she might not be available today and Ms. Aguirre has no objection to that?

I can reach out to her office because the case is scheduled for today, if I'm not mistaken.

All right, so maybe we should just table it and reach out and see... to the end of the meeting. I mean, want to move on on the agenda and see if we can get a hold just so we can confirm. Yeah. All right. Let's do that. We'll go ahead and table before he five. Copy of request to continue from Daniel Lamar trade senior building inspector former as it relates to his appeal hearing concerning his termination effective August 5 2025. Mr. The major you there.

Yes, I'm here in the morning. Sir members of the board. My name is Daniel a major and was formerly a senior building inspector. I am requesting a continuance on my case. You to not ready for. I don't have any legal representation at the moment.

And the city has no objection. This is my matter.

Okay. The city has no objection. No problem. So then board members will entertain a motion. Motion. Motion by board member Jimenez.

Second.

Second by... Soliman. By board member Soliman. All in favor? Aye. All right. E6, copy request to continue from Lynette Aguirre, attorney concerning the appeal hearing on behalf of Tashara Elaine, police sergeant, as it relates to her unsatisfactory rating evaluation. Lynette Aguirre, assistant city attorney, express. Yeah, that's what it's coming from.

Yes, so I know that we've been at this for a while. The reason I'm requesting another continuance before the board is because Sergeant Eileen actually requested a continuance of her Miami-Dade hearing so that she can secure counsel. I advised her that I would have no objection to that continuance since I know it was hard for us to get a hearing before them, but I had no objection as long as she had no objection to me asking for a continuance on her USR hearing before this board. I know that she previously had an objection before, but when I spoke to her and her counsel, they both advised that they didn't have an objection because she was gonna be requesting, obviously, a continuance to the Miami-Dade hearing. The Miami-Dade hearing request was granted, so that hearing date of August 11th, I believe it was, was canceled. We don't have a new hearing date yet, so that's why I'm asking the board to to either push this off until maybe October, November, or kind of like how I had asked in the past, hold it in abeyance until we have that hearing in Miami-Dade. But I, Sergeant Eileen is online so she can address it, but she had informed me and her counsel had informed me they had no objection.

Okay. So the hearing as it stands right now is scheduled for September 1st? Or is that what we're continuing from?

So right now, the hearing before this board is scheduled for September 1st. The hearing for Miami-Dade was going to be scheduled for August 11th, which it was scheduled. And then the request for continuance came in. That was granted. So now we don't have another date. We're still waiting on them to get us a date.

Okay, so I guess maybe we can go ahead and just revisit this. I mean, we're going to go ahead and continue it and then revisit again, maybe in our August meeting and see if September.

Second.

Second. No, we will not have it on September 1st because we just put Davila on September 1st. So we'll have to reschedule this hearing.

Well, I'm saying when we should maybe revisit it to see where it's at with Miami-Dade to see if they scheduled their hearing because it seems like we want to see when they schedule theirs to see if we schedule ours sometime after. I think that was the initial intent of how we got here in the first place.

Yes, we can do that. If the board wishes to just continue the matter and then we'll reschedule it in turn.

Okay.

So let's continue it, and then we'll revisit as we get more clarity of when the county one is scheduled.

As soon as I get notification like I did the last time, I'll request it be put on as a status for the agenda so the board can be aware of when we get a new hearing date.

Thank you, Mr. Geary. All right, we'll entertain a motion to continue.

Motion.

Motion by Board Member Solomon. Second. Second by Board Member Lanier. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. F1 hearing spendings list as of July 21, 2026. Some notification board members, take a look. As it stands right now, our next board meeting is scheduled for August 4th, 2026. And it seems we have one case as of right now.

Good morning, this is Chelsea Lewis appearing on behalf of Frankito Roberts.

Hi, Ms. Lewis.

Hello. Good morning.

All right. So it seems like E4, we tabled it and you were able to join us. So it seems you have a copy of a request on behalf of your client, Ms. Frankita Roberts. I think you're on mute, Ms. Lewis.

Can you all hear me now?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you all. So at the prior hearing, we advised that Ms. Roberts was filing a charge of discrimination related to her claims. That charge has been filed and is pending. So we would just request an additional continuance as that process continues to work its way through the system.

And again, I have no objection to that.

All right. Do we want to look, I guess, for kind of a date or something? We'll figure it out. I guess we'll reach out, look for a date, and then we'll reach out to both sides and make sure we can get an agreement on a date to continue it for.

Okay. Thank you all very much.

All right. Thank you.

Have a good one. May I be excused?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you.

Take care.

Chair, staff need about three minutes. We have issues.

Okay, so let's, let's recess for three minutes.

And we'll continue back up on f1.

There are hearing spendings list.

Oh, before, when we when we come back from the recess, we'll, we'll continue on e4. So we can take a boat up on it. All right.

And I haven't tried that before.

Return from recess. Pick up on E4. We'll entertain a motion by any board members. Motion. Motion by board member Lanier. Second. Second by board member Jimenez. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. So we'll look to reschedule that hearing. F1, the hearings pending list as of July 21st, 2026. Board members? take a quick look if there's any comments on anything on the schedule, upcoming schedule. Our next board meeting is scheduled for August 4th, 2026. Any board members have any other questions on any of our upcoming board meetings? Seeing none, we'll continue. H1, today's hearings, appeal hearing on behalf of Frank Rita Roberts has been extended, has been continued. And H2, appeal hearing on behalf of Daniel Lamarte, Senior Building Inspector, has also been continued as body. So I believe that concludes all the business we have for today. So we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion. Motion by Board Member Cabrera. Second. Second by Board Member Solomon. All in favor? Aye. We'll see everybody August 4th. Take care.