R9E-Discuss- Letter From John Rivera PBA President Regarding Sgt Moraga -WolfsMIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR AND COMMISSION MEMORANDUM
To: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
From: Jonah Wolfson, Commissioner
Date: Junel41h,2Ql2
Re: Commission Agenda Discussion Item
. Please place on the July l81h, 2012, Commission Agenda a Discussion Item on the
attached letter from the distinguished John Rivera, PBA President.
Should you have any questions, please contact Leonor Hernandez at Extension 6437.
Agenda Item Rq E
We are committed Ia pravidmg excellent public service and safe' .. to all who !tve. work, and play in our vj Date--7:...:-"""/....;.~---1 -2--
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THE VOICE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
DADE COUNTY POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION, INC.
Via Email and Regular US. Mail
June 14, 2012
Honorable Matti Herrera Bower
City of Miami Beach
Office of the Mayor and Commission
1700 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33139
RE: City of Miami Beach and Sergeant Manuel Moraga
Review of Termination
Dear Mayor Bower:
My name is John Rivera and I am the President of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association.
Although the PBA is not the certified bargaining agent for officers and sergeants employed by the City
of Miami Beach, there are many individual officers and sergeants whom are PBA members and utilize
the PBA for legal representation. One of those employees is Sergeant Manuel Moraga. As you may
know, Sergeant Moraga was tem1inated from the City on November 4, 2011. He has filed a grievance
and a two-day arbitration hearing has been scheduled for August 15th and 16th. In light of recent events
in the City, including the resignation of City Manager Jorge Gonzalez and the City Commission's
decision to have the disciplinary action taken against another City officer Eric Dominguez reviewed, I
am writing this letter to request that the City do the same for Sergeant Moraga. I apologize in advance
for the length of this letter, but as this matter involves the termination of a long-tenured City employee,
I believe it is necessary to set forth some of the more important reasons we are requesting this review.
Sergeant Moraga was terminated based upon an internal investigation into supervision of the police
department on the midnight shift on the July 2-3, 2011 and the police department as a whole. As you
know, during the early morning hours of July 3rd, a City officer was involved in an ATV accident on
the beach causing injuries to civilians, one of which was riding on the back of the A TV. It has been
alleged that this officer was drinking at the Clevelander Bar with another officer prior to taking one of
the civilians for the ride on the ATV. This incident brought a great deal of negative media attention
and scrutiny to the City of Miami Beach. The City terminated the two officers promptly and opened
up an intemal investigation into the supervisors assigned to the midnight shift during the time of the
incident, whiq_h morphed into a broader investigation involving various.levels of supervision in the
police department.
From the start the City's investigation and its administration of discipline was willfully lacking any
indicia of fairness and was clearly directed to make Sergeant Moraga a political scapegoat. We believe
this was entirely at the direction of the soon to be former City Manager, vis a vis, the City's Human
John Rivera, President • 10660 PBA Memorial Boulevard • (Northwest 25th Street) • Miami, Florida 33172-2108
Telephone: 305-593-0044 • Fax: 305-436-0142 • e-mail:pba@dcpba.org • website: www.dcpba.org
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Resources Department, namely Ramiro lgnuanzo and Robin Porter. Unlike any investigation into
alleged police misconduct I have ever seen, this investigation was transparently facilitated by Mr.
lnguanzo and Ms. Porter to be done in a vacuum by ignoring the totality of the circumstances
surrounding the incident, including the presence of mitigating circumstances, systemic breakdowns in
policy, and lax culture of supervision in the police department. The facts were manipulated to paint a
picture that Sergeant Moraga was grossly negligent in failing to supervise the officer who was assigned
to the middle district who was at the Clevelander Bar with the officer involved in the ATV accident
and that he left early without permission and without submitting a leave slip. Exculpatory and
mitigating evidence was omitted or downplayed. We believe that an unbiased review of the totality of
this matter will prove that the termination was not just.
On the night of the incident, Sergeant Moraga was the assigned supervisor in area three (north district)
of the city. Despite the fact that this was a Saturday night on a holiday weekend and the very next
holiday after the Memorial Day holiday (which also brought a great deal of media scrutiny to the City),
the City did not assign a sergeant to area two (middle district) on that evening and thus Sergeant
Moraga was informed at the beginning of the shift that he was required to cover the sergeant
responsibilities for that area as well. He was assigned to supervise twelve officers, which according to
Department policy and a generally accepted principle for accredited law enforcement agencies, is the
maximum span of control for any one supervisor. Moreover, it is undisputed that on this evening there
were 42 calls for service, including a strong-armed robbery call and missing juvenile call, that went out
in areas two and three where Sergeant Moraga was the only sergeant assigned, as opposed to area one
(south district) where there were two regularly assigned sergeants, along with another sergeant and
lieutenant assigned in an overtime basis, for 58 calls for service, only slightly more than the areas that
Sergeant Moraga was supervising by himself. Sergeant Moraga was heard on the radio assisting his
officers throughout the shift, in addition to completing any other administrative tasks expected of him
as a supervisor.
Sergeant Moraga was not in charge of supervising the officer involved in the ATV accident, who was
the primary cause of this entire incident. While the second officer who was seen at the Clevelander
Bar was assigned to the middle district that Sergeant Moraga was covering that evening, there were
multiple systemic policy breakdowns that contributed to this officer not being in his assigned district,
along with, of course, the officer's own intentional act of choosing not to be. There were policy
changes regarding areas of patrol and radio procedures subsequent to this incident, which sought to
rectify these contributing factors. '
Moreover, while it is true that Sergeant Moraga did leave early on this evening; he had pe1mission to
do so, had been ill since beginning of the shift, was never told he was required to stay, and even
notified the dispatcher on the radio tl1at he was leaving. The policies that Sergeant Moraga allegedly
violated regarding officers and supervisors coming in late or leaving early and not submitting leave
slips and/or the lax enforcement of these policies have all been changed subsequent to this incident to
ensure enforcement going forward. .
Despite the fact that Sergeant Moraga was not assigned to supervise the officer who was actually
involved in the A TV accident, nor was he assigned to supervise the area where the accident
occurred, he was the only supervisor that the City fired. It would seem logical that out of all the
supervisors working that evening, Sergeant Moraga would be the least culpable, not the most. In light
of the City's investigation that revealed systemic breakdowns in policy and a lax culture of
supervision, it is incomprehensible that one sergeant supervising the middle and north areas at the
maximum span of control on a busy holiday weekend and who was not even assigned to supervise the
John Rivera, President • 10680 Northwest 25 Street· Miami, Florida 33172~2108 • 305-593-0044 ·• Fax: 305-436-0142
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officer involved in the ATV accident can be the only supervisor in the entire department to pay the
ultimate price of losing his job.
It does not make sense and is cruelly unfair to an employee who has been employed by the City since
1997 and as a police officer since 1999. This is not an employee, who like other City employees that
have been in the media recently, committed deliberate misconduct for personal gain. Nor, is this an
employee who defiantly and flagrantly thumbed his nose at City policies. Rather, this is a hard-
working employee, who even after this incident, at the same time the City was conducting its one-sided
investigation into this matter, continued to work as a supervisor and received a cotmnendation in
August 2011 for his interaction with the public.
We believe there is no plausible explanation for what happened to Sergeant Moraga other than he was
the former City Manager's political scapegoat. This is further evidenced by the fact that, prior to the
final disciplinary action being taken against Sergeant Moraga, The City's Human Resources
Department released information contained in the internal affairs file to the media, although pursuant
to state law, such information is not subject to public records disclosure until the disciplinary action
becomes final. The effect of Sergeant Moraga's friends and. family reading this information even
before the City had fired him was demoralizing, but it pales in comparison to the difficulty he has had
in attempting to provide for his family and the emotional stress he has been under since his
termination.
In conclusion, Sergeant Moraga is asking the City place an item on the Commission agenda to review
the fairness of the internal investigation and the administration of the disciplinary action taken against
him, just like it is doing for Officer Dominguez. Obviously, this review could potentially save the time
and expense of a lengthy arbitration hearing and further litigation, but more importantly, just like the
information that was presented at the May 91h Commission meeting in support of Officer Dominguez,
who was given a suspension without pay and suspension from utilizing a take-home vehicle, this is
about a good employee who has been treated unjustly for political motives. While in no way intending
to downplay the significance of the case involving Officer Dominguez, the only difference is that this
is a man's career at stake.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
Cc: Vice-Mayor Jerry Libbin
Commissioner Jorge Exposito
Commissioner Michael Gongora
Commissioner Jonah Wolfson
Commissioner Edward Tobin
Commissioner Deede Weithom
Manuel Moraga
John Rivera, President • 10680 Northwest 25 Street· Miami, Florida 33172-2108 • 305-593-0044 • Fax: 305-436-0142
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