Miami Beach

Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes?

Building Department Director Tom Velazquez has used a heavy hand to implement changes in his department

By Ben Torter

Squeaky-clean and efficient are three words that have probably never been used by a sane person to describe the Miami Beach Building Department.

The office is legendary for rude employees, disorganization such as losing building plans, long delays in permitting processes and other major inefficiencies.

The arrests of Chief Electrical Inspector Thomas Ratner in September of 2006, and last month of Mohammad Partovi, Andres Villarreal and Henry Johnson on charges covering the spectrum of bribery, official misconduct, racketeering and money laundering, suggest problems beyond mismanagement. Granted, Johnson worked for the Planning Department, but the departments are closely linked in the building process.

Thomas Velazquez was hired to head the Building Department and straighten it out after 16 years in Broward County, most recently as a building official. But sources close to the city question City Manager Jorge Gonzalez’s choice to head a troubled department, citing Velazquez’s checkered past and some decisions he’s made since taking over. One of those was giving Villarreal more power and naming him employee of the month in November 2006. Villarreal left the city under a cloud of sexual harassment rumors about six months before being arrested.

Velazquez shrugged off his unpopularity within the department as a sign he’s doing a good job.

“I’m not here to win a sympathy contest,” Velazquez said. “I’m here to fix the Building Department.”

One policy he implemented was no personal cell phone use on the job, and he hung “no cell phone” signs throughout the department as constant reminders. He explained that he was appalled to find employees at the front desk talking on their phones and ignoring clients.

“These permit clerks treated people like they were doing them a favor,” Velazquez said. “If you need to make a phone call during break or have an emergency, fine, we’re all humans.”

Swapping out a traditional time card machine for a handprint reader is another obvious change Velazquez implemented.

“Attendance used to be terrible,” Velazquez said. “It used to be one employee would punch the card for another. Who knew when you were coming or going? Now, unless you cut off your hand, someone else can’t punch for you. Amazingly, attendance is much better.”

Then there’s overtime.

“When I came here overtime was $350,000 per year, and I’ve gotten it down more than 40 percent,” Velazquez said.

Overtime pay is the subject of a current grievance filed by the Communications Workers of America Local 3178 on behalf of nine building inspectors.

“Tom Velazquez is treating us unfairly,” states the grievance, which was filed March 10. “Our department rules provided for a four-hour minimum overtime inspection (that contractors paid for) regardless of the time actually spent on the job and regardless of it being contiguous to the shift. Tom Velazquez has decided not to pay four hours minimum overtime inspections. This change in the rules was never discussed with the union.”

Chief Deputy City Attorney Donald Papy said the grievance process is in the beginning stage of being addressed by Assistant Director Graciela Escalante. If she can’t resolve the matter, the grievance moves through the labor relations process, and possibly eventually to arbitration.

Escalante didn’t return phone calls or an e-mail for comment, but Velasquez read her response, which he said was sitting in the Building Department Wednesday afternoon waiting for someone from the union to pick it up.

“This grievance is denied,” stated Escalante’s response. “The department gave the employees notice on Jan. 8 that the existing language in the CWA union contract, Sec 7.9 that reads Comeback Pay, would be enforced.”

According to Velazquez, the overtime was being used as a built-in bribery technique. He explained that inspectors would finish all but maybe five minutes of an inspection and then tell a contractor the work couldn’t be finished unless the contractor requested the inspector stay overtime. Then they’d stay five minutes and leave.

“If I’m an inspector without much ethics, I’ll find a way to turn down your inspection, but I’ll be back at 4 o’clock if you call and I’ll get paid four hours overtime,” Velazquez said, adding that there were inspectors making an extra $3,000 per two-week pay period this way. He said he doesn’t mind what he deems necessary overtime, but plans can no longer be taken home.

An outside source who works closely with the Building Department and spoke on condition of anonymity said he was aware that Ratner was abusing the system as Velazquez explained, but didn’t believe others were.

“We probably have 40 to 50 grievances at all different steps in most departments of the city of Miami Beach,” said Richard McKinnon, president of the CWA Local 3178. “We are not prepared to comment on that particular grievance at this time.”

Another departmental change Velazquez cites is that supervisors now track plans, have them reviewed by more than one employee and approve them for expedited reviews. In the past, these processes were more like a free-for-all. Ratner, Villarreal and Partovi were all supervisors.

Velazquez has made a lot of enemies in Miami Beach who question his reforms and his management style. A few have sent the SunPost e-mails and manila envelopes full of accusations, many of them substantiated in court records. Documents in Velazquez’s personnel file with the city of Miami Beach show his superiors were aware when they hired him that he was convicted of two DUIs in 1996 and declared bankruptcy in 2001, allegedly to protect himself from his ex-wife. He was also forthcoming with the city about a 1983 car theft charge that was dismissed almost immediately. He said he bought the car from a man whose ex-wife reported it stolen to screw with him.

“Sure I have a past,” Velazquez said. “I’m not proud of it.”

His enemies question why the city would hire a man with a less than stellar past to head a department plagued with corruption.

Assistant City Manager Hilda Fernandez said she wasn’t familiar with Velazquez’s file, but that that his background was thoroughly and very publicly vetted before he was chosen.

Said Fernandez: “We’ve got really good employees here that are being tarnished by a few greedy people.”

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com