HIALEAH, Fla. — The current mayor of Hialeah and the man who will replace her are currently at odds over the transition of power.
Interim Hialeah Mayor Jackie Garcia-Roves sent an email to all city staff on Monday, reinforcing her authority over the next two months until the newly elected mayor, Bryan Calvo, is sworn in.
That will happen on Jan. 12.
Garcia-Roves said, effective immediately, that no one can communicate with Calvo or his team directly without her written approval, and that all requests and meetings must be organized by her office alone.
The order is mandatory, according to the email, and any deviation is considered “a violation of administrative procedure” and will be “addressed accordingly.”
Garcia-Roves says this is to limit confusion and keep her office informed properly.
“This way nothing gets lost in transition,” she said. “We know who’s meeting with who, and we’re knowing what’s provided, because if not then it’s just going to be a mess.”
Calvo disagrees and says this clearly hinders his ability to hit the ground running in January.
“Obviously, I need a lot of information from the city in order to be able to form my government,” said Calvo.
Calvo said he spoke with Garcia-Roves after his dominant victory in the mayoral election, making requests to meet with all 19 department heads as well as data and documents on the current city staff.
“Well, I asked for a list of all city employees, salaries and how much these employees are making,” he said. “Data I’m going to need essentially to start forming this government and make those decisions.”
Garcia-Roves said she’s working on those requests, but Calvo said the email came out after he followed up on his requests and now he’s concerned.
“At the end of the day, we’re neighbors, right?” he said. “And the mayor and I and all the other residents of Hialeah, we want the best for our city, and I think there’s a constructive way to get there. I hope that it doesn’t become something hostile.”
Calvo said he asked the city clerk if there was a policy change that led to this directive and communication restriction and he still had not heard back.
That same information request was sent to the city clerk by Local 10 News, though Tuesday is a federal holiday, so the office is closed and a response isn’t expected until Wednesday at the earliest.
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