By George Volsky
georgevolsky@aol.com

In politics people are rarely seen in monochrome. (black or white) But in our City Hall there in nothing monochromatic about embattled City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez. Her profile, as Thomas Hardy would say, “is visible against the dull monochrome of cloud around her.”

There is no shade about Hernandez either, and certainly not a trace of white. The best her detractors can say about her – in addition to calling her derisively “Loophole Liz” – is that her impact on the city has been malarial. 

To be fair, she has a few supporters, mostly outside City Hall. There is the forgettable former city manager David Brown whom she defended tooth and nail before his disgraceful departure. She recommended that Coral Gables taxpayers, rather than Brown, pay $185,000 (we also had substantial legal expenses) to Olga Garcia, his in-house paramour, in exchange for her dropping sexual harassment suit against him.

"Loophole Liz" and her indispensable labor counsel James Crosland also forgave Brown taking $25,000 in sick leave he pocketed, many people believe illegally. 

(The other day, someone emailed the Gazette suggesting that we lay off Brown and “leave him up to heaven.” Undoubtedly Brown’s reprobate image will fade in time, and I wish I could speed up that process. Yet almost every week City Manager Patrick Salerno reportedly discovers new administrative shenanigans of his predecessor - and that is news.)

Liz has also a handful of friends in City Hall, among them one (male) commissioner, and several department directors. One of the latter, Marjorie Adler, will be gone next month and none too soon. Administration insiders say several others might be pushed out soon as well.

Ironically, Hernandez has acquired an important “ally” who effusively, without apparent twinkle in his eyes, praises her accomplishments. He is Stuart Bornstein, president of Granada LLC, a company that used to manage the Coral Gables Country Club. For Bornstein our city attorney is monochromatically white, professionally nonpareil. “Liz is our best friend, for us an excellent lawyer, and you can quote me on that,” he tells anyone who asks him about Hernandez.

For those who know that two years ago Granada LLC filed a lawsuit against the City of Coral Gables for damages, including lost profits, Bornstein’s statement appears to be a joke. It does not appear, it is a joke and an expensive one for the city taxpayers. 

Bornstein’s explanation tells it all: “Liz is a good friend because nine years ago she drafted our club management contract which, according to the lawyers, benefits us greatly and will help us prevail in court.” Hernandez approved our contract “as to form and content” and signed it in June 2001, Bornstein adds more seriously,  not necessarily  because she favored Granada,  but because she “wasn’t up to her job representing professionally the city’s interests.”

Hernandez’s goofs could cost taxpayers millions. On two occasions, Circuit Judge Gil S. Freeman has denied the city’s motions to dismiss Granada’s case. Trial has been set for a three week period beginning May 10. Coral Gables has already paid about $700,000 to Miami attorneys to represent it in the litigation because, as Bornstein and other lawyers aver, Liz’ legal expertise is exceedingly limited. Granada LLC officials say that should the case go to trial (there is talk about an out-of-court multi-million settlement), the city’s legal costs could easily exceed $1 million. They added that Granada might ask the court to award the company up to $9 million for lost profits during 25 years, which as per the Hernandez contract it was to manage the club, and for its refurbishing of the facility which Coral Gables should have done.

As the city attorney Hernandez has not only been a consistent loser, but she has also been spending city funds like monopoly money. Currently, Coral Gables is involved in 14 lawsuits in all being represented by outside law firms. In the last five fiscal years, Hernandez paid outside lawyers $3.6 million, not counting large out-of-court settlements. In the last three FYs, she spent $1.1 million more than her budgets for “legal services.”  These expenses grow exponentially. In the 2008-2009 FY, she was given $500,000 for legal services yet spent $955,000. In the current FY she has $795,000 to spent.

Hernandez has the second largest salary in the city, $194,000 ($1,000 less than the city manager), and receives more than $100,000 in benefits. She often arrives in her office at 10 a.m., just as often takes two hour lunches and frequently leaves before cocktail hour. In her office, in addition to the regular two-person professional staff, there is one assistant city attorney, Lourdes Alfonsin, an “assistant-to-the-city attorney assistant” Susan Franqui, and an “assistant-to-the-assistant-to-the-assistant,” a Franqui man whose name and functions appear to be a secret.

Alfonsin does little legal work, basically she is Liz’ water girl. Franqui was hired to start collecting $22 million in unpaid city fines, but so far hasn’t reached first base.

The “expertise” of Liz has descended to an unprecedented low several weeks ago when requested by Salerno to interpret a city regulation, she asked Crosland to issue an opinion. If the Coral Gables attorney cannot rule on a city regulation, one senior University of Miami official emailed me, your “legal standards have become deplorable.”

Two millennia ago, Cicero, addressing Catalina in the Roman senate and warning that body of the danger his adversary represented to the republic, made his famous rhetorical question: “How long will you, Catalina, keep abusing our patience?”  Indeed, taxpayers should demand that our commission, with the courage of the Roman senate, dismiss Liz Hernandez before she causes irreparably damage to the  city finances and prestige.