When a resident called me and made me aware of four city employees and a Department of Public Works truck were cleaning the yard of a private home, I went to take pictures as you see on this page. I have been hearing of this type of political favors being done all over the city without ways to prove it.
As soon as I arrived, Recycling Coordinator Moises Brea approached me in a very friendly manner explaining that Jaime Melendez, director of Veterans Services has a new program to help veterans by which the city allows municipal employees to serve one hour of their city time. In this particular case, this veteran needed his yard cleaned up. He further advised me to ask Mr. Melendez about such program and the process of application to request this service.
When I left the site, I went to City Hall and spoke to Mr. Melendez because if there is really a new program serving veterans, let’s publicize it and make it available to all veterans in the city. Mr. Melendez had no idea as to what I was talking about. He explained that he occasionally requests volunteers on weekends to help veterans but never city employees during city hours. Even when I mentioned the address in question, he pretended not to know anything. One thing was for sure: There is no such program.
While I was waiting for the elevator, Mr. Brea entered the building running into Mr. Melendez’s office. I went upstairs to the DPW office and Mr. Brea followed me there trying to explain what he had done. I refused listening to him and told him, “You are a liar; you lied to me and I want nothing to do with you.”
I have no tolerance for liars and anyone to does it to me will never have a second chance but I never expected that out of four individuals involved with this, I was going to get four different stories.
When I was asked to go in to see Mr. John Isensee, Mr. Brea entered behind me insisting on being part of the meeting. I refused and closed the door. It was obvious that he was trying to cover up what he had done. A minute later, Jaime Melendez came in and I allowed him to stay.
Mr. Isensee told me how this matter has been lingering for about three months with City Councilor Eileen O’Connor Bernal and Jaime Melendez insisting in getting the yard cleaned up. He was reluctant to doing the work and agreed to send them men out but not before making it clear to both of them that if anything came out of this, they would have to answer. He explained that his objection for holding back was that city employees could not enter the property and the barrels would have to be placed on the sidewalk for Harvey (the waste management company) to pick them up. Well, my pictures show not only all four city employees raking and sweeping the yard but the city truck was completely inside the property.
When I spoke to Mayor Dan Rivera and City Councilor Bernal, they downplayed the issue saying that our veterans deserve our help as if I am opposed to it. I told them that if this is a service that the city is going to be offering to veterans, it should be properly advertised and open to all veterans. They both tried to say that it was just picking up trash from the sidewalk until I told them that my pictures show something different.
Mayor Rivera insists that he spoke to Mr. Brea and he did nothing wrong. This is “Just people trying to help people. I know you are not used to seeing Government working together helping people,” he wrote. “I don’t want you dragging the good name of a veteran through the mud.”
I later found out that the yard had been cleaned up by an amazing group of volunteers from American Veteran Environmental Corp who help veterans in the area with all kinds of work around the home for free. JT Torres, chairman of the group left me a long, disturbing message on the telephone very upset because he received two telephone calls saying that I objected to the work that was done. We finally had a conversation because I felt that I had to convince him that my issue was not with the veteran but with the way the city disposes of city employees’ time.
Seems that everyone had a different version but I’m sorry Mr. Isensee; you are the DPW director and you authorized those employees to take the truck and do the work. Councilor Bernal and Melendez are not the ones to answer for this wrongdoing. Mr. Brea should be reprimanded for a lie in involving the city, his department, and the veterans’ director.
