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'Green' police chief spent freely: A fund created to fight environmental crime paid for assault rifles, sunglasses and shirts, a Miami Herald review found. Inquiries now are examining the police division chief who was point person.
Mar 12, 2010 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Among Miami-Dade police, it was known simply as "Vecin's trust fund."
That fund, earmarked to fight environmental crime with a $5 million infusion of public money over the past decade, is the focus of widening investigations into whether the bounty evolved into an unchecked kitty for police.
At the center of those inquiries is Division Chief Frank Vecin, a part-time general contractor who experienced a rapid rise through the department and was point person for the Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund. He has long maintained ties to former police director and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez.
Spending from the so-called green fund skyrocketed in recent years, even as county budget woes deepened, with more than half the expenditures coming in the past three years. That was the same period in which Vecin won a highly unusual authority to spend money on non-environmental items.
The department was supposed to create a formal oversight committee to monitor purchases, but it never did, according to Miami-Dade police.
Last week, Vecin's control of the fund was revoked by county Police Director James Loftus. A Miami Herald review of more than 2,000 pages of memos and receipts in the past two years reveals a string of questionable expenses.
They include:
30 Smith & Wesson semi-automatic assault rifles totaling $19,800, with sights for $14,970. The rifles were needed, records say, for covert surveillance of illegal dumping sites "in extreme remote rural locations." Police cited "safety concerns . . . due to the fact that the chances of an IB investigator encountering a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle are likely in these remote areas."
A similar justification was used to purchase 83 tactical assault vests for $8,217.
Miami-Dade police could not cite a single poacher incident in the last four years.
$4,635 on sunglasses, including 20 Oakley Flak Jackets at $105 apiece and 20 Costa Del Mar sunglasses for $126.75 each. The justification: "eye protection."
440 shirts purchased in two batches in February and May 2009. The "Bureau Cubaveras," which came in colors from black to khaki, cost $13,150.
Six flat screen TVs -- three Sharp 52-inch HDTV costing $1,986 apiece and three 32-inch units at $734 each. The TVs were requested to "provide command personnel with up to date news . . . during any environmentally related emergency operations." The larger TVs came with motorized swing-arm mounts costing $1,117 each, allowing viewers to move the units' location by remote control.
More than 125 computers costing $173,296, including 107 Dell desktops and pricey laptops like Panasonic Toughbooks costing nearly $3,000 each. The purchases made in the past two years come after more than $95,000 was spent in 2007 on personal computers.
Miami-Dade police could not say where the computers are or who they were issued to. An internal county police investigation is under way to locate the items.
"To me it doesn't meet the straight face test," said Dennis Jay Kenney, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
FEW LIMITS
Vecin operated the fund with few restrictions and scant oversight. In 2005, questions surfaced about his stewardship when a supervisor said proper accounting records were not maintained. But Vecin objected, and three years later won authority -- with approval from county police lawyer Glenn Theobald -- to loosen rules so he could use portions of the fund for non-environmental purposes. Theobald recently revoked his earlier order.
Vecin did not respond to interview requests. Mayor Alvarez declined to discuss the fund or his relationship with Vecin, other than to describe him as a "professional." A department spokeswoman declined to comment on the purchases until an investigation is complete.
Most purchases were made squarely within the police department, with Vecin giving approval along with sign-offs by superiors and budget officials. However, the purchase of a fleet of Ford Expeditions with luxury upgrades was made with approval of the county mayor's office.
HIGH-LEVEL DRIVERS
In the past two years, the green fund paid $422,824 for SUVs ostensibly to help field investigators navigate rough rural roads. Instead, the vehicles went to department brass, including Loftus and Alvarez -- who later said they didn't know the cars came from the trust and returned them. Also, rentals of up to 18 cars at a time, including Toyota Tundras and Nissan Titans, topped $300,000.
That spending came even though the county agreement governing the trust said agencies, when possible, should provide their own vehicles.
The questions about the green fund represent just one of several controversies clouding the department, which has been the focus of Miami Herald reports over several ranking officials moonlighting as consultants in Panama along with Alvarez's then chief of staff, Denis Morales. Those trips, like the green fund spending, face scrutiny from Miami-Dade's inspector general and an internal probe at the Miami-Dade Police Department.
BIRTH OF FUND
The environmental trust fund was created in 2000 by the Miami-Dade County Commission and EPA to fight polluters in South Florida, with Miami-Dade police to manage the money.
Vecin took control of the fund as part of a nearly unprecedented rise in the department.
A construction contractor, Vecin signed on as a reserve officer in the 1980s. He became a full-time officer in March 1992 before Hurricane Andrew devastated South Miami-Dade. That background in construction helped push Vecin ahead in the department, as he investigated illicit contractors after Andrew and served on a state construction fraud task force.
Vecin also aided officers and other county employees trying to rebuild, writing damage appraisals for employees for their insurance claims. That work earned him commendations.
By spring 1996, he leapfrogged from officer to police supervisor -- the equivalent of a lieutenant -- and reported directly to the assistant director of support services, Alvarez. To make the move, then-Police Director Fred Taylor won an exemption to the normal recruitment process.
CAREER STEPS
Traditionally, to advance in the department, an officer must work at least three years, pass a multipart sergeant's exam and then work as a sergeant for at least two years before rigorous testing to become a lieutenant, according to departmental guidelines.
Vecin skipped all of it.
In 2000, then-director Alvarez promoted Vecin to commander in the newly formed Intergovernmental Bureau. He got strong performance reviews.
Less than two years later, Vecin signed the memorandum with the EPA laying out the joint mission to track down environmental scofflaws.
But Vecin's 2005 performance review, from when he was a senior bureau commander, called into question his stewardship of the fund.
Chief Randy Heller wrote that he asked for "the accounting spreadsheet that should be kept regarding Trust Fund expenditures." Vecin replied that he did not have the record because it was kept by the budget office, which ensures purchases met rules. The budget office, in turn, said Vecin should be keeping the records.
Heller's report said: "Commander Vecin should ensure that Bureau expenditures are tracked and recorded on the appropriate spreadsheet. Failure to do so could have negative consequences for his Bureau and the Department."
In 2007, he was promoted to police division chief over the Centralized Services Division, under which the Intergovernmental Bureau falls.
ALVAREZ TIES
Throughout his rise, Vecin maintained close ties to Alvarez. The relationship dates to 1989, when Alvarez wrote Vecin a commendation letter. When Alvarez ran for mayor in 2004, Vecin was often at campaign events.
"They're very close. Through the years I have seen them together all the time," said County Commissioner Joe Martinez, himself a former cop and sometimes Alvarez rival. "The day of the swearing in, Vecin was by Alvarez's side."
Jose Riesco, a Coral Gables accountant and top Alvarez campaign official, recalled that Vecin "helped out during the campaign. . . . Like I did, and a bunch of other people."
In October 2004, the final month of the campaign, Vecin took off four weeks from work, according to county records.
Two years later, Vecin's company, Oak Tree Development Corp., installed metal awnings and shutters on the home where Alvarez lives in West Miami-Dade, according to county building records.
Through a spokeswoman, Alvarez denied that Vecin did work on his home. The mayor also said he couldn't talk in detail about the fund.
"There is an investigation ongoing, so I am not going to comment," Alvarez said. "He's a professional who really cares about his job."
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