MIAMI LODGE

F R A T E R N A L thO R D E R O F P O L I C E
710 Southwest 12 Avenue. Miami, Florida 33130
Phone (305) 854-5019
Ortiz@fopmiami.com

Javier Ortiz

Thomas Reyes

PRESIDENT

SECRETARY

For Immediate Release:

Contact: Javier Ortiz
Phone: 786-290-1183
July 6, 2015
Re: A Political Mailer Full Of False Accusations

To the voters of the City of Miami and to all my union brothers and sisters:
Earlier this month, an attack political mailer was sent to City of Miami voters from an entity called the
Southeast Laborers Council. I did not recognize this group and neither did any of the folks from the other
major unions in South Florida that I spoke with and, after some research, it turns out they are from
somewhere in Tennessee.
I asked myself - why would a Tennessee based union group that none of the union folks in South Florida
have heard of, get involved in City of Miami politics and who is really behind all this? You see, the real
intent of the mailer was to attack Teresa Sarnoff and rather than talk about real issues that are affecting
Miami, such as safeguarding our streets and protecting our residents, they choose to make some
allegations and distorted assumptions as an attempt to confuse the voters.
The mailer also attacks a local contractor Coastal Construction and through some misdirection and
slight of language, attempts to make Coastal look as anti-union. I know the Coastal folks and know them
to have a credible record of hiring union labor (especially for electrical and HVAC systems, and other
skilled construction positions). Coastal is a family owned company that has been in business in South
Florida for more than 40 years. At a time when no one was building and hiring, Coastal hired many City
of Miami and Miami-Dade County residents and provided thousands of dollars of in-kind work to build
the Camillus House Campus for Housing the Homeless. Coastal was later recognized as an outstanding
Miami-Dade Citizen for their work on Camillus House and for their job creation in our community. We,
at times are asked to support projects that can benefit the City of Miami and Camillus House was one of
those projects.
To be clear, the innuendos on the attack ad are a work of fiction. Furthermore, the use of some out of state
group to mislead voters and misrepresent what our brotherhood and real unions in South Florida stand for,
is simply wrong and as someone who dedicates every day to help my fellow union brothers and sisters, I
felt it was my duty to give you the truth.
Thank you,

Javier Ortiz
Lieutenant Javier Ortiz, President
Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #20