After two hours of public comments and a lack of support from the Miami Lakes council, Councilman Alex Sanchez tabled his efforts Monday to put Town Manager Edward Pidermann on a performance improvement plan for the remainder of his contract that ends in Feb. 2027.
Before Sanchez’s decision, he heard from 14 residents and Miami-Dade Commissioner Sen. Rene Garcia, who represents the town.
Garcia said he met Pidermann when the manager was president of Miami Association of Fire Fighters-IAFF Local 587 more than 20 years ago.
“I can assure you he and I didn’t see eye to eye every single time,” Garcia said. “But this man, the integrity that he has and brings to all his debates and his decisions, is bar none, compared to everybody else.”
He complimented Pidermann’s skill at guiding the town during the pandemic, building employee morale and teamwork and minimizing the impact of briefly losing approximately $800,000 FPL franchise fee revenues when the town got its own agreement with the utility.
“What scares me is that I don’t want us to turn into another one of these municipalities,” Garcia said. “We see the battles that are happening in Miami, we see the battles that are happening in Coral Gables. We try to compare Miami Lakes to Coral Gables. I’ll tell you this, we are much better than Coral Gables, by the way. Let’s not turn into one of those municipalities. Let’s us have disagreements but let’s not be disagreeable.”
Garcia suggested the council consider Pidermann’s performance when his contract expires in 15 months.
“But to do this right now I think it is just going to give us a black eye on the city, in the town we care so much about,” Garcia said. “I ask that you have the debate, be respectful…but also think about what we’re doing to the town of Miami Lakes and understand that the work that Mr. Pidermann has done has been nothing but to make this town a better place.”
Real Estate Associate Lynn Matos served five years on the town's Planning & Zoning Board.
“Why are we here?” Matos said. “I’m not sure that I know. I’m not sure anyone else knows either.”
She said of Pidermann, “He serves our town with professionalism and integrity and he has earned the trust of the residents and the business owners alike. … To cast him in a light that creates shadow or doubt is unfair, it’s unnecessary and it’s unbecoming, frankly. It is.”
She co-founded the annual Miami Lakes Food & Wine Festival that funds a mini-grant program administered by Pidermann and the board of the Town Foundation.
Calling Pidermann a “rock star,” she said to him, “And as someone who has raised 100s of 1000s of dollars that we’ve donated to the Town Foundation, I trust you implicitly with those funds.”
Mayor Josh Dieguez nominated Sanchez to the council in Dec. 2024 and he was appointed in January.
On Nov. 3, residents received an anonymous text before the meeting that described Sanchez’s history with law enforcement that he had previously disclosed. Resident Abel Fernandez and others denounced the anonymous attempt to harm Sanchez's reputation.
At the time of his nomination, Sanchez reported that he was arrested on suspicion of committing felony battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest without violence and disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. Sanchez blamed the incident on “seizure medication,” pleaded not guilty to the charges and said he was “never convicted.” The misdemeanor charge was not prosecuted. The felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor offense, which was also not prosecuted, court records show.
Regarding review of Pidermann’s performance, Sanchez made four attempts to schedule the special call meeting at Town Hall before it was set for Nov. 3; the first time he didn’t get quorum from the council and two other times Pidermann was not available.
Before a crowd of 100 residents and town staff, Sanchez said the purpose of the meeting “is not at any point in time to terminate or target the town manager. I agree with what everyone says, that Ed Pidermann is cut from a different fabric. He is a great individual.”
Sanchez said he wanted to discuss aspects of the town charter and contract that he said Pidermann wasn’t fulfilling and create a performance improvement plan to review before Pidermann’s contract ends. Sanchez complained that Pidermann notifies the council the day before he leaves town, didn’t give adequate notice to the council about planned time off or who his interim manager would be. Sanchez said if the council objected to the deputy, they would not have time to meet and appoint their own choice.
“In the now seven years that I’ve been here, I have never seen anyone use that provision,” Mayor Josh Dieguez said. “I think that goes to show that everyone is OK … with the designations. I’ve never seen him name anyone outside of executive level staff… they have always been extremely responsive. Even he, when he is on vacation, he has always been extremely responsive to requests that I have sent when he is out of office.”
Dieguez said he didn’t think a special call meeting was the appropriate venue to air Sanchez’s complaints.
“I think if there is an issue with, for example lead time or another issue with his performance, I think those are better directly addressed with him,” Dieguez said. “I don’t like to air dirty laundry. We’re ultimately a team here, right? We’re all supposed to be rowing in the same direction, which is the betterment of Miami Lakes. We all love the Town of Miami Lakes. Creating a PIP starts to seem as though there are bubbling issues that we have to address.
“…Based on what you were bringing up, I did not hear what other specific issues you had that you would like to see addressed through the performance improvement plan. … I don’t see what issues we have to address,” Dieguez said.
Sanchez said he has never had an issue with who Pidermann previously designated as his replacement.
“I want to be able to turn around and give the town manager an outstanding review come February,” Sanchez said. “But these are things that I would like to see improve and I don’t know if any of my colleagues have things to include as part of this plan.”
He brought up on the manager’s contracted obligation to carry out council directives and then said staff did not implement one of his new business items.
Dieguez told Sanchez it was up to the council to make sure their items are advanced and to make sure they happen.
Sanchez said he also had resistance from Pidermann on a preapproved new business item that he didn't describe, and was once told by Pidermann, "That’s not how we do things around here."
Dieguez asked Pidermann to respond to Sanchez’s description of their conversation.
“I have no idea what that is about,” Pidermann said. “A lot of things that have been said are really abstract, they’re not specific and kind of goes against the specificity of the memo [to call the meeting]. … I almost feel like there is a little bit of bait and switch. So, I could not prepare for something I didn’t know. If you give me specifics on what happened, I can go back and look in my record. I don’t recall ever saying 'that’s not the way we do it around here.' I don’t know the context of the conversation and, I don’t know what that was about.”
Responding to a complaint about his monthly reports to the council, Pidermann said the contract discusses achievement of the council’s directives. After direction from Vice Mayor Bryan Morera in August, he said he has provided more information at council meetings and midmonth updates on all directives.
Dieguez reminded the council his goal is for the body to be efficient, and not have drama or unnecessary meetings.
Sanchez’s final comment was, “Based on the fact that I was the only one who brought ideas of things that we can add to the performance improvement plan … I am moving to table it indefinitely.”
Pidermann didn’t have further comment except to say, “I don’t want to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.”
After the meeting, Sen. Garcia said, "I'm just glad they got it right."
The next day, Sanchez told The Miami Laker that he and Pidermann met for an hour and that he feels they will have a good relationship going forward.