‘Misuse of authority’: Little Haiti Cultural Center director challenges suspension
Saying she has experienced “consistently punitive and reactive” treatment from department leadership, Little Haiti Cultural Center director Dasha Saintremy asked the city’s Civil Service Board on Tuesday for relief — and left without it.
“I believe there is a broad pattern of inappropriate leadership practices that is affecting this role that I’m in, involving misuse of authority,” she said during the board’s meeting Tuesday morning. She said that the discipline by the leadership of the city’s parks department, which manages the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, has been heavy-handed. The city’s parks department is spearheaded by Chuck Ellis, who was hired to the role after retiring from the parks and recreation department in DeKalb County in Georgia late last year. Ellis requested a probation extension for Saintremy and signed off on her suspension.
Saintremy received her first written reprimand about three months into the job for speaking with the Miami Herald for a profile about her plans for the cultural center as its new leader, which the parks department said was in violation of the city’s media policy. The second reprimand came after she participated in an interview with Island TV on Sept. 19. The segment never aired.
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Then on Dec. 9, Saintremy was called before the Civil Service Board where her probation period was extended another four months. The Island TV interview was mentioned at the meeting and days later, Saintremy received a letter from the parks and recreation department suspending her without pay for three days for violating the city’s media policy. Saintremy told the board she did not sign the letter as she believed it was a form of double discipline.
Saintremy is the fourth director of the Little Haiti Cultural Complex in six years and is the latest in a long line of directors who’ve complained about the city’s treatment of them and the cultural center. The Herald spoke with four of the center’s previous directors who highlighted a systemic lack of funding, restrictive oversight and general neglect of the center’s maintenance.
Members of the community rallied to Saintremy’s defense after hearing about the series of disciplinary measures against her; two petitions were circulated in support of her work at the center saying that the constant disciplining her for speaking about programming undercuts the very mission of the Little Haiti Cultural Center, discourages managers from promoting the space or advocating for the community, and perpetuates a cycle of instability that has plagued the center for years.
However, during Tuesday’s meeting, Saintremy was informed that because she was on probation, she cannot request a hearing regarding her discipline. The board also denied her request for an investigation into the department.
“Had I known what I know now, being in this role, I would still be in Philadelphia,” she told the board.
The board’s decision frustrated Saintremy’s supporters, who said she has brought much needed change and energy to a cultural center that had been without a leader for at least six months before her hire. Fabienne Polycarpe, who has held events at the center and was at the hearing, said extending Saintremy’s probation “doesn’t allow her to have a voice, doesn’t protect the employee.”
Polycarpe said the cultural center already has issues with the center’s leadership not being supported or allowed to promote the space. She said the turnover rate also doesn’t help. “If you have so many leaders who are coming into the position trying to create a space for the Haitian community, and they’re all being taken out, or they’re all leaving, there’s something wrong with the way the system is set up.”
Ashley Toussaint, an activist in Little Haiti and member of the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, attended the hearing, and said Saintemy was put in an unfortunate position and was at the behest of the board.
“I know the passion that Dasha has for the cultural center, and her still in a probationary phase really puts her in a vulnerable situation,” he said. “I’m sure that whatever happened was maybe a misunderstanding, but she doesn’t really have any real legal protection or rights to really advocate for herself.”
Toussiant said the high turnover in leadership at the center mimics what is happening in Little Haiti.
“There’s a lot of changes happening in the community. We’ve lost historical sites, we’ve lost residents. Businesses have closed, and simultaneously, we’ve seen a lot of transition at the cultural center leadership,” he said. “So it just seemed like a symptomatic thing that’s happening throughout Little Haiti, and the cultural center just seems to be a symbol of that.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 3:24 PM.
