Fired Medley official turned to spiritual methods to ward off political foes, texts show
When Medley’s human resources director became worried that her job was at risk last year, records show she sought spiritual help to fend off a perceived campaign against her by a group of town officials.
In text messages released last month in response to a public records request, Olga Quin and an unidentified person discussed Quin’s fears about losing her job and a series of steps to avoid that outcome, including using cascarilla, or eggshell powder, to draw a cross on the soles of her shoes and in the palms of her hands, and mixing holy water and an herb known as amansa guapo and carrying it in her purse.
The records show Quin and the other person exchanged the names and dates of birth of three town officials who she said were plotting to oust her, including Vice Mayor Ivan Pacheco, though it wasn’t clear why they shared that information.
After the Town Council voted to fire Quin in February, with Pacheco arguing it would be more efficient to operate without a human resources department, Mayor Roberto Martell highlighted her text messages in a letter outlining several alleged transgressions. The messages, Martell said, showed Quin using her town cellphone during work hours to disclose “sensitive personnel information without authorization and for personal reasons.”
But an attorney for Quin, Alberto Naranjo, said the town only dug through the text messages after the council had already voted to fire her, and is now using them to try to justify her firing. Quin sued the town in April, saying it violated its own charter by firing her without providing her an administrative appeal hearing.
Medley has since reinstated Quin, placed her on unpaid leave and agreed to hear her appeal. A hearing has not yet taken place.
Naranjo declined to answer questions about the content of the text messages or why Quin had shared the dates of birth of town officials. But he said they were “personal conversations” between Quin and a family member and that she had no malicious intent.
“Everybody is entitled to their own religious beliefs,” he said. “Nothing wrong was being done.”
Quin’s firing wasn’t about text messages or poor job performance, Naranjo said, but rather about personal and political rivalries in a tiny industrial town in Northwest Miami-Dade where competing factions often spar inside Town Hall.
Pacheco, the vice mayor who Quin said in text messages was “trying to discredit” her, said at the February council meeting that it would be more cost-effective to eliminate human resources and let each town department handle its own employee matters with help from the mayor’s office.
The Town Council approved the firing in a 3-2 vote.
But Quin said at the meeting that the move was “personal and political,” noting that she had previously filed a complaint against Pacheco for trying to meddle in her job duties.
“He was intimidating, he was abusing his power, he was sabotaging my position, he was interfering with everything that I was doing,” she said. “This is wrong on all levels.”
Pacheco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arrest of councilwoman may have played role
In text messages last fall, Quin repeatedly said she had the support of Lily Stefano, a longtime Medley councilwoman and political rival of the mayor.
Stefano was later removed from office in November after being arrested and charged with selling $24,000 worth of food that was donated to a charity established by former NFL star Santana Moss. She pleaded not guilty.
Quin said in a January text message that she believed officials had a plan to eliminate her position following the election of Pacheco’s wife, Karina Pacheco, in a special election brought on by Stefano’s removal.
Karina Pacheco was elected in late January, winning by just two votes to create the first known spouse duo to serve together on an elected council in Florida. One month later, Karina Pacheco, Ivan Pacheco and the mayor cast the three votes to fire Quin.
A father-daughter duo, Edgar and Lizelh Ayala, voted against the move.
Naranjo, Quin’s attorney, said the firing was ultimately about his client being disliked by Martell, the town’s top executive and one of the highest-paid officials in Miami-Dade County.
“If you fall on the wrong side of things with the mayor, you’re going to have a target on your back,” he said.
Martell defended the firing and the removal of the human resources position in a statement Thursday, saying the town “has operated in a much more efficient and cost effective manner since the position was abolished.”
“I stand by the contents of the letter provided to Ms. Quin, and the voluminous evidence demonstrating that her continued employment as Human Resources Director was against the best interest of the Town of Medley and all of Medley’s employees,” he said.
This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 11:14 AM.
