MIAMI (CBS4) - A crowd gathered mid day Oct. 23 on the corner of 27th Avenue near Norman Braman's headquarters to support Mayor Carolos Alvarez and to protest Braman's recall of him.

Braman called for Alvarez's recall shortly after the County Commission passed a plan to raise property taxes while granting raises for City employees.

Miami Billionaire Braman has until Dec. 5 to collect the 52,000 needed signatures to place the recall issue before voters.

In reaction Alvarez has been able to garner support and significant funding to fight the recall from the police union, The Police Benevolent Association.
Alvarez, a former police officer, was head of the Miami-Dade County Police and has protected police salaries while in office.

County police are looking forward to a 13 percent increase in salary while other raises to county employees are at 3 percent.

The biggest financial contributors so far to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez's effort to avoid recall from office are the cops he worked with for nearly three decades.

Campaign records filed with election officials reveal that the Political Action Committee(PAC) formed to oppose the recall has collected just under $55,000 in contributions as of October 8th. The lion's share - $50,000 - came in a single contribution from the PBA, the union representing Miami-Dade police.

PBA president John Rivera told CBS4 News on Thursday that officers have become involved in the campaign in an effort to maintain stability in county government and preserve services. He said Alvarez has demonstrated a commitment to protecting the citizenry.

"He understands public safety," Rivera said. "He knows that it is the first and greatest mandate that government has to its people."

The police union's largess toward the mayor's anti-recall campaign comes after the county gave officers pay increases that will total some 13 percent over a 13 month period ending next September.

At a site collecting signatures for the recall effort Thursday, some waiting to sign petitions viewed the police pay raises -- and their union's political contributions to the Mayor -- as part of the problem with county government.

"The mayor is not sensitive to what's going on with the people these days, and with the economy," said Jane Lopez. "I don't feel comfortable with what's going on."

Lopez and her husband drove to the recall petition office in Kendall from their home in Pinecrest.

"'We the people' have lost our power and we've got to wrestle it back," said Samuel Lopez. "It's not right, what they're doing."

Rivera, the police union president, called criticism of the pay raises unfair. He said officers have made concessions for two years.

"We took a five percent pay cut the first year," Rivera said. "The second year we got zero."

Rivera said that the scheduled increases will bring police officers' pay in line with that of firefighters. He said that, after factoring in the earlier pay cut and other economic issues, the "13 percent increase they were talking about (on talk radio) is absolutely not true."

"To divide this community on false grounds is bad enough, but to divide it at a time like this, when we need to be together, is just horrible for the community," Rivera said.

Mayor Alvarez, through a spokesperson, declined to be interviewed regarding the police union's contributions to his anti-recall campaign. But Alvarez's office issued a statement saying, "I was a dues paying member of the PBA for 28 years. I believe in public safety and appreciate that the PBA, without asking, donated to the PAC and is standing behind me in a time of need."

In previous interviews, and on the luncheon circuit, Alvarez has stressed that the budget approved for the county this year - that raises taxes and the pay of most county employees - was approved by the county commission, as were the contracts with the various employee unions.

The recall effort against Alvarez is being bankrolled by auto magnate Norman Braman. Braman told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald that petition signatures are being collected at a pace "too fast to count." To achieve a special election on whether to recall the mayor from office, Braman's PAC, "People Who Want Honest Government."