Jumpline magazine Q1 2023 - Flipbook - Page 44
Al Cruz
L1403 Former President
44
One night, around 10:00 pm, I dialed the
office of the mayor in the courthouse.
Why would he be there or why I thought
he was, I can’t explain, but he was and
answered the phone. “Chuck, what the
hell are you doing working tonight?”
rived eager, informed, and determined
to have our position heard. We backed
it up with data that inferred there was
nothing illegal about the county having a
separate Fire Department. The meeting
with Mayor Chuck Hall was a success
and he got the ball rolling by calling the
County Attorney and instructing him to
write an ordinance if he found the separation to be legal.
Mayor: “Well Carl, if you didn’t think I’d
be here, what are you calling for?”
Carl: “Well, Mr. Mayor, I have a problem
and I can’t get it off my mind and I just
called on a hunch”
I then set up and had an office meeting
with Don Shoemaker, Editor of the Miami Herald. This became the story and
picture for an “Editorial Page”. Long story (history) short, I lobbied every County
Commissioner and when this came up
for vote, this county separation and a
new County Fire Department was established.
Mayor: “Well, Carl, if it’s that bad,
come to my office on the beach tomorrow morning at 10:00 and let’s see what
we can do.” That’s the way it went. I then
called a friend, a man that I was hired
with and one of the Union’s Vice Presidents, John Soeder, and asked him
to attend the meeting with me. We ar-
Fraternally, Al Cruz
Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403 hosted its 6th annual November “Mustache” Contest” on November 29, 2022. Movember is an annual event involving the growing of mustaches
during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s
health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and
men’s suicide.
Over 30 active and retired first responders participated to win
the title of the most unique mustache in 11 categories: Best
Crew Stache, Strongman Stache, Cheesiest Stache, Weak-
est Stache, Most Creative Stache and of course, the winner
of all winner’s category, Sir Stache A-Lot!
Thank you to all our contestants and judges that participated
this year. We had a great turnout with some good laughs! A
special thanks to our guest judges, Florida House of Representative-District 106, Fabian Basabe, Chief Alfredo “Freddy”
Ramirez III, Manny Reyes, Billy McAllister, and of course our
amazing Master of Ceremonies, Richard Ramirez. Congratulations to all of this year’s “stache” winners!
February 2023 | JUMPLINE Magazine