The city of Hialeah has disbursed over $59,100 in additional compensation—overtime and off-duty service calls—to three police officers assigned to protect Mayor Bryan Calvo, according to payroll records published by El Nuevo Herald. The data covers the period from January to July 10, 2026, and reveals unprecedented spending in the city's history.
The bulk of the money went to Rudi Ginestra, formally appointed as the mayor's armory sergeant just six days after Calvo's inauguration on January 12. No previous mayor of Hialeah had appointed anyone to that position, making this measure an unprecedented event for the most Cuban city in the United States.
Ginestra, whose base salary is around $99,700 per year, accumulated $37,900 in additional payments in less than six months, an amount equivalent to 38% of his base salary and close to the full annual salary of a city council member in Hialeah, which is $44,000. By July 10, he had totaled 433.5 overtime hours and 93.25 hours of off-duty service. Just in the pay period from February 1 to 14, he recorded 60.5 overtime hours, including the trip to Tallahassee for the Dade Days event.
The other two members of the security team also incurred significant costs for taxpayers. Agent Frank Espildora, with a base salary of around 84,000 dollars, charged approximately 15,400 dollars for 143.5 hours of on-call duty and 75 overtime hours.
The agent Aileen Pérez, a training instructor with a base salary of 91,600 dollars, received 5,800 dollars for 72.5 hours outside her regular schedule; additionally, the records show that she also accompanied Melianni Terrero, the mayor's girlfriend, in political activities.
The mayor's office justifies the security measures due to Calvo's offensive against local businesses with alleged ties to the Cuban dictatorship. Chief of Staff José Torres stated in July that several vehicles had followed the mayor and that "strange actions" took place near his residence, although he did not identify any culprits nor attributed the events to the regime. Hialeah's own police chief, George Fuente, acknowledged that he did not recall receiving specific threats against Calvo, although he admitted that elected officials face a certain level of risk.
The research that serves as the backdrop is the Business Advisory Group with Cuba (CUBAT), created by executive order on the same day as Calvo's inauguration. The group identified more than 290 businesses for review, focusing on companies that export or import products to Cuba or that could benefit the regime. Eight months after the announcement, public results are scarce: of the 20 licenses initially revoked, 18 were restored after presenting documentation, and only two remain revoked. The complete list of the 290 businesses has never been published.
The municipal budget does not separately itemize the cost of the mayor's security, meaning that the actual expenditure could exceed the documented $59,100 in the payrolls. The funds are absorbed within the overall budget of the Police Department, which amounts to $89.4 million for 2026.
The controversy surrounding Calvo is not limited to the cost of his security detail. In June, the mayor was fined for driving a municipal vehicle with blue emergency lights without legal authorization —specifically on the day he was not accompanied by Ginestra—. Florida law reserves that equipment exclusively for authorized emergency vehicles.
Calvo, 27 years old, won the mayoralty in November 2025 with over 52% of the votes under the slogan "Hialeah First," becoming the youngest mayor in the city and all of Florida. Since then, he has promoted a distinctly anti-Castro agenda, summarized in his own statement from January: "Transparency is non-negotiable. We will investigate every contract, every investment, and every company with dubious connections. Hialeah belongs to its honest citizens, not to those who launder money from communism."
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