Meeting Minutes
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
City of Miami City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com Meeting Minutes Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:00 PM SPECIAL MEETING City Hall Commission Chambers City Commission Tomas Regalado, Mayor Marc David Sarnoff, Chairman Frank Carollo, Vice-Chairman Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner District One Francis Suarez, Commissioner District Four Commissioner District Five Pedro G. Hernandez, City Manager Julie O. Bru, City Attorney Priscilla A. Thompson, City Clerk City Commission Meeting Minutes January 26, 2010 4:00 P.M. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Present: Vice Chairman Carollo, Commissioner Gort, Chair Sarnoff and Commissioner Suarez On the 26th day of January 2010, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, met at its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, in regular session. The meeting was called to order by Chair Sarnoff at 4:23 p.m., recessed at 5:48 p.m., reconvened at 6:04 p.m., recessed at 7:55 p.m., reconvened at 8:13 p.m., recessed at 10:10 p.m., reconvened at 10:23 p.m., and adjourned at 11:18 p.m. Note for the Record: Commissioner Suarez entered the Commission chambers at 8:14 p.m. ALSO PRESENT: Julie O. Bru, City Attorney Pedro G. Hernandez, City Manager Priscilla A. Thompson, City Clerk City of Miami Page 2 Printed on 2/16/2010 City Commission Meeting Minutes January 26, 2010 Order of the Day Chair Sarnoff: (INAUDIBLE) and appoint a Commissioner to District 5. I'd like to give a little bit of the procedure as to how we're going to commence this. This Commission first is going to discuss and vote on a procedure that will govern how we nominate and vote for the candidates for the purpose of filling the vacancy for District 5. The Mayor will come down; he will address the City Commission and the members of the public. Each Commissioner will then be given some opportunity to discuss what they would like to see either from a Commissioner or have their comments on the record. Then what we'll do is we'll open the floor to individuals who want to be considered as candidates. Now, I want to say one thing to you, you need to be careful of: You have to qualify. So you must be qualified. That means either before you come up here and present yourself for a candidate that you have either gone to the Clerk's office and have qualified or as soon as you're done speaking, you go to the Clerk's office and you qualify. Then what we will do is open this up for a public hearing. At the close of the public hearing, we will be told who the qualified candidates are. That will come from the Clerk. That's about as far as we can go because now it's -- I think it's time for this Commission to discuss how we wish to proceed with this process. Madam City Attorney, is there anything you need to tell us right now with regard to these proceedings? Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): No, Mr. Chair. And good evening, members of the Commission, members of the public. I just want to remind you that there are some things about the hearing here today in terms of please, if you have any audible devices, silence them now. And if anybody is -- becomes unruly, you know, you will be barred from continuing to attend this public hearing. Chair Sarnoff: All right. City of Miami Page 3 Printed on 2/16/2010 City Commission Meeting Minutes January 26, 2010 DISCUSSION ITEM SP.1 10-00082 DISCUSSION ITEM DISCUSSION REGARDING FILLING A VACANCY, PURSUANT TO EXECUTIVE ORDER 10-5 OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, ON THE CITY COMMISSION IN THE DISTRICT 5 COMMISSION SEAT. 10-00082 Memo.pdf 10-00082 Executive Order.pdf DISCUSSED A motion was made by Chair Sarnoff, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, establishing that the order of the meeting will be conducted as follows: 1. Candidates will present themselves to the Commission 2. Candidates ensure they've met all qualifications 3. Public hearing will be opened and subsequently closed 4. Acting City Clerk will provide Commissioners with a list of qualified candidates 5. Commissioners will cast their vote, by ballot, for one candidate 6. Acting City Clerk will receive Commissioners' ballots 7. Candidate who receives three votes will be appointed 8. In the event there's not a sufficient majority, candidates who did not get a vote would be removed from the list of candidates, further discussion among Commissioners would ensue, and then Commissioners would vote again by ballot. Discussion on the item resulted in the resolution below. 10-00082a RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING RICHARD P. DUNN, II, AS A MEMBER OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, DISTRICT 5, TO FILL THE VACANCY CREATED BY THE SUSPENSION OF MICHELLE SPENCE-JONES, TO SERVE UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THE RESULTS HAVE BEEN DECLARED AND CERTIFIED FOR AN ELECTION TO BE HELD ON NOVEMBER 2,2010 OR UNTIL COMMISSIONER SPENCE-JONES' SUSPENSION MAY BE REVOKED PURSUANT TO SECTION 112.51(6), FLORIDA STATUTES (2009), OR COURT ORDER, WHICHEVER MAY OCCUR FIRST. 10-00082a-Submittal-First Round of Voting for Appointment of District 5 Commissioner.pdf 10-00082a-Submittal-Second Round of Voting for Appointment of District 5 Commissioner.pdf 10-00082a-Submittal-Third Round of Voting for Appointment of District 5 Commissioner.pdf 10-00082a-Submittal-Tally Sheet-January 26, 2010 Appointment.pdf 10-00082a-Submittal-Law Department.pdf Motion by Commissioner Gort, seconded by Vice Chairman Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner Carollo, Gort, Sarnoff and Suarez R-10-0014 Chair Sarnoff: So to the Commissioners -- one of the ways of doing this could be done by ballot. And by ballot, what that would mean is we would take a slate of the people who are candidates; City of Miami Page 4 Printed on 2/16/2010 City Commission Meeting Minutes January 26, 2010 we would have the Clerk provide to us the names. The first time we would vote, we'd all vote for one person. In fact, three of us vote for one person, pretty much, we're done, gentlemen. If not, what we would do is reduce the names of the people who received no votes; we'd come back for a revote and rediscussion [sic]. That is one way of doing it. Let me open up to discussion on how you feel about the use of the ballot or any modifications thereto, and I'm going to go to Commissioner Suarez first. Commissioner Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, in terms of the procedure, I've seen -- I have just been given this document on a number of different ways that we, as a Commission, can come to this decision. I've literally had maybe five minutes, ten minutes to look over it and think about the procedure. So to the extent that you would proffer a procedure, I would be willing to adopt whatever procedure you think is the fairest and the best way of coming to this decision. Chair Sarnoff: All right. Commissioner Carollo. Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you, Chairman Sarnoff. First of all, to begin, I'd like to welcome a new member of our Commission, Mr. Willy Gort. I sat here for quite a few meetings and -- actually, I got used to being with my two colleagues here, so seeing you here it's sort of usual but it's welcomed, so welcome, welcome. And your first meeting was just like my first meeting for -- a special meeting, so I welcome Commissioner Gort. With that said, I do not have a problem with the ballots. However, one thing that you mentioned -- and I want to just to open up for dialogue. Do they have to qualify before we actually vote, or if they are appointed, then they have to go and qualify? Chair Sarnoff: No. The proper way of doing this is let the Clerk tell us who is qualified. There's no reason for us to vote for a candidate and then find out ten or fifteen minutes later that they're not qualified. So what'll happen is they'll provide us their four-minute reason why they should be Commissioner. If they have not already qualified with the Clerk, they should leave that podium, proceed to the Clerk's office, ensure they've been qualified; we'll open up a public hearing. By the time the public hearing is closed, we will know who the list of qualified candidates are. Now it's hard to imagine that those that ran earlier would not still be qualified, but they could factorially not be qualified, so I think the better suited way of doing it is to make sure the Clerk comes back to us and tells us, "This is the list of qualified candidates." Vice Chair Carollo: Is it also possible that should we be in a tie, that we prosper [sic] additional candidates? Chair Sarnoff: That's an interesting -- that becomes interesting. If, in fact, we deadlock and a new name emerges, I think that's something that we can take by motion at that time to change that deadlock. Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah. Because the way I read it, it said, you know, once appointed, a candidate must qualify, but it does stipulate "once appointed." So I just want to -- and again, I don't have a problem with the way you want to do it.