HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-March 14, 2018 Regular Commission Meeting CITY OF OPA-LOCKA
"The Great City"
CLERK'S ACTION SUMMARY MINUTES
REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
7:00 P.M.
Sherbondy Village Auditorium
215 Perviz Avenue
Opa-locka, FL 33054
1. CALL TO ORDER:
Commissioner Timothy Holmes called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday, March
14, 2018 in the Auditorium at Sherbondy Village, 215 President Barack Obama (Perviz) Avenue,
Opa-locka, Florida.
2. ROLL CALL:
The following members of the City Commission were present: Commissioner Matthew A. Pigatt,
Commissioner John Riley and Commissioner Timothy Holmes. Also in attendance were: City
Manager Eddie Brown, City Attorney Vincent T. Brown and City Clerk Joanna Flores. Mayor
Myra L. Taylor and Vice Mayor Joseph L. Kelley were not in attendance.
3. INVOCATION:
The Invocation was delivered by Commissioner John Riley.
4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.
Commissioner Holmes requested that the City Attorney provide a legal opinion as to whether the
Commission should defer the commission meeting since several members were absent.
Attorney Brown advised that as long as there is three members of the City Commission present,
then that constitutes a quorum sufficient enough to carry out the business of the city. If the
Commission should decide to defer the entire agenda to the next meeting then they can do that,
but it would have to be a unanimous vote to defer because a 2-1 vote is not a majority. He
reiterated that the Commission would need a unanimous vote to defer the entire agenda to the
next meeting or they would have to go through the agenda and vote up or down on the items.
Any item that gets a 2-1 vote fails because it does not get the majority of the number of votes
required which is three.
Commissioner Holmes asked for the recommendation from his colleagues on the dais.
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Commissioner Pigatt stated that based upon the discussion that needs to take place in terms of
the budget amendments and several other important items on the agenda, it is important to have
the full dais to be able to have proper discussion and vote on the agenda items. He said it would
be in the city's best interest to defer the agenda.
Commissioner Riley said he didn't have a problem with deferring the entire agenda; however, he
does think it is important to have citizens' forum since the citizens took the time to come out to
the meeting.
Commissioner Pigatt agreed with Commissioner Riley.
Attorney Brown advised that a motion and a second is needed after citizens' forum to defer the
entire agenda to the next regular commission meeting.
Commissioner Pigatt made a motion to modify the agenda to allow them to move forth with
public presentation and citizens' forum and following citizens' forum, the Commission can vote
to defer the remaining agenda items.
The motion was seconded by Commissioner Riley.
There being no discussion on the motion, the motion passed by a 3-0 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley Not present
Commissioner Pigatt Yes
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Not present
5. (10) PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS:
1. Guillermo McCausland
Ref: property at 290 Ali-Baba Avenue, Opa-locka, FL 33054
Mr. Guillermo McCausland was not present at the meeting to give his presentation.
6. (11) CITIZENS' FORUM:
1. An Opa-locka business owner and resident came forward accompanied by his translator
and attempted to address his concerns regarding Code Enforcement. Due to his inability to
communicate effectively in English, the City Attorney interjected in an effort to help, but he was
interrupted by the business owner who indicated that he wanted to speak. Commissioner Holmes
(serving as the Chair) directed the business owner to follow proper protocol when addressing the
Commission. The business owner refused to allow his translator to translate for him and started
behaving erratically. He was then escorted out of the room by the Assistant City Manager.
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2. Dorothy Johnson of 13724 NW 22nd Place, Opa-locka, Florida, appeared before the City
Commission and commended the City Manager for contacting Miami-Dade County about her
previous concern regarding canal cleaning. She continued to say that she contacted
Commissioner Barbara Jordan's Office, District 1 County Commission about the illegal dumping
because the piles throughout the city are getting very high. She commended the Florida
Department of Transportation (FDOT) for cleaning State Road 9 following encouragement from
the local Crime Watch Organization in Opa-locka.
She went on to voice her concerns relating to the potholes and flooding on East Superior Street
and NW 27th Avenue and quality assessment that need to be done on city projects.
She further stated that she was disheartened to hear one of the commissioners publicly ask for an
inquiry and it appears that everyone is not given the same opportunity.
3. Ian Bacheikov, Esq. of 98 SE 7 Street, Miami, Florida appeared before the City
Commission on behalf of his client Republic Metals Corporation located at 12900 NW 38
Avenue, Opa-locka, Florida, and stated that he is present for the same purpose of which he has
appeared before the City Commission every month for the last seven months with regards to the
Capital Improvement Project specifically on NW 38th Avenue. Since the last meeting, he had not
seen or heard any update with regards to the status of the potential project specifically since the
2014/2015 audit had been completed by the city's accountant. He is aware that was a hurdle the
city was waiting on and he was just hoping to get some update to be able to provide to his client
as well as find out if the commissioners have been updated in their own commission report
because he knows that was an issue previously. He said he was hoping to hear something about
this matter today.
Commissioner Riley stated that the audit was not complete.
Commissioner Pigatt informed Mr. Bacheikov that at the last commission meeting the City
Commission issued a resolution to have the City Manager publish periodic reports to local
business owners; therefore, he can inquire with the City Manager's Office to get the status of
those reports so that he can get up to date information.
Manager Brown added that the audit would be completed Friday morning and will be transmitted
to the State, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), the Joint Legislature
Auditing Committee (JLAC), Florida Department of Revenue, City Commission and all of the
city's partners including the banking institution. Once that audit is submitted, especially to the
FDEP who oversees the city's revolving loan. The city has support from the Governor's Office
and he is looking for something positive to come out of that after they receive the audit for
2014/2015. The 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 audit financials are done as well and those would be
completed by September 2018. The city is completing three (3) audits that are outdated, but
nonetheless the city will be in compliance so that it can move forward smoothly.
4. Natasha Ervin, 670 Dunad Avenue, Opa-locka, Florida, appeared before the City
Commission and briefly announced that City of Opa-locka Parks & Recreation Department in
partnership with the Opa-locka Parents Booster Club would be taking the kids to the Universoul
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Circus on March 21, 2018. She further announced the following: Easter Egg Hunt on March 22,
2018 at Sherbondy Park from 5:00 pm—7:00 pm; and the Opa-locka Community Garage Sale on
April 21, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. —4:00 p.m.
Commissioner Riley informed Mrs. Ervin that Mr. Charles Brown, Parks & Recreation
Department Director just received additional tickets for the Universoul Circus.
5. Eric Redmond, resident at Villa Francine, Opa-locka, Florida, came before the City
Commission and spoke about the need to reactivate the Community Empowerment Team (CET)
program which provided much needed social services to the community.
Commissioner Riley made a motion to defer the entire remaining agenda items to the Regular
Commission Meeting on March 28, 2018 with the exception of items 16B1 and 16B2; Items
16B1 and 16B2 will be deferred to the Regular Commission Meeting on April 11, 2018.
The motion was seconded by Commissioner Pigatt.
There being no discussion, the motion passed by a 3-0 vote.
Commissioner Pigatt Yes
Commissioner Riley Yes
Vice Mayor Kelley Not present
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Not present
Commissioner Pigatt thanked Dorothy Johnson for encouraging the Commission to have the City
Manager meet with him.
7. (21) ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business to come before the City Commission, it was moved by
Commissioner Riley, seconded Commissioner Pigatt to adjourn the meeting at 7:30 p.m.
Myra L. 1 y,or
Mayor
ATTEST:
1 I
Jo. '� a Flores, CMC
Cite Clerk
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