HomeMy Public PortalAbout10-October 02, 2018 Special Commission Meeting CITY OF OPA-LOCKA
"The Great City"
CLERK'S ACTION SUMMARY MINUTES
SPECIAL COMMISSION MEETING
Tuesday, October 02, 2018
2:00 P.M.
Sherbondy Village Auditorium
215 Perviz Avenue
Opa-locka,FL 33054
1. CALL TO ORDER:
Mayor Myra L. Taylor called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 02, 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: Mayor Myra L. Taylor, Vice
Mayor Joseph L. Kelley, Commissioner Timothy Holmes, Commissioner John Riley and
Commissioner Matthew Pigatt. Also in attendance were: Acting City Manager Newall
Daughtrey, City Attorney Vincent Brown, and City Clerk Joanna Flores.
3. INVOCATION:
The invocation was delivered by Mayor Myra L. Taylor.
4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.
5. PUBLIC INPUT:
Agenda Items Only
Eric Redmon, Villa Francine, Opa-locka, FL, said that he supports the termination of the city
manager.
Alvin Burke, 1240 Jann Avenue, Opa-locka, FL, said that he does not see why this is happening.
This commission has two more meetings left and putting someone else in the seat isn't going to
get anything done. How can the City move forward if it keeps getting rid of city managers?
There is a reason behind this because it does not make sense. If the commission cared about the
City, they would sit for the last thirty days, unless there is something they want done that the
manager will not do.
Steven Barrett said that the City has the worst reputation for getting rid of managers. The City
needs to keep the manager it has and let the new commission come in and decide what they want
to do. It is not good management of the City to continue to fire managers. He asked the
commission to allow the manager to stay until the new commission arrives.
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Natasha Ervin, 670 Dunad Avenue, Opa-locka, FL, said that she will not ask the commission not
to terminate the manager because they are going to do what they want to do anyway; but it does
not look good. It looks like there is an agenda and something in the milk is not clean. She
thanked Mr. Daughtrey for his service.
Brian Dennis, 821 NW 54th Street, Miami FL, said eight years ago, the City was not in financial
trouble and now it is. He will not advocate for the manager because he already knows the
outcome. He agreed with Ms. Ervin's statements and stated that he does not understand why this
is happening when this commission is almost done. When the commission votes today it will
show what they are about. He endorsed Commissioner Pigatt for mayor.
6. RESOLUTIONS:
a) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF OPA-
LOCKA, FLORIDA, TERMINATING ACTING CITY MANAGER NEWALL J. DAUGHTREY;
PROVIDING FOR INCORPORATION OF RECITALS; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE
DATE.Sponsored by Commissioner Riley
The above resolution was read by Attorney Brown.
It was moved by Commissioner Holmes, seconded by Commissioner Riley for discussion.
Vice Mayor Kelley asked the mayor why she sponsored this item.
Mayor Taylor said she believes the manager has gone as far as he can and she does not think he can move
the City forward.
Vice Mayor Kelley said that there is potentially a whole new commission coming in and it is sad when
the community knows more than him. The citizens already know what is going on and something is
wrong with that. There are real issues going on and thirty days out this kind of decision is being made. He
will be watching to see every dollar that is being spent because he does not see what the manager has
done to warrant this. The City needs to hire a professional manager and give them a contract. If this is not
done,the culture of the City will never change.
Commissioner Pigatt asked the manager to speak as to why he should or should not be terminated.
This portion of the minutes will be transcribed in verbatim format.
Acting City Manager Daughtrey: The Charter states specifically that every matter that comes before the
commission, the manager has the right to participate in the discussion, but he does not have a vote. And
the reason for that is, supposedly in order to be a city manager; you have to have certain skills and
abilities. You done have to have those same skills and abilities to get elected. That's why a board of
directors, a commission, appoints a manager, they appoint an attorney, and appoints a clerk. I must say
that I was surprised memo that there was a commission meeting today to terminate me without one
person talking to me about quote "What the unreadiness is" or what they think I'm not doing according
to the charter. Again, you have the right to hire and fire the manager. Under normal conditions, you do
that based upon specifics. The City happens to be in a financial emergency, continuously and it still is.
The manager's job and my job has been to put the City in a position where we can come out of the
financial emergency. In addition to that, we have had major, major sewer problems. Because of those
sewer problems, almost all of my attention has been focused on keeping the sewer off of the street. In
discovered last week that in 2011, the City paid for and had all of the sewer systems televisions and we
knew then in 2011 that we were having major sewer problems, but yet no budgeting was done to take care
of these sewer problems. Of course,just recently, an attorney approached us to sue us to try to take over
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the water and sewer system from us. And as a result of doing research, I discovered that in fact we did
pay for 2011 televisioning of our sewer systems. It showed us where most of the infiltration was. Yet, we
did not budget on dime to deal with the problem. So, i.e. the situation at Bahman happened. There are a
lot of other Bahman's that are going to happen if we don't become proactive and deal with the sewer
system. We have one hundred and forty four thousand linear feet of clay pipes on the ground that may
burst at any moment. What we have to do is be rational and be reasonable and plan our work to solve
these problems. We dealt with the Bahman Problem and when we did with the first part of it we
discovered that of we didn't take care of the second piece, that it too was going to collapse. Thank God
that we were able to deal with it. I think professionally I've done what any professional manager could
possibly do here. I've made sure I communicated the seriousness of the problem. No one wants ten mills
for a City, but you have not maintained your infrastructure, when you've not maintained your buildings.
And we're in a situation where yes, we did thanks to Dr. Baker, was able to get the state to agree to loan
us thirty eight million dollars ($38,000,000.00). And the first time we got the loan, we used for something
else and not what we agreed to. Now in order to access the loan we have to pay for the work, prove that
the contractor got paid, prove that a partial release of liens for labor and for materials took place, and
then send it to the state and they will reimburse us in about ninety days. But the problem is, we didn't
have the cash. Therefore the people on Cairo Lane walked off the job over a year because we hadn't paid
them. We sent the state a copy of the check to say we had paid them, but when the contractor went to
Tallahassee, he said, "I never saw the check and I never got it."So we did was total mismanagement. I'm
surprised they didn't put somebody in jail; they should have. But never the less, we still have access to
that state revolving loan. But only after we pay the contractor and prove that the contractor received his
money. That is why I recommended going to ten mills because we need a working capital fund so that we
can deal with all of these underground problems that are going to face the city unless we start dealing
with it. Also to get out of the financial emergency, you have to prove that you can pay everybody within a
five year period of time. I.e., I said ten percent(10%) of the ad valorem tax money needs to be set aside so
that we can pay those old debts. Ten percent (10%) is be set aside so that we can have a working capital
fund so we can fix these problems that are in our face; and then eighty percent (80%) of the ad valorem
tax money can be used to run the day-to-day operations. We have consistently overspent our budget. We
been spending (OPM) Other People's Money, Other People's Money. Money that we're holding as
trustees, we're spending it; we have to stop that. Since I've been manager, I've stopped stealing the red
light camera money, cause that's what we were doing, stealing the money. And I've sent them two
hundred and thirty thousand dollars ($230,000.00) since I've been the manager. So been stealing their
money from 2013 through June 30`" of this year when I made the first payment. My point is I've been a
good manager. I'm not boasting. My job is to take care of the citizens of the City of Opa-locka; I work for
you. You, in theory, work for the people. We are to provide safe roads, clean water, and safe sewer issues.
My biggest paranoia for all of us is, we have sewer problems that is going to hurt us if we don't
appropriate money to deal with those problems. I also passed out some information that I received from
Public Works Director talking about the Bahman situation. Also the Cairo Lane situation. Cairo Lane
people walked off cause we didn't pay'em. We have been successful two weeks ago to be able to get them
to come back and do the work. They left because they weren't getting paid. You can't blame a man to stop
work cause you won't pay him. We did pay him. We have been able to pay him all that we owe him and
we have been able to get him to come back. The biggest hold up now is we started on 127th Street which is
part of the project is FPL. We have to move those poles. It took us almost three years to get those
easements. We should have had those easements before we issued any building permits on Cairo Lane.
We allowed those people to build without putting in water lines in or sewer or proper road beds. Okay,
we're here now. Guess what we did? We agreed to do Cairo Lane for those people for free. The correct
way to have done it is what the state statute says, "whoever benefits, pay their ridership, but the
commission voted to do it for them for free. So everybody in Opa-locka gone pay for Cairo Lane, alright.
We have to finish it cause we are halfway through, but all these other projects we gotta follow the state
statute and protect the citizens and not give away three million dollars ($3,000,000.00) that they have to
pay back. Let me end by saying two more items. The old city hall (sighs), we have negotiated with that
contractor, he's halfway through, but we could not agree to his last demand, that we take the money that
we have in an account and put it in his attorney's trust fund; we can't do that. But it has been brought to
my attention that we've made another offer to him that we can do a payment bond. If we can do a
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payment bond, then they can go back to work. If not, we're going to either come back or we have to call
their bond and go out for bid to the lowest bidder. He's been paid now, but he still has not come back to
work because he was not paid and he's angry, and I understand that. My last item has to do with what I
believe is why this vote is up today. Two weeks ago, I sent a memo out to the utility billing and Code
Enforcement people stating that anybody who owes the City over ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00)for
ninety (90) days, put a lien on their property. What's been going on in the past is they run up these bill
then close the account without paying and we let them open a new account; that's whats been going on. I
put in your package two million dollars ($2,000,000.00) worth of water bills that people owe us right now
that's over ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) and over ninety days. And I believe that because I did that,
that was the genesis of this motion to terminate me. Whether it is true or not, the very fact that if I stay,
we're going to follow through and asked the people that owe us over two and a half million dollars
($2,500,000.00) to pay. If they paid us we would have plenty cash, but they have been allowed, some
haven't paid in six (6) years. I'm not even talking about the ones on Cairo Lane who hadn't been billed
because their meters were not read in six (6)years. Those are the kinds of things that been going on and
that is why we are in a financial emergency because we have run this City as if it were some kind of
criminal enterprise. We have some employees who have participated and hopefully some are going to be
arrested today; if not, hopefully they'll be arrested tomorrow. Whether I'm here or not, they guilty and we
got'em by the whatever. We got the documentation and we gone arrested them. I cannot be involved in
anything crooked or anything illegal or improper. I ain't taking no prisoners, anybody that does wrong
on my watch and I know it, I'm gone put'em in jail. Madam Mayor and commission, thank you for
allowing me to make my statement. I have enjoyed the twelve (12) hours a day that I have been working
since I been here, no one made me do that, but my love of the City. So if you choose to vote to fire me,
What did General McArthur say?I will return. Thank you.
This completes the verbatim portion of the minutes.
Commissioner Pigatt thanked the manager for the job he has done since being manager. He said it is a
shame that this is happening and he is disappointed that thirty days out this is the kind of things that are
going on. He agreed with the vice mayor that a professional manager should be hired and given a
contract. What is going on is wrong and it should not take place.
Commissioner Holmes said the manager has not performed his job efficiently and he wants to move
forward.
There being no further discussion, the motion on the resolution passed by a 3-2 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley No
Commissioner Pigatt No
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Yes
b) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF OPA-
LOCKA, FLORIDA, APPOINTING AN ACTING CITY MANAGER DUE TO THE
DEPARTURE OF NEWALL J. DAUGHTREY AS ACTING CITY MANAGER; PROVIDING
FOR INCORPORATION OF RECITALS; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Sponsored
by Commissioner Riley
The above resolution was read by Attorney Brown.
It was moved by Commissioner Holmes, seconded by Commissioner Riley for discussion.
A motion was made to nominate Yvette Harrell as acting manager.
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It was moved by Commissioner Holmes, seconded by Mayor Taylor to appoint Yvette Harrell as acting
manager.
Vice Mayor Kelley asked why the commission would bring back Yvette Harrell.
Commissioner Holmes said he thinks she can do the job.
There being no further discussion,the motion on the nomination passed by a 3-2 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley No
Commissioner Pigatt No
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Yes
There being no discussion,the motion on the resolution passed by a 3-2 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley No
Commissioner Pigatt No
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Yes
c) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF OPA-
LOCKA, FLORIDA, DELETING NEWALL J. DAUGHTREY AS SIGNATORY AND ADDING
YVETTE HARRELL (ACTING CITY MANAGER) AND BRYAN HAMILTON (FINANCE
DIRECTOR) AS SIGNATORIES FOR ALL CITY FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ACCOUNTS;
PROVIDING FOR INCORPORATION OF RECITALS; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE
DATE.Sponsored by Commissioner Riley
The above resolution was read by Attorney Brown.
It was moved by Commissioner Holmes, seconded by Commissioner Riley for discussion.
Commissioner Pigatt asked if the terms of Ms. Harrell's employment has been discussed with her because
she already has a job.
Mayor Taylor said she wants the vote called on the signatures at this time.
There being no further discussion,the motion on the resolution passed by a 3-2 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley No
Commissioner Pigatt No
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Yes
d) A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF OPA-
LOCKA, FLORIDA, ADOPTING RESOLUTION(S) PURSUANT TO SECTION 4.5(B) OF THE
CITY OF OPA-LOCKA CODE OF ORDINANCES, DIRECTING THAT AMOUNTS
APPROPRIATED FOR CURRENT OPERATIONS FOR THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR (FY
2017-2018) BE DEEMED ADOPTED FOR THE ENSUING FISCAL YEAR (FY 2018-2019) FOR
A PERIOD OF FIFTEEN(15)DAYS,WITH ALL ITEMS PRORATED ACCORDINGLY,UNTIL
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SUCH TIME AS THE COMMISSION ADOPTS AN ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE ENSUING
FISCAL YEAR (FY 2018-2019); PROVIDING FOR INCORPORATION OF RECITALS;
PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.Sponsored by City Manager
The above resolution was read by Attorney Brown.
It was moved by Commissioner Riley, seconded by Commissioner Holmes for discussion.
City Attorney Brown said this is necessary because the state has to give final approval for the budget.
There being no further discussion, the motion on the resolution passed by a 3-2 vote.
Vice Mayor Kelley No
Commissioner Pigatt No
Commissioner Riley Yes
Commissioner Holmes Yes
Mayor Taylor Yes
7. ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business to come before the Commission, it was moved by Commissioner
Riley, seconded by Vice Mayor Kelley to adjourn the meeting at 3:14 p.m.
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MAYOR
ATTEST:
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fCITY CLERK
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