Spring Break lockdown cost the county $1 million
In what has been described as a slap in the face by many municipal police departments, Miami-Dade County Commissioners on Tuesday could significantly revise their mutual aid agreements with municipal police departments to hold the county free of any responsibility when providing aid — though not the smaller agencies when its vice versa — and to charge municipalities for any long-term assistance that ends up costing the county, well, more than the usual.
And they might rush it through, even though the county police department will soon fall under the purview of a new elected sheriff.
This has nothing to do with the chaos at the Copa America final Sunday at the Hard Rock stadium. This agreement was drafted before that. But it is the result of the Spring Break chaos in Miami Beach, which apparently cost the county about $1 million on security measures, said Commission Chairman Oliver Gilbert, who is sponsoring the change.
There were not too many details Monday evening during or after a zoom meeting between Chairman Gilbert and the chiefs of more than a dozen municipal police departments, including West Miami Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Delgado, president of the Miami-Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police.
“It is the opinion of the Association that the proposed agreement is untenable, as it is grossly burdensome to the municipalities and disproportionately balanced in favor of Miami Dade County,” Delgado wrote in a letter to sent to the mayor on Friday.
“For example, under the present operative agreement, the Agencies bear the costs for, and liabilities of, their own employees. Under the proposed Agreement, the personnel costs for the assisting agency are imposed upon the police department needing assistance. The smaller municipal agencies lack the resources of Miami-Dade County and its police department and therefore rely upon the County more heavily and frequently than Miami-Dade relies upon the smaller municipalities,” Delgado wrote.
“The Agreement is sought to be approved quickly, cancelling the present operative agreement and imposing costs the municipalities have not planned nor budgeted for. Responsibility for one’s own costs is reasonable. Responsibility for the burden of another’s expenses is not.”
Also, he said, the indemnification clause in the new agreement “is grossly inequitable,” Delgado wrote.
“To require the municipalities to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend the county from any and all liability and damages arising from actions taken under this Agreement when the municipalities need the County’s help, yet hold each party responsible for the actions of their own employees when the County needs the cities’ help, unnecessarily imposes a disparate amount of liability and expense upon the municipality and its insurers – obligations the municipal insurers have not – and likely would not – agree to.
“To be more succinct: this indemnification clause is punitive.
Delgado said the new agreement might also violate state law that prohibits one agency from holding another responsible. Furthermore, the change was made without consulting any municipality, he said.
“Miami-Dade County’s municipal police departments share a unique camaraderie and sense of teamwork that is the envy of other jurisdictions. Our cities are too numerous and too intertwined, and our residents and visitors are too transient, for our Agencies not to work together,” Delgado wrote in Friday’s letter. “Agreements such as this weaken the fabric of our law enforcement community, and thus our effectiveness, at a time we can least afford it.
“What is most puzzling are the unanswered questions as to why: Why this? Why now? Why so fast? Why these terms? Why has there been no discussion with us? Why the lack of courtesy of a ‘heads up’ so our governing bodies can plan accordingly?”
On the zoom call, many police chiefs were quiet. But those who spoke almost begged Gilbert to at least delay the new agreement.
“Some of the trepidation you’re seeing is, as chiefs, we may be dealing with this with an entirely different entity in a year,” said Coral Gables Chief Ed Hudak, who was particularly worried about the indemnification clause and also the aid received in possible future demonstrations. Apple recently moved its offices to the Gables. So did FIFA.
“If I have protests coming up… I’m going to have to approach our city administration and tell them we may have costs,” Hudak said. “We need some time to digest this.”
Doral Chief Edwin Lopez gave the Donald Trump rally in his city just recently as an example. There were 80 Doral officers and 50 to 60 Miami-Dade officers. Small municipalities just cannot handle large events like those alone.
Chief Raleigh Flowers said there were “so many moving parts” to the agreement that the change should be continued until they “sit down with the new sheriff and iron things out.”
Miami Shores Capt. Christine Herbert also asked Gilbert to defer it.
“We have a budget workshop tonight. Our budget is pretty much set,” Herbert said. “For us, it’s very late in the game and had zero notice.”
Gilbert was unmoved. At times, he seemed bored with the chiefs’ arguments. He said protests would still be covered, for free, and that most of the concerns the chiefs had were not “implicated” in the new agreement.
“You don’t have to sign he mutual aid agreement. It still has to go to your board,” he said. “It’s not unfair. It’s just a departure of what we’ve done previously.”
He said the county was looking to save dollars anywhere during this budget process.
“It’s a tight budget. I’m not just doing this for the fun of it,” Gilbert said, adding that precisely because it was budget time, it’s the right time to do this. It could affect the budget in Miami Beach, for example.
“They’re the case that actually brought to light how much we are spending on this,” Gilbert said. “If you lock down a city for a week and it costs us $1 million, we can’t do that over and over again.”
He said that whenever the sheriff comes on board, she or he or they are a “child of the general fund,” and would also be subject to such costs. “I need to be able to stop the hemorrhaging,” Gilbert said.
Only one of the candidates for sheriff was on the zoom call. Former MDPD Maj. Ignacio “Iggy” Alvarez, who is now an attorney and reads agreements differently, told Ladra that the agreement was lopsided.
And potentially dangerous.
“The one way indemnity clause is nothing more than a transfer of liability to the smaller municipalities, which will cause the costs for service on soliciting to dramatically increase for them,” Alvarez said. “This change will cause the city not to be able to afford a request of assistance from MDPD and not afford when needing to ask for assistance if a situation occurs within their jurisdiction.
“I do not see any municipality agreeing to this. In a major event or emergency situation this will only lead to less police officers available to handle the event or crisis, and hurts the safety of citizens.”
Delgado said the association is not entirely opposed to the new agreement, just certain terms within. He is likely to ask for a deferral of the item on Tuesday. Gilbert said there would be some changes made to the agreement and that a new version would be sent over Monday.
But early Monday evening, attorney Joe Natiello, who represents several police departments in Miami-Dade, said he had not yet gotten a revised agreement.
“I don’t know why they’re doing this. It’s never been fully explained,” Natiello told Political Cortadito.
“We’re hoping that they defer this agenda item until the police chiefs and their municipalities have the opportunity to come to the table and take part in the terms of an agreement we are to be a party of.”
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at County Hall and can be viewed online at the county website.
Miami-Dade seeks to change mutual aid agreement with municipal police forces added by Ladra on
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