Pensions, homeless, Bayfront Park on agenda for Miami City Commission

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This meeting has been cancelled due to weather. The agenda moves to a special meeting Tuesday.

At first blush, it may seem like Thursday’s Miami City Commission meeting is a sleeper, especially compared to recent meetings. Nothing on LED billboards. Nothing on redistricting.

But a closer look at the agenda reveals a bunch of items that have the potential to blow up.

This includes a discussion item from Commissioner Joe Carollo about the “lack of protection of residential properties from commercial and business intrusion.” This sounds like code for griping more about Ball and Chain and los muchachos, the two Little Havana businessmen who sued Carollo for violating their First Amendment rights, winning a $63.5 million jury award against him.

Expect that to be, um, spirited.

Commissioner Damian Pardo has sponsored a very timely ordinance to provide for the re-certification of existing drainage systems and stands for development in special flood hazard areas and non special flood hazard areas, as “newly defined.” The ordinance provides for existing drainage to be inspected within 24 months of adoption.

Um, too late!

There will likely be a ton of residents there to share stories about their wet experiences over the past couple of days. The clips on the OnlyInDade Instagram handle are impressive. And depressing. James Torres, a former commission candidate and president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, has also been posting photos and criticism of the city’s lack of proaction.

“Miami’s got more ‘Waterfront Property’ than we bargained for! When we said we wanted to live in a ‘pool view’ condo, this ain’t what we meant,” Torres posted Wednesday.

There’s also an ordinance from Commissioner Manolo Reyes that would prohibit homeless encampments on public property. This will allow the police to arrest the homeless if they don’t move or accept assistance. It’s supposedly working for the city of Miami Beach. So well, in fact, that their homeless individuals are crossing the Causeway to the mainland.

Read related: Homeless advocates protest city of Miami’s treatment of the unsheltered

The city’s war on the homeless has always been a contentious point — one time, Carollo suggested residents let the homeless move in with them — and Ladra expects this to get heated, also. But Reyes likely has the votes, with Carollo and Commissioner Miguel Gabela, at least, supporting this.

Gabela also has a bunch of interesting discussion items that would each make for a great story:

• The $57 million in 1/2 penny sales tax funds that Miami-Dade is withholding from the city,
• Suspension of city payments of legal fees for former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla,
• And the removal of Carollo as the chair of the Bayfront Park Trust.

But he keeps deferring the his best (read: boldest) moves. The legal fees for ADLP item has been deferred or continued four times. So there’s no guarantee that any of them will really be discussed.

The big item on the agenda is the reinstatement of a pension for elected officials, which is sponsored by Gabela and Commission Chairwoman Christine King. It would return pensions, which were stripped from electeds in 2009 during the financial crisis. Anyone elected after that does not have a pension.

That doesn’t mean that formers don’t still get payments. The Miami Herald reported in 2022 that former Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones gets $127,210.66 a year, the highest of any. Former Commissioner Wifredo “Willy” Gort, who left office in 2019, gets $101,856.84 and former Mayor Tomás Regalado gets $84,551.88 a year, according to the newspaper.

Carollo, who served as commissioner and mayor before 2009, is eligible to receive a projected $8,391.69 monthly pension once he leaves office. That might help him pay his $63.5 million judgement.

Commissioners have tried at least twice before to revive the pension for electeds, but community opposition has shut it down. Recently, the city of Doral was sued by the former mayor, current Miami-Dade Commissioner JC Bermudez, and two council members after the city council rescinded the pension passed by ordinance in 2021 that provided those who served 12 or more years on the council with a pension equivalent to 100% of the average of their last three years of compensation.

The ordinance proposed on first reading would make anyone elected after October 1, 2023 eligible for retirement benefits, and it sounds like a Ponzi scheme:

“Elected officers who were first elected to office on or after October 22, 2009, who are in office on or after October 1, 2023, and who serve as an elected officer for a period of seven (7) or more years shall, upon making an irrevocable election to participate in the Elected Officers Retirement Trust, be entitled upon separation from employment and reaching age 55 with ten (10) or more years of service or age 60, to a sum equal to one-half of their Compensation for the highest of the last three (3) years of service and a single sum death benefit fully vested at date of death.

“Upon vesting and each year of service as an elected officer thereafter, the retirement allowance shall increase by five percent (5%) for each year of service to a maximum of one hundred percent (100%) of the highest Compensation. Such elected officers may purchase service credit under this plan for his or her period of service as an elected officer prior to October 1, 2023 by paying ten percent (10%) of his or her Compensation, plus three percent (3%) annual interest, for each year of service purchased. The service credit purchased shall count for all purposes of vesting and benefits and elected officers who purchase such service credit shall be fully vested when their total years of service, including purchased service before October 1, 2023, equals seven (7) or more years. Elected officers who are subject to the provisions of this paragraph shall make such election to be a member of the Elected Officers Retirement Trust in order to be eligible to receive the benefit. If the elected officer elects to participate in the Elected Officers Retirement Trust, that election shall be irrevocable and thereafter, the elected officer shall participate in said Elected OfficersRetirement Trust and not in the City’s defined contribution plan for elected officers.

Elected officers who were first elected to office after October 1, 2023 and who serve as an elected officer for a period of seven (7) or more years shall be entitled, upon separation from employment and reaching age 55 with ten (10) or more years of service or age 60, to a sum equal to one-half of their Compensation for the highest of the last three (3) years of service and a single sum death benefit fully vested at date of death. Upon vesting and each year of service as an elected officer thereafter, the retirement allowance shall increase by five percent (5%) for each year of service to a maximum of one hundred percent (100%) of the highest Compensation.

It also looks like elected officials don’t have to contribute, unlike the regular stock and barrel employees who do the real work.

The city commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be viewed live on the city’s website.

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  homeless, Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, Miguel Gabela