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Hallandale
Beach
Breaking the Law?
City commissioner accuses his colleagues of illegally
holding two offices
By Nicole Alibayof
A Hallandale
Beach city commissioner accused the mayor and one of his
colleagues of breaking the law.
Commissioner Keith London raised the question last week about
whether or not Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioner Dorothy
Ross can be charged with holding two offices. Cooper and
Ross sit on the city commission and the pension board of
the city’s police and fire departments.
City Attorney Dave Jove said technically it is not illegal, though
holding two offices can be perceived as a conflict of
interest. The commission will discuss whether an amended
ordinance or a special election is needed to rectify any
problems at its Jan. 22 meeting.
“Certainly I don’t believe there’s any credibility on concerns that
were raised, but I am willing to sit down and talk about
the issues that were brought up,” Cooper said during the
Jan. 9 commission meeting.
“No shame or any bad name has ever been associated with me,” Ross
said. “If they ask me to step down, fine, but no one
knows more about the pension plan than me.”
The pension board consists of five members, two of whom must be
residents of
Hallandale
Beach appointed by the commission, according to the
Hallandale Beach City Charter. Currently Cooper and Ross
sit as those
Hallandale
Beach residents.
However, another section of the city charter forbids the mayor and
commissioners from holding any other position, city
employment or elected public office during their terms.
Three-year contracts between the city and the police and fire
unions have to come before both the commission and the
pension board, giving Cooper and Ross greater leverage
to negotiate them. “If that doesn’t reflect two bites
out of one apple I don’t know what does,”
London said.
The commission wants to amend that ordinance by changing the
terminology to refer to elected officials serving on the
pension board as ex-officio voting members. By changing
the terminology, elected officials will be allowed to
serve on both the pension board and the commission, City
Attorney Jove said.
Jim Bunce, union president for
Hallandale firefighters, didn’t think the language
change would be enough. “An ordinance cannot supersede
the charter,” he said. “The charter is clear and there
are prohibitions; they should amend the charter and do
it right if they want it to be legal.”
Bunce worked as a firefighter in
Davie for 27 years. He said the same issue was addressed
in Davie and the commissioners were removed from elected
office. His argument worried some commissioners who felt
that the charter might have to be amended by referendum.
Cooper, though, said it would take months to create a code to
address the problem.
“My primary goal and objective is to make the pension plan
successful,” she said. “I don’t think you could get more
experience or more efficiency than with a commissioner.”
A representative for the police union disagreed. “We are not in
favor of commissioners on pension boards,” said Michael
Braverman, attorney and spokesman for the Police
Benevolent Association. “As the certified collective
bargaining agent, it’s problematic to go to the same
place twice; manipulation by government skews the
process.”
Vice Mayor Bill Julian and Commissioner Francine Schiller
proposed discussing the pension board in greater detail
on Jan. 22.
“Let’s see how it plays out,” Jove said. |
