Briefs 05-31-07

 

Miami

Giving Shelter

Commission Approves New Homeless Facility in Overtown

 

By Bonnie Schindler

According to the July 2006 Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust Census results, on any given night, a total of 1,063 people live on the streets of this county. There are an additional 849 people who are homeless living in the city of Miami, and 270 homeless people in Miami Beach.

Operators of Camillus House, an organization dedicated to helping the homeless transition to mainstream society through its 13 shelters, want to help these people, 340 individuals at a time. Last Thursday the Miami City Commission approved a variance that would allow construction of a 288,000-square-foot shelter at 1603 NW Seventh Ave.

Without the variance, Camillus House would have been limited to constructing a 73,068- square-foot facility.

“[The increase] will make it more humane,” said Paul Ahr, president of Camillus House.

The expanded shelter will enable the elimination of bunk beds and the creation of living and dining rooms as well as private kitchens.

The new design will implement street-front retail space so that the compound better blends in with the commercial corridor it will sit in, Ahr said. The new shelter will also serve as a place for transitioning homeless people to learn workplace skills.

Besides adjusting the property for the comfort and needs of its homeless tenants, the size change came in response to concerns presented by Camillus House neighbors who fear that an increase in crime could arise out of the new facility, said Ahr, pointing specifically to homeless sexual offenders.

The site will now be more like a compound, complete with high walls around it to better monitor activity, he said.

As stated in the agenda item’s documents, “The design is better suited for this site, is more responsive to any concerns that the surrounding community may have, and better follows urban planning guidelines preferred by the Planning Department, including incorporation of the ‘Eyes of the Street’ concept.”

Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, whose District 5 includes that area, said neighbors should not fear all Camillus House residents. Instead, she pointed out the handfuls of families who find themselves on the streets, not because they are drug or alcohol abusers, or mentally incompetent, but rather, they cannot afford to pay increasing rents.

“We have a serious housing crisis in the city,” she said.

Commissioner Joe Sanchez agreed that handfuls of everyday folks are on the cusp of being homeless.

“Homeless[ness] affects the quality of life,” he said. There are a lot people who are “one paycheck away from being homeless.”

There were other concerns expressed by the commission.

Commissioner Angel Gonzalez worried that the facility’s 340 beds were too few. He said those who could not get a place to sleep would instead surround the compound, hoping for a free meal or other assistance.

Commissioner Tomas Regalado refuted Gonzalez’s position.

“The fact that we have [many] homeless people in the city does not mean that if we build it, they will come,” he said. “I do not think [they] will be driving, hitching or walking [to the complex].”

Ahr promised the commission that no more than 340 people would be served at a time.

Still, Sanchez said he believes people will forever be drawn to the city of Miami, whether because of the release of inmates from the county jails, the VA Hospital, the infrastructure or the weather. He lauded Spence-Jones and Gonzalez for taking a realistic approach to addressing the homeless issue.

“Instead of saying ‘not in my backyard,’ the commissioners said ‘do it in my back yard,’” Sanchez said.

 

Bill of Health

School Official Questions ‘Vermin’ Report From Health Department

By Bonnie Schindler

Rat droppings, cockroaches and other vermin have been found residing in at least 40 Miami-Dade schools, according to analysis conducted by the Miami-Dade County Health Department.

Here are just a handful of schools cited, with notes from the Health Department as accessed on the Miami-Dade School Board Web site:

*Edison Middle School: rodent droppings found in storage and laundry rooms.

*Carol City Senior High: vermin droppings in the closet of the home economics class.

*Hialeah Senior High School: needs vermin proofing for pipes in the main electric room.

*Biscayne Gardens Elementary: rodent and roach glue traps are hazardous to children.

*John F. Kennedy Middle School: rodents and roaches in the dry food storage.

However, by the School Board’s May 16 meeting, a memo to board members stated that all institutions had been cleared of their unsatisfactory marks from the Health Department, according to Jaime Torrens, chief facilities officer.

School Board member Ana Rivas Logan questioned the legitimacy of the update, as only a month ago the schools were still chastised by the Health Department, yet by the day of the meeting all schools had a clean slate.

She presented the item to the board after a Channel 10 reporter showed her the Health Department’s findings. “I gave him my commitment that I would address this at the board meeting,” Logan told the SunPost.

Logan asked how the school’s health problems could have been “miraculously” solved. She also said her e-mail inbox and phone voicemail are consistently flooded with messages from teachers and staff who claim they still — up to the morning of the board meeting — walk into their classrooms and find evidence of vermin.

Torrens told the School Board that this has been a yearlong process and was not cleared up overnight. And since the cleanup, Torrens said, a series of steps has been established that includes having the principals of schools receiving a negative mark notify the county, making changes in accordance with Health Department recommendations and then conducting a second evaluation to erase any unsatisfactory marks.

Despite the assurance, and because of the health risks involved, Logan asked that “the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools provide the School Board [with] a detailed report of the County Health Department findings [and include] a corrective action plan that includes informing parents, by June 13, 2007.”

Logan’s proposal was denied, 6- 3.

 “I was very surprised that the item failed. [It] was simple and straightforward,” she told the SunPost. “I am very disappointed that the item died but I am not giving up; if I have to go to the Health Department myself and look up the reports, I will.”

A call to the Health Department by the SunPost revealed that the May 16 memo to the board was true in that there were no schools listed as unsatisfactory, according to Anne-Marie Alderman, who manages the inspection of facilities.

However, inspections are ongoing and the day after the meeting, a report came in front of Alderman stating that North Miami Elementary needs to vermin-proof a small gap in a food pantry door. She said that schools are not actually deemed unsatisfactory — to the point that a school would need to close its doors — until the second, or reinspection, visit.

North Miami Elementary is expected to be re-inspected on May 25.

Alderman said no schools have been closed down this year, but Edison Middle’s cafeteria was shut down, and could not prepare food for students until the Health Department deemed it sanitary.

Alderman added that as a 30-plus-year employee with the county Health Department, she never heard of an illness outbreak due to vermin or unsanitary conditions. For now, she is pleased with the process in place, where the county scans and e-mails the inspection reports to the school principals as well as to the School Board, and the problems get looked at as soon as possible.

“Things have been running pretty well with the School Board,” Alderman said. “They are understanding that we are not going to let things go.”

But, she stressed, the Health Department is not out to get the schools.

“We are not there to close them, we are there to educate,” Alderman said. Adding that because the department oversees group facilities such as schools, movie theaters, nursing homes, foster homes and day cares, the inspectors — who she said are understaffed — are busy.

“We don’t want to have to go back again,” she said. “My people have a lot to do.”

Alderman said that the Health Department and the public schools both use the same money to maintain the aging buildings.

“A lot of schools are old, and there are things that need to be attended to,” Alderman said.

Refuting ideas, mentioned at the meeting, that placed the blame on the age of many of the buildings, Logan said, “There are many old buildings in South Florida that do not have unsatisfactory health reports, [and] I do not believe that age of building has

anything to do with hygiene.”

She added, “The health and safety of our children should be our top priority.”

 

Peace Be Upon You

Institute Offers Conflict Resolution Curriculum For Students

By Bonnie Schindler

Every year there are 82 referrals to Florida’s Juvenile Justice System per 1,000 young people, according to the state’s 2004-2005 fiscal year data. Most find their way into the system by one (or a combination) of the top three juvenile offenses: misdemeanor assault or battery, and burglary.

Because juveniles are classified as people under age 18, safety, anger management and other types of behavioral modifications may be an issue for schools. During the Miami-Dade School Board May 16 meeting, members unanimously voted to “explore contracting with the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute to instruct students to resolve conflicts without using violence.”

The idea, board member Robert Ingram said, is to “stop the kids from getting criminal records.”

And the usual rhetoric does not solve issues, Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade, said.

“We need to bring cooperative spirit to the work that we do,” she said.

The peace curriculum at the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute instructs “students in nonviolent processes for conflict resolution and to develop new techniques to promote nonviolent solutions to economic, political, social, and cultural conflicts in schools,” the resolution stated. The curriculum would also strengthen the “school system through research, education and training and the provision of information services with respect to nonviolent conflict resolution techniques.”

Calvin Klein, a senior in the Miami-Dade public school system, said the Institute’s curriculum most certainly changed his life. Speaking to the board, Klein explained the shift he has made in his life since he was a youngster at Brownsville Middle.

“I was a bad student,” he said, after thanking his single mother for raising him and standing by him.

According to Klein, he got into one fight and was out of the school.

However, he was accepted into the Florida Martin Luther King Jr. Institute — which according to the Miami-Dade County Web site is governed by six principles and six steps, and is taught by 150 certified Kingian practitioners — where one of his course electives included the nonviolent curriculum.

“It really changed me,” Klein said.

He learned to fight violence with options, as the class would use role-playing to solve problems that used to cause him grief, such as if someone in the hallway ran into him and stepped on his shoes. And while he said he used to quickly respond to these run-ins with phrases he “would not say in front of his mother,” he learned to talk it out.

Violence is unavoidable, he said, but people can approach situations with different options.

“[We] can live peacefully with each other.”

 

Miami-Dade County

Assume the Position

An In-House Replacement Plans to Step in as Chief County Attorney, Then Promptly Retire, and Then Get Back to Work Again

By Angie Hargot

To a standing ovation by both the Miami-Dade County Commission and the audience, County Attorney Murray Greenberg conceded his position to the incoming Robert A. Cuevas Jr.

It wasn’t even Greenberg’s final speech.

The 61-year-old Cuevas was, like Greenberg, unanimously appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. And like his predecessor, Cuevas is also up for retirement.

Greenberg, who took the reins at the County Attorney’s Office in 2005 overseeing the legal operations of a 31,000-employee government with a $5.6 billion budget, retired after more than 35 years in the department. In 1980 he was appointed first assistant county attorney.

“I’m only a phone call away,” Greenberg said of his impending retirement at last Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. “I don’t fish so I’m not going fishing.”

“I am humbled that [Greenberg] has supported me in this endeavor,” Cuevas told the commission.

Cuevas first joined the office just a year after Greenberg, in 1970.

“Bob’s retirement situation is a little different,” Greenberg told the SunPost. Greenberg will remain in place until June 30, at which point state law requires that his retirement take effect.

Cuevas will automatically “assume the position,” as Greenberg put it, as acting county attorney through the next two commission meetings, after which he will retire.

He will be on retirement for the rest of July and through the month of August.

But as a part of the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP), Cuevas can actually get the job back after a minimum hiatus, while his retirement benefits accumulate and earn compounded interest. He is also set to collect about $8,000 a month in pension benefits while earning his salary.

State law requires government employees to retire after the age of 62 and the completion of 30 years of creditable service. So Cuevas, who has worked at the county for 37 years, will “retire” for at least one calendar month, making him eligible to come back to the county as a new hire. He then could theoretically remain in the around $270,000 a year position “as long as the commission would have me,” he said with a chuckle.

Cuevas said the biggest legal problem facing the county that he will inherit is the county budget.

“The impact of the changes in property tax, and the actions of the Legislature, which are unknown at this point, will have a major impact on the county budget,” Cuevas told the SunPost.

Cuevas credits his appointment as county attorney as assuring one major benefit echoed by the County Commission: “Continuity,” he said.

“I think it will be a great opportunity to work closely in the office with the [county] commission.”

Not surprisingly, neither Greenberg nor Cuevas see the post-retirement appointment as a possible hindrance to the future of county operations. Both cited Cuevas’ experience, and the position staying in-house as a boon to the obstacles he will face while serving.

“People on the Supreme Court are in their 80s,” Greenberg said. “Bob is a very good attorney — that’s why I appointed him first assistant attorney in the first place.”

 

Coral Gables

Jorge of the Bungle   

Ex-Building and Zoning Department Employee Pleads Guilty to Misconduct and Theft

By Ryan Brown

Jorge Reyes, an employee of the city of Coral Gables’ Building and Zoning Department for nine years, pled guilty on May 30 to charges of official misconduct and first-degree grand theft.

An investigation launched last year by Coral Gables City Manager David L. Brown uncovered a scam in which Reyes created false payroll and work records for “ghost” workers. According to the recently released, official Coral Gables press release on the matter, Reyes split the money with a group of accomplices who didn’t work for the city.

Reyes was picked up by police in September 2006 after splitting $1,200 in payroll checks with Ivan Ramos, who posed as one of Reyes’ aides on a project.

Reyes was also charged with possession of cocaine and methamphetamine, fraud and unlawful compensation. Under his deal with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Reyes will not be prosecuted for those alleged crimes, according to the Miami Herald. He could have faced 70 years in prison. Instead, Reyes will spend 60 days in jail and six years on probation.

Reyes, in accordance with Florida laws that govern the conviction of public employees charged with criminal activities, will “forfeit all rights to his accrued pension and retirement benefits from the City of Coral Gables,” according to the official press release.

How much money Reyes collected through this scam is unknown. However, the Coral Gables Public Affairs Department says the city’s Police Department and the Miami-Dade state attorney are completing a comprehensive examination of employee records and will be conducting interviews with city personnel.

Building Department Director Margaret Pass was also suspended in 2006. She retired later that year.

 

Miami Beach

Give Us A Lane, Damn It!

Collins Park Residents Voice Opinions About Proposed 23rd Street Bridge

By Gillian Boyce

Residents of Collins Park got a chance to let their feelings be known about plans to build a new bridge at 23rd Street during their most recent monthly meeting, which took place on May 15.

Fernando Vazquez, a city engineer from Miami Beach’s public works department, told residents that the bridge idea came from the county as a way to improve mobility and safety at that particular intersection.

The new bridge would improve pedestrian safety, movement safety and traffic light safety, Vazquez told residents.

“The distance between intersections must be a maximum of 220 feet and we don’t meet that requirement between Park Avenue and Dade Boulevard,” said Vazquez, who told area residents that the county initially wanted to close off Park Avenue because it did not meet the criteria of a safe pedestrian crossing.

Ray Breslin, president of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association, told Vazquez that the city did not give enough thought to the people that live in the neighborhood who own cars. The small neighborhood spans 17th to 25th streets, between Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue and Pine Tree Drive.

“This neighborhood needs to go on record — produce a lane that turns going down Park Avenue, or don’t build a bridge at all,” said Breslin, who added that changing Park Avenue to one lane will force drivers who leave the neighborhood to use Collins Avenue, which is already backed-up with traffic.

Vazquez assured attendees that the city plans to meet with residents again to address their concerns about not having public input into the project.

Corrections

Mel Reeve’s stated position in “Memorial Day Weekend” piece, published May 24, was incorrect. Reeves is an executive committee member, not the president. In the article “Hitchens Brings Atheism ‘Shtick’ to Temple,” published May 24, the photos should have been credited to Susie J. Horgan, not Suzy Horgan. SunPost regrets the error.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.