Miami-Dade

Help Wanted

County may drop residency requirement for job slots

By Cynthia Archbold 

Corinne Brody

Good help — especially from highly skilled professionals who live in Miami-Dade County — is hard to find these days.

That’s what several Miami-Dade County supervisors struggling to fill professional positions in their departments told the Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday, when they urged the panel to eliminate one recruitment obstacle — a rule requiring most county workers to live here.

The 1998 Miami-Dade County law currently requires 13,488 county employees to reside in the county when they are hired or sign an agreement to move here within 15 months. About 7,595 county employees are exempt from the rule, including sworn officers in the Miami-Dade Police Department and Corrections and Rehabilitations, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel (including the dispatchers) and employees hired before the 1998 law went into effect. Miami-Dade County is one of only three in the state with such residency requirements.

“Today, in the job market we are experiencing significant difficulties in certain classifications, things like auditors, accountants, finance people, planners, some of our skilled trades,” said Interim Miami-Dade County Human Resources Director Corinne Brody.

She said it’s also almost impossible to hire enough qualified architects, engineers, information technology, land surveyors and construction supervisors to fill key positions — hence the need to recruit professionals from outside the county. And the shortage of qualified employees will get worse by 2013, according to statistics from the Florida Research and Economic Database.

“When you look at some of the forecasts in the future for Florida’s economy in general, it’s expected that some of those classifications are actually going to see a 10 percent increase in demand,” Brody said. “So it becomes a question in the future if there are new folks in the marketplace who we can attract to come to work for us.”

The talent shortage is not limited to the county; Brody said it’s a national problem caused by a shrinking qualified labor pool, retirement of baby boomers, worker mobility and “demands for work/life balance.”

Besides, the outside candidates the county does recruit can’t afford to live here.

“The economy here in Dade County, the way things are escalating, the cost of homes, the cost of everything associated with living here — a lot of our employees really cannot afford to live here anymore,” said Leon Fuller, a representative of county employees who asked the committee to repeal the residency rule. “I would support this because some of our departments where there are special positions — the fire department and some other departments — there are actually vacancies that can’t be filled simply because there is no one in Dade County who can fill these positions.”

Richard Ellis, president of the Government Supervisors Association of Florida, would also like to see the rule repealed. “I know good employees who could not come because of the cost of relocation; they’re unable to move to Miami-Dade County,” he said.

Brody reassured Commissioner Jose Pepe Diaz that repealing the residency rule “would not affect the current job pipeline and placement process going on today.” She said she would draft wording in the proposal to ensure local job applicants with the required credentials are given first consideration over outsiders.

The budget and finance committee voted unanimously to recommend repealing the residency requirement, leaving it to the Miami-Dade County Commission to decide the issue at a later date.

Ironically, the panel congratulated Brody on her plans to travel the world, leaving her position with the county for good as of Friday. The county is conducting a national search to fill the vacant human resources director position.

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Miami

The Show Must Go On

Coconut Grove Playhouse en route to recovery

By Claudio Mendonca  

The Coconut Grove Playhouse

After sitting dark for nearly a year, the Coconut Grove Playhouse is on the verge of being reopened.

The theater, located on the corner of Charles Avenue and Main Highway, lowered its curtains last year because of an estimated $4 million of debt. However, its board of directors has asked both public and private officials in the last few months for debt relief and help with renovations so it can reinaugurate the historic theater in early 2008, board members told the Coconut Grove Village Council last week.

In addition to paying off playhouse debt, the board is working to compensate former employees who are still owed outstanding severance and vacation time payments.

“Miami-Dade County has $20 million in bonds available for renovations,” said Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, one of its strongest public supporters.

The playhouse board wants to forge an agreement with partners in education to help operate the theater, enhance its programming and bring new year-round learning programs to the playhouse.

County government also created a voucher program that will allow playhouse subscribers to enjoy free theater on three South Florida stages: Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Miami’s Jerry Herman Ring Theatre and Palm Beach Dramaworks.

In the near term, the board of directors plans to launch a public planning process, which would take three to six months, to catch the attention of potential investors.

“The playhouse is committed to launch a public process to enable all of its stakeholders, the public, theater community, elected officials, creditors, historic preservationists and area merchants to help shape its future,” according to a playhouse statement.

“In our first few meetings, residents were very supportive,” said Shelly Spivack, speaking on behalf of the playhouse board.

One of the playhouse’s private supporters is the Aries Development Group LLC and its principal, Rick Kalwani. Aries has already donated $470,000 to avoid a foreclosure auction of playhouse property known as the “bicycle shop.”

Aries Development took over the parking lot adjacent to the theater after the Miami Parking Authority terminated its management lease when the playhouse shut down. The parking lot is now being managed by Paradise Parking Systems, an Aries affiliate. The lot will remain open to the public but fees are expected to be higher than when parking was managed by the public entity.

Coconut Grove Village Council member Felice Dubin said “she is very happy and pleased with the resurgence of the playhouse,” which was inaugurated in 1926 as a movie theater and began showing live performances in 1956. David Collins, another council member, said it is part of the “community soul.”

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Miami Beach

Wall of Spite

Historic preservation board members are urged to preserve history, no matter how spiteful  

By Angie Hargot

The Fontainebleau Hotel: Whoever said hoteliers were nice guys?

Designers and representatives for the Fontainebleau Hotel were sent back to the drawing board Tuesday after “insulting” Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board Chair Allan Hall.

Fontainebleau Florida Hotel, a limited liability company headed by developer Jeffrey Soffer, requested modifications to the exterior wall of the north hotel tower — fittingly called a “spite wall” — as part of a $500 million redevelopment project.

The developer first requested to demolish the north hotel tower in 2005. However, in May 2006, with the project under close scrutiny, the historic preservation board approved major project revisions that retained the north tower, allowing the construction of a new seven-story building with a ballroom and meeting rooms adjacent to the existing hotel.

Since then, Fontainebleau plans have undergone a slew of modifications, including changes to the Tropigala Theater, the historic lobby, porte-cochere and the “cheese wall,” a low-rise design feature on one side of the building with large portholes. The developer also applied for less-contentious modifications to the south building that included the approved parking garage project and some landscaping issues.

On Tuesday, architect John Nichols outlined the proposed window changes for the north tower and the possible inclusion of a glass tile mosaic, visually in-line with the neighboring Eden Roc Resort.

But Hall felt Nichols’ presentation was ill-prepared, as the board was not given renderings of the proposed changes.

“I’m confused,” Hall said, with no trace of jest. “We are being asked to vote on something that we don’t have a drawing of? I’m offended.”

The 17-story, 330-room tower was added to the Morris Lapidus-designed Fontainebleau in 1962, casting a building-sized shadow directly over the pool area of the now-competing Lapidus-designed Eden Roc next door. The side of the tower facing the newly built Eden Roc, known as the “spite wall,” had just one window — in Fontainebleau developer Ben Novak’s penthouse apartment. The shadow was reportedly intended to hinder the resort neighbor’s business.

Although the prospect of adding windows to the eccentrically “spiteful” building surfaced in recent years, it may not be structurally feasible to carve windows into the building as first thought.

On Tuesday, Hall chided Nichols for presenting the project without renderings.

“We’ve continued this item a number of times,” Hall said. “I’d like to see what we’re voting on.”

Fontainebleau attorney Carter McDowell maintained that the renderings weren’t submitted because the project’s organizers didn’t receive the staff report until the Friday before the meeting. He asked the board for suggestions on what to bring back.

Board member Norberto Rosenstein, a registered architect, saw the wall as an opportunity to do something impressive. “You’ve got a blank piece of paper here,” Rosenstein said of the building’s potential.

One board member jokingly suggested that the developers paint a mural on the controversial wall depicting the history of the “spite” issue — an idea that drew chuckles from other officials.

Board member James “Jeff” Donnelly, a long-standing member of the Miami Design Preservation League who has led and created the curriculum for walking explorations of Miami Beach architecture for almost a decade, acknowledged the wall was a part of the city’s history.

“How will people know how terrible the ‘spite wall’ was if they can’t see it?” he asked. “All of this is really a part of history in Miami Beach. The owner wanted to destroy the business of the guy to the north. We need to find a way that would be obvious to the viewer what the story was.”

William H. Cary, design director for the city’s preservation and neighborhood planning division, added that the piece of local architectural history “shows how nasty man can be to his fellow man.”

In light of the impending continuance, McDowell raised concerns about the increased costs of delay.

“We’re not holding you up,” Cary replied. “We’ve had this discussion with the Fontainebleau for four or five months. So this is not the first time you’re hearing it.”

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Bay Harbor Islands

Dock Quagmire

Clashing regulations prove problematic for homeowners rebuilding their hurricane-damaged docks

By Erik Bojnansky 

Bay Harbor Islands homeowners who lost waterfront docks to Hurricane Wilma are finding competing government regulations to be sturdier and far more unyielding than their properties.

Now, the clashing rules are forcing many people to seek variances to rebuild their boat docks.

Regulations from Miami-Dade’s Department of Environmental Resource Management forbid digging in environmentally sensitive sea grass areas commonly found in Biscayne Bay and Indian Creek Lake. That means docks must extend beyond the sea grass to place the pilings in deeper water. Yet, Bay Harbor’s current ordinance only allows docks 8 feet long, so residents must ask for variances to comply with the county rules.

“They want a dock that will do less environmental damage to the sands and silts,” said Michael Miller, a planning consultant.

Many of Bay Harbor’s homes on the West Island, though, were built in the 1940s and 1950s before the county’s environmental resource department was created, Miller said. And to rebuild the docks Wilma swept away in 2005, homeowners must conform to new environmental regulations set out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the county.

To satisfy those demands, Efrain and Terry Jove, of 9826 W. Broadview Drive, needed to build a dock 16 feet wide. John Brussel of 9405 E. Bay Harbor Drive had to get four variances to build a dock and boat lift “at least 25 feet out,” Miller said.

The Joves’ application was approved by the Bay Harbor Islands Town Council by a vote of 6-1, with Councilman Isaac Salver dissenting. But council members said the size of Brussel’s dock and boat lift was far out of scale. Mayor Peter Lynch asked Brussel if he wanted to redesign the dock to get it “closer to the box” — i.e. closer to town code.

“Yes,” Brussel answered.

“That’s a wise decision,” Lynch said.

Lynch, though, felt the town should create a new ordinance so homeowners wishing to rebuild their docks wouldn’t have to ask for town variances.

“I’m sure we can put together something,” Town Attorney Frank Simone said.

But Salver said the town should first talk with the county’s environmental resource management department, commonly referred to as DERM. “Rather than create an ordinance to complicate [matters] … we need to take a step back … and meet with DERM.”

Lynch was doubtful that the department would budge, however. Although the agency examines applicants’ waterfront properties to determine precise requirements, it does not provide specific standards on how the docks should be built. “DERM is not telling you how to build this type or that type of dock,” Lynch said.

Besides drafting an ordinance, Lynch said town officials would reach out to the county department for guidance. He also said its officials were “stubborn” and unlikely to compromise on their site-specific approvals. It took three and a half years to get the permits to rebuild Haulover Marina, he said. “There are so many requirements.”

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Surfside

Save the Sea Grass!

Town commission supports protecting waterways, but differs on how to name things

By William Alton

The Surfside Town Commission unanimously passed a marine structure ordinance Tuesday that will help protect sea grass in Biscayne Bay against further damage.

The ordinance permits the extension of boat docks from 20 feet to 35 feet into the bay, to bypass undamaged sea grass.

“We have sea grass that goes out beyond 20 feet [from shore],” Town Manager W.D. Higginbotham Jr. said. “The environmental concern is that when the dock only goes out 20 feet for a boat, it’s going to damage the underlying sea grass. So it’s important that we protect it.”

Sea grass, sometimes referred to as “ecosystem engineers,” is in global decline due in large part to human development. It is an important source of oxygen, helps prevent coastal erosion, provides a habitat for marine wildlife and exists as a vital link in the food chain.

The Web site of the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management explains that “the disruption of the natural bay bottom has destroyed the sea grass habitat that supported hundreds of fish and invertebrate species.”

Sea grass is especially important to Biscayne Bay’s ecology because it helps stabilize sediments, keeping the water clearer than it otherwise might be. Sea grass also provides food and hiding places for the countless marine creatures that attract tourists.

The projection of boating docks, piers and mooring piles will be limited to 35 feet from shore in Biscayne Bay, 10 feet in Indian Creek and 15 feet in Point Lake. In the event of a narrow waterway, the ordinance stipulates that no dock or pier can project more than 10 percent of the width of that waterway.

Specified in the amendment, these figures were subject to the approval of the county department and the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Town Planner Sarah Sinatra said the dimensions specified in the ordinance will prevent further harm to the sea grass by keeping boats at a distance, while also maintaining boater safety. She said the specifications will work to protect boaters from colliding with protruding docks.

Despite agreeing on the marine structure regulations, the Town Commission struggled to come up with a uniform way to name public facilities.

Commissioner Mark Blumstein complained there was a lack of guidelines on how the town goes about naming streets, parks or facilities. So he proposed an ordinance on “naming, renaming and co-designation of town facilities, roads or property.”

Blumstein’s ordinance stemmed from the previous government’s renaming of 96th Street Park to Paul Novack Park. Novack was mayor of Surfside for 12 years prior to his retirement in 2004. A Town Commission consisting of Novack’s allies, headed by Mayor Tim Will, renamed the park after Novack later that year.

However, a new commission headed by Mayor Charles Burkett, took power in 2006 — one that was critical of Novack’s policies. In July 2006, they stripped Novack’s name from the park.

Imberman’s colleagues agreed that a uniform procedure is needed for naming streets and facilities, but they did not agree on one method. There was much deliberation whether the honor should be posthumous or for the living, voted as referendum by the public or separately by the commission. Mayor Charles Burkett then suggested that commissioners refer any proposals on how to rename public property or facilities to Town Attorney Lynn M. Dannheiser, who will condense them for the next town meeting Nov. 6.

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Aventura

If You Build it, the County Will Pay

City approves library-performing arts center deal

By Randy Abraham

The Aventura City Commission approved an interlocal agreement with Miami-Dade County on Oct. 2 to reconstruct the county’s Northeast Library branch at 2930 Aventura Blvd.

The city agreed to draw up plans for the county library, which was slated for renovation when Hurricane Wilma severely damaged it in 2005, that integrate a multipurpose building that can also serve as a performing arts space. It will fund the performing arts center project with the $4.7 million proceeds of a county bond.

The county, which will have final design approval, will pay for the construction, maintenance and operation of the library.

Mayor Susan Gottlieb said she was pleased at the agreement, which comes more than a year after the city, impatient with the pace of the library’s reconstruction, requested to take control of the project. In January, the city selected the firm of P.G.A.L., in association with William Rawn Associates, to draw up the plans. The old library building should be demolished within two months; the new building will take about two years to plan and construct.

“We’re ready to go forward,” said Gottlieb.

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Concurrency Time

Aventura officials to examine educational infrastructure 

By Randy Abraham

Aventura city planners will soon consider the impact of new construction on local schools’ capacity to accommodate additional students, as state law requires them to do.

City commissioners agreed Oct. 2 to amend the city’s new growth management regulations with a section addressing the “education element” of its infrastructure.

A 2005 amendment to Florida’s growth management legislation directed local governments to enact concurrency management ordinances. As defined by the state, concurrency is “a growth management concept intended to ensure that the necessary public facilities and services are available concurrent with the impacts of development.” Joanne Carr, the city’s planning director, said Aventura is prepared. The city inked an interlocal agreement with the Miami-Dade School Board and, in 2005, issued an evaluation and appraisal report with policy updates to the comprehensive plan. “The state wants to make sure inter-governmental cooperation is happening with the school board. We’re doing everything the Legislature envisions,” said Carr.

As part of the agreement with the public school district, as of Jan. 1 all nonvested and nonexempt proposals for residential subdivisions will need to obtain school concurrency review. The concurrency review will replace the school board’s policy of voluntary mitigation, Carr wrote in a memo to elected officials, and is intended to determine if there is sufficient capacity at nearby affected schools.

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