David Dermer

When Miami city commissioners meet as the Community Redevelopment Agency, they normally give lip service to eliminating blight in Omni, Park West and Overtown.

In Monday’s meeting at the Ice Palace Film Studios, though, they also talked about senseless death.

Commissioner Tomas Regalado remembered Fire Department Captain Robert Garcia and pointed a finger at the thing he believed killed him — a Flagami intersection.

Regalado said a traffic circle was supposed to be created at Southwest 16th Street and 24th Avenue, and sent a memo asking City Manager Pete Hernandez to analyze the dangerous site.

“The tragedy could have been prevented,” Regalado said, adding that a house near that intersection “has been practically destroyed” after repeatedly being hit by cars.

Soon after, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones spoke of a 16-year-old boy who was shot to death that day at Northwest Third Avenue and 11th Street in Overtown when walking home from school.

“It is very difficult to support things on the east side of the tracks when people are just trying to survive in Overtown,” Spence-Jones said.

Why bother redeveloping Overtown if the police department can’t provide proper security, she asked. It’s hard to argue with that logic. After all, 12 people have been murdered in Overtown so far this year.

“I have to go to see the boy’s parents because they can’t see their son anymore,” she said.

However, Murmurs discovered that the teenager Spence-Jones spent so much time mourning actually was a 33-year-old man. According to the Miami Police Department, James Edward Shaw was shot several times by 32-year-old Seon Thimon Carter. Carter and 27-year-old Quineata Luvtay Sherrod — Shaw’s ex-girlfriend and Carter’s current girlfriend, who allegedly drove Carter to and from the scene to “confront” Shaw — were subsequently arrested for first-degree murder.

“She was given mistaken information since everything was fluid during the event and the info stream,” Koteles Alexander, Spence-Jones’s aide, said in an e-mail.

As it turns out, crime in the CRA district is so bad that Eugene Rodriguez, owner of Big Time Productions, which owns the Ice Palace, and several other club owners want to hire Verasys Consulting, a security firm co-managed by former Miami Beach Police Chief Donald DeLucca to provide security for Omni’s nightlife district and Overtown. They said criminals routinely slash tires and invade their buildings to steal light fixtures, electronic wirings and copper.

Gerald Muhammed and Lyle Muhammed, two local members of the Nation of Islam who are also affiliated with the Peacemakers, proposed partnering with Varasys Consulting and hiring local residents to police the area. “It sounds to me like everyone is in the desert looking for water when there is a waterfall right in their midst,” Lyle Muhammed said.

Commissioners tabled the discussion until the Nov. 8 commission meeting.

Happy Trails, and Watch Out

Outgoing Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer won’t talk about his plans after he leaves office later this month, but he did issue an ominous warning: Beware of special interests looking to plunder your city.

“My hope is that future office holders will have the political will to rebuff a confederation of special interests coiled and lurking ready to strike and plunder the city’s treasury by tightening the noose of debt around the neck of every taxpayer in our city,” Dermer said at his Oct. 25 farewell address at Miami Beach City Hall. “My hope is that the good times we have been blessed with do not lull our citizenry to sleep, only to awaken after the fiscal well-being of our city has been constricted and compromised.”

It was impossible to listen to the speech without feeling that Dermer was referring to the failed $95 million bond that mayoral hopeful, Commissioner Simon Cruz, proposed in September to purchase the Miami Heart Institute from Mount Sinai Medical Center and turn it into a park without first researching the issue. Incumbent Commissioner Michael Gongora and Commissioners Richard Steinberg and Jerry Libbin voted with Cruz on first reading. After Dermer fought the bond issue and word spread that it would likely cost taxpayers around $180 million over 30 years, the bond was pulled off the ballot.

“This speech was a warning to residents that the clock of reform and fiscal responsibility could rapidly be rolled back,” activist Frank Del Vecchio said.

Within hours of the farewell address, Dermer’s office publicly endorsed Cruz’s opponent, Commissioner Matti Bower, for mayor.

“Matti is my choice to be the next mayor of Miami Beach,” said Dermer. “Matti’s 30-year record of public service is unmatched and her commitment to placing the needs of residents first is clear. I’m confident that she will continue fighting special interests and ensure good government for the people of Miami Beach.”

The next day, he endorsed Gongora’s commission opponent, Ed Tobin.

“Ed Tobin is a lifelong resident of Miami Beach and has a strong history of community service here,” said Dermer. “I’m confident that he will continue the good government reforms that have been established in the city of Miami Beach over the past decade.”

Dermer repeated his messages during an Oct. 30 speech at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club at David’s Café.

“I’ve chosen to just focus on the next election and our new alcaldesa [Spanish for female mayor] Matti Bower,” he said.

Then Dermer invoked the words of former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia: “To be honest in politics you have to be able to say ‘no’ to your friends.”

Driving Politics

Nothing is off limits in this year’s contentious Miami Beach election; not even driving records.

On Monday, political consultant Irene Secada e-mailed to the SunPost incumbent Commissioner Michael Gongora’s official state of Florida driving record. Among a litany of speeding tickets that would make proud the producers of The Fast and the Furious, is a conviction for driving under the influence.

“I had a DUI conviction in 1994 when I was a student,” said Gongora, 37. “It’s not something I’m proud of.”

The incident occurred June 28, 1994, in Hillsborough County. There was an accident with property damage, and the young Gongora’s license was suspended for 180 days.

Closer to home, Gongora was charged with reckless driving in Miami-Dade County on Christmas Eve 2002. He was later convicted and received four points against his license.

“If he didn’t have friends and attorneys helping him, I guess he would have no driver’s license by now,” Secada said.

Ed Tobin, a political newcomer running against Gongora on what he sees as Gongora’s lack of ethics, said the driving record brings into question Gongora’s character.

“If he’s reckless behind the wheel, what else is he reckless with?” Tobin said.

Gongora countered that using his driving record against him is a cheap shot.

“It’s a desperate 11th-hour attack by my opponent who has no experience or ideas for the city or positive things to say about himself,” Gongora said. “So he’s chosen to attack me with antiquated childhood issues.”

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