Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutSEOPW OMNI CRA 1996-01-22 SEOPW MinutesI MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE SOUTHEAST OVERTOWN/PARK WEST COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY i On the 22nd day of January, 1996, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) met at the Grand Condominium, of the Doubletree Hotel in the Key West Room, 1717 North Bayshore Drive, Miami, Florida in regular session. The meeting was called to order at 8:01 p.m. by Chairman Miller J. Dawkins with the following members of the Board found to be present: ALSO PRESENT: Chairman Miller J. Dawkins Vice Chairman Stephen P. Clark Board Member J.L. Plummer, Jr. Board Member Wifredo Gort Board Member Joe Carollo Walter J. Foeman, City Clerk Maria J. Argudin, Assistant City Clerk Herb Bailey, Executive Director Robert Friedman, Special Counsel ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. BOARD INSTRUCTS CRA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO PREPARE A REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) FOR HOUSING CONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTHEAST OVERTOWN/PARK WEST AREA (Blocks 25 and 26) -- SELECTION REVIEW COMMITTEE SHALL INCLUDE A LIMITATION OF TWO CITY EMPLOYEES -- BRING SAID ISSUE BACK FOR THE NEXT MEETING. Chairman Dawkins: All right. Now, under the Overtown, you each received the Request for Qualifications that we're going to put out to build houses on the two lots in Overtown. Board Member Plummer: Two blocks. Chairman Dawkins: Yeah, two blocks. Well, block 25 and 26. Vice Chairman Clark: Yes. P9 January 22, 1996 fit+, r Chairman Dawkins: Around the Omni. This will be presented at the Commission Meeting... What meeting, Mr. Bailey? Board Member Carollo: The 25th, on Thursday. Chairman Dawkins: This coming Thursday or at the February meeting? Mr. Herb Bailey (Executive Director): I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I didn't hear your question. Board Member Plummer: I didn't see it on the agenda. Vice Chairman Clark: When is it going to be on the agenda, Herb? Mr. Bailey: It does not go on the City Commission agenda. If we approve it tonight for issuance, we will issue this Request for Qualifications January - the end of the month - January 31st. Chairman Dawkins: OK. Then let's draw up a list, Mr. Bailey, of the expertise necessary to evaluate these quotations when they come in, and give the list to each Commissioner so that each Commissioner can put one person on the reviewing committee, and staff will select two. I don't want any staff member on there. j Mr. Bailey: We will bring this back to you at the next meeting. Chairman Dawkins: OK. All right. Thank you. Anything else? Vice Chairman Clark: Do you need a motion on that? Board Member Plummer: Yeah, let me ask... Chairman Dawkins: Hold it. The Mayor wants to say something. Vice Chairman Clark: The only suggestion I have, after - what do you call it? - Desert Oaks, down South? Board Member Plummer: Yeah. No. Royal Oaks. Vice Chairman Clark: Royal Oaks. Mr. Bailey: Saint Hugh Oaks in the Grove. Vice Chairman Clark: It's a desert now. Board Member Plummer: Yeah. Vice Chairman Clark: We got to get this at a decent price where people can go in there and... You know, these ideas... I'm a contractor, and I know what it costs to build it. Sometimes these people inflate their prices so bad, it puts you right out of the market. 30 January 22, 1996 Chairman Dawkins: Now, before we adjourn, I'm going to say to all of you... I've said to Mr. Joseph, and I'm going to say to you, you are going to have to meet every week or every other week, in order to get people to understand that you are concerned, and you are angry, and you are sincere, because when we come out here and we can... Just like I can go before the County and tell the County that you are upset, as I am, it means something, more so than when I go there just as Miller Dawkins, and they think I'm only kidding. But I am willing to come out here any time you want to discuss building some afford... And I want to explain to all of you what to me it is. Affordable housing, to me, is not low-income housing. Board Member Plummer: No. Hell, no. Chairman Dawkins: OK? Affordable housing, to me, is what that area will afford. If you decided to put some condominiums on this bayfront property here, and the median sale here is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), to me, affordable is a hundred and fifty thousand �$150 0,6000). I can't expect you to go along with me, to come in and put a fifty thousand dollar $500) house - fifty-nine thousand dollar ($59,000) house in there, when everything in here is going for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000). So we need to sit down and figure out how we're going to get affordable housing in this area, so that other people will move into this area, and the tax base will go up without all these other things that we're wishing for. Any other member got something to say? -------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSION(S): (A) ACKNOWLEDGMENT BY BOARD MEMBER PLUMMER REGARDING "CHINA CITY PROJECT" AS BEING WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CRA REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT. (B) CHAIRMAN DAWKINS AND BOARD MEMBER PLUMMER EXPRESS CONCERN OVER ATTEMPTS TO RENAME PROPOSED HEALTH CENTER IN OVERTOWN AFTER FORMER STATE LEGISLATOR JEFFERSON REAVES (DECEASED), AND NOT THE LATE ANNIE MARIE ADKER. (C) DONALD BENJAMIN ADDRESSES BOARD REGARDING CONTROVERSY OVER NAMING OF HEALTH CENTER IN OVERTOWN -- URGES BOARDS ATTENTION TO OVERTOWN GENERALLY, IN CONNECTION WITH THE OVERTOWN REDEVELOPMENT ACTION PLAN -- BOARD INSTRUCTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO BRING OVERTOWN REDEVELOPMENT ACTION PLAN BEFORE THE CITY COMMISSION. Board Member Plummer: Yeah. I have two questions. Chairman Dawkins: Yes, sir, J.L. Board Member Plummer: The first one, is the China City Project within our CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency)? Chairman Dawkins: Yes. Board Member Gort: No. 31 January 22, 1996 Chairman Dawkins: The Omni, it's in the Omni. Board Member Plummer: It is not? Mr. Fred Joseph: It's in the Omni, but it's one block over. Board Member Plummer: OK. I'll address it at the other meeting, then. Mr. Bailey: That's on 17th, isn't it? Board Member Carollo: What's happening with that? Mr. Joseph: OK. Board Member Plummer: Because I want to tell you, I drove by that the other night, and it is... Mr. Joseph: It's a shame, yeah. Board Member Plummer: It's getting worse every day. Mr. Joseph: It's worse. Worse every day. Board Member Plummer: OK. Mr. Joseph: But prior to adjourning... Board Member Plummer: Wait, wait a minute. I got another point. Mr. Joseph: Oh, I'm sorry. Board Member Carollo: Is he still around? Have they abandoned it? Board Member Plummer: The second point. I don't know if we, as the CRA, could have any input or not. But it is in the Overtown, and it just disturbs me to no end that certain people have circumvented what this City Commission tried to accomplish in naming that health center after Annie Adker. Now, I don't know how they could do that. In their benevolence, according to the article that I read, if I read it correctly, they're going to put a room or a wing of that facility in her name. There is no one to my knowledge - Ben, am I right? - no one who, in fact, had more to do with creating that facility. It was our understanding it would be the Annie Adker. And now, to find that some... According to the paper, the article - which I really don't put credence in the paper - but they had an internal struggle among a so-called board, who I don't know who was appointed by. And I just want it known that I register my very, very strong concern that that lady's name is not being signified on that structure the way it should be. So... Chairman Dawkins: OK. So at the next meeting, Commission meeting, would you make a motion so that I can second it, that we do that at the regular Commission meeting? Would you bring that up as a pocket? Board Member Plummer: That will be fine. I just didn't know whether it was under the CRA's purview or not. Mr. Bailey: It's not. Chairman Dawkins: We'll do it both places. 32 January 22, 1996 'u Vice Chairman Clark: Absolutely. Board Member Plummer: OK. Board Member Gort: Do we make a motion here? Vice Chairman Clark: Mr. Benjamin wants to speak. Chairman Dawkins: OK. What else, Mr. Benjamin? Mr. Donald Benjamin: Well, two things, Mr. Chairman and members of the CRA. If I am allowed, I'd like to add a little to what Commissioner Plummer... Chairman Dawkins: Mm-hmm. Mr. Benjamin: It is true that Anne Marie Adker was the pioneer in trying to get health services for Overtown. However, with all the problems and so on, the idea was that we should start on a small scale while the State proposed a much larger facility. And at that time, Representative Jefferson Reaves was the mover in this. Chairman Dawkins: No, he was not. Mr. Benjamin: Well, that's... Chairman Dawkins: Moss and Miller Dawkins were the movers in getting that place there. And I... Mr. Benjamin: All right. Let me change my language. Chairman Dawkins: OK, then. Change your language. Change your language.. Mr. Benjamin: Let me change my language, because... Chairman Dawkins: You see, every time I run, I don't get credit for doing nothing. Board Member Plummer: Stay clean. Mr. Benjamin: Let me change my language. You know, I'm the last to say things against you, Commissioner. But he presented himself as being the leader in the effort to... Chairman Dawkins: OK. No problem. Board Member Carollo: You got out of that one quick, didn't you? Chairman Dawkins: Go right ahead, Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin: I'm learning from you, man. Chairman Dawkins: Go right ahead, Mr. Benjamin. 33 January 22, 1996 Mr. Benjamin: But anyway, it was so presented to the community that Representative Reaves was leading this facility. Anyway, the State finally financed the two projects - the one in Little Havana and the one here - and the one in Overtown is named the Jefferson Reaves, Sr., Health Center, or something or other. And a board was set up to plan that and so on. And then there was some confusion, as usual, with respect to, can you have two health centers in the same "catchman" area? There were some problems there. Anyway, the whole idea now is that hopefully, they'll all get together, and there will be some joint arrangement, and how they accommodate Ann Marie Adker is another matter. Chairman Dawkins: We will accommodate it, even if we have to put an infant care unit. We don't care what we call it, but Ann Marie Adker's name will get there and be recognized. Mr. Benjamin: I agree with you, sir. More importantly, for my purpose here tonight, Mr. Chairman, I want to raise again the business of Overtown, the rest of Overtown. We have... Chairman Dawkins: Not Overtown/Park West. The rest of Overtown. Chairman Dawkins: Go right ahead. Mr. Benjamin: We have raised this over and over, and time and time again. And as I said, the City Commission, about three years ago, gave the Overtown Advisory Board a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to develop a plan, a development plan for the rest of Overtown. There are ....some difficulties, of course. At that time, we were talking about having the rest of Overtown also identified as a Tax Increment Financing District. We have moved away from that, and we want to work with everybody. So we're not pressing that. But this plan has been there. We have tried to present it to the City Commission. The City Manager has sort of not allowed it to happen, and presented other things. We need for somebody to take a serious look at what we call the Overtown Community Redevelopment Action Plan and Program. It's very comprehensive. There are all kinds of financing mechanisms. Some may be realistic, some not. But we need for some attention to be given to the rest of Overtown. Vice Chairman Clark: Suggestion. Mr. Benjamin: And I would like for this CRA to take some time and put it on the agenda, and address it. Vice Chairman Clark: Give it to Herb Bailey? Board Member Gort: Yeah. Vice Chairman Clark: Herb? Mr. Herb Bailey: Yes. Vice Chairman Clark: Can't you present this before the Commission and represent the CRA? Mr. Bailey: Yes. I can bring it before the City Commission to discuss possibilities of how we can implement it. Chairman Dawkins: But funding... Vice Chairman Clark: Mr. Benjamin, you got the answer right there. Mr. Benjamin: Funding. We have analyzed it, so we can bring it. We know everything in there and... 34 January 22, 1996 'ii Chairman Dawkins: We know everything. We know it. We'll bring it back. We'll bring it before the Commission. Mr. Bailey: For action, sir. Vice Chairman Clark: Yes, sir. Chairman Dawkins: We will bring it before the Commission and find - action on how to find the money to get it done. Mr. Bailey: Thank you, my lords. Chairman Dawkins: OK. I keep telling you over and over we need money. Board Member Plummer: You can't trust these Episcopals. Chairman Dawkins: OK. All right. Board Member Carollo: He said "my lords." And for the Lord to take me out of here. Chairman Dawkins: Yes, sir. Mr. Fred Joseph: I want to tell you, thank you very much for coming here. I want to take this opportunity to introduce to the constituents in this area Commissioner Carollo. It's his first time on the chair. (APPLAUSE) Mr. Joseph: And also, all the refreshments outside have been supplied by the Grand Condominium Association and the Doubletree Hotel, so I hope everybody enjoys them. Vice Chairman Clark: Thank you. Chairman Dawkins: And thank you for having us. Board Member Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Joseph. Board Member Gort: Thank you. 35 January 22, 1996 (APPLAUSE) THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THE BOARD, THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:15 P.M. Miller J. Dawkins Chairman ATTEST: Walter Foeman CITY CLERK Maria Josephine Argudin ASSISTANT CITY CLERK (SEAL) 36 January 22, 1996