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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 1983-01-06 Minutes0 Ci Y-0 MIA.lAl ' ! f1CORI'L►►It %TE.D ld c 96 Q� Cpsip 1,,0 C.O M MISSION MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON January 6, 1983 PREPARED BY THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK CITY HALL RALPH G.. ONGIE CITY CLERK +� a � ii� 1 � � �� ' EMI ��• i� SPECIAL; 1/6/1983 QRDINANCE , &UCT MSOLUrl orv�o, PAGE 10, 1 COMMISSION DISCUSSION - OVERTOWN CIVIL DISTURBANCE DISCUSSION 1-7 2 CREATION OF BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE OVERTOWIN CIVIL DISTURBANCE. M-83-1 7-8 3 APPOINTMENTS TO BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE DISCUSSION 8 4 REVEREND RUDOLPH'S NOMINATION OF INDIVIDUALS TO BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE M-83-2 8 - 17 M-83-3 0 MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF MIAMI, FLORIDA On the 6th day of January, 1983, the City Commission of Miami, Florida, met at its regular meeting place in said City in Special Session to consider buginess of public import, namely, the formation of a Blue Ribbon Committee to investigate recent civil disturbance in the Overtown area. The meeting was called to order at 3:20 P.M. by Mayor Maurice A. Ferre with the following members of the Commission found to be present: ALSO PRESENT WERE: Commissioner Miller J. Dawkins Commissioner Demetrio Perez, Jr. Commissioner Joe Carollo Mayor Maurice A. Ferre Howard V. Gary, City Manager Jose Garcia -Pedrosa, City Attorney Ralph G. Ongie, City Clerk Matty Hirai, Assistant City Clerk An invocation was delivered by Mayor Ferre, who then led those present in a pledge of allegiance to the flag. 1. COMMISSION DISCUSSION: OVERTOWN CIVIL DISTURBANCE. Mayor Ferre: Ladies and Gentlemen, the purpose of our gathering here today is to deal with the formation of a panel, a committee - Blue Ribbon Committee so that there will be a due process in the evaluation of issues that are im- portant to all of us as Miamians. The first thing that I want to point out is that as of right now that I am aware of, there are six committees looking into the death of Nevell Johnson - or agencies and I think it is important that we go over the description of who these committees are, who these agencies are. The first one is the F.B.I. The second one is the Justice Department, Civil Rights Section. They are both looking into the possibilities of charg- ing Officer Luis Alvarez with....what? (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT NOT PLACED INTO THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Ferre:... charging. The Federal agencies, as I understand it, are inves- tigating the possibilities of charging a police officer, Luis Alvarez, with charges under Federal statutes. The third agency is the State Attorney, who is again looking at the possibility of criminal charges and investigating the occurence. The fourth group is the Internal Review Divison in the Police De- partment and reports directly to the Police Chief. They are looking into administratige procedures in the Department. The fifth group - the fifth agency, is the City Manager himself, through the Office of Professional Com- pliance and lastly, the Homicide Division of the Miami Police Department. Those are the six groups or agencies that are looking into the specific matter of the death of Nevell Johnson. Now, it is certainly not the intention of the proposal that we create any committee that would duplicate any of those speci- fic purposes. I would therefore recommend that the committee that is proposed to bc? formed deal with three issues. Number one, the specific issue of the death of Nevell Johnson in general terms. This committee has no subpoena powers and it should not even try to duplicate the work of others that are now functioning. But obviously, it is a germane subject and I think that there is no way it can be avoided as a main point of discussion. The second area, which in my opinion is much more important for this committee is the underlying areas, the many, many questions that come out of this whole discussion, and that is ld 01 JAN 61983 a 0 Should there be more Black officers on patrol in the Overtown area, or not? Should there be more sensitivity training in the Police Department? Should there be better communications with the community? Should we go to increased foot patrol? Should there be more presence of the Police Department on an on -going basis like in troubled neighborhoods in New York s+here police officers are deployed to be a part of the community, and they know individuals on a first name basis? Should there be more training? Should there be a psycho- logical swat team? We have swat teams that can deal physically with the problem; should we have a group of individuals that are able to confront a crisis situation? We seem to have that occur on several levels and I think it is very telling that when the disturbance occurred that members of the Black community almost had to be deputized to go into the community to discuss with a fourteen 'or fifteen year old Black kid. Should we have officers in the Police Department trained to deal with fourteen or fifteen year old Black kids, or trained to deal...last year we had a disturbance in the Little Havana area. There was a situation when a Catholic priest was making a speech - Catholic priests who are not Latins, and Cubans who are Latin have a tendency to raise their voice and to speak with their hands and the lieutenant who was watching all of this thought that that priest was inciting everybody to riot! So, he made a judgement. He said "Stop that priest from talking" and he took away his micro- phone and that caused more of a problem than if they had let that man have his say. That excited the crowd. Should we have more training in the Police De- partment? These are the type of questions that need to be addressed. The use of deadly force - is the use of deadly force in the City of Miami adequate, appropriate? We talk about sensitivity. We are talking about sensitizing the police officers to nuances of the Latin community or the Black community. How about sensitizing the community to the problems of police officers? How do we sensitize in the way and you are going to go up to Flint, Michigan? What hap- pens when there is a confrontation and the decision has to be made very quick- ly on the part of an officer to pull out a gun or not? ... The understanding of the risks, the tremendous pressures that go on in the Police Department. It cannot be casually cast aside that the Police Department - not of Miami - but all police departments have more divorces per capita. There are more inci- dents of alcoholism per capita. There are more suicides per capita than in any other department of government. Now, that has got to tell you something. What it tells you is that policemen are under tremendous human pressure. They live literally under the gun, so when we talk about sensitivity, it is a two- way street. There are many, many issues to be discussed. I know one of the hot issues that everybody is pressing on is a thing such as the need of a civilian review board. The afternoon newspaper has already come out editorial- ly for it. We are going to have to talk about that. We are going to have to discuss that. That is going to come out, I am sure, in the process. The third area that I think we have to talk about, that this committee would have to talk about are the non -criminal justice issues, the underlying issues that are involved. Is Gibson Park open sufficiently? Should it be used more? Do we need day care centers?...more dayy care centers? Where are we going to get the money for the day care centers?How do we deal with some of these noncrimi- nal justice issues? Are we doing as much as we should for job training? I read in Monday's business section that in Germany two out of every three unem- ployed person is being retrained to do something else. Now, we as a country are not doing that. Maybe Miami is just too small of a ... and Metropolitan Dade County is too small of a government to be doing that, but are we doing enough? Are we trying to retrain people so that they can fit into what the job oppor- tunity is going to be in 1980? Vocational training - these are issues that I think that are non -criminal justice that are going to be coming out. Lastly, may I say that I think there is a need for community input into the process. Now, let's clearly understand what this is not. We are not turning over our authority to any committee. The buck stops here! The City Miami Commission is the legislative body of this City. We set the policy. We make the laws. We must assume our rightful position in making those laws and setting those poli- cies. However, in an open democratic process, it is undeniable that we must have grassroot input. We must have input of the affected parties. We must have the input of people that are involved in the system, or that should be involved in the system and the process and that are not involved in the process. I think that it is important that we have the help and guidance of those that are affected and I think that that help and guidance should be representative of the community as a whole. I do not think that this should be just a repre- sentation of one portion of the community. I think we have to have rich and poor, Black and White, Spanish and English speaking, men and women, captains of industry and priests, rabbis. We need to have people who are affected. I would like to recommend a guideline also for who should be on the committee. 42 JAN 61983 S Now, this is a committee that comes out of the civil disturbance that has oc- curred within this past week. We are taking as the basis of the creation of this committee what we did last year when there was a civil disturbance in Little Havana. We got a prominent Miamian who was objective, highly regarded in his community, Emilio Milian, and he became the chairperson and we selected a good cross-section of the community, since that Was an incident that occurred in Little Havana, the majority of the participants in that committee were Cuban - Americans. That committee, in my opinion, took a long time, but it worked. Now, I would like to recommend the following guidelines for the selection of names. Number one, persons that live or work in the Overtown area. To me, since the disturbance occurred there, those are the most affected of the peo- ple, I think that has to be one of the first criterias - people who either live or work there. Number two, heads of recognized, established groups or organizations that have dealt with Overtown problems and I don't think it should be exclusionary in any way. I think we need to have the N.A.A.C.P. and the Urban League. We have to have representation from all of the community groups that have been dealing with this problem. Number three, I think the third criteria for naming of people should be individuals that possess a specific academic or professional expertise to a related problem. I think socialists, people experts in crowd control, people experts in criminal justice systems, individuals that are expert in these specifics of the problems that we are dealing with. Lastly, since my personal position is that it would be wrong to have elected officials on this committee - and the only exception to that I think are judges that deal with the criminal justice system. We start getting elected officials, we start getting into areas of territorial turf and competition and all that kind of thing and even though I must say that we are not going to eliminate politicians because many of the people that we are appointing are potential elected officials, or people that are political in nature, I do think we should avoid appointing people that are elected officlals, because that is just going to get us into trouble. As a matter of fact, we did that with the Milian Committee. We avoided appointing anybody who is an elected official and with that, I open it up for discussion. _ Mr. Carollo: Mr. Gary, one of the interviews that went nationwide that I found quite alarming was one that you were interviewed, along with some other indivi- duals and someone made the statement which you partly corrected that only one Black police officer was assigned to Overtown. My understanding as to the last few months when we were given the last figures, we have little over thousand sworn police officers, out of which approximately 20% are Black. Is that cor- rect? In other words, close to two hundred police officers out of our force of a little over one thousand are Black. Mr. Gary: That sounds correct, but I can get some accurate figures for you. Mr. Carollo: I think you can see they are 19% or 20%. Mr. Gary: Roughly that. The last figures I remember were between 17% and 19%. Mr. Carollo: I think, Number one, it should be made clear, not only to the community, but to anyone that would want to be fair and objective to show them that we probably have one of the best ethnically balanced police depart- ments in the whole country, especially for a major city. At the same time, one of the requests that I would like to make is that the vast majority of our Black police officers be assigned to Black areas, just like I think, the vast majority of Hispanic police officers should be assigned to Hispanic areas. I am not saying that only Black police officers should patrol Black areas or vice versa, but I do feel that our Police Department should plan better to schedule our police officers into assignments so that we would find at any given time at least half of the police officers that are patrolling Overtown, Liberty City, Culmer to be Black. The other area that I want to touch upon, is that yes, I am one of those that believes that we should thoroughly investi- gate every action that was taken by police officers and others during the course of those disturbances and if we had one or two, or more police officers that violated the civil rights of any of our citizens, then they should be punished according to what the law is. At the same time, I want to make sure that the civil rights of all of our citizens are protected and I am extremely concerned with what I saw on national televison: a picture of a little old lady that had blood all over her face, because she was attacked by a small group of delinquents. I think that all of the government bodies, including the Justice Department that is investigating what happened during those dis- turbances should also make a point to investigate and find out if indeed the civil rights of citizens that were caught in the middle of something that they ld 03 JA N 1900 S 0 had nothing to do with, if their rights were also violated and to punish the people that were involved with those affairs also. If we have police officers that did wrong that should be punished and if it is proven, so be it - punish them. But, if we have people out there, no matter if they are white, black, blue, whatever they are - if they violate our laws, they should be punished. If it is proven, they should be punished also. I think that we all have to put aside whatever differences we have and join together so that this community can become what it can be - an example to this whole state - an example to the rest of the country of how people of many different cultures, many different races, religions, can live together. I think that it is very unfortunate that it happened and national media greatly overstated what actually happened. If you were not familiar with Miami, you would have gotten the impression that our whole city was being burned, that we were in open warfare. That was far from being the case. At the same time, the problems we did have were quite serious and'the potential for them to expand was great and is still there. I think that if we all unite, if we all try to put whatever differences we have aside, and really try to get to the root, the genre of the problems, I think we will solve them. But, if we all try to talk of the negatives instead of the positives and not trying to build, but to destroy; not try to unite, but to divide, I think it is going to be a mighty sorry future for Miami. I be- lieve Miami has a bright future. Mayor Ferre: Commissioner Dawkins. Mr. Dawkins: I will wait. I will yield to a Commissioner. Mayor Ferre: Commissioner Perez. Mr. Perez: Mr. Mayor, I would like to pay attention to several areas that I think that are part of the motivation of the real situation. I think that the people of Overtown need some special attention in poverty and unemploy- ment and lack of decent, affordable housing. I think that the most important thing the people of overtown were releasing was a feeling of frustration and a belief that they do not have enough access to the local government. I would like to bring to the record a motion that I sent to the Mayor and to the other members of the Commission and to the City Manager before it passed in order to take an immediate action. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE FOR THE RECORD: Commissioner J. L. Plummer enters at 3:40 P.M. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mayor Ferre: Why don't you explain it and then let everybody else have their say, and then I will come back to recognize you for the purposes of the motion, so go ahead and explain it. Mr. Perez: The first thing that I would like to propose is to start immediate- ly that we assign a full time ombudsman to the Overtown neighborhood. I think that that ombudsman can rent one of the many empty stores in the Overtown area and we can proceed with my early motion for creating a mobile unit in order to assign a person to serve this area and to pay attention to all these problems in the area. My second motion is to propose the permanent assignment of a member of the Office of Professional Compliance to the Overtown neighborhood my second is to create a full time employment desk in Overtown in coordination with the private sector to try to find as many jobs as possible before next summer. Also, I would like to make a motion to put all of our planned capi- tal improvement for Overtown in a top priority list - parks, sewers, street repair, the shopping center, housing and all other planned projects for Over - town should be given top priority, including the Park West Overtown redevelop- ment deserves special attention at this time. And finally, I would like to have similiar rules adopted for other potential trouble areas, such as Liberty City and the area in the vicinity of Flagler and 6th Avenue, which many people are calling now Viet Nam because of the recent signs of a new ghetto in the making. That is the proposal, Mr. Mayor, that I would like to have in the record and I would like to present to the City Commission this afternoon. i Mayor Ferre: Commissioner Plummer. Mr. Plummer: Has everyone else spoken? Mayor Ferre: Everyone but Commissioner Dawkins, who wishes to be last. Mr. Dawkins: That is okay, I will go now. id 04 JA N 61988 0 a r Mr. Plummer: At this point I don't know that I have anything to say. Mayor Ferre: Okay. Mr. Dakwins: Honestly? Mayor Ferre: That will be a first. No, it won't be a first. It will be the first time in about five or six years. Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, first of all, let me not apologize for making a living. My people don't make appointments, but I do apologize for incon- veniencing anyone who might have been inconvenienced. Mayor Ferre: He wasn't talking about me, J. L. Anyway, he endorsed some- body else. Mr. Plummer:And I am trying to read all of the papers that have been presented since I walked in the door, so Commissioner Dawkins, as brief as you usually are, I am sure I will finish by the time you are. Mr. Dawkins: Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission and Citizenry, I have problems with everytime I look up, a committee...I have an ordinance here that was passed on the first reading the 26th day of June, 1980, passed and adopted on the second and final reading by title only the loth day of July, 1980. This ordinance established the office of Professional Compliance and it said that the duties of this office, which we pay people to do - Number one, they would look into excessive force and brutality; number two, they would look into abusive treatment and harassment; number three, false ar- rest; number four, community/police relations. To improve community police relations they list a lot of things - "to provide ongoing professional train- ing for staff" and we have an Office of Professional Compliance that is sche- duled to do the things that we are saying we are going to do. At first, I felt that that body might not have been capable of acquiring and doing what we wanted done, but that same committee assisted the group whom we named to investigate the demonstration by the Cubans and they came up with a very good report, so I for one, am against creating a committee, but that is my personal opinion. Secondly, I would like to say that I have problems with assigning Black officers to the Black neighborhood and the problem I have with that is that those Black officers that you have on the force now have seniority and there are such choice assignments as directing traffic at Flagler and N.E. 1st Avenue, where you stand out there all day and don't get shot at and don't do nothing. There are other choice assignments like robbery, where you only go out after something has happened. There are certain choice assignments as arson and there is a better one known as homicide where everybody is dead when you get there. So now when you talk in terms of taking Black policemen with seniority and just because they happen to have an overdose of pigmenta- tion, assign them to that area. I have a problem with that, but there again, I am only one Commissioner and I just voiced my opinion. Mayor Ferre: J. L.? Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, I read the comments that were made by the different Commissioners. I have read Commissioner Perez' memos. The only thing that I would like to say - I am going to vote for the committee and what is necessary for the committee to be formed. The reason I am going to do that is simply because there has been some request from the community for such a committee. I don't know that we can say "no". We did it for another segment of this community and in fact, I think we have to do it for this segment of the community. But, I want to voice from the very beginning, that if in anybody's mind that this committee is a delaying tactic or this committee is not going to allow this to come to a quick conclusion, I am very much opposed. I think the first priority that has to be set is establishing credibility with Over - town. That credibility is only going to be re-established if all of these people who are doing investigations, and I think think the number now is seven individual groups are doing investigations, that they immediately be brought to a conclusion and the facts and the truth be laid on top of the table and I am very confident that Mr. Gary will deal with the facts and the truth immediately. I think once we get that done, we have a lot of areas and a lot of problems to address, but I think that first and foremost that is ter: Id 05 JAN 6 1963 0 a what must be our first priority. My colleagues have seen and I have seen that in some of these cases in the past, committees upon committees have been formed and in fact, basically they were a delaying factor. I don't think we can do that anymore. I think we have got to have the truth and the people over there have got to have the truth and let the chips fall where they may. If someone has done wrong, then in our society he must pay a price for doing something wrong. If he is not, then let his name be cleared and let the facts and the truth be the prevailing factor. I have read, Mr. Mayor, the comments that have been made by all of the different Commissioners and yourself. I find no serious disagreement. I guess the only area, if I look real hard, that I am concerned about, is not the scope of what the committee will do, but the size of the committee. I am concerned that it could be too big, un- wieldy and ineffective. I would hope this committee could be down to people who have expressed their interest to serve, not people that we have chosen to serve who might or might not attend. I think we saw in a past committee that the attendance was not all that Mood. which lead some to believe that they weren't interested. so I would hope that we can keep the numbers small. but they can go about their business. do what needs to be done. and stay within the scope of what this Commission charges them with and let's get about the business. Let's not try to find the fault as much as name calling, but let's direct our energies toward trying to get something accomplished. Thank you. Mayor Ferre: Just as a reminder, so that we don't get all confused. I want to read to you - I think that it is very important that we understand it. What we said when we established the Blue Ribbon Committee one year ago less ten days and if you cross out wherever it says Little Havana and you put Overtown, and you get away from the Spanish names and put in other names and think of what we are doing in terms of that, I think it might mean something. "Today appointing a Review Committee to investigate and report to the Commssion Number one, its findings of occurances on Saturday January 16th, with regards to the incident where members of the Cuban com- munity publicly protested the deportation by I.N.S. of Andres Rodriguez Hernandez and the confrontation that occurred between the protestors and the Miami Police Department. Number two, to review any and all accusations of alledged wrongdoing by the Miami Police Department or individual officers and the Miami Police Department's policies and operational performance and Number three, to recommend improvement of procedures and policies for future confrontational situations." At this juncture, the committee will have no subpoena powers and I will ask the City Attorney to inform the committee as to the legal constraints with which it will be dealing. That includes State statutes, binding contracts that the City has with the Fraternal Order of Police. This deals with perti- nent issues and possible criminal issues including the complicated area of immunity. The committee will also receive information and testimony on a voluntary basis from any and other interested parties, civil rights and the complicated legal issues are involved and the function of various official agencies of government, such as the Justice Department, the State Attorney's office must be respected. The City Manager, Howard Gary is instructed to give the committee proper staff support and through him and Police Chief Kenneth Harms to give the committee the necessary information requested with- in the law, so that it may have available all necessary facts to fulfill its charge. Should the committee conclude it is unable to get full and objective information after an appropriate attempt to do so, the City of Miami Commis- sion may constitute itself as a fact-finding board and may exercise its subpoena powers. I am confident this will not be necessary. I am asking Mr. Emilio Milian to chair the committee, since the task of gathering and hearing full information may be tedious and involved because of the many individual allegations and confrontations and accusations, I would recommend that the committee break down into subcommittees of five individuals for as to share the burden. The five subcommittee chairmen could consequently meet as an executive board before the full committee concludes. Twenty-five peo- ple who have been appointed to this committee represent a cross-section of the community and the names are submitted. It is a large group, larger than I would have wanted, but necessary because of the complexity of the problem. The committee is made up mostly, but not exclusively, of Cubans and Cuban - Americans. Since the affected parties on the community side are Cubans, the majority of the committee is comprised of this ethnic group. If we are ld 06 JAN 61983 to avoid future confrontations, the committee must have credibility. I would also like to remind you that the Miami Police Department has its own investiga- tory process, which is functioning at the present time. In addition, the Of- fice of Professional Compliance of the City of Miami, under the City Manager will also be meetint.The Justice Department and the State Attorney's office may also be involved in fact finding, so I would expect there to be a great deal of activity and cooperation that will facilitate the Committee's reach- ing a conclusion. I would ask that Chairman Milian keep the Commission in- formed as to its progress at the February llth Commission meeting. It would be my hope that we could receive a preliminary report, or finding, at the end of February, and a final report at the end of March. Now, we did get a pre- liminary report in March, a final report after nine months. This is the final report, this is the conclusion of that committee. It is in the midst of being reviewed by the Administration and the the Police Department. I would hope that constructive measures would come out of this. I think that this committee should be as important and I would hope that its recommenda- tions ... and I am sure they will be carefully weighed out and will be some- thing that this Commission is going to have to deal with in the near future. I would therefore like to do it this way since the purpose of this meeting is the appointment of this committee, I think we will have to deal with you, and then I will recognize you for the purposes of making your motion, Demetrio. Now, we therefore, I think, need first a motion to constitute a Blue Ribbon Committee. 2. CREATION OF BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE OVERTOWNt CIVIL DISTURBANCE. Mr. Plummer: So moved. Mr. Perez: Second Mayor Ferre: Plummer moves, Perez seconds. Further discussion? Call the roll. The following motion was introduced by Commissioner Plummer, who moved its adoption: MOTION NO. 83-1 A MOTION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION OFFICIALLY CONSTI- TUTING A BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE CAUSES OF THE RECENT CIVIL DISTURBANCE IN THE OVERTOWN AREA. Upon being seconded by Commissioner Perez, the motion was passed and adopted by the following vote: AYES: Commissioner Demetrio Perez, Jr. Vice -Mayor J. L. Plummer Mayor Maurice A. Ferre NOES: Commissioner Miller J. Dawkins Commissioner Joe Carollo ABSENT: None ON ROLL CALL: Mr. Dawkins: I vote "no" and in voting "no" I feel that the O.P.C. has the powers to do what needs to be done. I do not feel justified in creating another committee. I vote "no". Mr. Carollo: I think that the idea that the mayor has brought forth of having a Blue Ribbon Committee is a noble and positive idea, but what concerns me is the following: When you have investigations from the Justice Department with the F.B.I. being involved and other agencies such as that are investigating you, you are pretty assured that you are going to have people looking into the problems that are going to have, at least I would hope, a pretty open mind as to what happened and are not going to have set bias one way or another. But,•my concern is that, and I will state it publicly, I think Emilio Milian did an excellent job. I nominated him - I made a motion to make him chairman at the Blue Ribbon Committee we had, but I feel that some of the people, maybe even the majority of the people that we appointed to the last Blue Ribbon Com- mittee has biases one v ay or another in this situation. I am afraid that this is going to be the same thing in this committee that we are going to appoint 3d 47 JAN 6 1983 now. I am afraid that out of the thirtv-plus people, almost forty people that we are going to have, we are going to have a split right down the middle and people that are being named to that committee, that from the start are going to feel very pro -one way or very pro -the other way, and I lust don't see how thev are going to come up with an objective overall recommendation with what the problems there were. I think what is going to happen is that the stronger opinion, or the majoritv of the people that from the start felt one way are going to prevail in that committee and you are going to get a very biased opinion coming.out of it, therefore I feel that maybe we should try to let the office of professional compliance handle the investigation, maybe appoint a small number of people, maybe a third of what we are going to appoint as a Blue Ribbon Committee to work hand in hand with the Office of Professional Compliance, but I just feel that by now coming forth and naming a Blue Ribbon Committee - I think that it might create more problems than it might be solv- ing. Therefore, I vote "no". 3. APPOINTMENTS TO BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE. Mayor Ferre: I would like to appoint the following and then I will accept more reco- mendations for the names. The Reverend Winston Rudoph, the Pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church is the chairperson and the following names: THEREUPON, MAYOR FERRE READS LIST OF NAMES INTO THE RECORD. 4. REVEREND RUDOLPH'S NOMINIATION OF INDIVIDUALS TO BLUE RIBBON C=MITIEE. Mayor Ferre: There have been other names recommeded and I will read them into the record. These are so-called street people. I asked the Reverend Rudolph to recommend individuals that were active in the community that would be representative, and these are the names he had recommended: THEREUPON, MAYOR FERRE READS LIST OF NAMES INTO THE RECORD. 08 JAN 6 SA ld i ld Mayor Ferre: (con't) Any other names, J. L.?...Ladies and Gentlemen, let me say that not everybody has been called. It will be the task of Reverend Rudolph. I will write a letter to all of the members that have been ap- pointed. I will call them personally. Reverend Rudolph will call them. I am sure that some will not accept and I want the Commission to feel that after we have the semi-final list, if you feel that there are people missing or that it should be balanced in a different way, at the next Commission meeting, which is next Thursday - a week from today, I will accept any other names -that the members of the Commission might want to add to the committee. Mr. Gary: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Ferre: Yes, sir. Mr. Gary: You instructed me to provide staff support at this time. Mayor Ferre: Could we finish on the nomination and then we will get into a discussion on what the format will be? Will somebody make a motion to nomi- nate this... Mr. Plummer: So moved. Mayor Ferre: Is there a second? It has been moved and seconded. Further discussion? Okay, call the roll on the names. Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, just for the record, you have indicated, but I would hope that when you and Reverend Rudolph call these individuals, that it would be fully explained to them to scope of what they are going to hope- fully accomplish, and the time frames in which we hope they will bring this thing to a conclusion. Mayor Ferre: Well, I am going to do more than that, J. L. I am going to ask Reverend Rudolph to come this Commission meeting next Thursday, and I want him to define the scope along with us, because I want to make sure there is no misunderstanding between the chairman and ourselves. I have explained this to him; I have said it on the record today. We will for- malize that next Thursday, but I want to give Reverend Rudolph time for him to think about this, to talk to some of the people who he is going to be involved with. I don't know whether he wants to divide this into subcom- mittees, or whether he wants to have public hearings or how he wants to do this, so let's wait and see what the input is from the chairperson of the subcommittee - we will deal with it again next week, but I think your point is right on target. All right, there has been a motion and a second on the names read into the record, with the full understanding that there will be people that will not accept or cannot serve and that there will be further additions, I am sure, next week. Call the roll. The following motion was introduced by Commissioner Plummer, who moved its adoption: MOTION NO. • 83-2 A MOTION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION APPOINTING REVEREND WINSTON RUDOLPH, PASTOR, MT. ZION BABTIST CHURCH, AS CHAIR- PERSON OF THE NEWLY CONSTITUTED BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE INTO THE CAUSES OF THE RECENT DISTURBANCE IN THE OVERTOWN AREA AND FURTHER NOMINATING THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS TO SAID COMMITTEE: 09 1983 �lAN 6 1. Clyde Pettaway, representing JESCA 2. Bill Perre, representing PUSH 3. Hollis Price from the URBAN League 4. Otis Pitts, Bellafonte-Tacolcy Center 5. Charles Johnson, Overtown Community Development 6. Athalie Range, Co -chairperson of Great Miami United 7. John Gibson, representing CRB 8. Vince McGee, Esq., NAACP 9. Kelsey Dorsett, The FORUM 10. Henry Givens 11. Francina Thomas, FIU psychologist 12. Ann Marie Adker, a resident of Overtown and community activist 13. Robert Shevin, Esq., former Attorney -General, State of Florida 14. Arthur England, former Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, State of Florida. 15. Warren Wepman, former president of the Miami Citzen's Crime Committee 16. Dr. Irving Goldaber, national authority on crowd control. 17. Reverend Martin Anorga, First Hispanic United Presbyterian Church 18. William Ogden, president, Park West Property Owner's Association 19. George Knox, former City of Miami Attorney 20. William Meadows, former Judge 21. Dr. Eduardo Padron, Vice -President Miami -Dade Community College, downtown 22. Judge Herber Klein, Administrative Judge of Criminal Court 23. Richard Gerstein, Esq., former State Attorney 24. Dean Adam Herbert of F.I.U.'s School of Public Affairs 25. Dr. Geoffrey Alpert, Director, University of Miami, Criminal Justice Program 26. Dr. Ralph Lewis, F.I.U.'s Criminal_4ustice Program 27. Fred Crawford, Director, Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation 28. Jose Villalobos, Esq. 29. Dr. William Stokes, Vice -President, Miami -Dade Community College FURTHER ACCEPTING THE HEREINBELOW LISTED NAMES AS RECOMMENDATIONS BY CHAIR- PERSON, REVEREND WINSTON RUDOLPH: 1. Early Butler 2. Mrs. Watley 3. Laura Quaterman 4. Reverend Thedford Johnson 5. Reverend Ira Hinson 6. Father Richard Barry 7. Eddie Mitchell 8. Wellington Rolle 9. Roland Rolle, Vice -President of U.T.D. 10. Orange Hayes 11. Vernon Clark 12. Nestor Williams 13. Rabbi Haskell Bernatt, Senior rabbi at Temple Israel 14. Judge Leah Simms Upon being seconded by Commissioner Perez, the motion was passed and adopted by the following vote: AYES: Commissioner Commissioner Vice -Mayor J. Mayor Maurice Demetrio Perez, Jr. Joe Carollo L. Plummer A. Ferre NOES: Commissioner Miller J. Dawkins ABSENT: None ON ROLL CALL: Mr. Dawkins: Again I vote "no" and I sincerely hope that when this committee is constituted, that in no way will it be given any information that will hinder any of the other investigations that are on -going until it is no longer needed by the other investigative parties. Mr. Carollo: The committee has been formed from the names that were given. I vote "yes". ld 10 Ja N 6 198-2 1. Clyde Pettaway, representing JESCA 2. Bill Perre, representing PUSH 3. Hollis Price from the URBAN League 4. Otis Pitts, Bellafonte-Tacolcy Center 5. Charles Johnson, Overtown Community Development 6. Athalie Range, Co -chairperson of Great Miami United 7. John Gibson, representing CRB 8. Vince McGee, Esq., NAACP 9. Kelsey Dorsett, The FORUM 10. Henry Givens 11. Francina Thomas, FIU psychologist 12. Ann Marie Adker, a resident of Overtown and community activist 13. Robert Shevin, Esq., former Attorney -General, State of Florida 14. Arthur England, former Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, State of Florida. 15. Warren Wepman, former president of the Miami Citzen's Crime Committee 16. Dr. Irving Goldaber, national authority on crowd control. 17. Reverend Martin Anorga, First Hispanic United Presbyterian Church 18. William Ogden, president, Park West Property Owner's Association 19. George Knox, former City of Miami Attorney 20. William Meadows, former Judge 21. Dr. Eduardo Padron, Vice -President Miami -Dade Community College, downtown 22. Judge Herber Klein, Administrative Judge of Criminal Court 23. Richard Gerstein, Esq., former State Attorney 24. Dean Adam Herbert of F.I.U.'s School of Public Affairs 25. Dr. Geoffrey Alpert, Director, University of Miami, Criminal Justice Program 26. Dr. Ralph Lewis, F.I.U.'s Criminal Justice Program 27. Fred Crdawford, Director, Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation 28. Jose Villalobos, Esq. 29. Dr. William Stokes, Vice -President, Miami -Dade Community College FURTHER ACCEPTING THE HEREINBELOW LISTED NAMES AS RECOMMENDATIONS BY CHAIR- PERSON, REVEREND WINSTON RUDOLPH: 1. Early Butler 2. Mrs. Watley 3. Laura Quaterman 4. Reverend Thedford Johnson 5. Reverend Ira Hinson 6. Father Richard Barry 7. Eddie Mitchell 8. Wellington Rolle 9. Roland Rolle, Vice -President of U.T.D. 10. Orange Hayes 11. Vernon Clark 12. Nestor Williams 13. Rabbi Haskell Bernatt, Senior rabbi at Temple Israel 14. Judge Leah Simms Upon being seconded by Commissioner Perez, the motion was passed and adopted by the following vote: AYES: Commissioner Demetrio Perez, Jr. Commissioner Joe Carollo Vice -Mayor J. L. Plummer Mayor Maurice A. Ferre NOES: Commissioner Miller J. Dawkins ABSENT: None ON ROLL CALL: Mr. Dawkins: Again I vote "no" and I sincerely hope that when this committee is constituted, that in no way will it be given any information that will hinder any of the other investigations that are on -going until it is no longer needed by the other investigative parties. Mr. Carollo: The committee has been formed from the names that were given. I vote "yes". Id JAN 6 1963 ld NOTE FOR THE RECORD: - In connection with the creation of this Blue Ribbon Committee and the need for some kind of in -kind support from the City, the City Manager appointed MS. JUANITA SHEARER as the LIAISON/STAFF SUPPORT person. Mayor Ferre: I want it, so that we have it very clearly understood, I had a very long conversation with Judge Arthur England. He informed me that since he came here from Tallahassee, he has been very, very busy and stayed out of public affairs. He also wanted me to know that he thought that what were doing was very important. Judge Arthur England need to make clear that he may not -be available until an important trial is over in January and that he wanted to leave himself a lot of room as to whether or not he would serve on a sub -committee, because he says he has specific areas of interest that he wants to deal with. I am sure that that is going to be the case of many of the people that are going to be involved and I think we are going to have to be both patient and flexible in the way we deal with this. I am very happy that we have other than Reverend Winston Rudolph in the the proposed services of Father Barry, Reverend Thedford Johnson and Reverend Hinson that represent four of the largest churches in the Black community. And I think they are people that have a large following and are highly re- spected, not only in the Black community, but throughout Dade County. I had serious conversations with Dr. Jeff Silbert of the Dade -Miami Criminal Justice Council. I think, J. L., you and Joe serve on it. They may want to also be supportive staff wise. As I recall, we gave them $25,000 a year, or something or other, don't we, J. L.?... the City of Miami, and they may wish to get involved. That is something that we are going to have to deal with and I would like for staff, Mr. Manager, through you, to set up appropriate meetings with Reverend Rudolph and Judge Gelbert who is the chairperson of the Criminal Justice Council and also, Mr. Manager, I am going to give to you a list of people that have been recommended that I did not place on the committee at this time. Some of these people called themselves, wishing to be placed on the committee. Others were recommended, and I would like a recommendation from both Reverend Rudolph and the Adminis- tration from staff on the advisability of placing these people on and I would just read them for the record: Tom Ferguson; Tom Washington; Jonathan Rolle; Solomon Margolis, Miami Beach National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression; Norman Gerstein, a judge; Larry Hardway, a lawyer for JESCA; Josephone Commis- siong, who has extensive experience in riots in New York. Alice Warren, a teacher and counselor at Fairchild Elementary, White an interested citizen who wants to be of help; Paul Carl Belitz, Puerto Rican attorney, formerly with Legal Services, now with Florida Memorial College; David Shiner, Miami Beach Tenent's Association; Dr. Seligman, Child Psychiatrist, University of Miami/Jackson Memorial; Bille Rolle, who thinks Coconut Grove should be involved; Mrs. Theodore Gibson; Catherine Whitehead, Overtown resident, Dade County school teacher, member Crisis Response Team. 12 JAN 6 »83 i INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTS NOT ENTERED INTO THE PUBLIC RECORD. Mayor Ferre: Oh, Crisis Response Team. I see. Mr. Kearson, Overtown Jobs Program; George Ellis, Dade County School System; Brent Provinsky, Attorney, Public Defender, Juvenile Court recommended; Jackie Bell, New Washington Heights; Robert Rudisell, Ovfttown Resident; Calvin Scott, Overtown resident; Dick Wood, Fort Lauderdal,e, observed police department in Washington, D.C.; and Jose Mendez, Wynwood Community Development. In addition we have the following individuals that have been proffered by others: Marta Prado, Mr. George Lewis, Emile Babpo, Eugene Jackson, Charles Hadley, Broderick Sutton, James Barry, Joe Wilson, James Wonza. Mr. Manager, that's a list of about twenty or thirty people. I would like recommendations from staff and from Reverend Rudolf on the appointment of any of these other people. Are there any other matters to come up before the Commission at this time? I have one thing that I wanted to get on the record, Mr. Manager. The conversations during the day, people calling me wanting to talk to me deal with the Civilian Review Board issue. Right? Now, as you know, the Miami News editorialized in favor of the Civilian Review Board. I have been in the past, and am today personally against a Civilian Review Board for a very simple reason. I have yet to find one that works. That is an issue, however, that in my opinion this committee is going to end up dealing with. I just krow, as sure as I am sitting here, that somebody is going to want to talk about it. Judge Arthur England wants to talk about it. I think it is going it come up. I talked to you yesterday and you told me some things that I really think are important that they be made public knowledge. That you had gone through a review process of the committee that you had appointed. I think you ought to explain that to the Commission and through us to the public, because I think it becomes a very important point at this juncture. Mr. Gary: Mr. Mayor, if you recall, approximately a year and a half before the last disturbance of 1980, the City Commission instructed then City Manager, Joseph Grassie, to look into the possibility of setting up a Civilian Review Board. Grassie at that time appointed me as the head of that committee. It was made up of civilian citizens of the community as well as membership.... Mayor Ferre: Do you remember who the members of the committee were? _ Mr. Gary: Yes, it was Reverend Barry. There was Georgia Jones Ayres There was Martin Arostigue, Frank Martin, Frank Harden, who we all know, Dick Witt, from the Police Department representing the union, Warshaw from the Police Department and myself. We studied all of the Civilian Review Boards across the country from cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Houston, maybe one or two others. We also studied the legal issues surrounding the Civilian Review Board, particularly court cases. One of the things that we concluded based on the court decisions and the performance of past civilian reviews is that there were some constitutional issues related to requiring testimony and a non - judicial body, which was successfully challenged by police departments, particularly in Philadelphia and other cities. As a result of that, we thought that it would be a situation whereby citizens would have expectations higher than we were able to accomplish based on past experiences and past court decisions. So as a result, we established an Office of Professional Compliance, which is an arm of the City Manager's Office located directly `y in the Police Department, responsible for the oversight of police investigations and to allege misconduct and misuse of force. That committee is an active -�' observer and a limited participant. What I mean by that is that they are active in terms of observing the process to insure that the information is not tainted. It is taken in a very professional and honest, straightforward manner. That the reports are accurate based on their participation. The reason they are limited participants is in view of the fact that there are strict rules with regard to evidentiarn procedures. Therefnre, if hhev thereby participate, they may ask the witness the wrong question jeopartdizing s: 13 o, sl JAN 6 1900 0 0 Mr. Gary (CON'T): the case. I can assure you right now that issue of civilian review is still up in the air. There are two choices. One, to accept the recommendation of the past citizen who was involved in the process; or to establish a Civilian Review Board and find out all of the roadblocks associated with such a board. Mayor Ferre: And your conclusion of it, therefore, was that the Civilian Review process .... Mr. Gary: It does not work. Mayor Ferre: ....theoretically perfect as it may be, in practice, it does not work. Mr. Gary: Does not work. Mayor Ferre: I happen to concur, but I'm sure this is going to be a recurring subject. I just wanted to get that on the record. This is not a public hearing. I think it would be unfair for me to begin a process of getting public input into this, even though I am sure that there will be ample opportunity before the committee and subsequent to that. Eventually, let me end with this point, all of these issues have to come back to the Administration through Howard Gary and to this City of Miami Commission for final determination. I will see you next week. I'm sorry, we have a pending motion from Commissioner Perez. I beg your pardon. Read your motion, Commissioner. Mr. Perez: Mr. Mayor, first the motion... I would like first to assign a full time ombudsman for at least 90 days to Overtown in order to give the citizens a direct communication link with the City government. Mayor Ferre: Do you want to do these one at a time? Mr. Plummer: No, do them in group. Mayor Ferre: Do all in a group? All right. Mr. Perez: Secondly, a permanent assignment of a member of the Office of Professional Compliance to document community police relations as well as processing any complaints for observation. Third, to explore the possibility an employment desk in coordination with the private sector to try to find jobs for as many people as possible before June 1st of this year. Four, give top priority to all capital improvement projects planned for Overtown, including housing, street, bars, sewers, the shopping centers, and the Park West/Overtown redevelopment. Finally, to apply the above to all the potential areas where similar conditions exist, especially in the area of Flagler Street and 6th Avenue. Mr. Plummer: I second the motion. Mayor Ferre: Further discussion on the motion? This is a motion at -1-8 - __J_. T -- a #- ._.4 t 1 u, u ni.n}it harlr in reanl utinn form. Mr. The following motion was introduced by Commissioner Perez, who moved its adoption. MOTION 83-3 A MOTION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO: I. IMMEDIATELY ASSIGN A FULL-TIME OMBUDSMAN FOR AT LEAST 90 DAYS TO OVERTOWN IN ORDER TO GIVE THE CITIZENS A DIRECT COMMUNICATION LINK WITH THE CITY GOVERNMENT; R. PERMANENTLY ASSIGN A MEMBER OF THE OFFICE OF PRO- FESSIONAL COMPLIANCE FOR A PERIOD OF AT LEAST 90 DAYS TO THE OVERTOWN AREA IN ORDER TO DOCUMENT ANY COMPLAINTS, SUGGESTIONS AND/OR OBSERVATIONS BY CITIZENS CONCERNING POLICE PROCEDURES AS WELL AS COMMUNITY/POLICE RELATIONS; 3. EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITY OF CREATING AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU IN OVERTOWN IN COORDINATION WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN ORDER TO FACILITATE THE FINDING OF AS MANY JOBS AS POSSIBLE BEFORE JUNE 1, 1983; 4. GIVE TOP PRIORITY TO ALL CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS WHICH HAVE BEEN PLANNED FOR THE OVERTOWN AREA, INCLUDING SUCH PROJECTS AS: HOUSING, STREETS REPAIR, PARKS, SEWERS, THE SHOPPING CENTER, AND THE PARK WEST OVERTOWN REDEVE- LOPMENT; 5. FURTHER RECOMMENDING THAT THE CITY ADMINISTRATION APPLY THE ABOVE GUIDELINES AND CONSIDERATIONS TO ALL OTHER POTENTIALLY TROUBLE -AREAS IN THE CITY WHERE SIMILAR CONFLICTS MIGHT ARISE, ESPECIALLY, AREAS SUCH AS FLAGLER STREET AND 6TH AVENUE, WHERE UNEQUIVOCAL SIGNS HAVE ALREADY BEEN FELT OF A NEW "GHETTO IN THE MAKING." Upon being seconded by Commissioner Plummer, the motion was passed and adopted by the following vote: AYES: Commissioner Joe Carollo Commissioner Demetrio Perez, Jr. Commissioner Miller J. Dawkins Vice Mayor J.L. Plummer, Jr. Mayor Maurice Ferre NOES: None. ABSENT: None. Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, let me just bring out one point if I may. This is not for a motion, but to ask Mr. Gary to come back. Mr. Gary, as I drove through there are a lot of buildings that in the past had burned out. Buildings that in no way, shape, or form could ever conceivably be restored. I would like for you to come back to this Commission next Thursday with a recommendation of how we could either force or cooperate with the owners of these buildings to get them demolished and open up some of this space. Because at this particular time, nobody needs to ride through a former combat zone. I think that if we could get some of these eyesores eliminated, that cannot be restored and get rid of them, I think we are going to be a lot better off. So if you would come back at the next Commission Meeting with some recommendations in that area. Mr. Gary: Good suggestion. ;l 15 JAN 6IM, Mayor Ferre: Mr. Manager, also to the members of this Commission, I want to go on record that I have asked the City Attorney and I will be bringing as a pocket item next Thursday two items. One, it is my opinion that what we had here last week and the way that we had to work with each other was absurd. The City Manager had to individually talk to each one of us for 25 minutes. Since you had a funeral and you had something else, I had to sit around waiting for two hours. This man, in the middle of a critical period, had to repeat the same story three times to get permission separately from the three of us so that he could move forward on a concurrence. Now, I am a new believer, but I want to put on the record a great believer in the Sunshine Law. I am a recent convert. But I want you to know that I have seem the light and am a true believer in the Sunshine Law. However, I am asking for the City Attorney to prepare proposed legislation, which I am going to bring to this Commission so that we can send it up to the leadership of the House and the Senate so that whenever there is a declared emergency by the Mayor of the City of Miami, whether it is life or limb in danger and when the Manager needs to discuss sensitive issues that are of critical nature impacting a:; thr, community when it is burning, or when somebody's life is at stake, the Manager can brief the Commission in executive session and that we can come to basic decisions with the Manager without having a full public hearing provided however, that a full record testimony under oath and what have you be kept in tape recorder and everything so that after the crisis the public will have total and full access as to exactly what had occured and how the decision had been made. But I think what occured the other evening was 9:30 at night, we had to make some decisions. We could not talk about it because we couldn't... and if we had made it a public hearing, national press would have been there. Four hundred photographers from C.B.S. and N.B.C. and God knows what else, every other major newspaper in the world would have been there. We just could not discuss the crisis in that open way at that time. Now, the other thing is there is a conflict between the emergency provisions in the State and the City. The State provisions say one thing. The City provisions say another. So for us to comply with the State I will be bringing up a resolution and an ordinance so that we can comply with the State law. Mr. Carollo: One more thing, Mr. Manager. I understand we have a unique problem in the sense that 350 or so of our police officers only have two years or less in the department. However, I would like to get a report about that from you at our next Commission meeting as to what plan can be implemented in our police force so that at no time do we have a rookie riding with a rookie, or a F.T.O., that is a rookie or practically a rookie himself.... Mayor Ferre: What is F.T.O.? Mr. Carollo: Field Training Officer be assigned to police officers that is a rookie. I think one of the criteria that our Police Department should hopefully implement is that the field training officers should have at least three years or more experience in the force. Mayor Ferre: There are a lot of issues that we are going to be bringing up. I would like, Mr. Manager, when we get into this whole question after the committee meets on psychological training and all that kind of stuff, that we talk, that we bring in Herb...where did...there was a committee here that came out of the Metropolitan Dade County police union of citizens... Wally Rodak, what is the name of that fellow, Herb? Herb, the guy that wanted to put up that stress.... INAUDIBLE RESPONSE NOT PLACED IN THE PUBLIC RECORD. Mayor Ferre: Who? Gallow, Herb Gallup, who is the chairman of the committee and the thing has been floundering about for two years, the creation of a stress center for police officers outside of the Police Department of Metro Dade County. The theory being that sometimes when a police officer has stress and has a problem with drinking or with his family or that kind of a thing, he does not want to admit it in the Police Department because that might go on his record. Maybe the way to approach it in some police departments around the country have dealt with that issue by creating an independent center, where an officer can go and the problem can be dealt with without making it part of his official record. el 6 JAN 6 1983 Mr. Carollo: That would be something we could think about doing for elected officials in bade County also. Mayor Ferre: These are the types of things that I'm sure we will be dealing with out of this committee. All right, sir, thank you. We stand adjourned. ADJOURNMENT• There being no further business to come before the City Commission, on motion duly made and seconded, the meeting was adjourned at 4:40 P.M.. ATTEST: RALPH G. ONGIE City Clerk MATTY HIRAI Assistant City Clerk I 1'7 MAURICE A. FERRE Mayor JAN 198390