Lies My “Staff” Told Me

Without going into the pros and (mostly) cons of charter schools, which I will cover in future blogs, the point of this column is to call out the City of North Miami’s “staff” for its deceitful ways.

According to the Agenda published for the July 9, 2013 council meeting, Tab B under “Consent Agenda” describes a proposal for a “resolution authorizing the City Manager to submit an application to establish the City of North Miami Charter School for grades nine through twelve.” This proposal goes on to describe a “project team” that was formed “consisting of the City Manager, Deputy City Manager, Community Planning and Development Director and the Director of Parks and Recreation,” who determined that shutting down the western section of Claude Pepper Park in order to build a charter school was a simply marvelous idea.

Considering that I just published a blog yesterday about how wonderful North Miami parks and recreational facilities are, including and especially Claude Pepper Park, I was more than a tad surprised that the city would so willingly destroy this park to build anything at all. The fact that a charter school is contemplated makes it even more ridiculous. Let me explain.

For starters, a little background: This proposed “resolution” was placed on the “Consent Agenda.” In the real world of city government, a Consent Agenda consists of items of lesser import that have already been agreed to by all council members in individual discussions with the City Manager held prior to the meeting. Once the City Manager is satisfied that all members are in accord with the proposal, the item is then placed on the Consent Agenda, and little or no discussion is expected at the council meeting before passage. Items placed on a Consent Agenda are typically inconsequential and non-controversial, which don’t require bidding, and which would automatically garner consent. In other words, Consent Agenda items are minutiae. Or, as I call them, no-brainers.

In my city of North Miami Beach, for example, if any one council member objects to an item on the Consent Agenda, it gets pulled and either tabled for a future meeting or placed on the regular agenda for discussion. Nothing on the Consent Agenda gets voted on, or especially passed, unless all seven council members are in agreement.

In North Miami, where the “staff” (a/k/a City Manager Stephen Johnson, most likely as directed by Mayor Coco Douce) is in charge of running the show, a council vote is a mere formality. Especially in light of the usual 3-2 majority. If “staff” places it on the Consent Agenda, it’s a done deal.

When this resolution about the proposed charter school came up for a vote, two of the three council members (anyone wanna guess who?) were shut down when they objected to its being on the Consent Agenda. Despite their dissent, the resolution passed as expected with no discussion whatsoever.

Now that we’re all clear on how this resolution passed, we’ll get to the heart of the matter, which is that “staff” lied to the council and (here’s the best part) they got busted by the Miami-Dade County School Board.

For starters, there is an Interlocal agreement between North Miami and the School Board wherein both parties agree that no charter schools shall be built in the city. Section 13 of this agreement explicitly states:

When questioned whether the Consent Agenda resolution was in breach of the agreement, “staff” told the council that the School Board already violated the agreement because “Only 20% of students from the City of North Miami attend David Lawrence K-8 and Alonso and Tracy Mourning [ATM] Senior High combined.” I’m not sure why, but apparently “staff” convinced the council that 20% did not meet a preordained quota of some sort.

In a letter dated August 2, 2013 from the School Board to the Mayor and Council, Assistant Superintendent Iraida R. Mendez-Cartaya shot back that statements made at the July 9, 2013 council meeting were “publicly made but are factually incorrect.” Her first rebuttal was that North Miami residents represented 60 percent of David Lawrence K-8’s population and 29 percent of ATM’s population. Obviously, more than “20%.”

SMACK!

The second lie told to the council was that “Future Biscayne Landings students would not attend” either school due to overpopulation. Ms. Mendez-Cartaya in essence advised that the boundaries for schools were reviewed on an annual basis and are subject to change according to the needs of the community. “Staff” obviously used this “overpopulation” argument as a scare tactic for the purpose of convincing the council that the charter school was a dire necessity in order to keep up with the expected growth of the Biscayne Landing population.

SMACK!

Lastly, “staff” lied to council by stating that, “City of North Miami students west of N.W. 7th Avenue would be shipped out and there is no high school in the area.” Again, the Assistant Superintendent refuted that claim by stating that “approximately 5 percent of the City’s high school age population” attended Miami Central Senior High, while “1230 of the high school aged students,” representing “approximately 50 percent of the school’s student body,” attended North Miami Senior High. Apparently, and contrary to claims made by “staff,” no one is being “shipped out” anywhere.

SMACK!

On top of the blatant lies told by “staff” to council, rumor has it that the “investors” behind this charter school are somehow connected to none other than Marie “Antoinette” Steril. If true (and I intend to find out!), that makes this deal all the more nefarious indeed.

First the good news. Because of the Interlocal agreement in place, I’ve been advised that the chances of the School Board approving the application for this charter school are slim to none.

The bad news is that the City of North Miami, at the direction of “staff,” already expended WITHOUT A VOTE OF THE COUNCIL the sum of approximately $25,000.00 of taxpayer money (mostly generated by Biscayne Landing money) to “study” the “feasibility” of this venture. Talk about throwing money in the toilet! That’s $25,000.00 the taxpayers will never get back.

But the really bad news is that North Miami continues to be operated by an all-powerful “staff,” who decides what a powerless council will consent to without a vote or even a discussion.

The worst news of all is that “staff” is now resorting to outright lies to get what it wants.

There really is no end to the corruption in North Miami.

I take back all (well, almost all) the good stuff I said about North Miami yesterday.