Missteps and misinformation given by the Village Attorney

If you can’t rely on the Village Attorney to give proper procedural instructions during a monthly commission meeting who can you count on?    SouthDadeMatters.com broke the story on Monday March 5^th, that Village Attorney Eve Boutsis made a major mistake and incorrectly informed the commission on a procedural process dictated under Roberts Rules which permitted a very unnecessary and expensive Resolution to pass when it was originally stopped dead in its tracks.

This resolution created a master plan that permits new batting cages, the replacement of tennis lights and new benched seating areas at Coral Reef Park.  These are all necessary improvements but this resolution takes away the approval process of electing to spend in excess of $275,000 away from the Council and gives it to our fiscally challenged Village Manager, Ron Williams.

The Resolution needed a super majority vote of 4-1 to pass.  It passed 3-2 because the Village Attorney incorrectly directed one of the commissioners, Patrick Fiore, who voted against the resolution, that he was required to vote for it under Robert’ Rules of Order since he had seconded the motion.  Who could have known whether this was correct or not at the time?  Eve Boutsis should have known, its her job.

I would assume anyone with a law degree should know in a Country where democracy is King, a Council member should be able to vote either for or against an item.  No one on the Council questioned her analysis of Roberts Rules.  Fortunately, she has since admitted her error. 

As far as I know the Mayor Shelly Stanczyk would like to error to stand since it was her Resolution which passed.  Not very honorable and extremely deceitful if true.

What else was disturbing was the fact that the Village Attorney stated numerous times that there is no Master Site Plan for Coral Reef Park.   This is complete misinformation and inexcusable on her part.     There is a standing Master Site Plan that was created by Miami-Dade County detailing six tennis courts with lighting which was recorded prior to the creation of the park in 1974.   I was a small child attending Coral Reef Elementary while my parents were involved in the planning of the park.

In my humble opinion the batting cages do need to be moved, benches are necessary and the lighting requires either repair or replacement.  Experts I’ve spoken with all say that all this work could be accomplished for under $100,000 not over $275,000 as planned.

All of this reminds me of the $1.1 million snack bar at Coral Reef – it was too much money, it’s in the wrong place and it’s almost impossible for a vendor to operate because of its absurd interior layout.  It’s not even a snack bar – it’s an out-of-the-way useless sculpture- the council could have bought over  four hundred commercial-grade hot dog stands for that price (don’t get any ideas Mr. Williams, you would only have needed two.)

It’s time for the Council and the Village Attorney to stand up, admit their mistakes and revote on the Coral Reef Master Plan with the correct information at hand.  I’ll tell the Council the same thing I tell my kids -  it’s imperative to do what’s right instead of what’s easy in order to be a better person, or in this case a better Council and a better Village Attorney.   

David Singer