Jimmy Morales contract extended at ‘secret’ meeting, raise coming

UPDATED: Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales got a three to four year extension on his contract at a secret meeting Tuesday in his own conference room. Commissioners also voted 6-1 to have the finance chair Commissioner Ricky Arriola negotiate a raise to bring back to them.

The only dissenting vote was Commissioner Michael Góngora, who also had an issue with another item at the Committee as a Whole meeting that would drastically cut citizen involvement through boards and committees by having them meet only four times a year instead of 12 or more. That item — which Ladra imagines would draw dozens of anti speakers at a regular commission meeting — was not passed and instead commissioners decided to let the committees decide themselves how often they need to meet.

“Those committees do a great job,” Góngora told Ladra before the 2 p.m. meeting at City Hall. “Limiting them to once a quarter would stifle them and the hard work they do. It would severely impact citizen involvement.”

Góngora was also concerned with how the items made it onto a non-public agenda of the Committee as a Whole rather than the more public, open regular commission meeting. COW meetings are not in commission chambers, are not publicized on the city website, do not encourage public input and are largely unnoticed by the community. There have only been three or four in the last two years, but it seems a way for commissioners to discuss things in private, without the live streaming and recording of every word. If Commissioner Góngora had not put it on Facebook, nobody outside government would have even known it was happening.

Morales — whose tenure has been wracked with the theft of $3.6 million through bank transfers and other political controversies — was seeking a five year extension to his contract. Now Arriola — all by himself, not through a committee as originally reported — will negotiate an increase in salary and present a list of expectations from the elected board.

City commissioners got an emailed agenda from the mayor’s chief of staff Friday. “Below are the items to be discussed at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole. Do you want to add anything,” Michelle Burger wrote, before adding the items:

City Manager Performance Evaluation
Ballot Questions / Resolutions
Best Practices for the Office of the Mayor & Commission
Eliminating the Commission Committee system and moving towards two (2) Commission meetings a month
Quarterly meetings for all boards and committees (except land use boards
Policies related to presentation and awards agenda

The last one seems pretty boring, but the rest certainly seem like they should be discussed at an open and public city commission meeting.

Particularly the manager’s evaluation, which was taken off the table by Mayor Dan Gelber last summer, when the commission evaluated the city attorney, Góngora said.

“I had inquired whether or not we were going to be evaluating the city manager and I was advised it would happen at a future date,” Góngora told Ladra, who said he was put off by fact that it came so much later on the heels of the request for a five year extension.

“Regardless of how you feel about the city manager’s performance, I’m unaware of us ever doing such a lengthy contract extension in the past,” Góngora said.

Gelber did not return a call for comment. Commissioners John Aleman, Micky Steinberg and Ricky Arriola did not return emails seeking comment Tuesday morning, although Arriola did have his aide call back and stress that the 2 p.m. meeting nobody knew about — with the seven commissioners, their staff, the city manager and his staff and the attorney and clerk and their staff in the manager’s conference room — is open to the public.

Commissioner Mark Samuelian said he was not concerned because nothing would be determined Tuesday without further discussion. “I’m under the impression there will be more than one discussion,” Samuelian said before the meeting, adding that a salary increase would go before the finance chair.

But it seems like the question of whether or not to extend the manager’s contract has already been voted on. The next vote might be just to approve the salary increase.

Ladra can’t help but wonder if Gelber will put that item on a Committee as a Whole agenda as well. You know, to keep the public from commenting.

Dan Gelber, Jimmy Morales, Mark Samuelian, Michael Gongora

Jimmy Morales contract extended at ‘secret’ meeting, raise coming added by Ladra on February 19, 2019
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