Year In Review     

Here are the other highlights of the year:

JANUARY: Coral Gables Commissioners made it clear to Village of Pinecrest officials and residents at their Jan. 8 meeting that they wanted the City Beautiful’s name off a March 4 ballot in which residents of village would vote on whether to succeed from the county’s fire department, and possibly join up with the city’s department.

Despite the success of a pilot program in the south Gables which allowed applications for metal roofs for a three-month period in 2007, city commissioners refrained from extending the program for a longer period of time. They were even more adamant in their belief that a similar program should not be instituted, for any amount of time, in the northern section of town which contains older houses and more built in the Mediterranean revival style which characterizes the city.

Spurred by a recommendation by the Coral Gables Budget Audit Advisory Board, the City Commission agreed to begin making inroads toward getting direct control of its road impact fee funds rather than sit by and wait for Miami-Dade County to disperse the monies at its leisure.

The city began to walk away from a controversial proposal for it to take over fire and rescue services for the Village of Pinecrest with Mayor Don Slesnick making it clear to both village officials and Miami-Dade County Commissioners that the city did not want to take part in battle over jurisdictional rights. Later in the month, in a special Village of Pinecrest Council meeting, village officials voted to eliminate any mention of the City of Coral Gables from a ballot question to go before residents involving whether the village should opt out of the belonging to the Miami-Dade County Fire District.

A late night party turned tragic Jan. 11 after Xavier Jones, 29, was Tasered by Coral Gables police at an apartment complex near the University of Miami and died shortly afterward. Miami-Dade County Police said several individuals were attending a party at the at University Inn Condominium, 1280 S. Alhambra Circle, at around 2 a.m. when Jones became disruptive spurring Gables cops to deploy their supposed-to-be-less-than-lethal weapons.

Despite being arrested on charges of soliciting a woman for prostitution on June 10, 2007, Coral Gables Police Office Alan Davis continued to be part of the department – although suspended – and still was receiving a paycheck from the city more than 6 months after he was videotaped and audio recorded offering money to the woman.

The city named Walter Reed as its new Fire Chief to replace outgoing Chief Richard Cook. Reed is a 20-year veteran of the department and beat out fellow Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Daniels for the top spot as the two had been named finalists for the position earlier in the month.

The Commission and City Manager David Brown were dealt a sharp blow on Jan. 29 when city voters resoundingly rejected efforts to eliminate the trial board as a means for certain city employees to challenge the city manager’s decision to fire, suspend or demote them. Gables voters, whose numbers were boosted by the presidential primaries, showed up in great numbers (at least compared to recent elections) to reject the commission led efforts to eliminate Section 22 of the City Charter which calls for which calls for the convening of a trial board to investigate and determine the appropriateness of firings, suspension and demotions of certain employees by the city.

Coral Gables Finance Director Don Nelson indicated that the city could lose as much as $5.5 million, or about 4 percent of the city’s total budget, as a result of the statewide approval of new property tax exemptions on the Jan. 29 ballot.

FEBRUARY: The City of Coral Gables and its now infamous pick up truck ban on overnight parking made national news when a segment on the law ran on the pseudo news program the Colbert Report which airs on the cable channel Comedy Central. The city, its pick up law and Mayor Don “Excuse me I have to sneeze” Slesnick were lampooned in the four-minute report entitled “People Destroying America” referring to Lowell Kuvin, the resident which challenged the city’s antiquated law and had it overturned by an appeals court.

City commissioners expressed their displeasure that a mixed-martial arts fight had been scheduled at Bank United Center on the University of Miami campus during the month. City Manager David Brown signed off on the event when it was presented to him as part of the annual list of events scheduled for the Bank United Center, but Brown said he was not aware of what the Xtreme Combat event entailed. No incidents resulted from the fight.

The run of plummeting crime stats enjoyed in Coral Gables for a five-year period starting in 2003 officially came to an end as statistics released by the city’s police department for 2007 show that total crime jumped  3.65 percent in 2007 compared to the previous year (from 2,246 in 2006 to 2,328 last year). Even more troubling, violent crimes jumped almost 12 percent (132 total crimes compared with 118 in 2006) with robberies skyrocketing up 51 percent (from 35 in 2006 to 53 last year) and rapes increasing 100 percent (from 4 in 2006 to 8 in 2007).

The prospect of an art cinema gracing the bottom floor of the Museum Parking Garage in the 200 block of Aragon Avenue was put in doubt when approval of the proposed 10-year lease for the cinema was unceremoniously deferred at the start of a early February commission meeting due to concerns of low rent payments to be paid by the city and a lack of control over how the business would be operated.

Two settlement agreements approved by the city and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), Lodge 7, proved costly for the city as one of the cases involved a sergeant being paid close to $200,000 not to work until he retires in 2010 and another sergeant getting almost $50,000 in retroactive pay when it was determined that he had been unfairly demoted in the previous year.

The police department announced that it changed the way it patrols city neighborhoods with Police Chief Michael Hammerschmidt saying the new squad system allows officers to target trouble spots more readily while reducing the need for costly overtime.

In an effort to further conservation efforts, the city announced a program to provide free parking for electric vehicles in the city, although how much and what kind of free parking was not made clear.

MARCH: News that a police major bought watches for the all the members of his Specialized Enforcement Division – 30 officers – as gifts with a city credit card brought the department’s handling of its purchasing, or P-cards, into question and eventually resulted in a comprehensive audit of police purchases using the credit cards over the previous six months.

Less than two months after being taken out of a more than a decade long hibernation, the historic De Soto Fountain sprung a another leak and was out of commission once again.

A commission decision to override a city staff recommendation and award a lighting fixture bid at the Salvadore Park Tennis Center to the second most responsive bidder led to a bid-protest from the most responsive bidder.

The commission reluctantly approved a large project on a small lot of land at 4300 Ponce de Leon Blvd. proving Vice Mayor William Kerdyk’s fears that a law passed a year earlier would result in such projects in the city’s industrial district.

The city agreed to pay back $650,000 worth of pension contributions to its fire union in order to bring to conclusion an ongoing dispute with the State of Florida and free up pension monies owed to the union and its police counterpart.

Despite an ongoing investigation into the use of purchase, or “P” cards, by police department officials and recent revelations over the questionable use of the credit cards by other city officials, Coral Gables Commissioners collectively yawned at the issue when asked by the Gazette whether it represented a systemic or widespread problem. Later in the month, they were forced to address the issue at a meeting when civic activist Roxcy Bolton insisted that it be addressed – and chastised City Manager David Brown for his personal use of the p-card over the past several years.

Mechanical parking lifts may be widely used in other parts of the country, but Coral Gables Commissioners announced they would do their best to make sure that the devices are used sparingly in the City Beautiful at a meeting in late March. They directed City Manager David Brown to send the issue of the parking lifts and whether or not they should be allowed and in what quantities back to city boards to get recommendations on how to reduce or at least limit their use in particular projects.

APRIL: Paralleling what has happened in the Police Department with crimes, the Coral Gables Fire Department reported increases in several kinds of fires in 2007 compared to the previous year, although building fires – perhaps the most dangerous category for firefighters – continued a downward trend as there were only 8 compared to 11 last year (which itself was down from 20 in 2005).

Less than two weeks ahead of the scheduled Trial Board election, City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez issued an advisory opinion that members of the city’s three unions are ineligible to vote or nominate members.        The unprecedented opinion – Coral Gables trial boards in the past did have participation from union members – means that City Clerk Walter Foeman has to throw out all the candidates and start anew with a further delay of at least two months.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the richest man in the world according to Forbes Magazine, made what might have been his first stop ever in the City Beautiful April 4 when he visited the Westin Colonnade in downtown to take part in the Government Leaders Forum (GLF) Americas event.

Disgraced former Building and Zoning Director Margaret Pass rocked City Hall when she submitted an extensive public records request April 1 letting city officials know she still holds a winning, and potentially crippling, set of cards. Pass gave city officials a peek at the hand she threatens to play ahead of her trial board date in a four-page public information request which includes a mountain of documents pertaining to most senior management in the city and casts a daunting picture over the lengths the former director will go to clear her name or take down those she feels have crossed her.

The University of Miami was dealt its latest tragedy in the early morning April 6 when 19 year old freshman Kelly Jones died after falling out of a student dormitory. Jones was found semi-conscious at around 3:30 a.m. and transported to a hospital but pronounced dead a short while later.

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