Village Council still without a permanent meeting place

A new policy from Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado has forced the Cocoanut Grove Village Council to change its meeting location from City Hall to Ransom Everglades Middle School, where the council met on Jan. 21 for its first meeting of the year.

“It is unfathomable to me that the Village Council has had our meeting venue taken away with very little notice and no real explanation,” newly elected Village Council member Stephen Murray said on a recent blog post. Murray is one of two councilmen representing the West Grove.

The Village Council had to find a new location after Regalado, who was elected in November, said he wanted to allow more access to City Hall to non-city affiliated meetings, said Village Council Chairman Patrick Sessions.

“The city manager then told us we couldn’t meet there every month. We thought we had approval, but now we have to meet elsewhere,” Sessions said.

The city of Miami has established an internal committee that is finalizing the requirements to hold non-city affiliated meetings at City Hall on a rotating basis, according to City Manager Pedro D. Hernandez’s office. The main condition of eligibility is that the organizations be within city limits.

“The recent change came about as our new mayor would like to provide the community with a means for additional access and outreach to city residents,” said Lynn Westall, senior assistant to the city manager. “The concept is to allow use of City Hall to non-city affiliated registered homeowners’ association, community organizations, etc., in an effort to share matters of importance with a greater audience.”

The venue change marks the second time since November that the Village Council has been booted out of City Hall. The council learned two days before its scheduled Nov. 12 meeting that the mayor had a new policy regarding meeting space. The Village Council met then at the Abanico Theater at the Academy of Arts & Minds Charter High School on Commodore Plaza.

Sessions said that he met with Regalado about two weeks ago and was told that the city is working on procedures to set up a meetings schedule. However, Hernandez’s office said the city has not yet calendared any future meetings.

“If the intention is to allow more neighborhood associations to meet at City Hall, why cancel the only one that currently does meet there?” Murray asked on his blog. “It just doesn’t make sense to any rational person.”

One component that Village Council members are worried about is the use of City of Miami’s Channel 77, located in City Hall.  Without City Hall’s cameras, meetings are not able to air on the Comcast channel for the public to view from their homes.

“There are a lot of people who can’t make it out to the meetings because they have work or have to get home to their kids,” Sessions said. “It’s really important that we’re able to broadcast on TV.”

Sessions said that a fixed schedule is needed, so if they are not able to broadcast on Channel 77, the Village Council can post the meeting on its own website.

“Mayor Regalado and I discussed the Channel 77 issue,” Session said. “And he is willing to upgrade and work with us on the video element of our meetings.”

For now, the Village Council is making sure it has a steady meeting venue for the future – Ransom Everglades being one option, Sessions said.

“The school has been wonderful, and they have a really great place to hold meetings. But I would like to get back in there,” said Sessions, referring to City Hall. “We aren’t just a bunch of people that were put together. We’re elected officials, just like the mayor and city manager. And elected officials should be in City Hall.”

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