A Miami Lakes council meeting turned heated Tuesday with one town councilman butting heads with the newly-appointed vice mayor, raising his voice at the mayor and storming out.

The bickering began early in the night during the discussion of a six-year, $317,000 contract for solid waste services with Choice Environmental.

Councilman Richard Pulido questioned whether the town should lock itself into that rate for six years. He asked the council to consider a shorter term contract instead.

Town Manager Frank Bocanegra, however, assured the council he could renegotiate the contract at any point or terminate it with a 10-day notice. Fellow council members said they felt comfortable with that response.

``It's a no-brainer. If we look at the market and say it's better to renew it, we will,'' Councilman George Lopez said. ``It's our option.''

But Pulido continued to urge the council to reconsider the contract length, at which point Vice Mayor Nick Perdomo -- appointed to replace Pulido as the vice mayor -- ruled him out of order and asked him to cut his comments short in the interest of time.

The council then approved the contract by a 5-1 vote. Pulido was the dissenting vote. Pizzi had excused himself from voting because he represents the town vendor.

But another debate ensued during Pulido's questioning of the contract with Gonzalo R. Dorta, who would receive $40,000 to handle any outside litigation matters for the town and an additional $40,000 to lobby at the state level on behalf of Miami Lakes.

Pulido told council members he worried the proposal limited the town to paying a federal lobbyist only $40,000 since the town budgeted $80,000 in total for lobbying.

Bocanegra assured the council that amount would be more than enough.

Council members expressed their support for the contract, but Pulido still urged caution.

When he attempted to request the council separate the issues, Pizzi cut him off saying there was support to approve the contract as is. Pulido jumped in, raising his voice.

``I made a motion and I was interrupted in the middle of making a motion. This is not a tyranny,'' he shouted.

``I was elected like you were. I will speak. You or no one else on this dais will silence me.''

Ruling him out of order and calling him childish, Pizzi told Pulido his behavior was ``unbecoming of a council member.''

The council then voted 6-1 to approve the contract. Pulido voted against it and left the meeting, failing to vote on a number of other items before the council that night.

Pizzi later said, ``I can't have council members speaking for five hours when no one else on the council agrees with them. We'll never get anything done . . . There's no excuse for losing decorum and acting in an unprofessional manner.''

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