Cagni Park: Was North Miami’s request for $5 million from the county lost in the mail?
On Sept. 28, 2018, North Miami’s city manager sent a certified letter to an address just 1,000 feet from city hall asking their county commissioner, Jean Monestime, to have his fellow commissioners finally give the go-ahead for spending $5 million on a long-promised park near North Miami High School.
The letter was returned unclaimed.
Monestime, the former North Miami council member who now serves as the county’s District 2 commissioner, says his office never received the mailed request for a resolution to switch the $5 million from one planned park location in the city to another. The missing-letter response hasn’t sat well with his political foes on the city council, who say the commissioner has an odd track record of not receiving his mail.
“We kept sending mailers, mailers, mailers. He never responded,” said city council member Philippe Bien-Aime, who is running against Monestime’s chief of staff for North Miami mayor. “And he would say he never got it.”
The North Miami commissioners sent the letters after Monestime told them to formally request that he sponsor a resolution to release the funds and allow the $10.5 million park project to move forward. After city commissioners publicly complained about Monestime’s inaction at a recent meeting, Monestime said he’s been informed by county lawyers that he doesn’t need to play a legislative role in the process.
“No resolution is needed, per the county attorney’s office,” he said in an interview Feb. 20. “They should speak to the administration, preferably the county attorney’s office.”
That answer didn’t seem to clarify matters. The Miami Herald asked the county attorney’s office about Monestime’s comments, but a representative of the office declined to comment on the record. Miami-Dade’s budget office, which oversees the bond dollars in question, did respond and said Monestime needed to have the county commission pass the kind of resolution that North Miami has been requesting.
“You need a resolution to reallocate the funds to the new property,” said Nan Markowitz, the county’s bond coordinator. Because the park money would be borrowed against property taxes as part of a countywide bond program, any change in where the dollars are spent needs to be reviewed by a bond oversight board and then approved by the 13-member county commission. With the proposed park in Monestime’s district, he would be the member to sponsor the bill.
“It’s legislation,” Markowitz said. “The commissioner needs to prepare a ‘significant modification’ [resolution] to reallocate the funds ...”
The county commission has been passing modifications of its $2.9 billion Building Better Communities bond package since voters approved it in 2004. North Miami has been requesting the park resolution since it passed its own resolution committing the funds to Cagni Park in November 2014.
“I guess there’s just a disconnect between the city and the councilman and the county. Something is missing there. There is a loose wire,” said North Miami Councilwoman Carol Keys. Some others on the council say Monestime’s inaction may be intentional.
At the heart of the dispute is Cagni Park, a public recreational facility in the heart of the city that was torn down a decade ago to build a new high school. The park, with a pool and playing field, is supposed to be rebuilt by 2021 on a nearby piece of land, swapped by the school board in exchange for the land where the new school was built. The total budget is $10.5 million, with $2 million coming from the city, $3.5 million from the school board and $5 million from the county in the form of bond money — borrowed dollars paid back through a special property tax that covers debt.
Miami-Dade voters approved the borrowing in a 2004 referendum, a tiny piece of a massive $2.9 billion spending plan.
The only catch: the bond funds were originally designated for a different North Miami park project that is now defunct because the land is contaminated. Although the city has passed various resolutions on the matter, ultimately it’s up to the county to officially divert the funds to the Cagni Park project instead.
“There is no issue on my part,” said Monestime, who won his county seat in 2010. “That money has been sitting there since 2004. It’s their money.”
Monestime says the process has gotten needlessly contentious, thanks to the political season. His chief of staff, Mac-Kinley Lauriston, is running for mayor of the city in the upcoming election. His top opponent is Bien-Aime.
Lauriston, who said he is on unpaid leave from his position in Monestime’s office, acknowledged that the process around Cagni Park has dragged on. He said it’s important for the council to work closely with Monestime to get the project done.
“I’ve spoken to Commissioner Monestime also, and the money will be released [for Cagni Park] and we want to be sure it is used for the right purposes,” said Lauriston.
At issue, said Lauriston, are the city’s alleged financial problems. In 2017, the Auditor General made 30 findings in North Miami regarding the city’s administration, in particular, the spending and purchasing procedures. In September 2018, a former North Miami assistant budget director accused the city of being financially insolvent and concealing its deficit by siphoning money from city reserves and utilities.
On Feb. 12 the city council voted 5-0 to temporarily put $5 million of its funds into escrow earmarked for Cagni Park in order to move the project forward. According to North Miami City Manager Larry Spring, the deadline for the first phase of the park, which includes a multipurpose field and all of the parking, is March 31, 2020.
The entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of April 2021.
This story was originally published February 25, 2019 at 1:38 PM.
