Public meetings resuming in Miami-Dade. Letting in the public not so easy
This week, Miami-Dade’s county commission chambers will open for the first time since March and resume meetings with commissioners seated at a dais divided by six-foot-tall acrylic barriers. The public will still be participating online, with microphones set up one floor below in the lobby of County Hall for comments to be broadcast to commissioners.
In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency order suspending a state rule requiring government bodies meet in person in order to satisfy quorum requirements. Citing the dangers of COVID-19 infection in close quarters, the governor’s order allowed elected officials to satisfy quorum rules by convening electronically.
That led to months of Zoom government meetings, as DeSantis extended the order under pressure from local elected officials who weren’t eager to resume in-person meetings as the coronavirus pandemic continued. DeSantis’ last extension came in October, and the governor allowed the order to expire Nov. 1. That’s meant a scramble to help elected officials still keep their distances while conducting public business.
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Miami Beach is getting creative when it comes to a state requirement that elected officials meet in the same room in order to comply with quorum rules. City commissioners won’t be using their regular chambers, and instead will convene in the Miami Beach Convention Center.
They’ll still communicate by teleconference, with drapes and piping to divide separate spaces for each commissioner, city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier said.
Members of the public can still participate by Zoom at the next city commission meeting on Nov. 18. The city also will provide access to a computer in a separate room inside the convention center for those who can’t join from home. The actual, temporary commission chambers in that facility will be closed to the public.
“Given the level of community spread in our county, it’s really not responsible to create a situation where the public feels like it will need to attend a public meeting indoors for hours,” Mayor Dan Gelber said.
Virginia Hamrick, staff counsel for the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, said it’s legal to limit public participation in government meetings to the electronic realm.
Sunshine Law doesn’t require public to be there in person
“As long as the public can participate by video and speak before the commission during the decision making, this is allowed under the Sunshine Law,” she wrote in an email. “The Sunshine Law also requires board meetings to be open to the public. If chambers are limited to commissioners, employees, and media, the public must have some way to watch or listen to the meeting.”
In North Miami Beach, a series of commission meetings Tuesday — including a critical hearing on the $1.5 billion Intracoastal Mall redevelopment — were moved to the Julius Littman Performing Arts Theater, instead of the smaller City Hall chambers where meetings used to take place. The theater has over 900 seats, providing plenty of room for social distancing.
Commissioners and charter officers are allowed in the theater, while members of the public who want to attend in person must watch virtually from another room next door. It all still unfolds via Zoom — commissioners with the app open on their computers, and the public able to comment either from home or through a computer set up in the viewing room.
“It’s basically a Zoom meeting with the commissioners in person,” said assistant city clerk Roxanne Rosenthal. “We just want to protect everybody.”
Miami’s commission is set to meet three times the week of Nov. 16 to tackle a long list of legislative items and consider appointing someone to replace Keon Hardemon, who won election to the county commission Nov. 3.
City staff plan to limit capacity but still allow members of the public inside City Hall, a relatively small building that formerly served as the Pan American Airways seaplane terminal on Dinner Key. People will be allowed to speak to the commission at the lecterns inside the chamber, but a reduced number will be permitted to stay to watch the meeting.
The dais has been outfitted with multiple acrylic panes to separate commissioners and senior administrators from each other and the audience. Tents will be erected in the circular driveway in front of the building to accommodate people who can’t stay inside due to capacity limits. Most administrators will likely address commissioners via video conference.
Budget austerity scraps county’s plan
Miami-Dade had initially planned to revamp its meeting quarters to allow for members of the public to sit in the audience and participate in person. A plan unveiled in late September, when a DeSantis extension was in doubt, announced the conversion of the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami as temporary commission quarters. Members of the public would be spread out in the 2,300-seat facility, with commissioners on stage.
That approach was shelved for the isolated commission chambers set to debut this week. Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, who directed the new meeting planning, said Miami-Dade didn’t want the additional expense needed to run the auditorium as the new chambers while the county grapples with the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The budget next year is going to be tight,” she said.
Miami Herald staff writer Martin Vassolo contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
