Black leaders urge Miami Mayor Suarez to veto takeover of Virginia Key Beach board
A coalition of Black community leaders have asked Mayor Francis Suarez to veto the city’s takeover of managing historic Virginia Key Beach, once the only beach that Black Miamians could visit during segregation.
Fourteen business leaders, activists and clergy signed a letter to Suarez on Monday requesting a veto of the City Commission’s vote to name itself the new board for the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. Commissioners had criticized the trust’s management and said it has taken too long for the agency to develop a civil rights museum in the park, a facility that has been discussed for more than 15 years.
Advocates have pushed back, saying commissioners overstated the trust’s financial issues and are holding the agency to an unfair standard regarding the museum plans because it can take years to plan and fund such a facility. The letter criticizes the commission for changing the trust’s leadership, which is majority Black, saying it changes “a board that reflects the voice of the Black community to a board of the City Commissioners, which are majority Cuban.”
The change made Commissioner Christine King the chair of the trust’s new board, which will now include the four remaining commissioners and two more members King can appoint. The racial makeup of the current commission means the new seven-member board can at the most have three Black members.
The city code allows the mayor to veto ordinances passed by the commission within 10 days following the vote. If the mayor does nothing, the ordinance takes effect. Unless Suarez blocks it, the new board will operate for at least one year. The commission agreed to revisit the board’s composition in 2023.
“You asked, ‘How can I help?’” the letter begins, referencing Suarez’s famous viral tweet signaling his support for moving tech companies to Miami. “The Black community in Miami needs help now and you have the power to do so with a simple signature.”
The commission could override a veto with a four-fifths vote at a future commission meeting. The vote to change the board passed 4-1, with Commissioner Ken Russell voting no.
Local leaders who signed the letter included Teri Williams, president of OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the country, as well as Ruban Roberts, immediate past president of the Miami-Dade NAACP, Woodwater Investments CEO Barron Channer, Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce CEO Eric Knowles and Rev. Dr. R. Joaquin Willis of the Church of the Open Door, United Church of Christ.
Advocates spent hours urging commissioners last week to keep the previous board, pushing back on commissioners’ claims that the agency was mismanaged and asking the city for more support to build a long-planned civil rights museum.
“The VKB Takeover is egregious and smacks of disrespect for Black Miami,” the letter to the mayor states. “We cannot quietly tolerate the erasure of our culture, voice, and involvement in the Miami we love … so we are prepared for a fight. We begin by asking you to help by using your veto power.”
Suarez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Commissioners last Thursday approved the overhaul days after an audit recommended the trust implement better financial controls and improved accounting practices. Before the audit, commissioners said there was “malfeasance,” even though the audit did not reveal any wrongdoing.
Suarez has declined a request from Black leaders to veto controversial legislation before. In April, the NAACP asked him to veto changes to the city’s voting map that moved more than 100 Black households from District 2 into District 4, which critics argued diluted the Black community’s political power. Suarez responded that the map that was approved was the only politically viable option that would pass the commission.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 6:03 PM.
