Opa-locka sets special meeting to sign city manager contract

Opa-locka commissioners are slated to sign a three-year contract Friday that would pay at least $150,000 a year to former Homestead mayor Steve Shiver.

Opa-locka has offered him the job of city manager, the city’s top-ranking administrator, after the previous manager, Kelvin Baker, resigned in July over his frustration with commissioners’ failure to make tough decisions. The city will hold a special commission meeting at 2 p.m. Friday to discuss Shiver’s contract.

Commissioners, in a 3-2 vote, approved hiring Shiver on Wednesday. He was selected from nine candidates, including former Florida Rep. Phillip Brutus and former interim city manager Ed Brown. The decision took less than an hour.

“When they want to do something, they move on it fast. They don’t want to wait,” said former Opa-locka commissioner Steve Barrett.

Barrett’s main concern, however, was checking Shiver’s history. A 2010 audit by Miami-Dade County found that millions of dollars in public funds earmarked to rebuild Homestead after Hurricane Andrew were mismanaged by the city in a series of bad investments, deals often connected to Shiver, who represented developers and owned property in Homestead after leaving office.

“If they don’t do a background check to make sure this is right, they have failed this community,” Barrett said.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Opa-locka sets special meeting to sign city manager contract."