Palmetto Bay came to Miami-Dade’s County Hall to block a bridge. Then things got testy

On Thursday, a Miami-Dade County commissioner accused Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham of blowing off a county vote on a bridge opposed by her village, and produced a photo of the mayor in exercise gear to prove the point.

“Not one member of the village of Palmetto Bay appeared before this chamber on Feb. 2 to say one word. They did not say do not build this bridge,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said from the dais at County Hall, referring to a vote and project that are now the subject of lawsuit threats from Palmetto Bay.

As she spoke, a presentation on the chamber’s video screens switched to a selfie Cunningham posted on Facebook after an early morning workout in a park that February day. “Instead, someone went exercising and went to a personal trainer that morning.”

The visual aid drew a protest from Palmetto Bay’s Village council, seated before the County Commission in a rare joint meeting to try and resolve a fight over a bridge that produced a bitter divide between the two boards.

The official purpose of the meeting was a conflict-resolution session over Palmetto Bay’s planned lawsuit against Miami-Dade over the county’s 2021 approval of a canal bridge over Southwest 87th Avenue. A requirement before one government sues another, the session produced an official impasse declared by county commissioners in a unanimous vote, along with ample evidence of how heated the bridge fight has become.

“We are here as co-equals,” Palmetto Bay Council Member Steve Cody said in a raised voice from his seat in the well of the chambers, looking up at the raised dais where county commissioners sit. “We are not here as supplicants.”

At the heart of the tense session was the county-approved bridge that would let 87th Avenue run over the canal north of Cutler Bay, where leaders have welcomed the chance for a more direct route north.

Palmetto Bay leaders say the project would bring a traffic nightmare of commuters to a stretch of 87th that’s currently a dead end road. They’re planning to sue, a legal fight the village’s own lawyers said the municipality is unlikely to win given Miami-Dade’s authority to build bridges on county roads.

In pursuing a legal challenge, Palmetto Bay has cited the Feb. 2, 2021, resolution sponsored by Cohen Higgins endorsing the $3 million bridge and asking that funds be set aside for its construction.

It was filed the night before the meeting, and Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz used a rule implemented during the county’s ongoing COVID-19 state of emergency that lets him shield last-minute resolutions from postponements if any commissioner objects.

The bridge was also approved in votes later that year by the county’s Transportation Planning Organization and by the County Commission in budget votes following public hearings.

In an interview, Cunningham said she didn’t attend the Feb. 2 meeting because she didn’t have time to change her work schedule as a union executive to make it to County Hall that day. “I can’t turn things around on a dime,” she said.

Others criticized Cohen Higgins for the rushed vote at the meeting, too. Miami-Dade’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, held the District 8 seat on the commission before Cohen Higgins and urged her to allow more time for public comment. “I do think it’s very unfortunate this came on this last-minute item,” Levine Cava said at the Feb. 2 meeting.

On Thursday, Cohen Higgins said she didn’t have a chance for a more drawn-out process after commission committee hearings were canceled in early 2021, and that her office notified Palmetto Bay leaders the bridge item was coming before the board. “This is the biggest ruse,” she said of the village’s objections.

At the start of Thursday’s joint session, several Palmetto Bay residents wore black “No Bridge” T-shirts and criticized Cohen Higgins, who represents the village on the commission.

“Our District 8 commissioner never once held a meeting with the village of Palmetto Bay residents prior to her last-minute move,” said Catherine Viera, who lives on 87th Avenue. “My voice was never heard.”

That statement brought a rebuke by Diaz, chair of the county commission, for violating the board’s rule against criticizing commissioners during public comments. “I’m going to ask you guys for the last time,” he said. “Do not single out an individual commissioner.”

Palmetto Bay’s vice mayor, attorney Leanne Tellam, cited Diaz’s rule when she objected to Cohen Higgins posting a blown-up image of Cunningham’s Facebook post.

“I would ask the same discretion be respected with regard to calling out individual members,” she said. “The commissioner is speaking to specific items with regard to individual members and their activities.”

Cohen Higgins, a lawyer who is running for a full term this year after being appointed to the vacant District 8 seat in late 2020, used most of her comments to accuse Palmetto Bay officeholders of poisoning the debate over the bridge.

“Disagreements happen all the time,” Cohen Higgins said. “This disagreement, stemming from comments from the village, has not only been distorted and politicized, they have gone so far as to be weaponized.”

Cunningham is a possible challenger to Cohen Higgins in 2022, and referenced a potential District 8 run in her comments Thursday.

“I am somewhat saddened by the comments of my commissioner,” she said. “If I ever decided to run for county commission, based on what I’ve seen today, I’ll really have to step it up a little bit. ... We don’t usually engage in that kind of back and forth on our council.”