2010-0727 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting July 27, 2010 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida clarity, you don't want to take the position that if we interpret the County Code, that is the extent of our job. You would want to say, for us to interpret the County Code only is not going to solve your problem. We are back to the difference of something being legally correct and sufficient, and something being practically correct and sufficient to solve someone's issue, and he thinks the Mayor's frustration lies in the fact that somebody walked in and asked a question and then is taking that answer as the gospel, and it doesn't really solve their problem because they may not be aware that we have our own standard on the books that might supersede your standard or be more restrictive or not, and that is not really even up to you to decide, but it certainly is up to the County to say okay, like you said on the bottom of your letter, but maybe put that front and center that says here is our opinion on our Code, now you need to go to the City and get one from them because they could conflict. Mr. Meyers said he could agree with about 95% of what you said, discussion came up and he thinks that the requester was well aware of the fact that there was a City Ethics Code and a provision that arguably was on point. We do have the authority to interpret your City Code and we probably should have done it at our July meeting and not hold it over to August and there may have been a completely different outcome, and he can't speak to the Ethics Commission but that has happened before where other cities or requesters have come to us and we say under the County Code it is not a conflict, under the City Code it is, and so that could be the conclusion that is drawn by the Ethics Commission and he is here because we have great respect for the work that City governments do and certainly it is your legislation, it is not ours. Our job is simply to interpret it, and ifthe plain letter ofthe law says something, we are not going to go outside the boundaries of that especially involving a City Code. We are more likely to do that in the County when something is unclear but you are making it painfully clear what your rule is. Commissioner Goodman asked why there can't be one Code in the whole State, he is asking because he had difficulty with Mr. Meyers at one time, and he wanted to settle, he never pleaded guilty and they fined him. The State of Florida took it up and they found him not guilty, and he came to Mr. Meyers and asked him to give him back the fine he paid and he refused. If there was one Ethics Committee and it was handled properly by one Ethics Committee, he would have been found not guilty and it would have been put to sleep. Mr. Meyers responded that the local government, County or municipal government can legislate in areas that are untouched by State law, and so ifthe State Ethics Code only goes so far, the County can impose additional ethical standards on its elected officials, its public officials, just like the City of Sunny Isles Beach can adopt standards that are stricter than the County's. The State law that exists applies to everybody, the people in Miami-Dade has to follow a second set of rules if they work for government or are elected, and people in Sunny Isles Beach has a third set of standards, and one would hope that the second and third are stricter than the first, but sometimes they cover areas that are not covered and State law does not cover the area that Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission looked into with respect to Commissioner Goodman's matter, and so that is why they dismissed it because it is an area that they don't enforce. So our County Commission says we can pass laws in an area that are untouched by State law and that is what happened, and that is what you are attempting to do here today. Under our system of government in the State of Florida, municipalities and local governments and especially a County like Miami-Dade which is a Home Rule Chartered County has the legal authority to adopt standards on its residents, on its public officials that 5