FYI Miami: May 9, 2024

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

SEWER WORK ON SCHEDULE: The management of Miami-Dade’s Water & Sewer Department expects to meet all requirements of a federal consent decree that will require heavy construction spending by the 2028 deadline, Fitch Ratings reports in assessing a new bond issue for the department’s work. “Progress continues to meet the necessary deadlines under the 2013 consent decree with the US Department of Justice, the State of Florida and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection” that requires sewer system treatment and collection system repairs that should reduce sanitary sewer overflows, Fitch says. “The department remains in a capital-intensive period to address requirements under the state’s ocean outfall legislation and the consent decree,” the bond rating service said. 

NOT SO FAST: The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is advising 23 cities not to ditch citizen review panels of law enforcement, contending there is a disconnect between what a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis does and what some say it does. The law allows sheriffs and police chiefs to establish civilian oversight boards made up of three to seven members, with at least one being a retired law enforcement officer. When he signed the bill, the governor said it puts the “kibosh” on communities that have stacked review boards with activists. But an ACLU memorandum to cities and counties last week said the bill doesn’t go as far as supporters contend. “The ACLU-FL shows that the legislation has little or no practical effect on existing citizen review panels in Florida,” the ACLU said. “The legislation applies only to panels created by ordinance, not those that community groups created through a charter amendment or the authority of government officials.” North Miami said it would close its citizens investigative board July 1 as a result of the measure. Miami also has a civilian board.

BLACK HISTORY IN OPA-LOCKA: A committee has narrowed options for the site of a Florida Museum of Black History to Opa-locka, St. John’s County and Eatonville in Orange County. The selections by the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force are now being analyzed by Florida A&M University’s School of Architecture and Engineering Technology for a May 21 meeting. State lawmakers in 2023 created the task force to make recommendations. The legislation, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, required the task force to develop plans for the museum addressing overviews of different Black cultures in Florida, stretching from the 19th century into Reconstruction, the origins of the Jim Crow period and the civil rights movement. The legislation requires the committee to devise a plan for the museum to become self-sustaining.