Minutes: Civil Service Board 02-22-22

City of Miami

3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL  33133
www.miamigov.com

Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, February 22, 2022
10:00 AM
Commission Chambers

Civil Service Board

Troy Sutton, Chairperson
Rodrigo Jimenez, Chief Examiner
Rafael Cabrera, Board Member
Ulysses Garcia, Board Member
Travis Lindsey, Board Member

Pledge of Allegiance

The meeting was called to order at 10:21am, with the Pledge of Allegiance.  At commencement of the meeting, attendance was as follows:

Adoption of Agenda

Motion by Board Member Jimenez, seconded by Board Member Lindsey, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

A.     Approving of the Minutes

A motion was entered to approve the Minutes as presented, which resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Lindsey, seconded by Board Member Jimenez, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

B.        Personnel Matters

C.        Military Leaves of Absence

Motion by Board Member Jimenez, seconded by Board Member Lindsey, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

D.        Disciplinary Matters

E.        General Items

As there were no objections or corrections to the Findings and Recommendations, the Chair entertained a motion to approve the Findings as presented, which resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Lindsey, seconded by Board Member Jimenez, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

Attorney Michael Pizzi, Jr. appeared on behalf of Major Simmons, stating his reasons for requesting a continuance for today’s hearing. ACA Ferguson expressed no objection to the request. Following discussion, a motion to grant the continuance resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Lindsey, seconded by Board Member Jimenez, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

F.         Reports

Chair Sutton asked if there were any objections from the Attorneys to the Report. Osnat K. Rind, Attorney on behalf of the Employees appeared before the Board and responded that she accepted the draft Report but objected to the Rebuttal submitted by Assistant City Attorney (ACA) Ferguson.

ACA Ferguson replied that her intent was to provide the Manager with additional information regarding the testimony presented during the hearing. She went on to say that the draft Report, as forwarded to the attorneys, was revised and includes information provided by Attorney Rind, and she believes that both sides should be included in the final Report to the Manager and Department.

Member Lindsey stated that he had some trouble with the Rebuttal, in that it included statements that the Board did not necessarily agree with, so he was not in support of including it. Member Jimenez went on and agreed to not accept the Rebuttal as well.

Special Counsel Dyer asked for clarification as to which document the Board wished to accept, whether it is the January 25^th initial report, or the revised report dated February 22^nd, which includes some of the employee attorney’s additions.

Chair Sutton responded that it is his understanding the Board Members did not necessarily agree with the Department’s Rebuttal, and he will be voting on the February 22, 2022 revised document. He went on to ask Special Counsel Dyer if the report should be voted on first and then submit his amendment to the recommendation. She responded in the affirmative.

Member Cabrera went to say that he thanked the staff and Special Counsel with the way they listen to the Board’s comments and document what the Board says. He went on to say that he thinks that they do a very good job and he supports what had been done thus far.

Assistant City Attorney Ferguson asked again if the Board understood that they were accepting supplemental information for the Report from one side and not from the other. 

Chair Sutton replied that the Board understood.

Following discussion, the Board entered a motion to DENY submission of the Department’s Rebuttal, which resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Lindsey, seconded by Board Member Jimenez, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

Chair Sutton remarked that he thought more was added to the recommendations, specifically regarding, Superintendent Garcia’s inability to speak English. Nonetheless, he wished to add something because he thought it was a terrible thing that at his level, the Superintendent could not communicate with so many of his subordinates.

Following further comments, the Chair asked if the Executive Secretary could come up with language that could be added to Recommendation #3, to which she replied in the affirmative. The Executive Secretary read the revised wording in Recommendation #3 as follows:

 “Superintendent Garcia take English lessons for his own personal development, the benefit of the non-Spanish-speaking employees, as well as the vendors and residents of the City of Miami.”

Following review and consideration of objections and recommendations from both sides, input from Special Counsel and the Executive Secretary, the Board entered a motion to approve the Report as amended, which resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Jimenez, seconded by Board Member Cabrera, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

G.        Requests for Hearings

            NONE

H.        Today's Hearings

CONTINUED. Refer to Item E4.

ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business before the Board, a motion was entered to adjourn the meeting at 11:17 AM, which resulted as follows:

Motion by Board Member Lindsey, seconded by Board Member Jimenez, that this matter be Approved, passed by the following vote:

SIGNATURE: Troy Sutton, Chairperson

ATTEST:   Tishria L. Mindingall, Executive Secretary