City Commission Meeting Commission - City of Miami Beach

Afteraction September 8, 2005 City of Miami Beachauthority and responsibility to hire an engineer, and explained that the HPB sits as a judicatory bodyand if the HPB is put in a position to become advocates before making a decision, this may changethe philosophy of the board. He suggested looking into it, not as to whether there should be anengineer appointed or not, but whether the mechanism should be originated from the HPB in thisparticular way; it has to do with division of the administrative, executive, and judicial responsibilities.Commissioner Gross stated that the amendment read by Tom Mooney, which would be that the HPBrecommends to the City Commission, and then it comes to the City Commission for ratification andthe appropriations of funds, should address the City Attorney’s concerns.Murray Dubbin, City Attorney, stated that the amendment addresses his concern.Commissioner Smith asked about the language that he proposed regarding the restoration beingreasonable or feasible.Commissioner Steinberg stated that there was no opposition to this amendment.Commissioner Gross stated that he is not comfortable with that, because he is sure that there will bean attorney representing a developer who is going to state that the cost of renovating a building isunreasonable.Commissioner Smith stated that the independent third party engineer that the City will hire does nothave to agree with the developer.Commissioner Gross asked what is reasonable.Commissioner Smith asked if the engineer will tell the developer how to do it and the HPB will decideif it is feasible or reasonable to do it.Thomas Mooney, Preservation & Design Manager, stated that the criteria exists under the HPB of theCity Code that specifies that the HPB can take into consideration economic hardship.Commissioner Steinberg asked if the engineer comes up with a way of doing the job and the HPBdetermines that it is unreasonable, then who pays the engineer.Jorge Gonzalez, City Manager stated that this is solved by coming to the City Commission to approvethe expenditure to hire the engineer, and also stated that he has a proposal that states that in theevent that the HPB grants the Certificate of Appropriateness, at that time the City will bear the cost.Murray Dubbin, City Attorney, clarified that the language on page 6, paragraph (9), which states thatthe HPB shall select the independent structural engineer from a qualified list to be maintained by theCity’s Planning Department should be removed. The HPB should not be selecting and/or hiring theprivate engineer.20Prepared by the City Clerk’s OfficeM:\$CMB\CITYCLER\AFTERACT\2005\Afteractions\090805\aa090805.doc