A few residents of North Miami Beach occasionally get annoyed with me that I write about North Miami.  Some of them don’t even read my North Miami stories because they apparently are only interested in what goes on in their own back yard.  They seem to think that “what happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas.”  Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.  What happens in North Miami directly affects NMB.  And vice versa.

A few days ago I received an email from Officer Mike Bollinger of the North Miami Beach Police Department about something that’s been bothering him for a long time.  He told me that there is in place a Mutual Aid Agreement between the cities of North Miami Beach and North Miami allowing both departments to help each other out when necessary.  From what I understand, this is a standard agreement between police departments in a given community.  However, because of a clause in our agreement, the North Miami Beach Police Department has been covering a large section of North Miami’s territory along Biscayne Boulevard and Sunny Isles Causeway (a/k/a North Miami Beach Boulevard).  According to Officer Bolinger, our NMB cops are often busy writing up accident reports in those areas, which belong to North Miami, and this situation is contributing to the slower response time to North Miami Beach calls.

A public records request to our City Clerk produced four documents:

1.  A Mutual Aid Agreement dated October 31, 1990;
2.  An Agreement dated October 31, 1995, Extending Mutual Aid Agreement of October 31, 1990;
3.  A Mutual Aid Agreement dated December 10, 2001, incorporating a Joint Declaration dated June 12, 2001; and
4.  Operational Assistance Mutual Aid Agreement dated April 12, 2007, incorporating a Joint Declaration dated March 21, 2007.

The Mutual Aid Agreements are fairly standard.  Almost all the individual police agencies in Miami-Dade County are parties to these agreements with all the others.  The purpose for these agreements is so that each police department (or “party,” as they are referred to in the agreements) can work with each other and cover each others’ territory in the event of incidents that occur across municipal boundaries, such as civil disobedience, natural disasters, evacuations, terrorist attacks, prisoner escapes, and the like.  In the event of such catastrophes, each party agrees to assist each other wherever and whenever necessary.  The agreements also state that each department will furnish manpower, equipment and resources at their own expense as long as in doing so “no party shall be required to deplete unreasonably its own equipment, resources, facilities, and services in furnishing such mutual aid.”  In addition, the agreements specify that each party shall also bear its own expenses and liability arising from the result of any mutual aid, as well as jurisdiction and supervision matters.  Like I said, this is pretty standard stuff.

The Mutual Aid Agreements are signed by the City Managers, City Clerks and City Attorneys of the parties, which in our case are the Cities of North Miami Beach and North Miami.

Attached to each of the Mutual aid Agreements is a document entitled “Joint Declaration of the Chief of the City of North Miami Beach Police Department and the Chief of the City of North Miami Police Department Pursuant to Mutual Aid Agreement.”  These Joint Declarations are signed only by the Police Chiefs of both cities, and basically reiterate the circumstances necessitating “mutual aid” as spelled out in the Mutual Aid Agreements, and are comprised of standard wording.

The one glaring exception, however, is the original Joint Declaration attached to the Mutual Aid Agreement dated October 31, 1990, which includes the following language:

It seems that the Police Chiefs of both cities decided that even though these particular areas are North Miami territory, North Miami Beach officers would assume the responsibility for the enforcement of all things traffic on Biscayne Boulevard from NE 135th Street to Sunny Isles Causeway and then east to the Intracoastal Waterway.

Information I obtained from the North Miami Police Department indicated that this provision was most likely designed to benefit North Miami cops so that they wouldn’t have to travel so far from their regular territory, i.e., south of 135th Street.

No one has a clue what benefit the North Miami Beach Police Department or any of its officers received from this arrangement.

As you can also see by item 5, this original Joint Declaration gives the City of North Miami the right to use its own off-duty officers to control traffic during “sporting events” at the North Miami Stadium (151st Street and Biscayne).

That provision especially benefits North Miami cops, allowing them to earn off-duty pay when it’s available.

So, let’s see.  NMB cops have to handle all traffic cases on Biscayne Boulevard so North Miami cops don’t have to.  But during “sporting events” when off-duty jobs are available, NMB cops have no opportunity to earn off-duty pay in the very territory they otherwise have to handle 24/7.

If that weren’t bad enough, North Miami also cleans up by getting all the revenue it receives from all those “sporting events” held at their stadium (notwithstanding former mayor Andre Pierre’s personal soccer games, of course.)  Even more amazing, is that North Miami is receiving revenue from red light cameras at that same intersection, where NMB officers are required to handle and report traffic crashes on their behalf.

Am I the only one out there who thinks North Miami Beach is getting screwed by this arrangement?  Jeez, I hope not.

Aside from the fact that NMB cops are working another jurisdiction’s territory at no discernible benefit to them, there is another problem that needs to be addressed.

While North Miami Beach cops have to spend hours working traffic crashes along Biscayne Boulevard and Sunny Isles Causeway, this is valuable time that they could and should be spending responding to calls from residents of North Miami Beach.  You know, the people who actually pay their salaries!

Just this morning, Officer Bollinger told me that last night he and another NMB cop spent three hours working an accident scene on the bridge between Sunny Isles Beach and Eastern Shores.  Two Sunny Isles Beach officers handled traffic on the east side of the bridge and two of our officers handled it on the west side where the accident actually occurred.  He even sent me pictures.  Ouch!

Ironically, this is North Miami’s territory, but no North Miami cops were expected to show up nor were they called to the scene.  This makes absolutely no sense.

An even bigger mystery is the fact that the original Joint Declaration attached to the original Mutual Aid Agreement expired on October 31, 2000.  Subsequent Joint Declarations attached to the Mutual Aid Agreements dated June 12, 2001 and April 12, 2007 did not include this language.

If the Biscayne Boulevard/Sunny Isles Causeway arrangement is no longer in existence, why is our police department still abiding by that clause?

Even if this additional language was implied in subsequent agreements (which would be a real stretch), the most recent Operational Assistance Mutual Aid Agreement expired on March 1, 2010.

If there is a more current agreement in effect, the City Clerk was unaware of one and was unable to provide it to me.

If there is no current agreement in effect, our police department has been servicing the North Miami territory for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

With absolutely no benefit to our cops whatsoever.

All courtesy of the taxpayers of North Miami Beach.

I would add that the greater cost to NMB residents is that when our cops are called away to do North Miami’s job, this delays their response to our city’s needs.

Officer Mike Bollinger has been complaining about this problem to his superiors since May 30, 2012, to no avail.  Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe his state of mind right about now, which is why he came to me.

City Attorney Darcee Siegel was aware of the Mutual Aid Agreements since these are commonplace between police departments in a municipal area such as the county.  She was not aware of the specific Biscayne Boulevard/Sunny Isles Causeway.  This is not surprising since she was not the city attorney when it was signed or even when it was extended through October 31, 2000.  Howard B. Lenard was.  Darcee wasn’t even an employee of NMB until 1992 and didn’t become the City Attorney until May of 2009.

For that matter, we don’t even have the same City Manager, City Clerk or Chief of Police that we did in 2007 when the most recent Mutual Aid Agreement was signed.

With the exception of North Miami’s City Clerk Jacqie Vieira, North Miami has also had a complete turnover of staff since 2007.

In essence, there is no one to blame for this mess.  The only possible exception would be Officer Mike Bollinger’s superiors who have refused to respond to his pleas.  Okay, so I guess I am blaming someone.

But the point is now that we know there is a problem, no one can say they don’t know it exists.  All they have to do is fix it.

To my understanding, all that needs to be done is for North Miami Beach Police Chief Larry Gomer to write a letter to North Miami Police Chief Marc Elias and let him know that the clause regarding Biscayne Boulevard and Sunny Isles Causeway is no longer in effect and that his cops need to handle traffic in their own territory from now on.

In addition, since the Mutual Aid Agreement expired on March 1, 2010, it would behoove both cities to get on the ball and sign another one.  Just saying.

I extend a thank you to Officer Mike Bollinger for bringing this serious problem to my attention.  Unlike his superiors, I won’t ignore him.

Now, somebody please do something because it’s not Officer Bollinger’s or my job to run the city.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”