LTC 501-2019 City of Miami Beach Municipal Prosecution Program Update 501-2019
MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY LETTER TO COMMISSION
LTC No.
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber
Members of the City Commission
City Manager Jimmy L. Morales
FROM: City Attorney Raul J. Aguila;R
DATE: September 13, 2019 S'
SUBJECT: City of Miami Beach Municipal Prosecution Program Update
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to provide the Mayor and City Commission with an
update regarding the City of Miami Beach's Municipal Prosecution Program (the "Municipal
Prosecution Program").
Historical Framework
The City of Miami Beach (the "City") invoked its legal authority to utilize the jurisdiction of the
County Court to enforce violations of the City's criminal municipal ordinances, and to prosecute
such criminal municipal violations with its own City prosecutor. The Municipal Prosecution
Program,which began in earnest on January 8, 2018, handles the prosecution of those individuals
exclusively charged with violating one (1) or more of the City's criminal municipal ordinances.
However, if there is any accompanying State law violation(s), then such individuals(s) continue to
be prosecuted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. The City continues to be the sole
municipality in Miami-Dade County that has established its own Municipal Prosecution Program
to enforce its criminal municipal ordinances.
To further address quality of life matters throughout the City, the Mayor and City Commission
approved recent legislative amendments that will increase the number of criminal municipal
ordinances prosecuted by the Municipal Prosecution Team, which include those ordinance
amendments governing high impact periods within high impact zones (Miami Beach City Code,
Section 82-443), and the criminalization of those individuals violating the City's Ordinance
governing commercial business activities or transactions on streets, parks or other public property
(Miami Beach City Code, Section 82-1). Equally important, a proposed Ordinance (scheduled for
Second Reading on October 16, 2019) which prohibits smoking cannabis, marijuana or hemp on
public property would, if adopted by the City Commission, would subject violators to criminal
penalties and, therefore, be an additional responsibility for the City's Municipal Prosecution Team.
Since its commencement, the most common criminal municipal ordinance violations that have
been prosecuted by the Municipal Prosecution Team are: Consuming or Possessing an Open
Container of an Alcoholic Beverage in Public (a violation of Miami Beach City Code, Section 70-
87); Public Parks, Beaches and Golf Courses Closed During Certain Hours (a violation of Miami
Beach City Code, Section 82-2); and Urinating or Defecating in Plain View in Public (a violation
of Miami Beach City Code, Section 70-42).
Letter to Commission Re: Municipal Prosecution Program Update
September 13, 2019
Page 2 of 2
Furthermore, the City is legally authorized to expand the role of its Municipal Prosecution Program
in order to prosecute State law misdemeanor offenses. It is foreseeable that the City will be
invoking this legal authority in the near future for specified misdemeanor offenses, which would
merit the direct prosecution of these state law violations by the Municipal Prosecution Team.
Prosecutorial Statistical Analysis
Thus far, the Municipal Prosecution Team has been involved in the prosecution of six hundred
and thirty-nine (639) criminal municipal ordinance violation cases, which has resulted in the
successful prosecution of four hundred and sixty-six(466) cases for various quality of life offenses
including, but not limited to those offenses identified above. Forty-seven (47) cases are still
pending, out of which seventeen (17) of those criminal defendants have had Arrest Warrants
issued for their failure to appear in Court, while thirty(30) cases have been set for trial or a hearing
at a future date. The remaining cases have been either Nolle Prossed by the City, as part of a
plea agreement, or dismissed by the Court.
Presently, the Municipal Prosecution Program has yielded an impactful 78.7% prosecution
success rate, which has had a clear tangible effect in the community by facilitating a reduction in
the commission of the City's quality of life offenses, and consequently, had a significant impact in
protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the City's residents, visitors and tourists.
Should you have any questions or concerns about any of the foregoing, please don't hesitate to
contact Aleksandr Boksner, Chief Deputy City Attorney.
RJA/AB/sp