LTC 208-2009 Protests at City Hallm M I AM I B EAC H 2u09 AUG -5 Ff9 3~ 21
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# zoa-zoo9 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
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DATE: August 4, 2009 1C~~
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SUBJECT: Protests at City Hall
This Letter to Commission is intended to provide you with information relating to the protests that have
occurred outside of City Hall yesterday and last Friday.
In late June, the Florida Carpenters Regional Council ("Union") began demonstrations in front of the
Loews Hotel on Collins Avenue relating to a contractual issue. Those contractual issues are private
matters that do not involve the City. With matters involving demonstrations and other first amendment
protected activities of this nature, the City's role is only to ensure that pedestrian and vehicular flow is not
impacted, or access is otherwise limited due to the protests (e.g. ADA accessibility). However, since that
time, the City has received numerous calls reporting violations of our noise ordinance by these Union
protestors. Our Code Compliance Division has responded to assess the level of the noise, and
determine if a violation was occurring.
After responding to several noise complaints, on June 30, 2009, the City issued a written warning, and
subsequently, on July 1, 2009, a first violation was issued. On both occasions the City received
complaints. The City Attorney's Office, City Administration and Code Compliance staff held a conference
call with Union officials and their attorney to discuss our noise ordinance and the violation. Staff offered
to meet with Union officials onsite to provide some general suggestions on levels of noise. As you know.
noise that meets the threshold of a violation is impacted by many situations and conditions: among which
include time of day; surrounding/ambient noise; wind/weather; and elements that may affect the way
noise travels. such as buildings. At their request, we agreed to send the same code compliance officers
whenever possible.
The City continued to receive noise complaints, but no violations were issued because they were
deemed not valid. On Saturday. July 26, 2009, we responded to a complaint from a resident of the
Decoplage Condominium, two buildings north of the Loews Hotel. The complaint was called in at 9:00
a.m., and officers arrived at 9:20 at the resident's unit. The complaint was deemed valid.
On that date, the Union protesters also began demonstrating on the beachwalk immediately east of the
Loews Hotel pool deck. On July 30, 2009, another complaint resulted in a violation; this complaint
involved protesters on the beachwalk.
The following day, the Union began protesting in front of the Code Compliance office and City Hall. They
are complaining that we have issued noise violations to them for their protests. The Union has been
advised that they can appeal the violations to the Special Master. We had an opportunity to meet with
the Union representatives on Monday to discuss the noise ordinance, the City's position and the options
available to them. As of this morning, we have investigated two-dozen noise complaints relating to the
protest at the Loews since June 26th.
We will monitor and respond to any future noise issues, and continue to provide you information relating
to this matter. Please feel free to call me should you have any questions or require additional information.
JMGlhmf
F:lcmgn5ALL1HFernandez\Code CompliancelNoiseIFGRC Protest LTC.doc