Filing # 75793205 E-Filed 07/31/2018 10:29:19 PM

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE 11TH

JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA

CIRCUIT CIVIL DIVISION

CASE NO.: 18-23224-CA-30

WILLIAM DOUGLAS MUIR,

AN INDIVIDUAL,

Plaintiff,

vs.

CITY OF MIAMI, A FLORIDA

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION,
FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR,
CITY OF MIAMI, EMILIO T.
GONZALEZ, CITY MANAGER,
CITY OF MIAMI, VICTORIA
MENDEZ, CITY ATTORNEY,
CITY OF MIAMI, KEON
HARDEMON, CHAIRMAN,
CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION,
KEN RUSSELL, VICE
CHAIRMAN, CITY OF MIAMI
COMMISSION, JOE CARROLLO,
COMMISSIONER, CITY OF
MIAMI COMMISSION,
WILFREDO GORT, COMMISSIONER,
CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION,
MANOLO REYES, COMMISSIONER,
CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSION,

Defendants, vs.

MIAMI FREEDOM PARK, LLC,

Intervenor,
_________________________________/
GRANT STERN’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO INTERVENE IN SUPPORT OF A WRIT
OF MANDAMUS

GRANT STERN (“Stern”) comes now sui juris and acting pro se, respectfully requests leave to
intervene in this action pursuant to Rule 1.230 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, and
states:

1. Stern is a resident of Miami-Dade County and at all times during the events described
below, a registered voter and resident of the City of Miami. He is a journalist and radio
broadcaster in addition to his profession as a Florida licensed mortgage brokerage
business owner.
2. On July 8th, 2018 at 10:25pm Stern made a public records request1 seeking public
records about items RE.9 and RE.10 noticed on the agenda for a regular meeting of the
City of Miami Commission (“City”) scheduled for July 12th, 2018.

1
​https://miami.nextrequest.com/requests/18-1060
 3. On July 10th, 2018 at 11:09AM the City delivered document 993568.pdf (“the item to be
heard”) which contained the 2-page item to be heard for a preliminary lease proposal2 to
create a referendum intended to permit the conveyance of a 99-year tenancy on the City’s
single largest piece of land for the minimum amount allowed for such a lease, a token
$3.5 million annual payment without the City Charter’s requirement for competitive bids.
The item to be heard was dated June 27th, 2018 on the top of its first page.
4. The City of Miami held a public meeting on July 12th, 2018 for the purpose of discussing
the pair of proposed matters RE.9 and RE.10 and placing them onto the November 4th,
2018 general election ballot in Miami-Dade County, for all city residents to decide if the
municipal governing document should be amended to permit a no-bid contract by
referendum.
5. Stern attended the July 12th, 2018 public meeting and was given the opportunity to make
public comment before the applicant, Miami Freedom Park, LLC (“applicant”), was
heard later in the evening. Stern’s speaker’s form from that date is on file with the Office
of the Miami City Clerk. The public was not allowed to speak after the applicant was
given an extended amount of time to present their plan to the Commision.
6. The City Commissioners debated the RE.9 and RE.10 items until late into the night of
July 12th, ultimately voting unanimously to defer the item until the following week after
attempting to ‘negotiate a deal on the dais’ with the applicant for permitting no-bids on
the billion dollar real estate project. The City and the Applicant discussed coming to a
new deal during the intervening week when the public meeting take place.
7. The Commissioners voted specifically to schedule a special meeting on July 18th, 2018
to continue their hearing on the two items on the July 12th, 2018 agenda and stated that
they would not accept further public comment the next week.
8. Stern repeated his public records request and restated it to include all records which were
not delivered prior to the July 12th, meeting which would pertain to the deferred item to
be heard on July 18th.

2
​https://miami.nextrequest.com/documents/659753
 9. The City delivered to Stern a record with a 3-page plan entitled MFPTERMSHEET.PDF
which contained a 3-page term sheet3 (“the second item to be heard”) on July 17th, 2018
at 4:53pm with new and different terms and conditions which was dated on the top “July
17th, 2018.”
10. After Stern published a copy of the new item to be heard onto his website at
medium.com/@grantstern, the Miami Herald subsequently linked to my report saying
that it was the first copy produced by the City containing the second item to be heard on
RE.9 and RE.10 at the folowing day’s special meeting of the City Commission and they
published a story at 8:17 p.m. entitled “Revised Terms for Beckham soccer complex offer
city concessions; more money.”4
11. At 10 a.m the following morning of July 18th, 2018 the City commenced a public
meeting of its Commission to hear the item delivered less than 24 hours prior to my
public records request.
12. I arrived to Miami City Hall at 3500 Pan American Drive at or about 11:30 a.m. on the
morning of July 18th with the intent of reporting on the public meeting to my readers
online, the nearly 100,000 people who follow my public social media feeds and as well to
speak as a resident of the City in opposition to the item.
13. At 12:03 p.m. two hours after the City began its meeting, Stern was provided a copy of
the Meeting Agenda as the attachment to an email pursuant to his public records request.
5

14. I was not allowed inside the building for the public meeting in violation of Miami-Dade
County Charter Citizens Bill of Rights (A) 5 which commands the City Council to
provide the Right to Be Heard and Miami-Dade County Charter Citizens Bill of Rights
(A) 1 which stipulates Convenient Access for members of the public to do business with
their municipal agencies.
15. A sworn law enforcement officer of the City of Miami appeared at the front door of City
Hall and locked the doors, after denying my request for a speaker’s form to register my

3
​https://miami.nextrequest.com/documents/670128
4
​https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article215021850.html
5
​https://miami.nextrequest.com/documents/673918
 formal objection to the Commission’s decision to refuse public comment (​video​).6 The
City later identified the officer as Sgt. At Arms Edison A. Abbott.7
16. After greater than two hours of waiting outside in a suit during summer temperatures
above 85 degrees, and literally begging City Fire Marshals, police officers and the Sgt. At
Arms and all City officers who would listen, eventually a City police officer decided to
alert the City Clerk’s office that I wished to file a formal written objection to the
Commission’s decision to refuse public comment. Twenty minutes later, a deputy clerk
arrived with the speakers form, and informed me that Commission Chairman Keon
Hardemon decided that there would not be public comment. A video and audio record is
available upon request. A paper record is on file with the City.
17. The City maintains in its Motion to Dismiss that it has followed the Florida Sunshine
Law in their hearing of the item to be heard on July 12th, 2018.
18. Stern alleges that Defendants the City, City Attorney Victoria Mendez, and Commission
Chairman Keon Hardemon, City Commissioner Joe Carollo and Commissioner Ken
Russell agreed to hold a public meeting on July 18th knowing that the second item to be
heard would be considered, but the public would not be allowed to give comment on that
item in violation of F.S. 286.0114 which states, ​“​Members of the public shall be given a
reasonable opportunity to be heard​ on a proposition before a board or commission. The
opportunity to be heard need not occur at the same meeting at which the board or
commission takes official action on the proposition if the opportunity occurs at a meeting
that is during the decisionmaking process and is within reasonable proximity in time
before the meeting at which the board or commission takes the official action.”
19. Stern alleges that holding public comment on the item to be heard at the first meeting,
before the Commission set a new hearing with the second item to be heard is prima fascia
evidence of an unreasonable opportunity to be heard. The City’s unfair decision to close
public hearing before the meeting began, rendered the ability to give comment one week
earlier, ​before ​the second item to be heard was introduced an inherently unreasonable

6
​http://bit.ly/denied-miami
7
​https://miami.nextrequest.com/requests/18-1152
 opporunity to be heard on a proposition since its true details only became known five
days after the start of the hearing.
20. Stern alleges that the Commission had a mandatory duty to accept public comment once
the second item to be heard was introduced and it accepted comment from the Applicant,
and in failing to do so deprived him of the reasonable right to be heard under Florida
statutes and the Miami-Dade Charter Citizens Bill of Rights (A) 5.
21. Stern alleges that the city’s substitution of the second item to be heard in a continued
hearing gave unreasonable notice of the item to be heard since the real decision was
being made based upon the second item to be heard in a blatant violation of the Florida
Sunshine Law, Art. 1, Sec. 24 (b) of the Florida Constitution which requires that,​ “​All
meetings of any collegial public body of the executive branch of state government or of
any collegial public body of a county, municipality...at which official acts are to be taken
or at which public business of such body is to be transacted or discussed, shall be open
and ​noticed to the public​.”
22. Stern further alleges that Defendants the City, City Attorney Victoria Mendez, and
Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon, City Commissioner Joe Carollo and
Commissioner Ken Russell knew the city did not publish notice of the second item to be
heard before the first hearing on July 12th, and therefore knowingly violated the Florida
Statute. 286.011(1) which expressly requires that ​“The board or commission ​must
provide reasonable notice​ of all such meetings,” ​when they sat for the second hearing on
July 18th.
23. Stern alleges that neither he, nor members of the public were not provided reasonable
notice ​before ​July 12th that the second item to be heard was going to be substituted at a
continued public hearing on July 18th, 2018, and only provided less than 24-hours before
the commencement of the meeting at which a decision would be made. Stern has
appeared at such hearings with expert witnesses and legal counsel in the past, but with
less than a day to prepare for a hearing, which had a new item and no public comment, it
was impossible to meaningfully analyze the proposition, let alone bring the kind of
experts and legal counsel necessary to give meaningful public comment.
 24. Stern also alleges that the improper continuance of the July 12th item to be heard violates
the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter (A) 7 which stipulates “No Unreasonable
Postponements.”
25. This matter is still in the early stages, and Stern’s participation as a party/plaintiff will not
delay or otherwise disrupt the proceedings.
26. Stern has emailed plaintiff and defendant seeking leave to intervene. Plaintiff has not

WHEREFORE, Stern respectfully requests the Court to enter an Order granting this Motion for
Leave to Intervene, permitting Stern leave to intervene in this action as a party/plaintiff, and
granting Stern the right to participate fully in all aspects of these proceedings.

Respectfully submitted,

by: ​Grant Stern, Pro Se

9630 E. Bay Harbor Drive

℅ Morningside Mortgage

Bay Harbor Islands, Fl. 33154

grantstern@gmail.com

(786) 220-0117
SERVICE LIST

William D. Muir, Esq.

Douglas Muir, LLC
3855 Stewart Ave
Miami, FL 33133
douglas@muirlaw.miami, wdmuir@gmail.com

Ian E. DeMello, Esq.

John K. Shubin, Esq.
Shubin & Bass, P.A.
46 S.W. First Street, 3rd Floor
Miami, FL 33130
eservice@shubinbass.com, idemello@shubinbass.com, jshubinbass.com Attorney for ​Miami
Freedom Park, LLC

VICTORIA MÉNDEZ, City Attorney JOHN A. GRECO, Deputy City Attorney

CHRISTOPHER A. GREEN, Senior Assistant City Attorney Attorneys for City of Miami
444 S.W. 2nd Avenue,
Suite 945
Miami, FL 33130-1910
Tel.: (305) 416-1800
Fax: (305) 416-1801
Email: cagreen@miamigov.com
Secondary Email: dbailey@miamigov.com