Dr. Victoria Watlington to host town hall, moderated by Channel 9's Joe Bruno
On Thursday, Council Member Dr. Victoria Watlington will be hosting a town hall that will be open to the entire Charlotte community.
It will be called 'The First 100 Days: Reflections and Insights in Intergovernmental Affairs.'
County to start $11M Latta Place transformation with new trails, visitors center
Channel 9's Joe Bruno will be moderating a panel of community leaders that includes County Commission Chair Mark Jerrell, County Sheriff Garry McFadden, and State Representative Jordan Lopez.
It will happen from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
VIDEO: County to start $11M Latta Place transformation with new trails, visitors center
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Miami Herald
14 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Inmate names to remain public under ICE agreement with Miami-Dade jails, admin says
A proposed update to Miami-Dade County's detention agreement with ICE won't cause any changes with how family members can find relatives in local jails or give the federal immigration agency extra authority within the county's Corrections system, a top deputy to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava pledged Monday. James Reyes, chief of public safety under Levine Cava, said the updated agreement does not give Immigration and Customs Enforcement additional powers in Miami-Dade jails, where the county already has a state-mandated cooperation agreement with ICE to hold inmates for two extra working days if they're booked on local charges while also being sought for deportation. The agreement, proposed by Levine Cava, is scheduled for a final vote before the County Commission on June 26. Immigration advocates have expressed concerns that the proposed update to that agreement would give ICE the ability to remove some inmates' names from the Miami-Dade online portal, where anyone can search for someone to see if they're being held. Reyes said all inmate names will remain in that public database, even those being held for ICE. 'Nothing is going to change,' said Reyes, who was the county's Corrections director before Levine Cava promoted him to his current position, overseeing the jails and the Fire Rescue Department. 'If somebody is in our custody — we have a public-facing site that's searchable where you can see who is in our custody. That's going to stay the same. As long as they are in our custody, they will appear in that searchable database.' Immigration advocacy groups had hoped to block approval of the agreement at a Monday morning committee meeting by the County Commission. That meeting of the Policy Council was canceled when not enough commissioners showed up to meet the quorum requirements. While commissioners didn't show, multiple local residents did attend to object to the ICE deal that is recommended by Levine Cava but requires a commission vote. 'It's immoral,' said Silvia Muñoz, a Miami volunteer for the Cuban American Women Supporting Democracy advocacy group. 'It's a human-rights issue.' Miami-Dade already had a fierce fight over turning over county inmates to ICE when they're sought for deportation. That was in 2017 during the initial weeks of the first Trump administration, when Miami-Dade under then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez agreed to honor detention requests from federal immigration agents. The county had been declining to delay releasing inmates at ICE's request before Trump took office unless the federal government agreed to cover the extra jail costs. When Trump promised a crackdown on 'sanctuary' jurisdictions, Gimenez, now a Republican member of Congress, agreed to drop the reimbursement requirement, and commissioners voted to endorse the new policy later that year. Levine Cava is a Democrat who voted against the Gimenez ICE policy when she was a county commissioner in 2017. She hasn't sought to change it since becoming mayor in 2020. Reyes, a former Democratic candidate for county sheriff, said the proposed update to the existing ICE agreement would let Miami-Dade collect $50 from Washington for every inmate it holds for ICE. 'The only thing that changes for us is currently we don't get reimbursed,' he said. It costs about $523 million a year to run Miami-Dade's jails, where the average daily population is 4,700 inmates, according to budget documents. That translates to a daily cost of about $305 per inmate. Advocacy groups pointed to language in the proposed 'Basic Ordering Agreement' with ICE that governs public records in the county's Corrections Department. The agreement states that information generated under the arrangement becomes 'under the control of ICE' and can only be released by federal authorities. Reyes said he couldn't offer an example of what kind of public record would be covered by the agreement but said it could be federal documents — like a detainer request itself. Advocacy groups say the language could be read as giving Miami-Dade the green light to remove inmates' names from local search portals once the people are being held for ICE, making it impossible for their custody status to be known to civilians. Local jails release inmates to ICE when the person has a federal 'detainer' request attached to their name in federal law enforcement records. Those detainer requests ask a jail to hold someone for up to two business days past when they would otherwise be free to go on whatever local charges brought them into the jail system. Juan Osorio, who is part of the Tallahassee-based Rising Voices Collective advisory group, was also in the audience for Monday's canceled committee hearing. He said the public-records language is problematic. 'It would basically make it impossible — or very difficult — for the public to get that information,' he said. Osorio said he wants to hear from the mayor's administration on its interpretation of the language. 'They need to clarify that for the next meeting,' he said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
‘It's really sad we got to this': Flooding concerns loom in Apopka as hurricane season begins
It was October of 2024 when Hurricane Milton hit Florida. Following its path, communities in Apopka were left underwater for several weeks. 'I don't want a repeat of last year,' said Amber Barrick, a long-time Apopka resident. 'It is really sad that we've gotten to this point, but let's get the long-term plans there.' Barrick lives at the Wekiva Village. As of Wednesday, it all looked normal and dry – quite a different picture from 2024, when the same community was left without power for more than a week, and their homes were filled with water streaming down their hallways. Since February, there's been a border lake project in the works that would address concerns for the entire city. However, neighbors say so far, the plan is just that - a plan. 'As of today, I don't believe the plan has been executed,' Barrick said. According to the City of Apopka, the work should not take long to begin. '[It should start] really soon,' Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson said. 'I need to get city council approval; if I can get this document opened, I will present it.' City leaders debated the project on Wednesday, but they were not able to reach an agreement about when the project would start. Orange County claims all the details about their part in the project have been defined. 'The county has put in the gauges, has done a study, and prepared all the paperwork to submit to Saint John Water Management,' said Commissioner Christine Moore, who represents District 2. Channel 9 also confirmed that the City of Apopka was eligible for funds for flooding projects from Hurricane Ian. The money—more than 85 million dollars—was awarded to Orange County through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, offered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Municipalities could apply for the grant until February, but according to a county official, the City of Apopka never finished its application for the funds. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Palm Beach County suspends DEI policies to save nearly $330 million in federal funds
The Palm Beach County Commission has taken emergency action to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from its policies to reduce the risk of losing millions in federal funding. This action on Tuesday was spurred in response to President Donald Trump's executive order that prohibits the use of federal funds for the promotion of gender ideology and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs. For Palm Beach County, this action will mean several changes to county policies, including: — Suspending portions of the county's Equal Business Opportunity Ordinances, removing the enforcement and utilization of preferences or distinctions based on sex or race. — Eliminating the county's Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, though this office never was staffed. Masimba Maxwell Mutamba, who is with the county attorney's office, told county commissioners during a public meeting on Tuesday that the goal of the emergency ordinance is to 'minimize the potential that a federal agency will independently decide that Palm Beach County is not fulfilling the terms of the grant conditions that incorporate these executive orders.' 'Basically, what we are recommending is that this board pass an emergency ordinance that suspends certain provisions of programs we currently have in place that may subsequently be found or determined by a federal agency to be violative of certain grant conditions,' Mutamba said. For the 2025 fiscal year, the county received nearly $330 million in federal grant funds, according to county documents. 'Although staff believes all county policies, programs and ordinances are consistent with the current interpretation of federal law by the courts with jurisdiction, the new interpretation of federal law by federal regulatory agencies raise concerns and could subject the county, the county commissioners and staff to potential legal liability,' county staff wrote. In need of a four-fifths vote by the County Commission to go through, the county commissioners voted 6-1 to put the emergency ordinance into effect but not without much turmoil expressed by some of the commissioners about the decision. 'I am committed to fairness, opportunity and inclusion for everyone in Palm Beach County because when we invest in every part of our community, we all rise. With that being said, I don't want to risk $329 million that come into our neighborhoods to provide essential services that we all rely on,' Commissioner Joel Flores said during Tuesday's meeting. 'There's no bone in my body that wants to approve this suspension. But I will do it only because I don't want jeopardize the livelihood of some.' Commissioner Gregg Weiss called the decision one of the hardest votes he has had to cast in public office. 'It's attack on local control, and it threatens the fairness that we all have been working on so hard to build into our system,' he said. 'For years, we've made sure that small businesses, especially those owned by women, minorities and historically excluded groups have a fair shot at doing business with the county. This new policy puts that progress at risk.' Not every commissioner shared these sentiments. 'I don't agree that this is a terrible thing to happen. I don't agree that having the best person for the best job at the best price for our taxpayers is a bad thing,' Vice Mayor Sara Baxter said. 'I can't be any more in support of something that gets rid of things based on race, whether it's one way or the other. That's a terrible way for society to thrive, and we got rid of it, and to go back to it is awful.' Mayor Maria Marino said she viewed the decision to go forward with the emergency ordinance as a 'temporary insurance policy for our taxpayers and our grant programs.' The Palm Beach County School Board set out to take similar emergency action in April, removing references to affirmative action in hiring, minority preference in vendor selection, racial balance in student assignments and racial diversity on some district committees, among other changes.
