Opportunity to welcome you to the meeting of the City of Miami Code Enforcement Meeting.

My name is Darcy Siegel, and I am the special master who has been assigned to hear the cases today.

At this point, if we can all rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance together and remain standing, please, so that you can be sworn

in.

I plan to lead to the class.

Please remain standing.

Do

you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Thank you.

Do you solely swear of do you solely swear and affirm you would translate from English to Spanish and Spanish to English to the best of your ability?

Thank you.

Do

you solve do you solely swear and affirm that you are translating from English to create to English to the best of your ability?

Thank you.

All

right, before we hear our first case, I have some a few preliminary remarks that I'd like to um read.

As a special magistrate, I hear the case in the manner same as a code enforcement board.

I am authorized by Florida statute and the city code to hear and decide cases brought against those persons and or property who have been cited for violations of various ordinances but who have not corrected the alleged violations or not corrected them in a timely manner.

Each case will be called and the respondent whose property and or business is the alleged violator will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty to the issued violation or violations.

If the respondent pleads guilty, both the city code compliance department and the respondent will have the opportunity to explain what is going on, and then as a special magistrate, I will decide how much time, if any, will be given to comply the violations and any amount and the amount of any per diem lien to be issued.

Daily fines imposed can be up to 250 dollars per diem for residential property and up to 1,000 per diem for a non-residential commercial property for a first-time violation and up to $500 per diem for a residential property and up to $5,000 per diem for a non-residential commercial property for a repeat violation.

If the respondent pleads not guilty, the city through the assistant city attorney will present its case.

After the city presents its case, the respondent will be permitted to present your defense.

Both the city and the respondent will have an opportunity to present evidence and to examine and cross-examine witnesses.

If the respondent is not present and the respondent's representative wishes to present the responder's defense, the representative must either be a licensed attorney in the state of Florida, have a valid power of attorney, or some other legal document which gives them the authority to represent the property interests.

If the representative does not have a valid power of attorney or other legal document, then the case will be heard in abstention and the representative does not have the legal authority to present a defense or testify before

me.

If a hearing is requested through a plea of not guilty, the hearing is conducted in an informal manner.

However, all discussions, presentations, and questions are limited to matters relating directly to the violation cited.

After all the evidence is presented, I will determine whether the respondent is guilty or not guilty.

If I find that the respondent is guilty, um, then I will issue a per diem amount of fine that will be associated with that order.

If I determine that the violation is one that has created an irreputable or irreversible harm through the evidence and testimony presented, an additional fine of up to $15,000 may be issued.

When an issued violation has been complied, it is your responsibility as a property owner to contact the code compliance inspector to have the violation complied.

If the violation is not corrected by the required date, the per diem lien as ordered today shall issue without further hearing.

The lien imposed will be a lien against the cited property and against any other real or personal property owned by the violator.

If you need to request an extension of time after the imposition of time to comply today, you may do so online by visiting WWW dot MiamiGov.com and in the search queue, type in extension of time.

You must request the extension of time before the time given today expires.

For those here for an extension of time, please be prepared to let me know where you are in the process of coming into compliance with the violation.

How much time you're seeking to extend your compliance date by, and then I will request any relevant information and recommendations from the city.

Lastly, any orders entered by me as a magistrate may be appealed to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals within 30 days of today's date.

That concludes my opening remarks, and now we're ready to begin with the calendar.

Council Up has four cases on the agenda.

I'm gonna call the first one as extension of time, page 63, property address 2742 Southwest 8th Street, case number 00054264.

The second one is on page 67, property address.

Let's just

do the one at a time.

Yeah.

Because I'll get too confused.

Sorry.

Good

morning, sir.

Good morning.

Could you please state your name and address for the record?

Yes, Ben Fernandez 200 South Biscay Boulevard here on behalf of the property owner.

And we are requesting uh your honor, we're requesting an extension of 120 days.

We have a uh building permit and we've made revisions.

Uh

the

uh master permit is uh expecting inspections shortly.

Uh we think that we'll have it all completed by the end of January, but in an abundance of caution, we don't have to bother you again.