MIRAMAR — Miramar City Commissioner Winston F. Barnes, 73, will keep his seat on the dais.

City leaders planned to vote at Monday night’s meeting on whether to oust Barnes for attending commission meetings remotely throughout the pandemic. But before any commissioners could discuss or vote, Commissioner Maxwell Chambers, who brought up the motion, withdrew it.

Barnes had filed a motion to fire City Attorney Burnadette Norris-Weeks and the firm she represents, Austin Pamies Norris Weeks Powell, PLLC. She, too, will get to keep her job, commissioners decided.

After the hours-long heated discussion and public comment surrounding Barnes’ and the city attorney’s potential terminations, commissioners largely agreed that they wouldn’t support losing either person.

Mayor Wayne Messam said Monday’s meeting was “one of the darkest” he had seen in his 10 years on the job. Messam said he was surprised to see the topic on Monday’s agenda because no commissioner supported taking action on Barnes’ potential firing at the last meeting.

He couldn’t support removing Barnes, Messam said, pointing out that the agenda item made it seem as if he “has been absent, void, silent, AWOL for one year” when Barnes was still attending the meetings and voting on items. He told commissioners he was not in favor of removing the city attorney, either.

“There obviously is not support for the removal of our attorney, but I must say that I don’t know how this wound can be mended, but there has to be some way that it’s addressed,” Messam said. “It has to be.”

After Barnes had attended meetings virtually from May 20, 2020, through September of this year, commissioners asked Norris-Weeks for her legal input on whether a commissioner was obligated to attend meetings in person and if he or she could be in attendance without physically being there.
Norris-Weeks issued a memo that says if the mayor or commissioner does not attend meetings for three consecutive months, he or she can be “relieved” of office by the commission’s majority vote.

Barnes, 73, who was elected in 2003, “emotionally shared his medical conditions” at an October meeting and told his colleagues that a family member of his had been hospitalized and remains in a coma, a letter from Barnes’ attorney, Keith Poliakoff, to City Attorney Burnadette Norris-Weeks says. Barnes recently returned to attending the meetings in person.
Poliakoff’s letter to Norris-Weeks notes that Barnes was marked “present” in the minutes for each meeting he logged into from May 20, 2020, through Sept. 1 of this year and that Barnes was never told he may be violating the city charter for attending and participating virtually.

Barnes said Monday that the city attorney “literally set me up” by not telling him about his needing to physically be in the chambers. “The taxpayers and the city of Miramar deserves better than it is getting with our city attorneys,” he said.

He defended himself from some who have brought up that he has been going to work in person at the radio station where he works. “I sit in a booth by myself, and on top of that we are such a small operation if at any time there are five people in the building, we are overcrowded,” he said. “When I left work today, there were two other people in the building.”

Before removing his motion to fire Barnes, Chambers said he felt staff made their best efforts to provide a safe environment at the chambers for leaders to return during the pandemic with plexiglass shields and mask requirements. He proposed that commissioners in a future situation may create a rotating schedule for commissioners to decide who can work virtually and when to avoid the same issue.

“When you’re here to do the people’s business, you have to be responsible, that’s why we are here … We all came back, staff came back, and there’s no excuse,” Chambers said.

Commissioner Alexandra Davis said accusations that the discussion to fire Barnes was political retribution was “quite maddening.”

“It’s very clear what the charter states — that we needed to have shown up for work,” Davis said. “All of that being said, we agree to move on from this as a lesson learned and that hopefully in the future [if] any one of us have an issue coming to work, we’ll let our colleagues know …””

Barnes’ motion to fire the city attorney argued that the commission had “lost faith in the Norris-Weeks ability” to provide legal counsel in the best interest of Miramar citizens. No one supported Barnes’ motion.

Vice Mayor Yvette Colbourne said she could not support removing the city attorney “based on what one commissioner feels has been one wrong incident.”

“That’s now how you judge someone’s performance. I think when we have an issue it needs to be worked on, it needs to be resolved,” Colbourne said. “We need to be reasonable, and we need to approach these things both as adults and as professionals.”

Michelle Austin Pamies, a partner at Austin Pamies Norris Weeks Powell, PLLC, said the opinion provided to city leaders about Barnes’ attendance and participation was the best, most accurate opinion the city attorney could provide.

“When a commissioner comes to you and asks for a legal opinion on any matter, you provide the opinion you think is accurate. We are not advising the city commission to take action. We’re asked to provide an opinion,” Austin Pamies said.

Link: South Florida elected leader worked remotely during COVID. His peers determined whether he could keep his commission seat
Auther: ANGIE DIMICHELE