North Miami Beach city manager charges he’s ‘persecuted’ [The Miami Herald]

Aug. 26--North Miami Beach City Manager Kelvin Baker accused City Council members of racial and religious discrimination at a budget workshop Wednesday night.

What was scheduled as a detailed discussion of budget cuts turned into a tense five-hour drama that included one council member running out of the room in tears.

The meeting followed months of council debate on how to fill a $4 million budget hole in the face of falling property-tax revenue and rising pension costs.

Baker said he feels "set up" because the council previously rejected his plan to solve the budget problem by cutting police pension costs, even though the police union overwhelmingly supported the plan.

Without the plan, Baker has warned the council that he would need to cut hundreds of jobs and reduce salaries. But the council refused to accept that, and ordered him to come to Wednesday's meeting with other ideas.

"I don't buy into the doom and gloom," Councilman John Julien said at the time.

Instead, the normally soft-spoken, smiling Baker came with accusations and a platoon of supporters, including leaders of the local NAACP.

Baker, who also is a pastor at a Pembroke Pines church, said he was tired of "religious persecution."

"You guys are supposed to protect me from religious attacks and discrimination," he told the council. "You have not."

Baker, who is black, also said that while council members scrutinized at length his annual contract when he was hired in 2008, council members approved City Attorney Darcee Siegel's comparable $200,000 salary in 15 minutes. Siegel is white.

"I'm not afraid of you all, and I'm not afraid of no one else in this city," he told the council.

The confrontation shocked several council members and longtime residents in the audience because the city hasn't had obvious racial tensions.

"I respectfully disagree with that," Councilman Frantz Pierre said of Baker's claims.

Charges of racial and religious bias aside, Baker said he thinks the council lacks faith in him and allows a handful of residents to influence their decisions.

"You cater to it. You believe the e-mails before you believe me," said Baker, who has been with the city for 16 years.

Baker spoke out against a litany of injustices he felt he faced from the city. A senior pastor, Baker said some council members have questioned city employees who they suspect attend his church.

Neighbors, police officers and NAACP representatives were among the people who spoke at the workshop Tuesday night.

"You want to get rid of him," said Mamie Willis who lives in Washington Park, a predominantly black area of North Miami Beach. "If you get rid of him, you will not get the voters of Washington Park."

At one point Councilwoman Barbara Kramer ran out of the meeting crying.

"This is ridiculous," said Kramer, who fears the racially charged tone of the meeting will split the city along color lines.

After Baker expressed his discontent, Mayor Myron Rosner called for a confidence vote on the manager. Councilwoman Phyllis Smith and Pierre opted not to vote. Kramer cast the lone no-confidence vote.

Brad Brown, political action chair of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP joined the chorus of Baker supporters, saying the NAACP would monitor the situation.

"You will be hearing from us," Brown said.

In one alleged case of harassment, Baker said a North Miami Beach resident attended his church and videotaped his sermon to circulate around the neighborhood.

Richard Riess, a vocal critic of North Miami Beach city government, admitted he attended Baker's church three years ago with an African-American teenager who lives in his neighborhood seeking a miracle, but said he never recorded Baker's sermon.

At the time, Riess said the young man was the subject of a North Miami Beach police case and he hoped Baker's connection with the city and spiritual direction could make a difference .

"I really believed he could do something about it," Riess said.

While the majority of the council supported Baker, some questioned the motivation behind the racially based comments made throughout the evening.

"Why did the NAACP come?" asked Kramer. "There's no way it came from the citizens."

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