Black Coalition Plans Last Stand Against Virginia Key Takeover

On October 13, Miami city commissioners voted to remove the majority-Black board of trustees in charge of Virginia Key Beach Park — the first beach designated for Black residents of Miami-Dade County during segregation in the 1940s. Despite intense public outcry at a city meeting, the commission voted 4-1 to oust the board and make themselves managers of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust.

Incensed by the ouster, a coalition of Black leaders, including former trust chair N. Patrick Range, fought to persuade Mayor Francis Suarez last week to veto the commission's vote. The group sent Suarez a letter saying the commission had tried to justify its actions with "inaccurate accusations of financial malfeasance" against the board.

Among the signers on the letter was Fabiola Fleuranvil, managing partner at investment firm Icon Heritage Partners, and Teri Williams, president of OneUnited, which is branded as the nation's largest Black-owned bank.

"We cannot quietly tolerate the erasure of our culture, voice, and involvement in the Miami we love," reads the message to the mayor.

Under the city charter, Suarez has ten days after a piece of legislation is passed to veto the item. For the Virginia Key takeover, his last day to block the ordinance was Sunday, October 23.

Suarez declined to do so, sealing the end of an era for Virginia Key Beach Park.

"Our hope was that the mayor would have some backbone and veto this thing on principle. Obviously, that did not happen," Range tells New Times.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, Suarez said he decided not to veto the legislation because the commission had acted "decisively" and had the power to overturn his veto with a 4-1 vote.

"I have great trust and confidence in Chairwoman [Christine] King, as does her community which elected her," Suarez said, describing city commissioner King's new role at the helm of the trust. "I have no doubt that she will lead the Virginia Key Beach board with integrity, efficiency, and inclusiveness."

King, the sole Black member of the city commission, will chair the trust and have control over two at-large appointments to the seven-member board under the new setup. The five city commissioners will occupy the remaining seats. (Previously, the majority of the board was appointed by the commission.)

Though the chances of convincing the commission to reverse course are slim, the coalition and former park trustees are mounting a final call for community members to come express their disdain for how the commission has handled Virginia Key Beach Park. The group is inviting residents to make their voices heard at Miami City Hall at 8 a.m. this Thursday, October 27.

Range says that the commission's actions removed the voice of the Black community from future decisions in the park, particularly on the long-proposed Black history museum for which the county has earmarked more than $20 million in bond money.

"We feel like our voices have been taken from us, and this is about making our voices heard," Range says.

In the letter to Mayor Suarez, the coalition defended the former trustees against criticism that they took too long to start work on the museum.

"Most museums take decades to build including the Pérez Art Museum and other museums in Miami-Dade County. Black Miamians should not be held to a higher standard than other communities," the letter reads. "The majority Black board of the Virginia Beach Park Trust should be applauded for its stewardship rather than maligned."

Before the city supplanted the existing board, commissioners Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla cast aspersions on the trustees, accusing them of fiscal mismanagement based on the findings of an audit that was confidential at the time.

Once it was made public, the audit report found accounting lapses in the trust and determined that the trustees failed to follow city requirements on record keeping.

However, despite Diaz de la Portilla's comments on the dais that the trustees got caught "with their hands in the cookie jar," the report did not show evidence of trust fund misappropriation.

The former trust chair demanded an apology from commissioners for the comments made against his board, but so far none has been given. Range, an attorney by trade, now says he is open to the option of legal action against the commissioners for those comments. He asserts that the former board members could face undue personal and professional repercussions after having their reputations sullied by public officials.

"There is certainly a legal route that can be taken, and I believe their words amount to slander. That option is available to us," he says.