Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega answered a question on Tuesday about an activist’s allegation that the college had violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.
Historian Marvin Dunn asked Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz for a temporary injunction because the Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees had not properly notified the public about the meeting when they voted to transfer land for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.
Ruiz temporarily blocked the planned transfer on Oct. 14. Pumariega said the Miami Dade College’s Board of Trustees gave adequate public notice about the meeting on Sept. 23.
“We posted it seven days in advance,” Pumariega said about the Sept. 16 public notice. “Special meetings require two to three meetings. Actually, we ran an ad in The Miami Herald.”
The notice announced that the trustees were going to “discuss potential real estate transactions,” but it was not specific.
Pumariega had to step away for an event and couldn’t talk about why the vote on the 2.63-acre parcel near Biscayne Boulevard, next to the Freedom Tower, wasn’t livestreamed.
“I want Miami Dade College trustees to rescind that offer,” Dunn told Local 10 News earlier this month. “They took land from our kids without the decency of asking us, the public, what we thought about that.”
In September, after the vote, Roberto Alonso, the vice chair of the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees, told Local 10 News This Week In South Florida Anchor Glenna Milberg the college received a request from the state for the parcel.
“I really feel like that piece of parcel should serve the students of our college, and by having this opportunity, I think it was one that was great for our community and our students,” Alonso said.
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