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Councilmember cited for turning off Bullion Plaza ‘welcome to Miami’ sign

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Pictured: The new sign on Bullion Plaza went temporarily dark on March 30 when Councilmember Mike Black disabled it because it was too bright.

Miami Town Council had a moment of fireworks during the public comment portion of its April 23 meeting, when it came to light that Councilmember Mike Black took matters into his own hands and shut off the new sign in Bullion Plaza.

At the time, members of the community thought Black had cut the electrical wires to the “Welcome to Miami” sign, as there is not an accessible switch to turn it off.

“For a councilmember to do that, there needs to be a reprimand,” Claypool resident Anna Petty said. “If you’re going to approve of what he did you won’t get support from the Consortium.”

Petty, who spoke as a private citizen and not a representative of the Consortium, is part of a group of stakeholders, including Freeport McMoRan, Capstone Mining Co. and United Fund of Globe-Miami, that raised nearly $50,000 for the Bullion Plaza lighting project.

The project was completed in early March and is part of an urban renewal effort in Miami to beautify the town and help with economic development.

According to police reports, the Black matter began on the evening of March 30 around 9: 45 p.m., when he called the police department to complain about the light keeping his mother-in-law awake in her Canyon Avenue home.

Officer Richard Shaw met with Black at the Plaza and the pair looked for a way to turn off the sign. When they could not find a switch, Black located a small black electrical box and asked Shaw for a screwdriver to take off a plate on the front of the box to access the wires inside.

Shaw produced a multi-tool and Black “removed the solid cover and separated two wires with a wire nut and wrapped the other bare wire around the first wire” to turn off the sign.

When Shaw returned to the department, he contacted Tom Foster, the executive director of the Bullion Plaza Cultural Center & Museum, who informed Shaw that Black had contacted him earlier complaining about the sign.

Foster and Shaw returned to the Plaza to inspect the sign. As he is not a qualified electrician, Foster did not reconnect the wires and intended to contact a town employee to relight the sign.

But the following morning, at about 8:20 a.m. on March 31, Black contacted police again to let them know he had done it himself and wanted a witness to see the sign was once again functioning. According to a supplemental police report, Black wanted an officer present “due to all the drama the night before.”

The matter surfaced again on April 11, when Miami Town Manager Joe Heatherly contacted the department to ask about the incident.

Subsequently, Black was cited for “damaging or tampering with facilities.” He has pled not guilty to the charges, according to Town of Miami Police Chief Spencer Preston.

Town council will discuss the matter with its attorney to see where the matter will go and whether any action will be taken against Black, whose term expires in 2020.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way,” Heatherly said in a subsequent interview. “Those wires were hot and he could’ve fried himself or he could have fried the whole sign. … The rules apply to everybody.”

The sign cost about $10,000, Heatherly said.

But the incident may revive a discussion about crafting a sign ordinance for the town, as Miami’s administrators seek to clean up town and professionalize its government functions.

Heatherly said he was considering an ordinance about a year ago to address the size and brightness of signage, among other guidelines, but the discussion was sidelined several months ago.

It is not clear at this point if a switch will be installed on the sign or not.

Foster declined comment. Attempts to reach Black received no response by press time.

The black electrical box at the base of the new sign on Bullion Plaza.

The black electrical box at the base of the new sign on Bullion Plaza.