Pictured: The sign at Bullion Plaza in Miami and the site of Miami Councilmember Mike Black’s (inset) brush with the local law enforcement officials.

Miami Councilmember Michael Black was fined $150 on Monday, July 23 for violating an ordinance that forbids tampering with facilities or equipment in a public park.

The trial stemmed from an incident on March 30 on the first night that the new Miami welcome sign was turned on at the edge of the park area adjacent to the Bullion Plaza Museum.

The facts brought forth by special prosecutor Daisy Flores were not in doubt. Black reacted to the distress of his ailing 87-year-old mother-in-law by disconnecting the sign when all other efforts to rectify the situation failed. Black expressed that he felt it was incumbent upon him as a town councilmember to help out a constituent.

He testified that he first called the executive director of Bullion Plaza, Tom Foster, who according to Black said that he didn’t have keys to turn the light off and directed Black to City Manager Joe Heatherly. Black said he could not call the city manager directly because the manager would not let Black have his cell phone number, so he called the mayor and asked him to call the city manager. Foster said that he didn’t remember Black asking him for a key.

Black testified that after 45 minutes he called in officer Richard Shaw of the Miami Police force, found an electrical box near the sign and got the loan of a multi-tool from the officer to open it.

All agreed that Black undid the wire nut holding the hot wire and ground wire together, wound the ground wire safely away from the hot wire and capped the hot wire with the wire screw.

In his testimony, Officer Shaw insisted that he had not offered the tool to open the box but rather Black had asked for it. And he resisted the idea that both he and Black cooperated in disconnecting the light. Shaw said that he thought Black was just going to throw a switch or something, and he testified that he had felt awkward about what Black was doing. On being asked why he didn’t arrest Black on the spot, he said that he had “no explanation.”

According to Officer Shaw, he went back to the station to complete a police report, called Foster to come back to the Bullion Plaza building to turn off the power to the sign at the breaker box. Photographs were taken of Black’s handiwork. The next morning Black notified the police that he had reconnected the wires in the box.

In court both sides strove to up the ante. Black cited studies detailing the effects of sleep deprivation could have on an 87-year-old woman who “wasn’t doing well,” and the other side gave the impression that little children were likely to have been electrocuted by the ground wire that was twisted away from the hot wire, which Black left capped when he screwed the electrical box tightly shut.

Black represented himself, and Judge Paul Larkin guided the nervous, self-advocate in trial procedures (no arguing a case in cross examination, what opening and closing statements were and so on.) The judge ruled that Black was guilty of violating the ordinance, and ended with a lecture to Black, asserting “You have not lived up to your position,” citing the aura of authority which had made Officer Shaw so uncomfortable.

In reference to Black’s taking it upon himself alone to interfere with a sign that had been approved by the whole council, the judge admonished Black,

“No one elected you king,” he said. “We all have to work together.”

Black still thinks the sign is too bright and not set so as to welcome anyone to Miami or to advertise events effectively. Black also expressed some bitterness about the fact that he was cited once by Miami for a single flood light in his back yard, while the huge sign with its 32,768 LEDs was deemed okay