Chamber changes tune on Miramar charter amendments

The chamber's 14-member board of directors, which had voted to oppose the amendments and a petition to put them on the ballot, now plans to sponsor an ``educational forum'' on the issue. The forum would be held when the petition has enough verified signatures to go to a November ballot, said chamber chairman Kevin Connor.

The chamber decided to change its position after the May 1 city commission meeting where Connor announced the chamber's stance. Connor said he was influenced by comments made by Lewis and Sandy Enos, another supporter of the drive, both before and after the meeting.

``We're not as aggressively opposed,'' he said. ``We have retrenched. Now we want to be a conduit to teach the public what the amendments say.''

Unhappy with the city's new land development code, Lewis and supporters began a petition drive in March. The petition asks registered voters to support seven charter amendments which call for stricter development standards, as well as eight-year term limits for commissioners and other measures.

If organizers receive signatures of 10 percent of the city's registered voters by September, the proposed charter amendments will appear on a November ballot. Organizers say they have collected about 2,000 signatures at local supermarkets, more than enough. They are validating the signatures against lists of all registered voters in the city.

The chamber particularly opposed the amendment that calls for all department heads to live within the city -- and worried that it might have contributed to City Manager Eric Soroka's departure. Soroka has accepted a job to manage the new city of Aventura and will leave the city June 3.

``We're very unhappy with the city manager leaving and we don't feel it's a coincidence, frankly,'' said Connor at the commission meeting.

The chamber board of directors voted April 25 to oppose the amendments. It was only the second time in 10 years that the chamber -- which represents 1,000 businesses in Miramar, Pembroke Park and Pembroke Pines -- had taken a political position. The last time was when Blockbuster Park was proposed two years ago; the chamber supported it.

Since the petition drive began, the chamber has received about 100 phone calls from residents asking what the amendments mean and the chamber's position on them, said Connor. Some weren't clear on what they had signed, he said.

``There were some building and zoning issues that we weren't familiar with and we had to research them,'' he said. ``It's not easy reading to the lay person. Many of the business owners are residents and they have a vested interest in what happens in the community.''

The chamber's offer is the third offer to have an educational forum that supporters of the petition have received, Lewis said.