Local Historian Files Legal Complaint With State Attorney’s Office Against MDC Board Of Trustees

Marvin Dunn is outraged. 

The 85-year-old historian and civil rights activist believes the Miami Dade College District Board of Trustees met in secrecy on Sept. 23 when they called a special meeting at Hialeah Campus. 

At the gathering, the trustees unanimously voted to convey 2.63 acres of property—that sits next to the Freedom Tower and is valued at $67 million—to the State of Florida for the construction of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.

“They passed it without discussion, unanimously. How does that happen? And then within hours, the state announces…the land’s going to go to Trump,” Dunn said at a press conference on Oct. 1 in front of the state attorney’s office where he filed a legal complaint. He later added, “I don’t think that happens without people talking behind the scenes.”

Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega denied the accusations in an email to The Reporter: “Miami Dade College fully complies with Florida’s Sunshine Law in noticing and conducting its Board of Trustees meetings. For this particular special meeting, notice was provided seven days in advance, the agenda was published on the College’s website, and the meeting was open to the public. In fact, a reporter from the Miami Herald was present at the meeting.”

A special board meeting notice is posted on the College’s press releases webpage, dated Sept. 16. It states: “the District Board of Trustees will discuss potential real estate transactions.” 

To find the notice, you can go to the school’s main page at www.mdc.edu, access the About MDC drop-down menu at the top of the page, click on MDC News and then click on the Press Room tab.  

The gathering, unlike regular BOT meetings, was not livestreamed.

“The absence of the disclosure, the failure to include the matter properly on the agenda, and the immediate announcement of the land’s dedication to the Trump Presidential Library strongly suggest that decisions were made outside the public eye, in direct violation of the Sunshine Law,” Dunn wrote in his legal complaint.

District Board of Trustees Vice Chair Roberto Alonso said that the special BOT meeting was triggered following a request made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Pumariega’s office on Sept. 16: “to convey a piece of property to the state for public good.”

On Sept. 30, the Florida Cabinet voted unanimously to convey the land toward the construction of the Trump Presidential Library.

“This is really going to be able to continue to create that cultural center right there in Downtown Miami, with several other museums and the Freedom Tower just reopening last week, having the presidential library there is going to really add to that component,” Alonso said to The Reporter after the cabinet’s decision. ”It allows us to integrate curriculum and strengthen our role as a national leader in education for the College.”

Dunn, who is a professor emeritus at Florida International University, strongly disagrees: “The issue here is they took land from our kids without the decency of asking us, the public, what we thought about that.” He later added, “Don’t be misled, this is not a historical project. This is an economic development project…with hotels, condos and encased in that, this presidential library.”

Reporter staff members Lucas Duarte and Juan Subero-Bellizzio contributed to this story.

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