MIAMI — Much remains unclear about what Surfside’s role may be in any on-site inspections of the Champlain Towers South collapse site, but town commissioners made clear Wednesday they would not cut a “blank check” to take part in court-sanctioned testing and sampling to investigate what caused the June 24 collapse.
Commissioners — who said they tried to balance fiscal responsibility and a “moral obligation” to the families of the 98 victims and their high-rise residents — voted unanimously Wednesday to pay up to $500,000 to participate in the on-site tests along with the defendants and plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit stemming from the collapse that killed 98 people.
“We need to put some money where our mouth is right now,” Commissioner Charles Kesl said at the meeting.
Early estimates presented to commissioners Wednesday put the cost of collecting the samples at about $4 million, to be split among defendants, plaintiffs and interested non-parties like Surfside, although the court-appointed receiver for the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association said it could be up to $7 million.
Still, the total cost is not known, and Miami-Dade Judge Michael Hanzman has yet to rule on the cost allocation. The prevailing proposal is for defendants to pay 85% of the total cost and plaintiffs to pay 15%. The commission agreed Wednesday to propose that the town, which has not yet been sued, pay either 10% or up to $500,000, whichever is less.
The commission also authorized the town’s attorneys to file a motion with the court proposing the arrangement. First, the attorneys said, they need to negotiate with attorneys for the other parties to the lawsuit.
The town’s initial proposal of $200,000 was rejected by attorneys already, the town’s legal staff said.
Surfside’s town manager, Andy Hyatt, called the special commission meeting Wednesday to approve the “cost allocation on the inspection protocol” ahead of a scheduled Friday court hearing, according to a town spokeswoman.
But it remains unknown how much the town would end up paying for the investigation. Following the collapse, the town hired its own structural engineer — Washington-based Allyn Kilsheimer — to find out what caused it and to ensure the safety of neighboring buildings.
The town has budgeted about $2.5 million for Kilsheimer’s firm, KCE Structural Engineers, and other vendors to investigate the cause of the collapse. Of the $1.5 million that the commission has authorized, the town has spent about $623,000, according to Surfside Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Town Manager Jason Greene.
The town has been trying to get Kilsheimer onto the property since last summer, but Miami-Dade County refused to grant him access while police and, later, NIST were working on the site. Hanzman has rebuffed the town’s request for expedited access to the site.
“We have a moral obligation to find out what happened, we have an ethical obligation to keep Mr. Kilsheimer on the site for this testing,” Commissioner Tina Paul said at the meeting.
Mayor Charles Burkett, who has repeatedly lamented how Surfside has been blocked from the site, said he went into Wednesday’s meeting thinking the town’s only options were to sign a blank check or drop out of the investigation.
“I know it’s a give and take proposition, but you can't win if you don’t bet. We have to ask if we want to receive,” Burkett said at the meeting.
Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer, who has publicly criticized Hanzman’s handling of the case, said the “pay to play” inspection process seems to be a strategy to get the small town government to back off its pursuit of the truth.
“This is not a quest for justice, this is a shakedown,” she told the Herald prior to the meeting.
Still, she said, the town should be participating in the on-site inspections. The issue of money shouldn’t deter the town from investigating the collapse, she said, because elected leaders owe it to the 98 victims who died in the collapse, those who lost their families and the residents across the town living in oceanfront high-rises.
At the meeting, she said Hanzman wasn’t interested in finding out the cause of the collapse but only in compensating survivors and the families of victims of the collapse.
“This court is not charged with getting to the truth of what happened,” she said. “Our residents need to know what happened.
Salzhauer said she wants the town to pursue other options to get Kilsheimer onto the site, including a warrant for a life-safety matter, using the example of a leaking nuclear reactor that is causing an emergency.
Pablo Langesfeld, whose daughter Nicole died in the collapse, said after being without definitive answers for seven months, he just wants a thorough investigation into what happened. If that means waiting a couple of years for NIST to complete its work, it’s worth the wait to prevent another building failure.
“I’m not happy but I’m OK waiting to have a full, blown-out investigation to find out what happened,” he said.
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