Feds Swarm, Shutdown Opa-locka City Hall
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - FBI agents swarmed and shutdown Opa-locka City Hall as they served a search warrant Thursday morning.
Chopper4 over the scene spotted agents who carried cardboard boxes out of the building as part of a public corruption probe. The agents were with the bureau's corruption task force.
Former Opa-locka city commissioner Steven Barrett applauded the crackdown.
"We're glad to see the FBI in our city. The citizens do not trust the government we have today and we have felt for a long time that there was no hope," said Barrett. "So seeing the FBI out here today, we feel that there's hope for our community."
He went on , "I don't know who it is tied to, but whatever it is tied to we hope that the FBI brings closure because this community has been suffering. We are one of the poorest communities in the State of Florida."
A citizen shared his view on the move.
"As a citizen of this city, I am jubilated (sic), it's been a long time coming and as soon as they (FBI) move out we're going to block it off and have a street party," said Alvin Burke.
The FBI did not disclose what prompted their investigation.
The city has recently had to deal with a financial crisis.
The city hired Steve Shiver as City Manager to help them out of a financial hole.
At the time the city was about $8 million in debt with about half of that owed to the county for sewer and water services. The city's phones had also been turned off because the bill wasn't paid.
In late November, Shiver was terminated at an emergency meeting.
"I will not and cannot work with this manager," declared Mayor Myra Taylor who said she lost confidence in Shiver because he violated the city charter.
Shiver's termination caused controversy in the city.
It was Shiver who brought the city's financial crisis to the attention of the governor's office.
"Thanks to Mr. Shiver justice has finally come to Opa-locka," said Burke.
Following the shutdown of city hall on Thursday, Shiver posted a video on Facebook talking about it.
"At this time I can't go into any specifics on the advice of my council Rick Yabor; however, if you'll recall before being abruptly terminated as city manager in November of last year, I pointed out several irregularities and things that just didn't make sense about their financial systems there. At this point, I hope and pray our justice system will rapidly resolve this issue and allow the good citizens, the business owners and the residents of Opa Locka to finally move forward," said Shiver in part in the video.
The FBI said City Hall will remain closed all day Thursday. So far, no arrests have been made. Authorities urge anyone who feels like they were the victims of public corruption in the city to call a special hotline (754) 703-2000.