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Lawsuit Filed Over Sweetwater Land Deal

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A vacant two acre plot of land tucked between Dolphin Mall and the International Mall doesn't look like much now, but the City of Sweetwater once had big plans to build a new police station there.

The city bought the property on Northwest 17th Street and Northwest 108th Avenue four years ago. Facing a large budget deficit and upcoming due payments to creditors, city officials decided it was time to sell.

"The sale of the property came up last year when we found out we owed about $2 million to Region's Bank," said Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez.

Court documents show Region's Bank loaned the city $950,000 "exclusively to purchase real estate that will be used as a police station."

The year after taking out the loan, the city's then-mayor was arrested and the police department came under scrutiny.

The new police station never came to be and, under mounting financial pressure from creditors, the city opted to move to sell the land for $2.8 million earlier this year.

But a lawsuit filed last month alleges the pending sale is illegal, because voters never got a say in the matter.

"According to the charter, the City of Sweetwater, before the city is able to sell real property for public use it first has to go to a public referendum and it has to obtain the approval of the majority of voters voting in the public referendum," said attorney Joseph Carballo.

Carballo represents Saul Diaz, a man who once ran for a seat on the Sweetwater Commission and lost.

While he doesn't officially speak for the residents of the city, Diaz says they do deserve a vote.

"I think that the citizens and residents of Sweetwater deserve a commission that obeys the law," Diaz said. "The law is clear that there has to be a referendum in order to sell public property that is used for public purpose."

According to city charter, the city can't sell property "held for parks, playgrounds, other recreational facilities or public purposes, except by approval of a majority of the voters."

Mayor Lopez says he sought the opinion of the city attorney before putting the land for sale and he followed his advice.

"His opinion was that we did not need to go to referendum," he said.

A special commission meeting has been called for Monday night to discuss a possible referendum special election to be held in August.

Depending on the outcome, and whether the buyer is still interested, the sale can move forward.

The city has until November 1st to pay back Region's Bank before it goes into default.

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