MIAMI — Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega answered a question on Tuesday about an activist’s allegation that the college had violated Florida’s Sunshine Law.

Historian Marvin Dunn asked Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz for a temporary injunction because the MDC’s Board of Trustees had not properly notified the public about the meeting when they voted to transfer land for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.

Pumariega said the MDC’s Board of Trustees gave adequate public notice about the meeting held on Sept. 23.

“We posted it seven days in advance,” Pumariega said about the Sept. 16 public notice. “Special meetings require two to three meetings. Actually, we ran an ad in The Miami Herald.”

Pumariega had to step away for an event and didn’t talk about why the vote on the 2.63-acre parcel, used as a parking lot next to the Freedom Tower, and valued at $66 million, wasn’t livestreamed.

The public notice Pumariega referred to had announced that the trustees were going to “discuss potential real estate transactions,” but it was not specific.

Roberto Alonso, the vice chair of MDC’s Board of Trustees, told Local 10 News “This Week in South Florida” anchor Glenna Milberg that the college received a request from the state for a parcel.

“I really feel like that piece of parcel should serve the students of our college, and by having this opportunity, I think it was one that was great for our community and our students,” Alonso said on Sept. 28 about the parcel in MDC’s Wolfson Campus.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier supported a proposal that went before the Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to approve the “sale, gift, or exchange” of the parcel to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc.

State records show Eric F. Trump set up the foundation on May 23. Jacob Roth, an attorney based in Palm Beach County, had set up the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund on Dec. 20, but its dissolution was on Sept. 26.

The state’s board passed the agenda item on Sept. 30 with “approval by gift with deed restriction” as recommended, records show.

“I want Miami Dade College trustees to rescind that offer,” Dunn told Local 10 News earlier this month. “They took land from our kids without the decency of asking us, the public, what we thought about that.”

Ruiz temporarily blocked the planned transfer on Oct. 14. Last year, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward the library as part of a defamation lawsuit settlement over ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos’s statements.

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YOUR OPINION: Do you think the public notice to “discuss potential real estate transactions” was enough, or the board should have been more specific about its use for a presidential library? Write your comment below:

Miami Dade College president answers question about Trump presidential library meeting notice

MDC president says board of trustees issued public notice of meeting about land transfer

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