Jesse Scheckner
Legislation authorizing a $1.7 million payment to the survivors of a Miami Beach recreation leader who drowned in a community pool last year is one vote from clearing the Senate.
The Senate Rules Committee voted to advance the measure (SB 14), which would clear payment of the remainder of a wrongful death settlement to the family of Peniel “P.J.” Janvier reached with the city last year.
SB 14 is known as a claims bill, a special classification of legislation intended to compensate a person or entity for injury or loss due to the negligence or error of a public officer or agency. Claims bills arise when the damages a claimant seeks are above the thresholds set in Florida’s sovereign immunity law, which today caps payouts at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
In May 2024, Miami Beach Commissioners approved a $2 million settlement with the family of Janvier, a 28-year-old Army Reserve member and recreation leader with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Janvier was visiting kids whom he oversaw during Summer camp on Aug. 16, 2022, at the Scott Rakow Youth Center’s outdoor pool. Video footage recorded Janvier being pushed by a camper into the pool’s deep end and struggling for 12 minutes as kids tried to save him.
A lifeguard on duty was focused on his phone.
Miami Beach later suspended two employees and fired a third over the incident and agreed to pay Janvier’s family, who have only seen $300,000 of the agreed-to sum.
Janvier’s LinkedIn page features a work history indicative of a civically engaged young man who enjoyed working with people. He worked as an activities coordinator for the Pompano Health and Rehabilitation Center before becoming a youth recreation specialist with Miami-Dade County, a job he parlayed into his recreation leader post with the city that he’d held for three years before his death.
Janvier was also close to marking three years working as a sanitation inspector for the city of Miami and was nearing six years with the Army Reserve, where he was a heavy equipment operator.
His LinkedIn page says he held a master’s degree in health services administration and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Florida International University.
Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones filed SB 14 in August, less than three months after Miami Beach OK’d the settlement with Janvier’s family. Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras filed the bill’s House twin (HB 6519) last month.
Porras’ bill awaits a hearing before the second of two committees to which it was referred.
