City of Miami drops legal fight to change/cancel election, takes it to voters

After months of legal wrangling, appeals, and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the City of Miami is finally giving up its harebrained scheme to cancel this year’s election. It only took the governor, the state’s attorney general, a district court judge, three appellate judges, twice, and a general distaste in the public for them to get the point.
On Tuesday, Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Damian Pardo admitted defeat and said they’ll now do what they should have done in the first place: ask voters if they want to change the city’s election cycle from odd- to even-numbered years. They say it will save the city about $1 million each election cycle and more than double voter turnout.
A special commission meeting is set for Friday, where at least three commissioners will have to sign off on the ballot language before it can go to the November ballot.
Read related: Third DCA says no, again; Miami loses third try to cancel November elections
The about-face comes after the Third District Court of Appeal last week smacked down the city’s last-ditch request for a rehearing in the lawsuit brought by former city manager and mayoral hopeful Emilio González. That ruling effectively ended the whirlwind legal drama that had cast a shadow over the races for mayor and two commission seats.
Remember, it was only in June that the commission voted 3-2 to move the election from 2025 to 2026, gifting themselves an extra year in office. That blew up in their faces when every single judge who looked at it said the city couldn’t just wave a wand and willy nilly override the Miami-Dade County charter, which controls municipal election dates.
“I sued the city of Miami because they cancelled our elections for this November, and I won,” Gonzalez said on a social media message posted Tuesday. “Miami insiders don’t want us to vote. Miami insiders are afraid to let the voices be heard.
“Miami insiders are even more afraid that I’m going to be the next mayor of Miami.”
Gonzalez is one of 11 announced mayoral wannabes that include Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez — father of the current mayor and a former Miami mayor himself — and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. Threatening from the sidelines are Commissioner Joe Carollo, former Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was suspended in 2023 after a public corruption arrest but the 14 felonies — including bribery and money laundering — were dropped last year, and Congressman Carlos Gimenez, a former county mayor who has been rumored to have an interest in coming home.
Qualifying starts Friday and ends Sept. 20.
Pardo, who sponsored the ordinance and has been the loudest cheerleader for the switch, told the The Miami Herald that the change wouldn’t even kick in until 2032 — meaning his own 2027 reelection, and those of commissioners Miguel Angel Gabela and Ralph Rosado, would be for one-time five-year terms to sync up with even years. Candidates elected in 2029 would also get an extra year, through 2034. After that, terms would go back to four years.
Somehow, the commissioner thinks this will keep people from accusing them of extending their own terms and giving themselves an extra annual salary of about $100,000. But someone’s terms will be extended. Because the fact remains that whoever wins in 2027 and 2029 still gets that bonus year.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
If Pardo really wanted to prove that this whole idea wasn’t self-serving, the plan would be to cut the terms by a year and not extend them. Several candidates running for mayor and commission in District 3 have already said they would be willing to serve one less year in order to get the question on the ballot. Anyone elected in 2027 could serve three years until the first even-year election in 2030 and the city can start the four year terms right there.
Ladra’s only doubt about that is if there would be a legal challenge to term limits if one of the terms were truncated. We don’t want that.
In any case, the election this November is definitely back on. Voters in Miami will get to choose their mayor and commissioners in District 3, where Joe Carollo is termed out, and District 5, where Chairwoman Christine King is up for re-election. There will also be at least three questions on the ballot: the election change, lifetime term limits (with two big exceptions) and the restoration and redevelopment of the long-abandoned and historic Miami Marine Stadium (more on that later).
Gonzalez said he was glad it was “finally” over. But the closure comes at a cost. How much taxpayer money was wasted on lawyers and legal maneuvers to keep the public from voting on the election change?
As first reported by Political Cortadito, the city paid outside attorneys up to $2,350 an hour to fight this losing battle. A contract shows that Dwayne Robinson was hired on July 25 to handle the appeal of Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Valerie Manno Schurr, the first judge to say, “Nananina, Miami.” His time is worth $750 an hour. His partners Charles Throckmorton and Brandon Sadowsky get $700 and $600 an hour, respectively, and paralegal Farola St. Remy gets $300 an hour.
It adds up to $2,350 an hour when they work together. We’re still waiting to see the final bill.
The city could also be on the hook for Gonzalez’s legal costs. And they aren’t gonna be cheap. His lead attorney is former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson.
Whatever it adds up to, it’s going to be too much for what was always a bad idea.

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