There are eight referendum questions on the Miami Beach ballot, including two that are carefully camouflaged giveaways to rich millionaire developer friends of Mayor Dan Gelber.

Even former Mayor Philip Levine — who was caught in a secret meeting with Gelber and developers trying to form a political action committee to turn South Beach into another Brickell — could get a piece of the action.

Read Full Story

Voters in Miami Beach will have to wait until November to vote for a person in the special election to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of late Commissioner Mark Samuelian. And the really good questions, like what to do with the historic Deauville Hotel (more on that later) will be taken to voters in November.

But there are six referendums on the August primary ballot in Miami Beach to swap land for a new community health center, change residency requirements, make it harder for developers to increase density and easier for owners of apartment hotels to convert to 100% long-term residential.

Read Full Story

Most people were shocked when they learned that Miami Beach Commissioner Mark Samuelian died Wednesday.

Mayor Dan Gelber announced the death late in the commission meeting, one of several recent meetings that Samuelian had missed, right before they took a 30 minute recess.

Read Full Story

Two ‘new’ commissioners the community already knows, and well

Read Full Story

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber won re-election easily Tuesday. Like Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, Gelber had basically no opposition. But instead of getting 80% of the vote, like Baby X did across the causeway, Gelber won with 62%, which is still a comfortable victory if not an overwhelming mandate.

He also won on his pet project, the non-binding referendum asking voters if the city should ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m., effectively moving last call up three hours (more on that later). Almost 57% of the voters said yes. Ladra wonders if the ballot question helped him or hurt him. Or if he helped the ballot question.

Read Full Story

There are 16 people running for four seats in Miami Beach, but many of them are somewhat known to voters already.

They include incumbent Mayor Dan Gelber and Commissioner Mark Samuelian, former Commissioner Kristin Gonzalez Rosen, who left her office to run for Congress, and repeat candidates Stephen Cohen, Blake Young, Raquel Pacheco, Michael “Mike B” Barrineau and Adrian Gonzalez, the well known owner of David’s Cafe.

Read Full Story