Push for special election could throw wrench in Miami-Dade D5 appointment

Even Joe Sanchez now says “Let the people vote”
Well, well, well… look who suddenly found religion in democracy.
On the eve of Tuesday’s big Miami-Dade Commission showdown over how to fill the District 5 seat vacated by Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is in the runoff for Miami mayor, the winds have shifted so hard you can practically hear the papers flapping around at County Hall. What used to look like a smooth, quiet glide into an appointment — with State Rep. Vicki Lopez waiting in the wings like the belle of the backroom ball — has turned into a full-blown special election uprising.
And the most ironic, if not surprising rebel? Joe Sanchez. The former Miami Commissioner, Florida Highway Patrol mouthpiece and failed Republican candidate for Miami-Dade sheriff is one of the five people who submitted what we can only call official applications, as if this were a Parks & Rec job and not a coveted seat representing tens of thousands of residents on the county commission.
Read related: Let the jockeying begin to fill Eileen Higgins’ Miami-Dade commission seat
“District 5 deserves to vote,” Sanchez said, loudly and publicly Monday, but not for the first time. Surrounded by a handful of alleged supporters and curious onlookers outside the Supervisor of Elections office Monday, Sanchez stepped up to the mic to declare that the commission should forget the appointment and let voters choose their next commissioner.
Ladra is sure this has nothing to do with the fact that Sanchez — who can count — is not the favorite to get the appointment tomorrow. That distinction still clearly belongs to Lopez, who has probably been polishing her acceptance smile. There are three others who threw their names into the hat — former county Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who resigned to run for Congress (and lost), which opened the door for Higgins; former Miami Beach Commissioner and State Rep. David Richardson, and Antonio Javier “Tony” Diaz, who withdrew earlier this year from the special election in Miami’s District 4 to replace the late Manolo Reyes.
“This is not about politics — it’s about the people,” Sanchez said Monday. “And it’s about respecting the voices of the residents who live here, work here, and raise their families here, like I have.”
Not really, Joe. It’s about math.
Sanchez also dragged out a D5 resident, Dixie Rodriguez, who said she showed up because she wants her community to have a say. “District 5 is strong, diverse, and deeply engaged,” she said. “We deserve representation and the right to choose who speaks for us… Every resident — from Downtown to Little Havana to South Beach — deserves a say.”
Several commissioners agree with her. Commissioner Sen. Rene Garcia has consistently voted for elections over appointments. And on Monday he told Political Cortadito that he would do the same now. “People deserve to have their voices heard. I’ve been clear on that,” he said.
But, but, but, it’s going to cost money. His fellow commissioners are going to whine about the $500,000 to $1.2 million or so — because they can’t nail down a figure — that a special election could cost. “Take it out of the $40 million for FIFA,” Garcia said. It’s actually $46 million, but preach!
Read related: Lobbying starts to fill Eileen Higgins’ D5 Miami-Dade commission seat
Commissioner Oliver Gilbert is the one who has an appointment rather than an election on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. The city charter states that a vacancy — and Higgins’ resignation was effective Nov. 5 — “shall be filled by majority vote of the remaining members of the Board within 30 days, or the Board shall call an election to be held not more than 90 days thereafter.”
Anyone appointed would only serve through the net county-wide election, which is next year, so August. And the typical trend of incumbency means that whoever is appointed will have an advantage at election time. That may not hold true here, but is there any other reason to have an appointment besides saving some money, which is a pittance really when you take a wide look at the county budget?
Gilbert decided not to answer Ladra’s question as to his rationale. “You can submit questions through my office or through the BCC media,” he texted back. Three times. Which is the kind of thing you say when you have nothing better to say. He could have typed less answering the question.
Read related: District 5 clock is ticking; Miami-Dade looks ready to crown a king — or queen
Also on Monday, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association officially endorsed Lopez for the appointment. “Vicky has been an exemplary public servant … with a passion that is not only awe inspiring, but also extremely effective,” wrote President Steadman Stahl, in a letter that praised Lopez for her work in Tallahassee attending to the needs of law enforcement.
Nothing in the letter, however, about her 1995 indictment on 10 counts, including bribery and “honest services fraud,” when she was a Lee County commissioner in 1995 or about how she served 15 months in federal prison until President Bill Clinton commuted her sentence. Later, a court vacated her conviction. More recently, she’s been accused of benefiting from the school bus camera legislation she championed last year after family members got lucrative jobs in the industry.
But that’s just called “passion” and experience.
It’s hard to ignore, however, the quiet push from the community to leave it to an election. This is not a time of a lot of government trust. Leaders and groups that had stayed mostly silently watching have let their feelings known. Some folks who have no horse in this race, told Ladra they were uncomfortable with the idea of a political appointment — especially with the other commissioners flirting with higher office and multiple personal agendas in play.
Read related: Miami-Dade School Board to revisit flawed, ‘connected’ BusPatrol program
Sanchez, who has spent 36 years in public service — Florida Highway Patrol, Army Reserves, 11 years as a Miami City Commissioner — couldn’t resist the jab. “We know there are discussions happening in County Hall, and backroom negotiations in a struggle to maintain power and control of the Board,” he said. “That is not how decisions about representation should be made.”
“Our district deserves transparency. Our district deserves a choice.”
Ladra has to laugh. Because por supuesto there are backroom negotiations. This is Miami-Dade County government, not a quilting circle. Does Sanchez know what he’s getting into?
But he’s not wrong.
The last two vacancies were filled by the appointments of Danielle Cohen Higgins and Natalie Milian Orbis. The whisper campaign to slide Lopez into the seat with minimal fuss has been in motion since Higgins packed her office boxes. Lopez has met with commissioners, courted lobbyists, and done everything short of measuring the drapes. For a while, the appointment was considered a done deal.
Read related: Is a fix in for the District 6 appointment at Miami-Dade County Commission?
Then… the tide turned. Calls for a special election grew louder. Commissioners started getting uncomfortable. The word “optics” began floating around. And now, mere hours before the vote, the once-confident appointment crowd is suddenly sweating. So are Democrats across the state, by the way, who wanted the Lopez appointment to trigger a special election for a House seat they are convinced they can win.
There’s another wrench in the plan. Two candidates have offered to serve as temporary interim commissioners: Tony Diaz and David Richardson. Richardson has told certain commissioners he would serve as a place-keeper so that nobody would have the power of incumbency to run in less than nine months.
That’s something that Commissioner Micky Steinberg supported when she was in Miami Beach and appointed Joy Malakoff to serve the remainder of former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez‘s term when she left to run for Congress.
Would Steinberg support that now? Calls to her office Monday were not returned. And it’s not like it would be enforceable. There are plenty of examples of candidates who said they would not run for office if appointed and then ran for office once appointed. Former Miami Commissioner Jeffrey Watson comes to mind.
Then there is the partisan nature of an appointment. Lopez is the leading contender and she would turn the officially non-partisan body (yeah, right) from mostly blue, to mostly red. By one. There are some in the community that believe any appointment should be for someone from the same party as chosen by bipartisan voters as not to have the commissioners themselves stack the deck, so to speak. That would also give Richardson another edge.
Will commissioners go with a handpicked, backroom-blessed loyal insider that some folks have been quietly engineering for weeks? Or will they gamble on a special election that could open the door to an independent wild card with no IOUs and no strings attached? Or will they compromise on a placeholder until they can back their own horse?
One thing is certain, a lot of people — candidates, District 5 voters, lobbyists — will be watching to see which way the wind blows Tuesday.
Because whichever way it goes, you know there will be a storm following.

This kind of independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns is possible because of readers like you who make a contribution to Political Cortadito. To support more of this, click here. Ladra thanks you.

The post Push for special election could throw wrench in Miami-Dade D5 appointment appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story