The city of Miami’s court battle to move municipal elections from odd to even years — effectively cancelling this year’s mayoral and commission races and extending electeds’ terms by a year — may have reverberations in Coral Gables, where the commission voted to move the elections from April of odd years to November of even years.
Same sin. Different direction.
Miami-Dade Judge Valerie Manno Schurr — in a lawsuit brought by former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who is running for Miami mayor — already ruled last week that the city violated its own charter and the county charter when commissioners approved an ordinance changing the election date. The city appealed, but the reaction to oral arguments heard Tuesday indicate that they are going to lose that, too.
Read related: Third DCA seems skeptical of Miami city election change, cancellation
Manno Schurr’s ruling hinged on one self-evident truth: You don’t mess with the lengths of electeds’ terms without going to the people who put them in office in the first place. Period. Whether you’re adding months or shaving them off, it’s not up to mayors and commissioners with itchy calendar fingers. It’s up to the voters.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, and Commissioners Ariel Fernandez and Richard Lara voted in May to move the next municipal election from April 2027 to November 2026 — skipping a referendum entirely, just like Miami did. Except now Miami’s in legal hot water, maybe The City Beautiful should reconsider.
Nope, they doubled down, instead. Lago, Anderson and Lara, did anyway. While Fernandez was away for health reasons, the commission last month discussed joining with other cities to rebuff any legal challenges from the state.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez has issued a formal legal opinion stating that the change is “legally sufficient in accordance with applicable law.” But it is a non-binding and advisory opinion only. Is that her way of saying it won’t hold up in court?
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, the lone holdout on the vote to change the election — the same one who got censured by her “colleagues” for having the independent gumption to ask the Florida Attorney General about it (how dare she!) — wants the commission to reconsider. She told Political Cortadito she was not going to back down.
“Elected officials just deciding on their own that they are going to serve a year more or a year less? What is that? That’s a very dangerous precedent, that’s what it is,” Castro said.
“People — not politicians — have the sole right to decide when elections are held,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “It was the voters who put officials in office, and it is the voters alone who must decide if and when election dates change. Bypassing the people and moving elections without their approval is not only unethical, it’s illegal and unconstitutional under the Miami-Dade County Charter and Florida Constitution.
“I will fight tirelessly to defend your right to vote and ensure your voice is never silenced by political maneuvering,” she said, referring to the censure, which is like a slap on the wrist from elected colleagues. Unenforceable, but meant to chill dissent.
“Democracy belongs to the people, and I will never back down from protecting it,” Castro said.
She asked the city attorney on Tuesday to a draft a resolution for the first August meeting directing that a ballot question be presented to the electorate, asking whether they prefer Coral Gables municipal elections to continue being held in April, as has been the tradition for nearly 100 years, or be moved to November.
“The question must be binding, and the result should determine the city’s future election schedule,” Castro wrote in an email. And in order to make it super easy and trnsparent, she wants the ballot language to be simple: Under the title “Selection of Municipal Election Date,” voters will be asked to check a box for when they want to have future municipal elections — in April “dedicated local election focused on city issues” or November “combined with national and state elections.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
And what if someone blocks her or censures her again? Well, she might just take it to Gov. DeSantis.
“I won’t hesitate to take it further,” Castro wrote in an email to Gables residents last week. “I will continue siding firmly on the side of the law, transparency and, most importantly, the people.”
But let’s be real: Coral Gables doesn’t need Tallahassee swooping in to clean up its mess. What it needs is a little bit of spine and a whole lot of common sense.
Because even if the reasons for the change — higher turnout, lower costs, civic alignment — are legit, process still matters. Democracy doesn’t get waived for convenience. And a 4-1 commission vote deciding for 46,000 Gables voters when their elections happen? That’s not leadership. That’s laziness.
Gables commissioners have a choice. They can dig in their heels and go into a losing legal battle. Or they can put their trust in the people who elected them and let the voters decide, in a way that they know their next elected is going to serve a shorter term.
Ladra knows which one smells more like sunshine and less like naranja agria. Does Mayor Lago?
Because if the commission doesn’t do it now, a judge might do it later — and by then, it could be messier. And costlier.
Just ask the folks at Miami City Hall. (Assuming they’re not too busy appealing everything.)
The post Judge calls Miami election change unconstitutional; is Coral Gables next? appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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