Three of the leading candidates for Miami-Dade County mayor threw their support Monday behind an eight-point reform plan proposed by billionaire businessman Norman Braman, who led the successful recall of former mayor Carlos Alvarez, as the race for a new mayor picked up steam and county commissioners tried to regain their footing after last week’s stunning recall vote.
Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez and former state legislator Marcelo Llorente all signed a pledge authored by Braman in which they promised to push for a raft of changes in how county government operates. The proposals include eight-year term limits for commissioners on a board that’s long lacked turnover; a ban on outside employment in exchange for a salary increase; reducing the commission from 13 members to nine, and creating two at-large districts to foster a more regional approach on a dais filled with commissioners often criticized for being too parochial.
“Last Tuesday’s election signaled the voters’ rebuke of the ridiculous and callous attitudes that have dominated County Hall for many, many years,” said Braman, who has argued that recall without reform won’t result in much. “The loud and clear message was that the voters are demanding accountability in their elected officials, that ‘business as usual’ no longer is to be tolerated.”
The move comes as commissioners are set to meet Thursday to decide when to hold elections to fill the vacant mayoral and county commission seats, and to consider placing proposals amending the county’s governing charter on a ballot for voters to consider. In last week’s vote, 88 percent of voters ousted Alvarez and long-time commissioner Natacha Seijas in the largest recall of a local politician ever in the U.S. The results are widely viewed as a rebuke not just of the two politicians but of the sprawling county government as a whole.
Commissioners have long balked at letting the public vote on amendments to the county’s charter — the rulebook that county politicians play by — but are now under pressure to move forward. The charter is amended by a county-wide vote, but there are only two ways to put a question up for referendum: either a majority of the commission puts it there, or the public does by petition drive, which is even harder than a recall campaign because it requires signatures from 10 percent of registered voters to go on a ballot. By contrast, a county recall is triggered by signatures from four percent of voters.
At a press conference earlier Monday in County Hall, Commission Chairman Joe Martinez, Vice-Chairman Audrey Edmonson and Commissioners Bruno Barreiro each spelled out different approaches to amending the charter, though none wanted to appear solidly against any proposal. Gimenez, a mayoral candidate who signed the Braman plan, called “A Covenant with the People,” was also present.
Both Edmonson and Martinez, for instance, said they favor 12-year term limits — which, if started now, would mean a commissioner elected in 2012 would not be term-limited until 2024 — but neither said they would oppose placing an 8-year limit on the ballot. Edmonson also said she’s against any limits on outside employment, but said she would not stand in the way of putting it to a public vote.
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