State says Miami can't move city election without voter input. Who's right?
Next week, the Miami City Commission is scheduled to take a final vote on a proposal to move the city from odd- to even-year elections, canceling the upcoming November election and pushing it to 2026 without voter approval.
Depending on who you ask, the proposal could be viewed as a common-sense reform measure that will boost the city's low voter turnout, or a power grab by Miami's elected officials, who will get an extra year in office if the change is approved — including those who are term-limited.
The issue hasn't just made waves in local political circles. It's raised legal questions that have traveled as far as Tallahassee, pitting the city against Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida attorney general. The strained relationship between the governor and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — who has been lobbying behind the scenes for the election date change — likely doesn't help, either.
But beyond the local political drama at play, one question remains: Is it legal for the city to delay its elections without voter input?
Last week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a written opinion saying the city of Miami can't move its election date without voter approval, and DeSantis concurred in a social media post. Uthmeier handed down his opinion in response to a request from City Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela.
'If the City of Miami is to amend its charter, either to move the date of municipal elections or to change the terms of office for elected officials, then the change may only proceed by a vote of the electors,' Uthmeier said.
But in a written opinion the next day, City Attorney George Wysong argued that Miami commissioners were on solid legal ground to move the election date themselves. He cited not only a relevant state law but also a judge's decision in a similar dispute saying such a date change was allowable.
In his opinion, Wysong relied in part on a recent case against the city of North Miami.
Here's the background: In 2023, council members in North Miami voted to move the date of the local election from odd- to even-numbered years with the goal of attracting more voters to the polls when county, state and federal candidates would also be on the ballot.
Council members approved a couple of ordinances to change both the city charter and code to move the local election date to November 2024 — triggering a lawsuit by a handful of North Miami residents. They argued that the date change could not be made without a referendum vote on the city charter because it extended the term limits of sitting council members and the mayor.
Their legal challenge failed when a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge sided with the North Miami Council members, saying their vote on moving the election date was allowed under Florida law.
'The statutory language is clear and unambiguous: the governing statutes authorize a municipality to change its election date, and extend the terms of its sitting council members as a consequence of the election date change, by ordinance and without approval by popular referendum,' Circuit Judge Reemberto Diaz ruled in May 2023.
In his ruling, Diaz also cited Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's legal opinion in 2013 involving a smaller Florida city, Arcadia.
'The Attorney General concluded that the City of Arcadia could amend its charter by ordinance to change the date of its election to coincide with federal, state, and county elections, and to extend the terms of its sitting officers resulting from the date change, without voter approval by referendum,' Diaz wrote.
Diaz's decision, the first of its kind in the state of Florida, was affirmed by a three-judge panel of the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami-Dade County. The ruling, however, was not reviewed by the full appellate court or the Florida Supreme Court.
Attorney Edward Guedes, who represented the city of North Miami in the case, said that because the appeals court simply upheld the trial court's ruling without elaborating in a written opinion of their own written, 'Technically that kind of decision is not binding precedent.'
Nevertheless, Guedes said Florida law allows municipalities to change the election date via ordinance and without voter input.
'It is very, very clear that the Florida Legislature authorized this kind of election date-changing by cities, and to do so by ordinance notwithstanding a charter,' Guedes told the Miami Herald on Friday said.
He emphasized that making the change, however, is 'a one-time shot.'
'This isn't just a mechanism for cities to abuse the process and sitting elected officials to continuously extend their terms in office, because it's a one-shot alignment,' Guedes said. 'Once you align, that's it. You're done.'
Miami attorney Juan-Carlos Planas, who filed the lawsuit challenging the city of North Miami, said Diaz's ruling was wrong.
Planas said the key state law cited by the North Miami Council members when they changed the local election date only applied to non-chartered towns and cities in Florida.
Planas said a chartered city like North Miami required a referendum vote for a couple of fundamental reasons. Council members voted to change the city charter by switching the municipal election from odd- to even-numbered years without first holding a referendum vote on the charter itself. And, in doing so, they also extended the members' term limits, again without the referendum vote.
Planas, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Miami-Dade supervisor of elections last year, said the city commissioners in Miami are making the same mistake.
'I do think the city of Miami has to change their charter first before the commissioners vote on changing the election date,' Planas told the Herald on Friday. 'But they have a problem: they can't change the city charter without a referendum vote of the people.'
Guedes said changing the election date via ordinance only and without a change to the charter is legally sound, essentially making it so the provision of the charter specifying elections take place in odd years is 'no longer viable.' However, he noted that that approach 'could get complicated.'
'Not because I think the legal outcome will change,' Guedes said. 'It's just that it may create confusion.'
Planas also said the Miami commissioners are compounding their mistake by changing the municipal election date by ordinance only, without addressing that it conflicts with the city charter.
'Why aren't they doing that?' he asked.
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