Mayor: Don’t get snookered into voting for state amendments that take away Miami-Dade’s rights

As Miami-Dade County voters weigh in on their preferred candidates in this midterm election, they will find a packed ballot with various amendments to their city or county charters, as well as a record number of Florida constitutional amendments.

Voters, beware. Don’t get snookered into voting for any feel-good proposal that in the end takes away your rights to chart Miami-Dade County’s own course.

Specifically, I’m referring to the state’s proposed constitutional Amendments 3 and 10 that would usurp Miami-Dade County voters’ ability to decide on key issues, from gambling to public safety.

Proponents of Amendment 3, which was a “citizens” initiated amendment, are running TV and radio ads claiming it would give voters the exclusive right to decide on any expansion of casino gambling where they live. Right now, the Legislature decides what types of table games and the percent of casino revenue the Seminole Tribe shares with the state. But local voters also have had the opportunity to vote for or against limited casino games at racetracks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

However you feel about gambling, it’s important that county voters make that decision for our county. Amendment 3 has brought together a pair of odd political bedfellows -- the Seminole Tribe, which wants to keep gambling at their venues, and anti-gambling forces in central Florida, which want to keep tourists at Walt Disney World with no trips south.

Bottom line: Amendment 3 would put state voters in charge of determining the future of any proposed gaming project in Miami-Dade County. That’s a power grab, pure and simple.

Amendment 10 also seeks to meddle with Miami-Dade County’s charter and the local voters’ choice to have a professional police director, supervisor of elections and tax collector who are selected by the mayor. In some counties, those positions are elected. In fact, Miami-Dade voters did away with an elected sheriff in the 1960s after a series of corruption scandals.

Today, Miami-Dade’s home-rule charter allows voters to change those positions to be elected – if our voters so choose.

So why would the state Constitution Revision Commission recommend to all voters statewide to impose their will on Miami-Dade and have those professional positions elected?

Under Miami-Dade’s strong-mayor form of government, the police director, supervisor of elections and tax collector are professionals selected by the mayor, and the buck stops with, well, me. In other counties, politicians can run for, say, sheriff without ever having been a police officer. That has proved to be a recipe for disaster in various circumstances.

If Miami-Dade voters want to change the way these three positions are selected, they are able to propose and vote for electing these positions by amending our home-rule charter. County voters have that choice now. Instead, this constitutional amendment could result in the majority of the state’s voters potentially approving a change that Miami-Dade voters don’t want.

Amendment 10 also proposes wrapping into the state Constitution that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) should be the lead agency in coordinating anti-terrorism efforts and also including the Department of Veterans Affairs as a constitutionally sanctioned agency.

Yet the FDLE already oversees such terrorist-fighting activities and Veterans Affairs already exists as a state agency. There’s no reason to have this proposal on the ballot. These “sweeteners” are really a poison pill for Miami-Dade County voters who would lose their power to decide what’s best in our county.

County voters also will get a chance to decide on five county charter amendments that apply countywide. Some are technical in nature, but “County Referendum 5” in particular merits support.

Despite the political propaganda ads by County Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who is against this common sense amendment, it’s very much a “good government” move for voters to pass it. Referendum No. 5 would ban groups from paying petition canvassers for each signature they collect, and instead require canvassers to be paid a flat fee. Such pay-per-signature schemes are an invitation for cheating and corruption.

Carlos A. Gimenez is the elected mayor of Miami-Dade County since 2011.

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 1:01 AM.