Miami-Dade voters asked to make sheriff a non-partisan post, but only if Florida agrees

Will the new office of Miami-Dade sheriff be declared officially off-limits to party politics? County voters will get first crack at answering that complicated question in November, with state lawmakers having the final say.

One of three proposed Miami-Dade charter amendments would set the county’s preferred rules for how to elect a trio of posts set to become independent offices four years from now.

The proposed amendment would make primaries for sheriff, elections supervisor and tax collector non-partisan, mirroring the election rules for the county posts of mayor and commissioner. The county amendment also would maintain the non-partisan status of property appraiser, which is already an independently elected post in Miami-Dade.

While the powers of sheriff, elections supervisor and tax collector currently rest with Miami-Dade’s mayor, Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 requiring county voters to elect those positions by 2024.

Miami-Dade last had an elected sheriff in the 1960s, when scandals in the agency sparked a referendum and voters approved merging the office into the main county government.

Even though the ballot item, titled “County Referendum 3”, would change Miami-Dade’s charter to require non-partisan elections for the four offices, voters won’t have the final say in the matter.

A 2019 decision by the Florida Supreme Court requires elections for state posts to be partisan, meaning Miami-Dade can only make them non-partisan if Florida law changes.

The charter amendment on the Miami-Dade ballot notes the non-partisan requirement would take effect “contingent on a change to State law.”

Republicans hold a majority in the Florida Legislature, so there could be incentive to keep party affiliations off the ballot in Miami-Dade, where Democrats account for 41% of registered voters and Republicans just 27%. But that could complicate matters in a state where most counties lean GOP.

“If you make it statewide, it becomes a problem in red areas” for Republicans, said Annette Taddeo, a Democratic state senator from the Miami area. “In Democratic counties, having it non-partisan means they have a shot.”

Miami-Dade’s outgoing mayor, Carlos Gimenez, is a Republican, as is the current property appraiser, Pedro Garcia. Three local posts in Miami-Dade that already fall under state rules requiring partisan primaries — state’s attorney, public defender and clerk of the court — are held by Democrats. (Miami-Dade voters in 2018 approved a charter change making clerk elections non-partisan, but that amendment was rendered invalid by the 2019 Supreme Court decision.)

Steadman Stahl, president of the Miami-Dade police union, said he doubted Florida law would change to keep party affiliations off the sheriff ballot, even though he’d prefer the next sheriff be elected without “REP” or “DEM” next the candidate’s name.

“I believe it should be non-partisan — keep the party politics out of it,” he said. “My bet is there’s no way the state is going to change that [partisan rule] because they’d have to change it statewide.”

New rules for ‘resign-to-run’ elections in Miami-Dade

The second charter amendment on the Miami-Dade ballot would end special elections to replace mayors or county commissioners when they resign in advance to run for a different office.

State law requires local elected officials to give up their seats once they file to run for a different position (federal offices, such as Congress or president, are exempt from the rule). The resignations can take effect any time before the winner of the race would assume office. The proposed charter change would allow the county to elect a replacement for an outgoing commissioner or mayor in the same election that sparked the required resignation.

Known as the “resign to run law,” it required current mayoral candidate Daniella Levine Cava to submit her resignation for her District 8 commission seat in May before filing her candidacy papers. She set her resignation date for Nov. 16, a day before the new mayor takes office. The resignation can’t be withdrawn.

Because the seat doesn’t become vacant until then, current county law requires her replacement to either be appointed by the remaining 12 commissioners or be chosen in a special election expected to cost between $500,000 and $1 million to hold. Her replacement will serve out the remaining two years of Levine Cava’s term.

(The county commission holds elections for odd-numbered districts during presidential years, and even-numbered districts two years later. Levine Cava’s fall opponent in the mayoral race, Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr., represents District 13 and his final term on the commission ends in November, so the resign-to-run law did not apply to him.)

While one special election for a commission district costs $500,000, Miami-Dade has to spend another $500,000 if no candidate gets 50% and the race moves to a second, runoff election. “With this, governments can save money,” said Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, one of the sponsors of the legislation behind the ballot item.

Adding the Inspector General Office to the charter

The ballot item titled “County Referendum 1” wouldn’t bring any immediate changes. The charter amendment would require the county to have an Office of Inspector General, which is already required by county law. Miami-Dade commissioners still would have the power to set the office’s budget and other details, the charter amendment would mean only voters could abolish the office altogether.

“It codifies it into the charter, rather than being something the mayor or the commissioners could change or get rid of,” said Monica Skoko Rodriguez, president of the Miami-Dade League of Women Voters. “It secures that office.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 1:54 PM.