Medley candidates separated by one vote as Pacheco seeks to join husband on council
.JPG "Karina Pacheco is running for Medley Town Council.")
A single vote separated two candidates for Medley Town Council after all votes were counted Tuesday evening, setting up a recount to determine whether Karina Pacheco will join her husband, Ivan, on the council. The pair would become the first known spouses in Florida to serve together on the same municipal council or commission.
Karina Pacheco narrowly led her opponent, Lourdes Rodriguez, in a special election triggered by the arrest and suspension from office of Councilwoman Lily Stefano for allegedly stealing food from a charity founded by retired football star Santana Moss.
Politics in Medley, a town of about 1,000 residents, is already a family affair. The father-daughter duo of Edgar and Lizelh Ayela currently serve on the council together.
As the unofficial results stood Tuesday evening, Pacheco had 196 votes to Rodriguez’s 195 — putting Pacheco in the lead by 0.26 percentage points. That would trigger a machine recount under Florida law because the margin is 0.5 percentage points or less, but not a hand recount, which takes place when the margin is 0.25 points or less.
Any provisional ballots or cure affidavits could still change that calculation. Either way, the recount will take place Friday after the results are certified at 10 a.m., according to Miami-Dade Deputy Supervisor of Elections Suzy Trutie.
There is no rule in Florida against spouses serving together on the same city council, but experts say it would create a thorny situation in Medley as the Pachecos try to comply with Florida’s Sunshine Law, which bars elected officials from discussing official business with each other outside the public eye.
Wallace faces a runoff in Florida City
Miami-Dade’s southernmost municipality, Florida City, also had an election Tuesday to determine whether Otis Wallace — the mayor since 1984 — would serve another term.
Wallace got the most votes in a four-person race, but not enough to win a majority and avoid a runoff. He will face second place vote-getter Rocquel McCray, a 20-year veteran of the Florida City police department and Wallace’s most vocal critic, in a runoff Feb. 15.
Wallace recently told the Miami Herald that, if he wins, his next four-year term in office would be his last. Regardless, his reign as Florida City’s top administrator appears to be winding down: voters on Tuesday approved a referendum, with 63% in favor, to employ a city manager as the city’s chief executive instead of the mayor starting in 2026.
Florida City’s ballot Tuesday also included a three-person race for two seats. The winners were incumbent Eugene “Button” Berry and challenger Walter P. Thompson, bringing Roy S. Shiver’s decades-long stint on the commission to an end.
Two races head to runoffs in Sunny Isles
The third municipal election in Miami-Dade on Tuesday was in Sunny Isles Beach, where a pair of three-candidate races will head to runoffs on Feb. 8.
Johana Rabinovich, who was appointed to the commission in November, will face former mayoral candidate Jerry Joseph in the Seat 1 runoff.
For Seat 3, Historic Preservation Committee member Fabiola Stuyvesant and Poinciana Island Homeowners Association president Greg Capra made the runoff.
The two seats opened up after commissioners Dana Goldman and Larisa Svechin ran for mayor in November, a race Goldman won.
This story was originally published January 25, 2022 at 9:21 PM.
