After public backlash, Miami mayor vetoes City Commission vote for lifetime pensions
After more than a week of silence following a controversial vote by Miami city commissioners to approve lifetime pensions for themselves, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has issued a rare veto, reversing a decision that caused a maelstrom of backlash last week.
In a message attached to the veto, Suarez said Wednesday that he has “historically been opposed to a publicly funded pension system for elected officials.”
Suarez said he was advised by the city attorney that if he signed the pension legislation and opted into the pension program, “it would create a vested right that could not be undone by any subsequent commission action or reconsideration.”
“This would have guaranteed me a benefit of over four million dollars,” Suarez said. “As I approach 16 years of public service, I never expected or sought such a benefit, and I do not believe it is fair for the hardworking, taxpaying residents of this city to bear it.”
The City Commission last Tuesday had approved a proposal to revive pensions for elected officials, bringing back a program that was frozen in 2009 during the financial crisis. The vote drew swift condemnation from residents as well as the former city manager and the incoming speaker of the Florida House.
Suarez, who does not have a vote on the City Commission, rarely hands down a veto. The last time he did so was on Christmas Eve, when he overturned changes to a city voting map.
The pension veto landed on the eve of Thursday’s City Commission meeting, where Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela previously said he would ask his colleagues to reconsider and repeal the pensions they approved last week.
Suarez noted in his veto message that “based on recent comments made in the press, there does not currently appear to be a clear consensus on the Commission that the elected officials’ pension passed on October 15th should move forward in its present form.”
He added: “The lack of agreement alone provides sufficient basis to veto the measure.”
Gabela and Christine King co-sponsored the pension proposal, which passed in a 3-2 vote with the support of Commissioner Joe Carollo. Commissioners Damian Pardo and Manolo Reyes voted no. Although elected officials were given the option to collect the pension or refuse it, Reyes was the only member of the commission who vowed to not opt into the pension program.
On Thursday, the City Commission upheld Suarez’s veto.
“I never ran with an expectation of getting a pension, nor did I desire to have one,” Suarez said at the meeting. “And I just want to thank my wife and God for the opportunity to prove conclusively to the residents of the city of Miami that my commitment to being a public official is to serve them and not myself.”
Suarez said Thursday that, over the course of his lifetime, he would have earned approximately $6.3 million from the pension program, a calculation based on the amount of years he’s been in elected office, as well as the 3% annual cost-of-living increase that would have come with the pension.
A spokeswoman for Suarez said his office calculated the $4 million he cited Wednesday night based on Suarez living 25 years after he would have become eligible to receive his first pension payment at age 60, while the $6.3 million figure cited Thursday was based on a calculation that had him living 32 years longer.
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 6:20 PM.
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