Stricter term limits for office? Proposal could topple Miami’s political dynasties
In November, as Miami residents vote on a new mayor and city commissioners, they could also weigh in on a proposal to create lifetime term limits for elected officials — a major shakeup to a system that currently allows elected officials to, under the right circumstances, spend decades in City Hall.
Next week, the Miami City Commission is scheduled to take an initial vote on a proposal that would limit an elected official to two terms as mayor and two terms as city commissioner, capping them at 16 years in office “during their lifetime.” The change would ultimately need to go to city of Miami voters for approval — possibly as soon as the upcoming November election.
The proposed legislation takes aim at the political establishment in a city where multiple veteran elected officials are considering making a return in the upcoming election. If approved, the change would add further guardrails to the city’s elections following a charter change that voters approved last year requiring candidates to have continuously resided in the district in which they are seeking office for at least one year immediately before qualifying.
As it stands now, an elected official in Miami is limited to two consecutive full terms, which are four years each. But the rules don’t stop a person from running again for the same seat years later. Former City Commissioner Wilfredo “Willy” Gort, for example, served multiple terms as a city commissioner, first from 1993 to 2001 and again from 2010 to 2019.
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Damian Pardo, a first-term city commissioner who is sponsoring the proposal, said the legislation is “not trying to focus on what’s happened in the past.”
“It’s trying to focus on, what’s the Miami we want in the future?” Pardo said. “We want to have more people at the table. We want to have different people at the table. We want to have different ideas.”
Pardo added that eight years in office — the length of two terms on the City Commission — is “a good amount of time to see a project to completion” and to make “meaningful impact at the local level.”
“Miami, as a city, is very dynamic, and this kind of transformational policy just helps us get better,” he said.
The proposal could have a direct impact on the upcoming city election in November, where voters will decide on a mayor and at least two city commissioners. If it’s approved in its current form, the legislation would be “immediately effective and applied to any candidate listed” on the November ballot. In other words, if it’s approved by voters, the charter change could invalidate the victory of a candidate on the very same ballot if said candidate has already served the maximum number of terms.
City Commissioner Joe Carollo, a former mayor, has left the door open to the possibility of running for mayor again this year, which would further add to his lengthy resume at Miami City Hall. Carollo was first elected to the Miami City Commission in 1979, serving until 1987. Carollo was reelected to the City Commission in 1995 before going on to serve two terms as mayor, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. He was reelected to the City Commission in 2017 and is currently serving out the second term of his latest stint.
Under the new proposal, Carollo may not be eligible to run for elected office in Miami again. The legislation limits city commissioners to two terms regardless of which seat they run for, meaning a person couldn’t switch to a new district to circumvent the proposed change.
In recent months, Pardo and Carollo have been political adversaries on the City Commission. Asked if the legislation is aimed at blocking Carollo from elected office, Pardo said that “the purpose of this wasn’t to target anyone.”
“The purpose of this was to completely revitalize the way we think about good governance,” Pardo said.
Reached for comment on the proposal, Carollo said that while he has not declared he’s running for anything, the proposal is evidence that “they’re petrified.”
“If I’m so unpopular like Mr. Pardo’s trying to make it look like I am, why is he so afraid that I might run for office again?” Carollo said.
Carollo’s younger brother, Frank Carollo, has been weighing a run to succeed Carollo in District 3. Frank Carollo previously served two terms as the District 3 commissioner from 2009 to 2017, meaning he would not be eligible to become a Miami city commissioner again if the proposed legislation is approved.
The proposal would still allow a person to serve two terms as city commissioner and two terms as mayor for a combined 16 years in office, like Mayor Francis Suarez has done. But under the new proposal, Suarez would not be eligible to return to elected office in the city if he wanted to do so in the future.
Next week, the City Commission is scheduled to vote on an item that would direct the city attorney to prepare the language for a charter amendment. The commission would then need to approve that language in a subsequent vote in order to officially send the question to voters on the November ballot, according to Pardo.
The legislation is similar to what Miami Beach voters passed in 2014, limiting commissioners to two full terms in office. Years later, that rule is what blocked former Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Góngora from seeking a third full term.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 10:24 AM.
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