‘Activism works’: Miami plans to increase funding, hires for climate change department
A month after Miami’s chief resilience officer announced his resignation, leaving the position in limbo for the second time in as many years, the city has moved to refill his job and hire two additional people for the resilience department.
Advocates for climate action cheered the decision as a win for their long-running campaign to get the city to invest more in the team of people charged with helping Miami adapt to climate change.
Commissioners gave first approval to a budget that included a chief resilience officer position and deputy chief resilience officer, as well as three full-time project managers. The department currently has two full-time project managers and a third grant-funded position set to expire soon.
The outgoing chief resilience officer, Alan Dodd, was also the head of public works for the city. Under this budget, the city’s next resilience officer will hold the role full time.
Gianna Trocino, policy and campaigns manager for Miami-based climate advocacy organization CLEO, said the decision was proof that “activism works.” She and other environmentalists have used Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s monthly community resilience meetings to encourage the city to spend more on its small resilience department, which has faced rounds of budget cuts and resignations in recent years.
“The mayor talks about the environment being the economy and we think that’s a great message and we want to push him on it,” she said.
During Monday’s budget hearing, dozens of speakers took turns explaining to the commission why a better-funded resilience department was a must for a city consistently ranked one of the most vulnerable in the world to rising seas and extreme heat.
A University of Miami assistant professor of political science, Calla Hummel, even canceled her planned lecture and brought her class to city hall, where the students advocated for affordable housing and climate action.
Katrina Erwin, associate program manager for CLEO, told commissioners that she was thrilled to see the city declare a “climate emergency” in 2019, but so far the city has not followed through on the action implied in the symbolic resolution.
“What is clear to me is the city is prioritizing its economic future with an emphasis on crypto and tech. However, there will be no economic future for our city unless we invest in protecting Miami from sea level rise, hurricanes and extreme heat,” she said. “The city of Miami is ignoring the promises it made when it passed a climate emergency in 2019. The future of the magic city depends on climate action.”
The commission gave initial approval to a $1.3 billion overall budget — that includes an infusion of $137 million from the American Rescue Plan — with a final decision due on Sept. 23.
The additional resilience positions, covered by an additional $465,000, were outlined in a Aug. 31 memo from City Manager Art Noriega. Other departments are also getting more money.
Another $400,000 will allow the planning department to hire planners and a GIS specialist. New hires in the zoning department will cost $180,000. Administrators are allocating another $1.2 million to Miami’s police and fire departments to pay for required pension contributions.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 3:46 PM.
