Voters blocked Miami Beach commissioner from seeking third term in office, judge rules
Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Góngora cannot seek reelection this November, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday, affirming that a 2014 voter referendum limiting a commissioner’s time in office to two complete terms does, in fact, apply to the veteran Beach politician.
Acting City Attorney Rafael Paz relayed the decision in a memo Thursday to Mayor Dan Gelber and the rest of the commission, but the court has not entered a formal order yet.
Góngora, who is running for a third full term as commissioner, asked a judge in July to declare him eligible to have his name on the November 2 ballot after the city said he could not legally run for commission again.
In his memo, Paz told commissioners that Judge David Miller, ruling Wednesday on a motion for summary judgment, sided with the city after a two-hour hearing, affirming that the term limit provisions in the city charter retroactively apply to Góngora.
“The City’s position has always been that the term limits in the City Charter were lawfully adopted and approved by over 70% of the City’s voters in 2014,” Acting City Attorney Rafael Paz wrote in a statement. “We are pleased that the Court agreed with us today, and gave the candidates and the voters certainty for the upcoming election.”
In his memo, Paz said he expects Miller’s ruling to be final “in the next day or so.”
A spokeswoman for the circuit court did not respond to requests for the judge’s final order.
Góngora could not be reached for comment on Thursday. His attorney, Allen Reiss, declined to comment.
Góngora’s argument
Góngora argued in his July 9 lawsuit that he should be eligible to run for a third full term because the city adopted the referendum after his first four-year term in office, and therefore the ballot question cannot be applied.
The lawsuit says the title and summary of the referendum misled voters because they did not clearly state the new rules would affect commissioners retroactively.
The city charter says the “lifetime term limit for Miami Beach Commissioners shall be two four-year terms ... measured retroactively from their first elections...”
The commissioner was first elected in a 2006 special election. He served one year before losing his seat in 2007, and was elected again in 2009 for a full, four-year term. In 2013 he ran for mayor and lost, and then won a second four-year term on the commission in 2017.
Soon after Góngora submitted his campaign papers for the 2021 race, Paz, the acting city attorney, sent him a notice that he was “not qualified” to run because of the term limits.
Góngora persisted, and had already raised more than $200,000 as of Thursday, the most of any candidate seeking to win Góngora’s Group Three seat. Michael Barrineau, Melissa Beattie, Greg Branch and Stephen Cohen are also running for his seat.
Barrineau called the case “pure political theater.”
“The judge was very definitive in his judgment,” he said. “It had no basis in law and the judge immediately saw that. It is a good day for democracy and a good day for good government.”
Cohen, who listened to the proceedings Wednesday, said he agreed with the judge’s decision.
“I think that 70% of the people voted for it in 2014 and it should be upheld,” he said. “If Commissioner Góngora didn’t like the outcome of the ballot, he should have sued seven years ago.”
An adversarial ruling on summary judgment wouldn’t necessarily end Góngora’s case. But he is running out of time: The deadline to make the ballot is September 10.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 3:47 PM.