‘This is un-American’: North Miami residents file lawsuit on timing of city elections
North Miami residents have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the North Miami City Council to hold its elections in May, as in recent years, rather than the newly adopted schedule of November 2024 which was aimed at being more in sync with the national election cycle.
The lawsuit also criticized the impact the change in the election cycle would have in extending the terms of the council members by 18 months, saying that violated the city’s charter.
“This is un-American what they have done,” Hector Medina said of the council’s decision to extend their terms. Medina, who is one of the residents bringing the lawsuit, spoke with the Miami Herald before a press conference Tuesday afternoon outside North Miami’s City Hall. He had previously filed paperwork to run for mayor in the May election before the date was changed.
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Medina said without the election in May, in his view, it amounted to unelected officials making key decisions such as hiring a new North Miami police chief and on the development of downtown. “And that’s unacceptable,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, has five plaintiffs listed. Juan-Carlos Planas, an elections attorney representing Medina and several other North Miami residents, said that number could grow.
Planas said the law cited by the city when making the change only applied to non-chartered cities and that the decision to extend term limits violated the city’s charter. Planas said a decision about extending council members’ terms cannot be made without a referendum.
“Even if that is the case, that the state law can prevail, you cannot unlawfully extend terms. Term limits are to be respected,” Planas said at the press conference. “If the city had decided to do this 10 months ago, and then switch the election to November 2022, shortening the terms, they’d be on better legal grounds. But bottom line, this is the problem.”
Mayor Alix Desulme and longtime Councilman Scott Galvin were also named in the suit. The city has not been legally served with the lawsuit, but city attorney Jeff Cazeau said it does not respond to pending litigation. Galvin declined to comment on the lawsuit. Desulme, who is out of the country, told the Herald he had no comment.
Changing elections
The issue stems from a Dec. 13 vote in which the council decided to move its elections from May 2023 to November 2024. That action also resulted in extending the terms of Galvin and Desulme, who was appointed mayor during that meeting, to end in November 2024. Their terms previously would have ended in May.
Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin and Kassandra Timothe’s terms were originally set to end in May 2025, but will now end in November 2026. The council moved the city’s municipal elections from May of odd-numbered years to November of even-numbered years to align with the national election schedule and save the city money.
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Since 2013, the city of North Miami has held municipal elections every second Tuesday in May during odd-numbered years. Mayors can hold consecutive two-year terms and council members can hold consecutive four-year terms. The city last attempted to change its election schedule in 2015. At that time, the proposal passed on first read, but didn’t on second reading.
Residents want vote
Several residents stood outside North Miami City Hall on Tuesday chanting “restore the elections” while holding neon green signs protesting the council’s decision. Many voiced displeasure about the prospect of their decision to elect officials delayed for almost two years.
One of them was former Florida Agriculture commissioner candidate Naomi Esther Blemur, who said she came to show solidarity with her fellow residents.
“Two of the sitting council members who voted to delay elections 18 months are term limited,” she said, adding the Dec. 13 vote extended their terms without any input from voters. “That is not democracy.”
Longtime North Miami resident Eileen Bicaba called the move by council members “a coup.”
“Most of us are not even against the changing of the date of the election to November,” she said. “We are for it actually. What we are dealing with is them keeping themselves in office without an election and extended term limits.”
“We would be against this even if we were for them,” Laurie Landgrebe told the Herald, agreeing with her neighbor Bicaba.
Planas said he is asking for an expedited hearing schedule and hopes to have a hearing in the next 10 days. “Our goal is to still provide time to have this fully resolved by March so they can still have the May election or as soon as possible,” he said.
This story was originally published February 21, 2023 at 7:24 PM.
