Miami could eliminate climate change czar as COVID forces budget chops across city
The city of Miami has won international praise for its chief resilience officer, a climate change czar tasked with helping the city adapt to rising seas. Now, under a COVID-19 budget crunch, the city could effectively get rid of the position.
“This is a signal for how we prioritize what is an immediate, urgent issue for Miami,” said Frances Colón, a former member of the city’s sea level rise board. “It communicates the wrong thing to the community, it communicates the wrong thing to investors. People don’t want to see Miami do less.”
Miami’s first CRO, Jane Gilbert, is leaving her position at the end of July to spend more time with her family.
She was hired in 2016 with the help of a grant from 100 Resilient Cities, a since-disbanded effort from the Rockefeller Foundation to prepare cities for climate change by installing a high-level government official to coordinate efforts. Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County also hired resilience officers while part of the program.
Like the rest of the city, Gilbert’s small department already faced sharp budget cuts as the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic left Miami’s city government with a $23 million budget shortfall to fill. An early casualty was the deputy chief resilience officer position, which was cut before it was officially filled.
Under a budget proposal released this week by Mayor Francis Suarez and City Manager Art Noriega, the city would eliminate the stand-alone resilience and sustainability office and transfer three existing staffers from that department into a division of the resilience and public works department. The team includes an administrative assistant and two resilience program managers.
After this story was first published online, Commissioner Ken Russell told the Miami Herald that Noriega told him an existing city staffer is expected to be named the new chief resilience officer — public works director Alan Dodd, in a dual role. The consolidation of responsibilities would still mean the city would not have an administrator whose sole responsibility is to oversee resilience initiatives across multiple city departments.
“The challenge will be to make sure that the human side of resilience will continue to be prioritized,” Russell said. “I will be making sure the manager is aware of that importance.”
Noriega was unavailable for comment Thursday because he was logged on to a daylong virtual commission meeting. The question of the resilience office was not discussed during the meeting, though it would more likely be the subject of debate during public hearings dedicated to the city budget in September.
This year’s budget hearings could be more eventful than in recent years where revenues have grown for the city. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread closures that fueled a major economic slowdown across the country. Local governments that rely on sales tax revenue and other direct income have felt the hit. The $23 million gap led to a hiring freeze and scaling back of some public projects to rein in spending while the city eats into its reserve funds. The initial forecast for the next budget year is even gloomier as the economic recovery is expected to move slowly.
Across the city, employees will be asked not to take raises in the upcoming year — a request that will in some cases require negotiations with labor unions.
Despite the city’s troubled finances, climate action advocates worry merging the departments will hamstring Miami’s ability to tackle the looming crisis of climate change.
While there are many issues the departments have in common, like planning how to keep the city dry in the face of rising seas, the office of resilience and sustainability also works on issues across the city like affordable housing, keeping residents safe from extreme heat and reducing the city’s carbon emissions.
“It’s very troubling that we seem to be taking power away from and decreasing the relevance of these few tools that we have within the bureaucratic structure to address this,” Colón said. “These issues need to be elevated, not absorbed under bigger departments where they’re going to be one consideration of many.”
The proposal mirrors a 2018 move by former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez to merge the departments. He ultimately backed off the plan after an uproar from the public, commissioners and grant funders who worried the move undermined the city’s efforts to combat climate change.
Zelalem Adefris, vice president of policy and advocacy at Catalyst Miami, said that’s why advocates like her fought to keep the departments separate in 2018 and will do so again now.
“Advocates and community members don’t see climate change as just a sea level rise issue that can be solved with pumps in the ground but something that takes a whole suite of solutions that don’t require pipes or concrete,” she said.
Adefris also pointed out that under Gilbert’s tenure, Miami — and by extension, Suarez — built a reputation around the world as a leader in climate action.
“The mayor really touts himself as a climate advocate on the national stage. To defund your CRO position is completely opposite to a strong stance on climate,” she said.
Suarez declined to comment on the matter, deferring the Herald’s questions to Noriega.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 6:22 PM.
