Herald recommends candidate with proven experience for Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts | Opinion

The Miami-Dade Clerk of Court is not just the office that collects the fine you have to pay after your parking meter expired and you found a parking ticket under your wiper.

The clerk’s office is the quiet engine that keeps much of life in Miami-Dade running smoothly, reliably. And for 28 years, Harvey Ruvin has been at the helm.

Throughout that time, Ruvin has brought technological upgrades to the office that allow residents to access documents and records more efficiently than they could during the days of reams of paper.

It supports the court system, the judiciary, the legal community, the County Commission and, of course, the public.

It’s custodian of public documents. It’s where couples get a marriage license. It’s where residents file a court document. It’s the keeper of community history. Ruvin told the Editorial Board that he expects to have digitized recordings of County Commission meetings reaching back to the 1980s soon.

In the course of Ruvin’s time there, the office has, in many ways, been all things to all people, working effectively and efficiently in spite of budget challenges. There’s no reason for any change at the top, especially as Ruvin and his office prepare to play an integral role in reintroducing in-person jury trials, halted during the coronavirus pandemic. He is leading the county court system through a trial run — no pun intended — in which jurors are questioned by attorneys via a virtual jury pool. This who are chosen show up at the courthouse and sit through a masked and socially distanced trial.

Ruvin is up for reelection. He has drawn a challenger, Rubin Young, who declined the Editorial Board’s invitation to participate in a candidate interview.

In Ruvin, the community has a fierce advocate not just for the office in Miami-Dade, but also for clerks offices statewide. Every year, he lobbies state lawmakers to grant the clerks not just sufficient funding, but consistent funding, too.

Monies from fines and fees paid locally flow through — and are disbursed to the clerks offices by — the state. Needless to say, lawmakers can’t resist hijacking those funds for other purposes. It’s not unusual, but it’s not right.

Ruvin told the Editorial Board that Florida’s 67 clerks take in more than $1 billion annually, usually asking the state for about $450 million collectively each year — and the stingy state gives them less than half of that for operations. The clerks’ offices are coming through for the state, the Board wrote three years ago. Why is the Legislature crippling their ability to continue to do so?

In a big boon for Miami-Dade, indeed, for South Florida, Ruvin, in addition to his clerk responsibilities, has become a leader in the climate-change arena, having headed the Miami-Dade Sea-Level Rise Task Force.

In fact, he was out in front of this pressing challenge long before other elected officials were paying attention — if they weren’t ignoring the red flags altogether.

In his 28 years as clerk, Ruvin has had a real talent for envisioning the future, whether technology or environmental threat. The Herald Editorial Board recommends HARVEY RUVIN for Miami-Dade Clerk of Court.

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM.