Miami Dysfunction: How a judge’s ruling could finally spur change in scandal-ridden city | Opinion

A federal judge’s ruling that Miami’s district map is unconstitutional is an opportunity for a city in desperate need of a shakeup.

Instead of continuing to fight for the maps and protect their own interests, Miami leaders should start from scratch. Change should go beyond redrawing the commission districts U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore said on Wednesday were racially gerrymandered.

With two new commissioners elected in November on a promise to clean up scandal-ridden Miami, the status quo shouldn’t be an option. Miami must consider expanding the city commission from five to at least seven seats. That would require approval by voters to amend the city charter.

As the Herald Editorial Board has argued many times in its Miami Dysfunction series, a larger commission would account for the city’s population growth — districts were created in 1997 — and allow a plurality of voices and points of view. It would also make it harder for a small majority of elected officials to control what happens in South Florida’s largest city, population 450,000.

Miami’s commission size is an outlier among municipalities of similar size in Florida and across the country, such as Tampa and Atlanta, which have larger legislative bodies.

The number of seats on a commission may seem inconsequential and bureaucratic to some residents, but it’s at the core of how decisions are made in Miami.

There’s a common saying here that anyone who wants something from City Hall knows how to count to three, the number of votes needed for a simple majority. For years, that allowed Commissioner Joe Carollo, who’s facing a $63.5 million federal judgment, and former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, arrested last year on corruption charges, to establish control of the commission as long as they had another vote. Critics were fearful to cross the duo because of their outsized power.

The approval of the redistricting maps in 2022 is emblematic of this type of dysfunction. A coalition of civic groups, including two branches of the NAACP, sued the city saying the maps sorted city residents by race and ethnicity in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

During the redistricting process — required every 10 years to account for population changes after U.S. Census numbers are released — commissioners spoke openly about maintaining a tradition of having three Hispanic-majority districts, a Black-majority district and a so-called “Anglo” — non-Hispanic white — district.

Race and ethnicity were a cover for something more insidious: the apparent desire of elected officials to draw districts that favor themselves and their political allies.

The redrawing of District 1 excluded the house of now-Commissioner Miguel Gabela, who at the time was challenging Diaz de la Portilla. Days before Gabela won in November, Diaz de la Portilla sued him, claiming Gabela did not meet the city’s residency requirements. In January, the commission voted to re-include his home back into the district.

Carollo’s District 3 was redrawn to cover his longtime home in Coconut Grove. Commissioners are required to legally reside in the districts they represent, so, when Carollo ran for his seat in 2017, he rented an apartment inside District 3. Under the redrawn maps, Carollo could reclaim the Coconut Grove house as his primary residence.

That’s important because he’s fighting in federal court to stop the seizure of his home, saying it’s his homestead property and, therefore, cannot be taken to pay for that $63.5 million judgment. A jury last year found Carollo violated the First Amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen who accused him of weaponizing the city’s code enforcement against them as political retaliation.

In his ruling, Moore said he would schedule a hearing with Miami and the plaintiffs to decide the next steps, which could include redrawing the commission maps and calling a special election, the Herald reported.

The city had the chance to draw better districts following another ruling by Moore last year, but officials squandered it. Fixing a broken product at this point is no longer sufficient. Miami needs drastic changes and it begins with a expanding the commission.

Click here to send the letter.