After blocking an election, Miami-Dade commissioners ready to fill open seat themselves

Miami-Dade commissioners get the chance Tuesday to pick the swing vote on their 13-seat board, a high-stakes decision that voters won’t be making barring a change in plans.

After a divided board rejected a special election to fill Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s District 8 commission seat, the next vote could install a new commissioner until the 2022 elections. The Dec. 1 commission meeting’s agenda includes a resolution to appoint a commissioner to the South Miami-Dade seat, with the name of the appointee left blank.

Commissioners against the election cited the potential $1 million cost, though the same board in September approved a $9 billion county budget that included $3 million to subsidize the Orange Bowl football game and $1 million for the Orange Blossom Classic game and band competition.

The 7-5 vote against an election has already removed one name from the candidate list. John DuBois — the Palmetto Bay vice mayor who filed candidacy papers last year anticipating a special election to fill Levine Cava’s seat — sent a critical letter to commissioners Nov. 24 informing them he did not want to be considered for an appointment if no election is being held.

“I urge you to leave this decision to the voters of District 8, as they know best who is qualified to serve and represent them,” DuBois wrote.

DuBois is one of four candidates who filed as District 8 candidates for 2022, a legal route that lets them raise money to be spent on a special election if one is called. State law required Levine Cava to resign her seat in order to qualify for the mayoral ballot, and she timed her resignation to take effect after the November election.

Voters on Nov. 3 approved an amendment to the county charter that will allow future commissioners to hold elections in advance of a resignation taking effect, a sequence barred under the prior charter language.

An appointment from District 8 candidates?

Rebeca Sosa, the acting chairwoman of the commission, said she wanted the field of possible appointees limited to candidates who are already running in District 8. They are DuBois, neighborhood activist Alicia Arellano, counselor Leonarda Duran Buike, and lawyer Danielle Cohen Higgins.

Buike said she supported the commission appointing someone but that the board should appoint a caretaker who won’t run in the 2022 election. Even so, if the commission wants to limit its choices to candidates who have filed, Buike said she’d like to be considered. “If that’s the decision they made, I’ll be there,” she said.

While DuBois showed the largest financial war chest in his campaign, most of the $1 million came from a loan to his campaign that he’s since taken back.

Cohen Higgins is the only candidate with significant overlap between her donors and the donors of multiple sitting commissioners. She’s raised close to $300,000 for her campaign and a political committee, Fight for Our Future. Donors include lobbyist Ron Book, the Miami Dolphins and the company behind the Brightline train system.

Cohen Higgins filed her papers in May 2019, a month after DuBois did. On Wednesday, she said she hasn’t been contacted by any sitting commissioners about the appointment and is ready to make her case at Tuesday’s meeting or participate in an interview process the board might establish for a later vote.

“For the last year and a half, I’ve been making my case to District 8 voters,” she said. “Now I have to shift gears and make my case to 12 commissioners.”

Though Sosa wants the choice contained to candidates who have filed, the board would be free to choose any District 8 resident qualified to hold office. The appointee could run in the 2022 election and again in 2026 before the county’s two-term limit forces an exit.

“I think they should have had an election,” Arellano said, adding that she’s willing to be appointed by the commission. “Because the people have a right to vote who they want to represent them...I’m sure there are other people out there who would be interested in running as well.”

Other names are in the mix. As the Political Cortadito blog first reported, former state senator Frank Artiles is interested in the seat. He resigned in 2017 after he unleashed a diatribe against two members of the Legislature while at a Tallahassee bar, including use of the word “niggas.”

Reached by text Wednesday, Artiles stated “it is truly an honor to be considered for the appointment.” He declined to answer questions. “Thank you for respecting my privacy. No further comment.”