The Miami Lakes Town Council would pick the next town manager and town attorney with public input instead of placing the sole responsibility on the mayor in the latest round of proposed charter amendments to give lawmakers equal powers to select the top administrators to run the day-to-day operations.
Last week, the Miami Lakes Charter Revision Commission recommended the changes and lawmakers must set a date for an election for residents to vote on whether to modify the charter or keep it intact.
The commission’s plans to shake up the town’s bureaucracy includes allowing council members to select a mayor from their own body following an election for up to a two-year term, erasing the current format of residents electing a mayor at large to serve for four years.
The change is intended to eliminate politics and prevent elected officials from using the mayoral position as a springboard to higher political office, the commission indicated, which is hoping residents approve a mail-in ballot in May so the suggested changes could take effect for the town’s November general election.
But Town Attorney Raul Gastesi dropped a bombshell by indicating the council can set a date beyond May, instead of opting for the August countywide primary or the November election, which means most of the changes, if approved, won't be valid until the next two years, and four years for the mayoral positions.
“The county gave us three options, a mail-in ballot in May, an election for August or the November election,” Gastesi said. “If it’s not on the August or November ballot, any changes you recommend won’t conceivably take effect until at least four years for the mayor seat. As far as any changes affecting council member, they won’t take effect until at least two years.”
He corrected an error in a story The Miami Laker ran last month that stated council members can reject the commission’s amendments, and instead said lawmakers must allow the residents to vote on the commission’s recommendations to alter the charter.
Gastesi said for a May mail-in ballot election, the Town Council must approve a resolution 60 days before the date of the referendum.
Council members would have to call a special election in mid March to approve the ballot language and subsequently submit it to the county to schedule a public vote through a mail-in ballot, he said.
Mayor Michael Pizzi, and Councilmembers Caesar Mestre and Manny Cid, who are running for mayor, along with former mayor Wayne Slaton, all opposed the commission’s proposal to change the structure of electing a mayor at large.
The Charter Revision Comission has been meeting for several months hashing out a rash of proposed charter amendments to bring the local bureaucracy more in line with a council-manager form of government, giving the mayor and council members equal duties, and a new process and criteria for selecting a town manager and town attorney.
Under the original town charter, the mayor appoints the town manager and town attorney, subject to approval by council members to become official.
But under Commission member Joshua Dieguez’s proposal, the entire Town Council would nominate candidates for the town manager’s position, conceivably creating a screening panel to make recommendations to lawmakers, a format which is used in Cooper City, Palmetto Bay and Coral Gables.
He asked Miami Lakes Town Manager Alex Rey to describe his experience when he applied for the city manager’s position in Coral Gables to get a better understanding of how the selection process works.
Rey said Coral Gables tapped a consulting firm to help screen 125 applicants nationwide and narrowed the candidates down to a field of 15 people.
From there, he said a group of six completed a three-level process which included meeting with the city’s department directors and one-on-one interviews with the five commissioners, which then picked two finalists for the position and further questioned them to determine the best candidate for the job.
Albeit Rey didn't get the nod, he said the city's selection process was healthy without relying on a single individual to nominate a candidate for town manager.
“In Coral Gables, everybody felt part of that process,” Rey said. “I find it to be a transparent and healthy process.”
Commission member Roberto Alonso Jr., commended Dieguez’s idea.
“It goes in line with our vision of the government that we have in place, taking away bureaucracy of one individual person in selecting how the town is run,” he said.
Commission member Ramiro Inguanzo, who said he has been involved in several high level recruitments for city managers, indicated another solution which involves residents taking part in selecting process of hiring a town manager by creating a committee to work with lawmakers.
“I have seen a lot of citizen engagement and I know it’s something we heard from the public,” he said. “I must say this for the record because the process that Mr. Rey just described didn’t turn out so well in Coral Gables. The candidate they identified through a background process, they decided to not further engage with him.”
The commission also approved Dieguez’s suggestion to add language in the town charter for qualifications for the town manager’s position “based solely on executive and administration qualifications with special reference to actual experience and knowledge of the duties of the office of the city manager with requirements set by the Town Council.”
The commission also voted against Inguanzo’s proposal that the next town manager should be required to live in Miami Lakes to share the same experience as residents and be a part of the community that he is in charge of running.
“I think it would be an impediment of getting qualified people if they have to purchase property for residency in the Town of Miami Lakes, especially if they have to move their family and children” said Commission chair David Bennett. “I see that as a problem and not a solution.”
Dieguez’s colleagues sided with him on extending the Town Council’s duties of selecting the next town attorney with input from residents as well.
Other proposed charter amendments include bringing back four residential seats for equal representation among constituents and a run-off election if neither candidate fails to collect at least 51 percent of the votes.
To do away with the confusion over the 2013 special election, the town’s vice mayor would fill in as mayor should the top office holder be arrested and suspended from political office until he is restated. If the mayor convicted, the vice mayor would fill the rest of the mayoral term.
The suggested change would prevent the brouhaha that was caused three years ago when Pizzi was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes and kick backs, and Slaton won a special election to serve out the remaining of his term.
Pizzi sued Governor Rick Scott in the Florida Supreme Court for refusing to lift his suspension following his acquittal and got his old job back in the lower courts, forcing Slaton to resign from office.