It’s time to change Miami’s form of government to Council-Manager. Here’s why.
The City of Miami’s current form of government needs to be modernized to confront the challenges our city faces in this new decade.
The Miami 2020 plan calls for a change in the form of government from a Weak Mayor-Council form of government to a Council-Manager government with all elections held on general election ballots.
Here’s a sample of the proposed ballot language:
Shall the charter be amended to change form of government to council-manager, eliminating the mayor’s office, converting five existing districts into five regions with regional councils and electing three councilpersons from geographically distinct districts therein only during federal general elections using ranked-choice voting, with matters having first hearing at the regional council level, second hearing at council level, top positions hired by select committee and the council elects its Chairperson for 2 year fixed terms?
In a city the size of Miami’s roughly 440,000 residents, there are only six elected officials in our city’s Mayor-Council government.
Contrast their number with the seven Miami Beach Commissioners representing 90,000 residents and a significant hotel industry with a hybrid Council-Manager form of government. They have a ceremonial Mayor with a few additional powers that Chairs its Commission.
Academic studies demonstrate nine reasons why the Council-Manager change will represent a significant improvement for the City of Miami’s residents, who regularly complain about broken city streets, an unresponsive government, and preening (or brooding) politicians.
In particular, they conclude that Council-Manager governments lead to a rise in citizen participation in their operation and a broader distribution of the benefits of the city to all residents.
“Evidence also suggests that council-manager governments favor more comprehensive policy solutions, experience less conflict among senior officials, and are more willing to adopt innovative policies and practices than mayor-council governments.” — University of Illinois-Chicago study
But in the City of Miami, it indeed appears we don’t need a Mayor anymore according to residents.
Miami’s voters rejected a “Strong Mayor” form of government by an overwhelming 64–36 margin in November 2018.
Few Miamians could tell you what the weak Mayor’s formal duties entail.
Mainly, the Miami Mayor exercises the power of a veto over ordinances that requires a 4/5ths vote to override. They also hold the bully pulpit of their title.
Special interests understand well that as a non-voting Mayor, the non-executive elected official has complete access to the Commission without the restrictions of the Sunshine Law that keep public business from happening behind closed doors.
How will it work?
In a Council-Manager government, the Miami Commission would instead have a strong, elected Chairperson when it abolishes the Mayor’s office.
After the initial body, the new Commission Chair will be elected by voters from the Commission every two years, bringing accountability to the top job and reducing the politicization of the ceremonial head of local government.
Major hiring decisions (City Manager, Police Chief, City Attorney, City Clerk) will be delegated to select committees that substitute professional criteria for the current system, which relies entirely on a Mayor’s political decisions.
Who can forget the short-lived term of Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, whom the Mayor brought in as a “reformer” and unceremoniously let the Commission berate, taunt and fire for trying to actually reform the department?
By expanding the Commission’s districts into regions with three districts each, we will maintain the balance of power amongst the different neighborhoods and expand representation.
For example, no women were elected officials at Miami City Hall from 2013 to 2021. There are no Haitian-American representatives, no members of the commission from Central America or the islands of Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic, despite the city having numerous residents from all of those locales.
To bring government closer to the people, new counsels of three elected members per current Commission district could be formed to handle the kinds of hyperlocal issues that don’t make it to City Hall today.
Each region will have a regional Council which allows those three voices to decide neighborhood-level matters, giving a greater voice to each community over the affairs that impact them the most.
Right now, each ordinance must be passed twice by the same Commission to become law, why not give the first reading on issues that aren’t citywide to the regional Councils?
In addition, a wise plan would move city elections to the federal general election ballot, to increase voter participation from its current paltry levels of 10–15%.
Changing election days to the days when 50–75% of voters usually vote would save money.
It would also combat one of the studied weaknesses in the Council-Manager form of government: Low voter turnout.
By adding ranked-choice voting, we could create an “instant runoff,” thereby saving the municipality the cost burden of holding “off-year” elections and runoffs. Unfortunately, the state of Florida used its pre-emption powers to ban ranked choice, despite its popularity in places as diverse as New York City, Alaska and Maine.
Comparing Miami’s Current Government vs. Proposed New Government
This flowchart depicts the relationship between the structures of the Council-Manager form of government as proposed above:
This flowchart depicts the relationship between the structures of the Council-Weak Mayor form of government as it exists today:
What do academic studies have to say?
The Public Administration Review published this peer-reviewed meta-study of the Council-Manager form of government by a former State of Florida official, University of Illinois-Chicago Professor Jered B. Carr, entitled “What Have We Learned about the Performance of Council-Manager Government? A Review and Synthesis of the Research.”
“Council-manager governments are less likely to adopt symbolic policies than mayor-council governments.” — University of Illinois-Chicago study
These are ten “propositions” that represent his conclusions from examining 76 different quantitative studies of the differences between Miami’s current system of government and the one proposed.
Strategic Choices Made by Executive Officials
- Proposition 1: Executive officials in council-manager governments are less likely to be responsive to the policy agenda of politically powerful interests than their counterparts in mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 2: Executive officials in council-manager governments are more likely to adopt comprehensive policies than their counterparts in mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 3: Executive officials in council-manager governments are less likely to adopt policies that direct highly visible benefits at politically important interests than their counterparts in mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 4: Residents in council-manager cities are less likely to vote in municipal elections than residents in mayor-council cities.***
- Proposition 5: Executive officials in council-manager cities are more likely to involve residents in deciding issues of public importance than their counterparts in mayor-council cities.
“The empirical literature shows that council-manager governments seek to distribute the benefits of public policies more broadly… and their senior executive officials direct more of their time to their roles as managers than is the case in mayor-council governments.” — University of Illinois-Chicago study
Functionality of the Organization
- Proposition 6: Executive officials in council-manager governments devote more of their time to managing the organization than their counterparts in mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 7: Council-manager governments produce less conflict among their officials than mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 8: Executive officials in council-manager governments are more likely to adopt innovative policies and practices than their counterparts in mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 9: Council-manager governments produce higher-quality services than mayor-council governments.
- Proposition 10: Council-manager governments are more effective in performing the basic functions of government than mayor-council governments.
The City of Miami government is facing multiple crises from the dire lack of affordable housing to the impact of rising waters, and its antiquated weak Mayor form of government isn’t up to the task of solving today’s problems, let alone the challenges of the future.
