A citizen petition that could radically change the city of Miami's government has surpassed its 20,000 signature goal, bringing it one major step closer to the ballot box.
Stronger Miami is a citizen initiative launched last April seeking to amend the city's charter with the goal of expanding resident representation and engagement in local elections. The initiative's backers include community groups like One Grove Alliance and Engage Miami.
The petition's proposed changes to the city charter are as follows:
- Expanding the number of voting districts and commissioners from five to nine
- Adding language to the charter requiring that redistricting does not favor or disfavor one political party
- Neighborhoods must be kept whole during decennial redistricting
- Moving city elections to from odd years to even years
" We've been very pleased with the participation from all five districts in the city, in all corners of the city. 20,000 signatures for a specific action to improve the participation of citizens in the governance of their own city — that's a big deal," One Grove Alliance Director Mel Meinhardt told WLRN in an interview.
The petition reached 20,500 signatures as of Monday morning, and the signatures must now be verified by the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office before it goes to the city and ends up on the ballot for residents to vote on.
Meinhardt said Stronger Miami is reaching out to Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins and the current commissioners to discuss the ballot initiative and plan out next steps.
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In the time since the petition drive began, the city commission approved a ballot question asking voters if elections should be moved to even years starting in 2032. Meinhardt said he thinks this was a well-intentioned move, but it is flawed because it would give the next set of city commissioners an extra year in office.
Meinhardt pointed to Mayor Higgins' item on the upcoming commission agenda which will move mayoral election from 2029 to 2028, thus shortening her own term.
" That is a really great example where service comes first before self. There's no reason to wait until 2032," Meinhardt said.
The biggest change the petition seeks to make is expanding the number of commission districts. Many residents have argued for years that the number of commissioners has not kept up with the city's growing population, so resident representation is diluted.
For comparison, the city of Miami has five commissioners making decisions for a population of 487,000 people. Miami Beach, meanwhile, has six commissioners representing about 83,000 residents.
This topic was a point of contention during the city's fraught redistricting battle in 2024. Residents sued the city for racially gerrymandering voting districts when it split up neighborhoods following the 2020 Census. Miamians argued the redistricting decisions should not be made by so few commissioners, and called for more representation. The city ultimately settled that lawsuit and approved a new voting map.
Stronger Miami arose in part from that legal battle, hence the push for more districts and redistricting reform.
