Miami residents voted not to give a raise and some new authority to City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
When Suarez was sworn in as City of Miami mayor, the job did not come with nearly the power he wanted. The city had a "weak" mayor system--meaning the mayor didn't have hiring or firing powers and was limited in authority over the day-to-day operations of the city.
So Suarez lead a petition drive to reorganize city government in a way that gave more personnel and budget decisions to the mayor.
The issue was put to voters to decide on whether or not to make Suarez--and every mayor after him--a "strong" mayor.
"I like 'executive mayor' better as a term," Suarez said a week before Election Day, on WLRN's Sundial. "If you want to be mayor of a big city, you have to be comfortable with responsibility. What bothers me is when there's an incongruity between what the expected ability of a mayor is and the actual ability of a mayor."
The measure included an approximately $50,000 raise for Suarez.
