Miami's lifetime term limits proposal advances. Carollo mayoral run still possible

Yahoo

11-07-2025

A proposal to create stricter term limits for elected officials that became entangled in a separate, controversial measure to postpone the November 2025 election will now go before Miami voters in a special election this fall.
On Thursday, the Miami City Commission green-lighted a proposal to limit elected officials to two four-year terms as mayor and two four-year terms as a commissioner during their lifetime. It passed 3-2, with Commissioners Damian Pardo, Miguel Angel Gabela and Ralph Rosado voting in favor. Commissioners Christine King and Joe Carollo voted against.
The proposed change will now go to Miami voters as a ballot question in a special election in November.
Pardo, the item's sponsor, said at Thursday's meeting that the proposed term limit change 'creates more focus' for elected officials to accomplish their goals in office during a fixed time frame.
'It also opens the door for other people, more innovation, other ideas, to come into those seats,' Pardo said.
But King, the commission chairwoman, said restricting term limits takes away choice from voters who may want to reelect someone who's already served eight years in a particular seat. She noted that as it stands now, after serving two terms, an elected official must sit out of office for one term before returning.
'Four years out of office is a lifetime in politics,' King said Thursday.
The special election will cost the city several hundred thousand dollars, according to the city clerk, but the exact amount won't be known until a later date.
When Pardo first announced the item in the spring, the reform measure promised to block career politicians who've spent years, if not decades, in City Hall, from returning to office.
But a recent change to the proposal included a loophole that could pave the way for certain legacy politicians to return.
The proposal still limits elected officials to two terms in each role, but it now comes with a carve-out that excludes 'any time served as a result of having been elected to fill a vacancy' — meaning that candidates who win a special election could still serve two additional four-year terms.
Under the earlier version, Carollo, a former mayor, could have been blocked from seeking elected office in Miami again, since he has served two terms as mayor and multiple stints as city commissioner, dating back to 1979.
However, Carollo won his first term as mayor in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Mayor Stephen Clark in 1996. That means that under the new version of the term limits proposal, Carollo would be eligible to run for mayor again — an idea he has been teasing for months.
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The odds of Pardo intentionally creating any sort of benefit for Carollo are slim, seeing as the pair are political adversaries who've consistently sparred over city issues for the better part of a year. Pardo said the change was made in effort to be fair to candidates who are elected in a special election, filling in for the remainder of a term.
'The concept was all about equity, fairness and democracy,' Pardo said Thursday. He added that the city attorney advised him that counting a shortened term that was won through a special election as a full term 'leaves us open to legal challenges.'
'In the drafting process, these legal issues came up about what is a term and what is fair,' Pardo said.
The first version of Pardo's proposal also didn't define the length of a term, meaning that, in theory, even serving one day in office could count as a term. But the legislation now restricts elected officials to two four-year terms specifically.
That might seem like a minor change, but it could open the door for former Mayor Xavier Suarez to return to City Hall — something he also has been considering and has yet to rule out. Suarez has served three terms as mayor — seemingly disqualifying him under the earlier version of Pardo's term limits proposal — but only one of those terms was a four-year term.
In a text message last week, Suarez said he was still 'considering' running for mayor and that he doesn't think the proposed term limits change will affect him.
The change also benefits Rosado, a newly elected commissioner who won a special election last month to replace the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes.
Rosado's term was supposed to run through November 2027, but a City Commission vote last month extended his term to 2028.
If voters pass the new version of the term limits proposal, Rosado will be allowed to run for two more four-year terms after he finishes his current one, allowing him, in theory, to be a Miami city commissioner for 11 years.
Under other circumstances, the term limits proposal would have gone on the ballot in the November 2025 general election, where residents were slated to vote on a new mayor and two city commissioners. But in a 3-2 vote last month, the City Commission postponed the upcoming November election to 2026.
That measure, also sponsored by Pardo, achieved the goal of moving the city from odd- to even-year elections, when voter turnout is higher. But it came with the side effect of giving the city's elected officials an extra year an office, including Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez, who are both termed out in November.
The change has spurred outrage among residents, as well as criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has threatened legal action against the city but has yet to take formal action.
Pardo has argued that the decision to move the election back to 2026 'cures' a flaw in his term limits proposal. If the general election had taken place in November 2025 and the term limits question was included on the same ballot as candidates who could be affected by the term restrictions, that could set up the city for a legal challenge.
So in a roundabout way, moving the election date back gave the city a safer legal avenue for putting the term limits proposal to voters.
But it's still up in the air whether Miami's next general election will take place this November or next.
Following last month's City Commission vote to postpone the election, mayoral candidate and former City Manager Emilio González filed a lawsuit against the city. He's asking the court to determine that the ordinance the city passed is 'unlawful and invalid,' effectively reverting the election date back to 2025.
The parties are scheduled to have a hearing on the matter in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Wednesday.