Some Miami commissioners mean to public, each other. Such abuse of power must stop | Opinion

The Miami City Commission has often been a spectacle to watch. There was the time Commissioner Joe Carollo showcased a video of then police chief Art Acevedo impersonating Elvis Presley, freezing it to show his crotch prominently displayed in a tight white suit. There was the time Carollo told Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla “You make me want to vomit” during a heated discussion on the dais.

Miami is known for its pugilistic, often bizarre style of politics. The problem is that commissioners have often aimed their ire not only at each other but at members of the public speaking before them. Citizens who speak at City Commission meetings too often are met with insults.

This behavior isn’t new, and many City Hall watchers have grown numb to it. But it is a disservice to the democratic process and an insult to the people whose tax dollars support elected officials. The issue came up during February’s special election in District 2. The winner, Sabina Covo, made restoring decorum a point during her campaign.

“A lot of the constituents that I’ve been talking to feel disrespected when they go and they talk during the meetings,” Covo told the Herald Editorial Board last month. “So there is a lack of respect that I think that needs to be restored.”

Hard to criticize

Covo, a first-time elected official, is walking into the lion’s den As we often hear, commissioners know how to count to three, the number of votes needed to pass anything on this five-member body. That makes it harder for commissioners to call out their disrespectful colleagues without facing repercussions.

Covo wasn’t the only one who brought up this up to the Editorial Board during candidate interviews.

“I’ve been going to City Hall for quite some time and I’ve been called an actor and an activist by some of the commissioners,” candidate Javier Gonzalez, a longtime Coconut Grove resident, said.

When Grove residents flocked to City Hall last year to oppose a redistricting plan that divided the historic Black Grove, Diaz de la Portilla dismissively said: “There’s a group of activists from Coconut Grove who don’t want to be part of Miami.”

If being engaged with what’s happening in their community makes them activists, that’s not a bad thing; it’s not the pejorative term it has become.

Another common line of attack from the dais is to dismiss residents who don’t live in the city, but who are stakeholders in what’s happening at City Hall. In September, Carollo attacked Jeanette Ruiz, who spoke during a budget hearing on behalf of the Miami Climate Alliance. She advocated for more funding for storm resilience and criticized the commission for what she considered a lack of proper advertising of the meeting. Carollo told her she doesn’t have the same right to speak as Miami residents.

“Your words are a little, kind of harsh, I thought, when you’re not a resident. You’re coming from outside,” he said.

Speakers routinely give their addresses and, although Ruiz lives outside city limits, she said she works in Miami. And there are no rules preventing people who aren’t Miami residents from speaking, much less on issues that affect people who live across Miami-Dade County. It appears the issue wasn’t Ruiz’s residence but her criticism.

“The decisions you guys make here impact my life as well, impact my family, who lives in the city,” Ruiz responded. The exchange was first reported by the blog Political Cortadito.

Not just Miami

Unfortunately, stymieing criticism is not unique to the city of Miami. Last year, then-County Commission Chair Jose “Pepe” Diaz was criticized for enforcing a rule that prohibits speakers from directly addressing any commissioner on the dais. Diaz took it to mean that you can’t address your own commissioner by name — unless, of course, you’re flattering them.

We’re not defending speakers who don’t respect the rules of decorum, who use curse words or threaten elected officials. There are procedures to deal with disruptive people. But the basic requirement for someone who’s paid to represent the people is to get through long, arduous meetings and listen to public complaints, as small or annoying as they may seem.

Members of the public should get a chance to express their displeasure — respectfully, always — without fear of repercussion or ridicule. This is local government, not high-school and we expect our elected leaders to live up to their duty.