‘Legend’ Harvey Ruvin, Miami-Dade’s longest-serving elected official, dies at 85

Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin, Miami-Dade County’s longest-serving elected official, has died at 85, shocking those in the legal and political communities.

“Tonight, we are heartbroken to learn of Harvey Ruvin’s death — a public servant who embodied the best of government, and someone I was proud to call a friend,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava tweeted Saturday night.

Ruvin served seven consecutive four-year terms as the county’s clerk in charge of Miami-Dade’s court system. However, his start in politics dates back to the 1960s.

Dr. Paul George, Miami’s most prominent historian, said Ruvin’s elected history - as a small-town mayor, county commissioner and then clerk of courts - was unique in Miami history.

He was elected to his first office in 1968, when he became mayor of North Bay Village at age 30. He then served on the Miami-Dade County Commission through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1992, he won election to the clerk’s office.

“His legacy was that he was so versatile,” George said.

A pillar of South Florida’s legal community

Chief Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Nushin G. Sayfie said Ruvin’s loss brings great sadness to all who knew him.

“Harvey was a model public servant - devoted to the community he served and an exemplary leader to his entire team of clerks,” Sayfie said. “To us here at the courts he was a faithful and hard-working justice partner and will be sorely missed.”

Retired Miami-Dade circuit judge Scott Silverman, who served as the 11th Circuit’s historian, called Ruvin “a legend.”

He recalled that while Ruvin never sought the limelight, he took his public duties seriously and was well known to community leaders and the public.

“He never missed an investiture for any judge,” Silverman said. “He was always there proudly representing his office.”

Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez credited Ruvin, in the mid-1990s before documents could be digitized as quickly as today, with helping implement a system to help his attorneys get case files quicker.

“It allowed us to be more streamlined and actually get more work done without having the delays many other people in the state were having,” Martinez said in an interview on Saturday night. “He was a tremendous partner to the office.”

Ruvin’s office also helped launch what’s known as SPIRIT, an electronic case management system to handle the crushing amount of traffic citations levied every year in Miami-Dade County.

Martinez said Ruvin was also instrumental in helping former felons restore their voting rights under Amendment 4, which passed in 2018. The Florida Legislature later passed a law requiring ex-felons to pay court fines and fees before they could have their rights restored.

“The No. 1 hurdle was trying to get old records to try and figure out how much someone owed,” Martinez said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do a quarter of the things we did without Harvey and his people stepping up and giving us access to records.”

Miami Herald Reporter Doug Hanks contributed to this report.