Miami Mayor Francis Suarez vetoes lifetime pensions for city commissioners

Concerns about potential redevelopment plans also discussed at Thursday commission meeting

MIAMI – City of Miami commissioners recently voted “yes” to lifetime pensions for themselves, but Miami Mayor Francis Suarez vetoed that decision this week amid an onslaught of public criticism.

“As Mayor and a former City Commissioner, I have historically been opposed to a publicly funded pension system for elected officials,” the mayor wrote in a veto message dated Wednesday.

Still, Suarez wrote, “Elected officials’ salaries essentially have remained the same since a new form of government was introduced in 1997. This compensation is by many measures outdated and it is understandable that some of my colleagues have strong feelings about the need for reform.”

According to Suarez, if he would have signed the legislation and took the pension, he would have been entitled to a benefit of more than $4 million, which he believed to be unfair.

“As I approach 16 years of public service, I never expected or sought such a benefit, and I do not believe it is fair for the hardworking, taxpaying residents of this city to bear it,” he wrote.

Suarez added that there also did not appear to be a “clear consensus” that the “pension as passed on October 15th should move forward in its present form.”

During a commission meeting Thursday, community members addressed the mayor’s veto against lifetime pensions for commissioners, while some from the Coral Gate neighborhood also expressed concerns about potential redevelopment plans.

“We ask that you please be prudent,” one woman said. “We don’t need the magnitude of the massive development they’re proposing.”

Residents were voicing their concerns about a potential large-scale development driven by Florida’s Live Local Act. The law is designed to incentivize developers by easing local zoning rules in exchange for affordable housing units.

“Push back on the state in the way that Orlando and a lot of other cities are doing, even if it means suing the state and preserving properties and neighborhoods like ours, so if you’re a project next to a family neighborhood, the zoning is locked into place and you can’t build anything bigger,” one man said.

The full veto message regarding pensions can be read below:

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Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.

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Annaliese Garcia joined Local 10 News in January 2020. Born and raised in Miami, she graduated from the University of Miami, where she studied broadcast journalism. She began her career at Univision. Before arriving at Local 10, she was with NBC2 (WBBH-TV) covering Southwest Florida. She's glad to be back in Miami!

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