Voters, not commission, should decide District 8 seat

The Miami-Dade County Commission is trying to load the deck by appointing one of its lackeys instead of letting us vote on a new commissioner for District

8.

One of the county referendums we recently voted on requires that when the mayor or member of the county commission resigns to run for another office, the vacancy will be filled by election during a primary and general election rather than by appointment or by special election.

When Commissioner Levine Cava ran for mayor, and won, she still had two years left on her commission term. Now, Commissioners Sosa, Gilbert, Hardemon, Regalado,

McGhee, and Diaz have decided they will appoint someone for us.

They have purposely chosen to remove our Constitutional voting rights to elect a representative. Because we aren’t allowed to vote for any of these commissioners countywide, none of them represent our choice.

The cost of a special election to fill the District 8 seat is about $1.2 million. They do not want to spend that money, but have jumped at the chance to spend a million on creating a redundant commission budget job for demoted (and recently resigned) Jennifer Moon, the former deputy mayor.

Whoever this group appoints will owe their place on the commission to these other commissioners, not to the people of District 8.

Where is the ACLU or an attorney when you need them?

Let’s remember the names of the commissioners who feel this is an acceptable way to fill this vacant seat.

Commissioners Diaz and Sosa will be termed out, so have little to lose, but the others are newly elected. We need to make them one term commissioners.

– Deborah Lamb,

Miami