‘This is un-American’: North Miami residents file lawsuit on timing of city elections

North Miami residents have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the North Miami City Council to hold its elections in May rather than the newly adopted schedule of November 2024 to be in sync with the national election cycle.

The lawsuit also criticized the impact the change would have in extending the terms of the council members by 18 months, saying that violated the city’s charter.

“This is un-American what they have done,” Hector Medina said of the council’s decision to extend their terms. Medina, who is one of the residents bringing the lawsuit, spoke with the Miami Herald before a press conference Tuesday afternoon outside North Miami’s City Hall. He had previously filed paperwork to run for mayor in the May election before the date was changed.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, has five plaintiffs listed. Juan-Carlos Planas, an elections attorney representing Medina and other North Miami residents, said that number could grow.

Planas said the law cited by the city when making the change only applied to non-chartered cities and that the decision to extend term limits violated the city’s charter. Planas said a decision about extending council members’ terms cannot be made without a referendum.

“Even if that is the case, that the state law can prevail, you cannot unlawfully extend terms. Term limits are to be respected,” Planas said at the press conference. “If the city had decided to do this 10 months ago, and then switch the election to November 2022, shortening the terms, they’d be on better legal grounds. But bottom line, this is the problem.”

Mayor Alix Desulme and longtime Councilman Scott Galvin were also named in the suit. The city has not been legally served with the lawsuit, but city attorney

Jeff Cazeau said it does not comment about pending litigation. Galvin declined to comment. Desulme, who is out of the country, told the Miami Herald he had no comment.

The issue stems from a Dec. 13 vote in which the council decided to move its elections from May 2023 to November 2024. That action also resulted in extending the terms of Galvin and Desulme, who was appointed mayor during that meeting, to end in November 2024. Their terms previously would have ended in May.

The terms of Councilwomen Mary Estime-Irvin and Kassandra Timothe were originally set to end in May 2025, but will now end in November 2026. The council moved the city’s municipal elections from May of odd-numbered years to November of even-numbered years to align with the national election schedule and save the city money.

Several residents stood outside North Miami City Hall on Tuesday chanting “restore the elections” while holding neon green signs protesting the council’s decision. Many voiced displeasure about the prospect of their decision to elect officials delayed for almost two years.

One of them was former Florida Agriculture commissioner candidate Naomi Esther Blemur, who said she came to show solidarity with her fellow residents.

“Two of the sitting council members who voted to delay elections 18 months are term limited,” she said, adding the Dec. 13 vote extended their terms without any input from voters. “That is not democracy.”