Roundup of local municipal races,

A slew of runoffs dominated the Miami Gardens mayoral and city council races.

As of 9:30 Tuesday night, Councilman Rodney Harris appeared headed for a runoff with state Rep. Sharon Pritchett in the Miami Gardens mayoral race. Neither candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, which would have prevented the head-to-head battle on Election Day in November.

Harris served the city of Miami Gardens as a councilman for Seat 3 since 2012. His time on the council, which includes his current position as vice mayor, has been marked with initiatives to help children and improve public safety. Those two areas, in addition to growing the city’s economy, were the backbone of his campaign initiatives.

Pritchett’s return to Miami Gardens politics comes as she’s set to term out of her position in the Florida House of Representatives. She previously served on the Miami Gardens City Council for eight years until 2011. As the Democratic state representative of the 102nd District, which includes Miami Gardens and parts of southern Broward County, she sponsored bills that have looked to restore jury rights and limit use of the death penalty.

Miami Gardens held elections for three city council positions in addition to the mayoral race for which Mayor Oliver Gilbert III, a candidate for Miami-Dade’s District 1 Commission seat, is no longer eligible. Bay Harbor Islands residents voted for two town council seats, while those in Miami Springs voted to fill a Group III vacancy on their city council.

There were 15 candidates competing for Miami Gardens’ three city council seats. Two of the races filled district-specific seats, while the other was voted citywide.

With nearly all of the ballots counted, Andre Williams and Linda Julien had the most votes for the AtLarge Seat 5. The two will be headed for a runoff to succeed Councilman David Williams Jr., who previously occupied the seat but decided to compete for Pritchett’s House seat.

Shannon Campbell will take on Robert Stephens in November to see who will replace Councilwoman

Lillie Q. Odom in Seat 1.

As for the Seat 3 race, Shannan “Lady” Ighodaro and Patricia “Pat” Wright headed for a runoff.

BAY HARBOR ISLANDS

The yearly race to occupy Bay Harbor Islands’ two Town Council seats pit the incumbents — Joshua Fuller and Elizabeth Tricoche — against Roger Santana, who lost by 21 votes when he ran in 2017.

At 9:30 p.m., Fuller and Tricoche led Santana by a wide margin with nearly all of the votes counted.

MIAMI SPRINGS

AIE Charter School principal Walter Fajet was comfortably ahead of his closest challenger in Sandra M. Ruiz, an IT project manager, in the race for the vacated Group III City Council seat.

With nearly all votes counted, Fajet accounted for more than 40 percent while Ruiz received approximately 25 percent. In that race, the top vote getter is the winner.

The two other candidates — Jasmine Gomez and Fred Gonzalez — each accounted for under 20 percent of the vote.

Former council member Mara Zapata resigned earlier this year to pursue the District 5 seat on the MiamiDade County School Board. The city, which is home to more than 13,000 people, chose former councilman George Lob to temporarily fill her seat until the election.

STRAW POLL

Voters overwhelmingly favored the screening of Miami International Airport passengers for COVID-19, a position maintained by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and the city commission.

The non-binding straw ballot question, which reportedly cost taxpayers $120,000, only measured support for the issue and has no real bearing on whether such a plan will be implemented.

Instead, Suarez could use the results to pressure the county to consider exploring the feasibility of a mass screening program for arriving passengers, an idea Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez dismissed in May, saying the county cannot legally conduct health screenings. That claim wasn’t necessarily true, according to Miami City Manager Art Noriega, who later told commissioners that the Federal Aviation Administration left the decision up to local governments. Noriega claims to have received an email from the FAA attesting to this. However, the Miami Herald has not been able to review the message.