MIAMI, FL – JULY 12: Exterior of Miami City Hall
A Miami city commissioner wants to sleep in his own home, but can't because of classic Miami politics.
Miguel Gabela was just elected to represent District 1, but right now his house isn't located in the district. On Christmas Eve, Mayor Francis Suarez fired off a veto order, nixing a resolution that would have moved Gabela back into his family home with his wife.
"My house was always in District 1 from the beginning of time, period, end of story — and they took my house out illegally on June 14, to benefit a candidate, Mr. Portilla," Gabela said.
Gabela represents District 1, shaded in green, with its southern border a straight line, as you can see in a draft version of the Commision district boundaries shown below.
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The new district map has a kink in that straight line, carving Gabela and a few homes out of his district and moving them into District 3.
He blames political rivals for influencing the process, like Commissioner Joe Carollo — who has a $63 million judgment against him for weaponizing city government against two Little Havana businessmen — and disgraced former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is facing felony bribery and corruption charges.
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Gabela has been staying in a duplex in District 1 because city commissioners are required to live in their commission districts.
"I am a city commissioner, elected by the people, and they are still giving me problems, they are still trying to take me out," he said.
State law prohibits elected officials from voting on boundaries to their benefit.
"While I personally sympathize with his arguments and with the impact of this veto on him and his family over the holiday season, Florida state law is clear and definitive," Suarez wrote in his veto memo.
"This is a power struggle that is going on, they are trying to protect all of the illegalities that they have done and they don’t want me here because I am exposing them," Gabela said.
The ACLU suing the city over the map and Gabela expects the matter to be remedied in that hearing in late January.
Meantime the map will likely get more attention at the commission's first meeting of the new year on Jan. 11.
