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Veto and Veto Message
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TO: Honorable Members of the City Commission;
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FROM: Mayor Francis X. Suarez
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Date: Friday, July 30, 2021
Pursuant to the authority vested in me under the provisions of Section 4(g)(5) of the Charter of the
City of Miami, Florida, I hereby veto:
Resolution (R-21-0327) / File Number 8358
Proposed Charter Amendment
Veto Message:
As the Mayor of the City of Miami, I exercise my right to veto the recent resolution of the City of
Miami Commission ("Commission") approving a proposed Charter amendment to modify the selection and
appointment of the Chief of the Police Department ("Police Chief') and Chief of the Fire -Rescue
Department ("Fire Chief').
The City of Miami strives to attract and to hire the best professionals to lead our departments, and
many talented professionals express - sometimes privately - a desire to join and to help improve the quality
of life of our many residents. The desire to help refine this process is commendable but this legislation will
likely reduce the pool of qualified candidates for consideration. For instance, a current Police Chief or Fire
Chief from another jurisdiction will be placed in a tenuous position: what would happen with his/her current
employer if everyone knows that he/she is applying for a new job, and what would happen if he/she fails to
land the new job?
The proposed Charter amendment is poorly drafted. It seeks to incorporate a clumsy approach to the
selection of the Police Chief and Fire Chief. To start, the legislation does not provide specific guidance
regarding what is "a sufficient number of qualified candidates" or what type of advertisement is considered
to be sufficient to generate qualified candidates. The legislation creates a selection committee with
qualifications to be a member, and it requires it to recommend the top three finalists to the City Manager.
But no contingency is contemplated in the event that the committee cannot or will not generate a list of
recommended finalists. The City Manager is then forced to select only from the finalists (or reject the list).
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This limitation opens the possibility of an undesirable vacancy by failure to reach a meeting of the minds
between the City Manager and the selection committee.
City of Miami residents deserve better. Having concluded that this proposed Charter amendment would not
be in the best interest of the City of Miami or its residents, I submit this veto.
Res ctfully s itted,
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Francis X. Suarez
Mayor
City of Miami
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