The local organizers behind the petition drive announced this week that they had collected more than enough signatures to place a series of proposed political reforms before voters on the ballot this year.
Stronger Miami, a political group with strong ties to Coconut Grove, is gaining ground in its push to bring sweeping changes to the City of Miami’s government.
The group announced this week that it had collected more than 20,500 petition signatures, surpassing the number needed to place its proposed reforms on the ballot this year for voters to decide.
“We’ve had over 20,000 residents step up and say that they want a stronger Miami,” Faisal Gaitan with Engage Miami, a voter engagement organization, said Thursday at a Stronger Miami news conference in front of Miami City Hall.
“That’s more than a number – it’s a clear message,” he added. “It’s everyday people choosing participation over disengagement. It’s neighbors taking action to shape the future of their city.”
The petition promises to radically reform Miami’s government by increasing the number of city commissioners from five to nine and shifting commission and mayoral elections to November in even-number years.
“These are long overdue changes and we have a really strong platform to make them happen now,” Ana Sofía Peláez, co-founder and executive director of Miami Freedom Project, told the Spotlight.
The organizers behind the petition drive say additional commissioners will allow for more grassroots candidates, put Miami in alignment with the government structure of other major cities, and most importantly, better represent Miami’s estimated 487,000 residents.
As of now, each Miami commissioner represents about 97,000 constituents. The new order would cut this nearly in half, to approximately 54,000 residents per district, a move organizers say will allow commissioners to focus on neighborhood-level concerns.
For comparison, neighboring Coral Gables has a five-member commission with 50,000 residents, while Miami Beach has six commissioners representing 83,000 people.
“There’s no reason why we should have less representation than Miami Beach,” especially given the pace of development in the city, Peláez said.
“In the conversation about how quickly the City of Miami is developing, I think there’s also a real anxiety about how much our communities are keeping pace with that development,” she said. “Having a sound civic infrastructure that can be responsive to the community that’s here I think is so important.”
The organizations behind the Stronger Miami petition drive – including American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Florida, Engage Miami, the Miami Freedom Project, and One Grove Alliance – are now closing in on their goal to get the reform before voters on a 2026 ballot.
The earliest opportunity is the Aug. 18 primary, which would require all signatures to be submitted to the Supervisor of Elections and verified no later than Friday, May 22.
As of Wednesday, the City Clerk’s Office had received 18,508 petitions. Of those, 7,203 petitions have been certified by the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections. Another 5,092 petitions are currently being reviewed.
At Thursday’s news conference, organizers said they will continue to knock on doors and speak with residents until the reform effort is firmly on the ballot.
“There’s this sense of inevitability,” Teresa Guzman Pagan, Director of Expanding Democracy at Florida Rising, said at the press conference.
If the proposed reforms are approved by voters later this year, the nine members of an expanded commission would be elected in 2028.
In addition to even-year elections and a larger commission, organizers are proposing a charter amendment stating, “No redistricting plan or district may be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party. Districts must respect neighborhoods and follow major geographic boundaries.”
A separate referendum was approved by voters in November requiring the city to establish the Citizens’ Redistricting Committee and amend its charter to prevent future gerrymandering.
The City of Miami agreed to schedule that vote after the ACLU of Florida and others went to court to challenge the city’s 2022 voting map and a federal court judge ruled that the city had engaged in illegal gerrymandering.
“Protecting democracy doesn’t end with one lawsuit. It requires constant vigilance and it means structural reforms that make government more responsible and more accountable,” Daniel Tilley, legal director of the ACLU of Florida, said Thursday.
Organizers had initially hoped to place the proposed reforms on the 2025 ballot, but were unable to come up with the needed signatures in time. Organizers attributed the shortfall to a delayed summer launch, when many residents were out of town.
Now that organizers have met their target, the remaining signatures will need to be verified. If the threshold is met and the proposed reforms make it onto the ballot, a simple majority of voters will need to approve the changes.
Peláez says organizers have more than 20,000 reasons to think the voters will do just that.
Editor’s Note: Mel Meinhardt, the publisher of the Spotlight, is a local activist working to advance the Stronger Miami petition drive. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this story. The Spotlight organization safeguards its independence by maintaining a strict separation between its editorial function and the outside activities of its members.
