Spotlight 129-250812

Good morning. What we’re covering in today’s Spotlight:

U.S. Marine Vet Takes the Helm at Barnacle State Park
Pardo’s Election Gambit

The Barnacle’s New Leader

After a globe-trotting military career, Daniel Kelsey is settling into his dream job — preserving Coconut Grove’s waterfront time capsule for future generations.

By Jenny Jacoby

As he does at the end of most days, Daniel Kelsey climbs the stairs above his office to a second-floor apartment within the grounds of The Barnacle Historic State Park, a quiet, waterfront oasis in the heart of Coconut Grove.

Seated on an oak-shaded porch above what once served as a carriage house, Kelsey puffs on a cigar, imagining life in the early pioneer days of Ralph Middleton Munroe, the man who built the park’s namesake home and who lived there until his death in 1933.

Coconut Grove, of course, is not as tranquil as it was when Munroe purchased 40 acres of mostly dense hardwood hammock overlooking Biscayne Bay in 1887.

Today, the sounds of urban life – traffic, crowded sidewalk cafes, shouts and whistles from nearby schools and playing fields – fill the air.

Portions of the park – whittled down, before its purchase by the State of Florida in 1973, to just five acres – share fence lines with modern, multimillion-dollar homes.

Pardo Turns to Voters in Bid to Move Miami Elections

With his commission-approved plan ruled unconstitutional and a “blatant power grab,” Miami D2 Commissioner Damian Pardo will ask for a November vote to realign city races and extend terms by one year.

By Jenny Jacoby & David Villano

Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo hopes to sidestep an appeals court’s rejection of a plan to move the city’s elections to even-numbered years – allowing Pardo and other elected officials to remain in office an extra year – by asking voters to approve the measure.

Pardo will request a special session of the city commission later this month to place the referendum on November’s ballot. The deadline for such a move is September 5.

“We remain committed to increasing voter representation and decreasing electoral costs in the City of Miami and plan to introduce legislation to place moving the election to even years on the ballot as soon as possible,” Pardo said in a statement on the social media platform X.

An earlier, Pardo-sponsored plan to move the elections through commission decree – without voter approval – has been ruled unconstitutional. City officials are appealing that ruling.