After reaching an agreement in their redistricting lawsuit, the City of Miami and voting rights groups have asked a federal court to accept their settlement — shedding light on exact details of potential changes to the city’s charter.
Local voting advocates including Grove Rights and Community Equity, Inc., along with both Miami-Dade County branches of the NAACP, filed a joint motion with the City on Monday.
The motion seeks approval of their settlement agreement by U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore. The agreement was signed by the plaintiffs as well as Miami City Manager Art Noriega and City Clerk Todd Hannon. (A copy of the agreement is embedded at the end of this story.)
The groups sued the City in 2022 for racially gerrymandering its map of five voting districts in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The court sided with the advocates this past April, finding that the city commission unconstitutionally drew districts based predominantly on maintaining one White district, one Black district and three Hispanic districts. The parties settled last month.
READ MORE: City of Miami settles racial gerrymandering lawsuit with voting rights groups
The agreement will adopt a new map for Miami’s next local election, and calls for a City Charter amendment to create a citizen’s redistricting committee. If approved by voters by a ballot measure in 2025, the committee will be empaneled during the next redistricting process after the 2030 U.S. Census. The mayor and city commissioners will appoint members to the committee, and the committee will give the commission recommendations for redistricting.
“Each committee member shall be a city resident with an outstanding reputation of integrity, responsibility, and commitment to community service,” the settlement agreement reads.
Committee members cannot have held elected office in the city or have been a registered lobbyist within two years of their appointment. They can also not be immediate family members of city employees or elected officials. Their terms last until one year after the redistricting plan has been enacted.
The proposed charter amendment will also enshrine the requirement that no redistricting plan may be drawn to favor or disfavor a candidate or incumbent.
During the last redistricting cycle, then-city commission candidate Miguel Gabela’s home was carved out of the district he was campaigning in. His opponent, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, was on the city commission at that time and approved the map that carved out Gabela.
The settlement does not call for special elections in the existing five city districts, though boundaries have been moved around. Notably, Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo’s home is no longer located in District 3 — the one he represents. Normally, under the City Charter, a commissioner must live in the district they represent. However, the settlement agreement explicitly accounts for that discrepancy.
“No change in district boundaries caused by this Agreement that would affect the qualifications of any incumbent commissioner under Section 4(c) of the City Charter or Chapter 16 of the City Code will disqualify such incumbent commissioner during the term for which they are elected,” it states.
The joint motion was filed in the federal court docket and awaits Judge Moore’s approval.
