Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan — who has now had her independent police review panel vetoed by the mayor twice and has failed to get a majority to overturn it — needed eight of her colleagues to support her motion Tuesday to take the issue to voters in a ballot question.
She only got seven — and then Jordan promised to return a scaled back version of her original ordinance in August, when she only needs seven to pass it legislatively. If Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who said he would support the panel if it did not have subpoena power to call elected officials, stays true to his word. But that’s a big if.
Five commissioners voted not to put the question on the ballot and let voters decide for themselves if a 
civilian panel of appointed community leaders should police the police. All five are far right Republicans. They are Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, who is running for mayor as the only conservative in the race, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Joe Martinez, Javier Souto and Rebeca Sosa.
These are the people who do not trust us to decide for ourselves if we want another layer of checks and balances to the systemic racism and discrimination often found in law enforcement and judicial agencies — which, for whatever reason, Bovo thinks Miami-Dade Police is immune from.
“That was murder! And that was in Minnesota,” Bovo said, calling the measure “reactionary” and “anti-police.”
“It becomes a comment on our police department when our police department should not be compared to what’s happened in Minnesota,” he said at the meeting.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez likes to be above the law; vetoes civilian police review panel
Jordan tried two years ago to reboot the Independent Civilian Panel, which was dissolved in 2009
due to budget cuts, and again last month in the wake of nationwide protests that followed the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis. She got a majority each time but not a super majority to override the mayor’s veto.
And she knew she needed a super majority again on Tuesday, or nine of the 13 votes, to get a charter amendment question on the ballot in November for voters to decide. And she knew that was an uphill battle.
She called out each one of the commissioners who had already voted no and provided them with political cover to support and/or reminded Bovo, Diaz and Martinez they said they would support a public vote.
“Commissioner Martinez, I was glad to hear when you spoke 
on the 8th [of July] that you listened to your constituents and they indicated they did not want this,” Jordan said, giving the time stamp on the video recording at which he makes this statement. “I was really happy when I heard you say that you support leaving it up to voters.
“I knew then that you trusted the voters to make the right decision,” she said, and you could almost hear the irony dripping from her. Ladra suspects she knew then that Martinez would vote no again.
Jordan asked Souto, who apparently once supported the measure (by accident, probably), to flip again. “And I’m hoping the grand dame of the five of you, Commissioner Sosa, that you will trust the voters and let the voters decide,” she said.
Read related: Miami-Dade moves forward with police reform post George Floyd
She told all of them that she had removed the subpoena power, which was the issue for many of them. “I listened to you and I listened to the mayor and what I heard was that you were supportive of anything that goes before the vote,” Jordan said, basically begging them not to deny voters the chance.
Martinez admitted he changed his mind. “I remember saying it,” he said about supporting a referendum. 
“But I’ve done more research.” That means he talked to two more viejitos.
Diaz now said a referendum could confuse voters. “At the same time I’m sick of hearing ‘Does yes mean no or does no mean yes?'”
Everybody knows the police union, which has backed both of them, is against any independent civilian panel that could, heaven forbid, investigate complaints and make recommendations based on their findings to the commission. Treads on their territory.
A few people spoke in favor of the measure, including a representative of the League of Women Voters and Jeanne Baker: “The community wants to be heard,” Baker said. “All we are asking this afternoon is allow the citizens to vote. You should not be afraid of that.”
The proponents pointed to an online petition that had gotten almost 7,400 signatures in two weeks. Martinez, who was elected in 2016 by just under 9,500 voters, scoffed because activists would need to get about 100,000 signatures to meet the petition requirement to put the question on the ballot.
Actually, it would be more like 60,000, which is 4% of the 2.5 million registered voters in the county today. And no more than 25% of those petitions can come from any one district.
May Ladra suggest District 11? Or maybe District 1.
Read related: Charges dropped against FIU protesters and arrest reports don’t match 911 call
Jordan swore that she would not give up putting it on the ballot. “I’ll be a citizen in November and I will be back two years from now with something to take to the voters.”
Meanwhile, she will bring her ordinance sans subpoena power to the commission on Aug. 31 and said she expects the same vote. “If the mayor is true to his word, and we have an 8-5 vote, we’re going to have an independent panel.” And Ladra could swear she saw her wink, wink, nod, nod.
Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who is also running for mayor and co-sponsored Jordan’s 
measure, said she was “extremely disappointed and frustrated that voters were denied the opportunity to have the final word.
“We are in a moment in time when our community has come together, from all walks of life, to put forward important reforms that build on the community trust needed between law enforcement and residents. The charter amendment would help law enforcement build that trust and deliver stronger public safety measures in our neighborhoods,” Levine Cava said in a statement.
“I am confident that if a charter amendment had been approved by voters, great progress would have been made to improve the public safety for all our residents. The Mayor and several commissioners have continuously blocked the efforts of the majority, and now, sadly, the voters will not have a say.”
Jordan knows they might not even get the reform. She had to repeat Mayor Gimenez’s stated position on a new and improved ordinance several times. “Hope is not lost,” she said. “On the 31st, we’re going to have an independent civilian panel because I’m sure the mayor will keep his word.”
Ladra can’t tell if she was being facetious or for real.
Miami-Dade Commission fails to put police review panel on November ballot added by Ladra on
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