Frank Artiles, Juan Perez among names for Miami-Dade commission appointee

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One of the first decisions the new Miami-Dade Commission must make next week, with five new members on board, is whether the county should have a special election in District 8 to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava — who is now mayor elect — or appoint someone.

Guess which way they’re leaning.

Commissioners will frame it as a cost-saving measure. A special election could cost $1 million if there’s a runoff, which is likely. And with budget shortfalls expected from the COVID pandemic economic crisis, this is no time to be spending a million bucks on anything frivolous, right?

Except an election isn’t frivolous, as has become painfully clear by the voices of a historic number of voters across the state and country. And appointing someone who will run for the seat in two years is anointing an incumbent chosen by the commission instead of by the voters. An incumbent who will have the upper hand in 2022.

Read related: Daniella Levine Cava timed resignation to force special election in Miami-Dade

So, who’s on the list to be appointed to District 8? The names that have come up consistently are former and repeatedly disgraced State Rep. Frank Artiles — who had to resign from the Florida House after a racist rant in a public place — former Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez and attorney Danielle Cohen Higgins, who is one of four candidates who has officially opened bank accounts to campaign in 2022.

Perez told Ladra Friday that he can’t do it — not just yet. He has talked to people about possibly running for the seat in 2022. “They almost convinced me,” he said. And he might, if his financial situation changes, he said, which explains why his twitter profile and feed looks like that of a candidate. Maybe county sheriff in 2024?

But, alas, Perez — now vice president of public safety at Ocean Reef — says he has to work. Guess that pension isn’t that good. “I can’t do what the commissioners do and not have a job,” he said. “I can’t spend all that time.”

You and me both, bruh.

Apparently not being considered are the other three 2022 candidates: Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor John Dubois, Dominican-American activist Leonarda Duran Buike and Hammocks Citizens Advisory Committee vice chair Alicia Arellano.

This is like salt in the wound for the hopefuls that were ready to campaign this year on the same ballot as everyone, until Levine Cava timed her resignation so she could serve on the commission until the very last minute. In fact, she still wore her commissioner’s hat on at Friday’s special commission meeting where she voted to authorize herself to negotiate a deal with Brightline for the Northeast SMART plan corridor.

So, la alcaldesa created this mess, but she did not return repeated calls and texts over several days to see which way she leaned and what she wanted to see happen. Ladra hopes she’s just super busy and this is not a déjà vu.

Read related: Frank Artiles must resign despite sorry-not-sorry apology

One thing’s for sure, she’s not going to want Artiles. Not just because the Republican legislator was caught living outside his district como un descarado. Not just because he wants to kill bears. Not because he punched a college kid at a bar. Not just because he tried to hold the firefighter’s cancer bill back from the legislature in 2017. But also and mostly because he is a Neanderthal who said some very ugly racist and sexist things to colleagues in a drunken rant at a Tallahassee watering hole. If Frank Artiles is not the poster boy for the Proud Boys, he could be. Imagine appointing him to the county commission in the wake of the protests we’ve had about racial injustice and inequity. Ladra would be the first to riot.

Artiles is reportedly Commissioner Joe “Grumpy” Martinez‘s very bad idea. Martinez did not return calls or a text to his phone. But Artiles — who is now also a lobbyist — is expected to sell himself as a placeholder to make him more palatable since they will all say they want someone who won’t run, even though they can never enforce that.

What they don’t understand is there is nothing that would make Artiles an acceptable choice. So, move along commissioners.

Several sources have said that a former Key Biscayne police captain, a relative of Commissioner Martinez’s, is also in the running. Joe’s backup plan? Others say that former Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn would have made a experienced alternative for a placeholder — if he weren’t still elbow deep in village politics.

And then we come to Cohen Higgins, a Jamaican-American born at Jackson Memorial and raised in South Dade’s Milton Manors by a single mom who used public transit every day to get to work. She has raised $188,000 for the race and is seen as the mayor elect’s handpicked successor, maybe because she has the same campaign consultant, Christian Ulvert, told Ladra hes\ not joining the mayor’s staff. Why would he? He’s making good money getting people elected.

DuBois said he doesn’t know who is in the running, but he knows it ain’t him. He’s heard the same rumors as Ladra and others about a deal for the chairmanship. You know: Appoint so-and-so and I’l elect you chair.

“This is the first time since 1956 that a majority of the commissioners are new,” DuBois said. “It’s an opportunity to clean house and get rid of corruption. That’s what motivated me.

“I hope it’s not back to business as usual,” he said.

Read related: Special election in Miami-Dade District 8 prompts potential charter change

Leonarda Duran Buike told Ladra that the only appointment the commission could make was someone who would commit to not run for the post in 2022. “The only way an appointment would be fair, is if the appointee was not a candidate,” she said.

But DuBois said the commission can’t enforce that requirement and that it shouldn’t have to. In fact, he could see himself dropping out of the race if the appointee does a good job.

“I’m going to watch and evaluate our District 8 commissioner and how they perform and then make a decision after,” he said. “I could end up supporting that person.

“I don’t want the position itself,” DuBois said. “I want a high integrity, effective board who can work together, not just fight all the time,”

Some commissioners and political observes also said the inferred incumbency is not necessarily an advantage, since someone could have a harder time getting elected if they bungle the job. But it does make it easier to raise money and name recognition, which is sometimes all you need.

Why take the chance when it has become glaringly obvious that people want to vote? We have just seen a significant and historic voter turnout throughout Miami-Dade and the country. We have a more engaged electorate than ever. A whopping 78% of them — or more than 800,000 voters countywide — approved a county charter amendment that would require a mayoral or commission vacancy to be filled by election during the same primary and general, rather than appointment or special election.

When was the last time that 78% of voters agreed on anything?

But they are not the only ones who would be disenfranchised by a political appointment. Voters in District 8 will be, for all intents and purposes, summarily dismissed for two whole years if they don’t get the same opportunity to select their new commissioner that voters in District 5 got when they elected Commissioner Eileen Higgins mid term in 2018 after Bruno Barreiro resigned to run for congress (he lost).

Perez, who does live in District 8, said he wants there to be an election.

“I would like to have a voice on who represents me,” he told Ladra, hinting that he may run in two years, after all. “What if I did want to run? What if a month from now I change my mind?

“The people in District 8 deserve a voice,” Perez said, suddenly becoming an attractive candidate.

If commissioners choose not to have a special election and make an appointment instead, they would be treating the taxpaying residents in South Dade’s District 8 like second class citizens who don’t deserve the same right as the Brickell denizens who got a chance to make their voices heard.

If the cost is the crux, maybe each commissioner could dip into their district discretionary slush fund account to pay for an election by the people.

That would show us that it’s not business as usual.

  Frank Artiles, Juan Perez, Miami-Dade Commission