In a knee jerk reaction to the news that two North Miami employees were required to resign due to a 2013 Ordinance prohibiting them from running for office, the Mayor and Council directed City Attorney Jeff Cazeau to fix something that wasn’t broken.

In response, Mr. Cazeau drafted a proposed ordinance designed to “eliminate the rule that prohibits employees from running for office in other jurisdictions and also to remove a provision which prohibits individuals in service to the City from making donations to or participating in political campaigns.”

The second half of their directive was due to the Council’s misinterpretation of what they falsely perceived was a prohibition on employees’ donating to or participating in political campaigns.  Despite the fact that Mr. Cazeau is exceedingly more intelligent and educated than the vast majority of alleged adults on the dais, he apparently had no choice but to appease them and comply with their childish demands.

Accordingly, Item 6.B has been placed on the Agenda for a Virtual Special Council Meeting to be held December 2, 2020 at 2:00 PM, which is a proposed ordinance removing both prohibitions.

Despite the obvious unintended consequences of this shortsighted proposal, a majority of the Mayor and Council will most likely vote in the affirmative upon the first reading with absolutely no consideration of all the things that could go wrong.

We’re pretty sure that it’s not common practice for a municipal government body to change its entire code just to accommodate the fate of two employees, especially a city with a workforce of 775 budgeted full-time positions (according to North Miami’s FY 2020-21 Budget).

Of course, their collective angst over what Councilman Scott Galvin bemoaned was an “outdated” code wasn’t about the newly elected North Miami Beach Puppet Commissioner Daniela Jean, whose low-level position as an Administrative Coordinator (a/k/a secretary) for the Risk Management Department could easily be replaced by almost any high school graduate who passed a typing class.

Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime especially, is more concerned about losing Linda Julien who, as Manager of the North Miami Economic Development Division, is a highly valued employee, and who is now a Councilwoman for the City of Miami Gardens.

But, therein lies the very reason why most municipalities avoid these very real conflicts of interest.

Miami-Dade County is one of the nine largest in the State of Florida which prohibit their employees from running for office.  Section 1.05. of the county’s Home Rule Amendment and Charter, for example, reads, “Any appointed official or employee of Dade County who qualifies as a candidate for election to any federal, state or municipal office shall immediately take a leave of absence from his or her county position until the date of the election and shall, if elected, immediately forfeit his or her county position. If the candidate is not elected, he or she shall immediately be reinstated to his or her former position.”

As the head of one of North Miami’s most important departments, Ms. Julien is in charge of attracting and retaining businesses through “site selection, marketing, public private partnerships, and incentive funding,” as well as the securing of grants by attending conferences, seminars, and trade shows at cities all over the country.   Should she be permitted to retain this prestigious position, the City of North Miami will continue to pay not only her salary, but also her travel expenses necessary to properly run the department.

Conflict will necessarily arise during her business travels as an employee of North Miami, when she’ll be expected to take off her elected official hat to acquire needed funding for her employer, while having to neglect the very city in which she lives and serves the 113,821 residents as an at-large Councilwoman for Miami Gardens.  We do not envy her dilemma.

Ms. Julien’s position in North Miami is not the only one that would present an equally problematic conflict of interest.  The directors of other major departments such as the Community Planning & Development, the Purchasing Department, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and even the Parks & Recreation Department, are all responsible for seeking funding and grants on behalf of the city.  Should they also serve as elected officials for their own municipalities, which business card would they hand out first during their travels?

But North Miami elected officials are poised to throw precedent – and common sense – out the window all for the benefit of keeping two employees on the payroll, and preventing potentially two more from having to resign, as reported by the Miami Herald last week.

Then again, as North Miami resident Laura Hill noted, NoMi politicians are more concerned about their fellow politicians than they are about their own residents.

There is, however, legal (and logical) precedent for prohibiting municipal employees from running for office.

In, JOB PROTECTION FOR STATE AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE, the Connecticut General Assembly, for example, notes, “State and municipal employees generally have job protection during their service in elective public office, but not during their race for the office. These employees may take a personal leave of absence, for up to four years, to accept a full-time elective office. The leave is available to municipal employees who accept a full-time municipal, but not state, office. Once the leave expires, employees who ask must be reinstated to their original or a similar position. If no positions are available, a returning municipal employee must be placed on all reemployment lists for his job classification.”

Furthermore, Connecticut law states, “Although permitted to run for public office, an employee may not (l) use his official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election or a nomination for office; or (2) directly or indirectly coerce, attempt to coerce, or advise a state or local officer or employee to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value for political purposes. Employees are also banned from engaging in political activities while on duty. Finally, no employee can use state funds or other resources to support or oppose any candidate, party, or issue in a partisan election.”

Which brings us to the other part of the Ordinance that the Mayor and Council want to strike from the city’s code, which they erroneously believe prohibits city employees from donating to candidates or parties.

As you can see, there is also legal precedent for the actual verbiage contained in North Miami’s municipal law.

We reported that the last sentence of Article 1. Sec. 15-14(b) states, “No person holding a position in the service of the city shall make any contribution to the campaign funds of any political party or any candidate for public office or take any part in the management, affairs or political campaign of any political party, further than in the exercise of his rights as a citizen to express his opinion and to cast his vote.”

If the elected officials had bothered to intelligently analyze the entire clause, they would have realized that the law does not preclude employees from contributing or even taking part in political campaigns.  They just cannot do it in their official capacity as employees of the city.

The University of North Carolina School of Government’s Coate’s Canons: NC Local Government Law published an article entitled, It’s Campaign Season: What Are the Rules About What City and County Officials May Say and Do?, examines state and local statutes which “restrict municipal employees from campaigning on work time and also protect employees from being pressured to support particular issues or candidates.”

The author explains, “Local government elections can raise sticky issues for local government officials and employees. They likely have strong feelings about the candidates and issues, but they may feel a bit constrained about actively campaigning, especially if they support candidates who are running against the current board members. Taxpayers may justifiably oppose any use of public resources to promote particular candidates or issues.”

In summary, “City and county employees can’t, in their official capacity, engage in campaign activities while on the job. They can’t be fired or otherwise treated negatively because of their off- duty political actions or preferences, and they can’t use public resources for political purposes. Employees are free to exercise their First Amendment right to engage in campaign activities, as long as they don’t do it at work and as long as no public resources are involved. It’s important to remember, however, that the scope of government employees’ First Amendment free speech protection varies depending upon the the role they play within the organization.”

North Miami elected officials should have done their homework before irresponsibly directing the City Attorney to strike language from the city’s code that they didn’t like and, more importantly, that they didn’t understand.

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time that North Miami politicians found new and unusual ways to showcase their own stupidity.  (See North Miami’s GO Bond Boondoggle. What could possibly go wrong?)

And you can bet it won’t be the last.

The good news is that election season is just around the corner.

Stephanie