Miami commissioner is pausing proposal to bring back pensions for elected officials

The latest attempt to bring back pensions for Miami city commissioners is on hold for now, marking another roadblock in the effort to revive a program that once guaranteed lifelong monthly payments for the city’s former elected officials.

The proposal to bring back the pension program, which was frozen in 2009 during the financial crisis, passed an initial vote in July and was slated to come back before the City Commission in September for final approval. But the item’s co-sponsor, District 1 Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela, is now saying he wants to put the matter on hold.

“For now, I’m retiring it, because I don’t want it to be a distraction,” Gabela told the Miami Herald on Tuesday.

Commissioner Christine King, who is chairwoman of the commission, was Gabela’s co-sponsor for the plan to revive pensions for elected officials. King has argued that the position of city commissioner — while part-time on paper — is like a “24/7” job.

King’s office did not respond to questions about Gabela’s plan to defer the item.

Gabela didn’t provide a specific date but said he’d like to bring the pension proposal back for a second and final vote “ whenever the commission wants to talk about it again.” He added that, if the pensions are ultimately approved, he won’t personally opt into the program.

“I don’t need to do it because I have my business income coming in,” Gabela said. Still, he argues that the pension is important for future commissioners. “You gotta pay people. People have to live,” he said.

The City Commission approved the pension proposal in an initial 3-2 vote last month. Commissioners Damian Pardo and Manolo Reyes voted no. At that meeting, Pardo floated the idea of sending the question to Miami voters, but the deadline has now passed to put it on the November ballot as a referendum.

Under the latest version of the pension proposal, Miami elected officials would become eligible to receive a pension either after starting their seventh year of service and once they’ve turned 62, or after 10 years of service and once they’ve turned 60.

The pension amount would be equal to one-half of their highest compensation with the city, with annual 5% increases until it is equal to 100% of what their compensation was while in office. The officials would also be entitled to a 3% cost of living increase each year after they begin collecting their pension.

City commissioners earn a salary of $58,200. But with added benefits like car and cell phone allowances, their yearly compensation adds up to about $100,000.

The following former Miami elected officials currently receive a pension from the city in the following amounts, according to a recent city analysis:

• Manny Diaz: $6,875 per month, or $82,500 per year
• Angel Gonzalez: $4,794 per month, or $57,528 per year
• Wilfredo “Willy” Gort: $8,488 per month, or $101,856 per year
• Tomás Regalado: $7,046, or $84,552 per year
• Joe Sanchez: $6,283, or $75,396 per year
• Marc Sarnoff: $5,039, or $60,468 per year
• Michelle Spence-Jones: $10,601, or $127,212 per year

Spence-Jones collects the largest pension of any elected official in the city’s retirement system.

‘Political bartering’

By pausing the pension proposal, Gabela said he’s busy focusing energy on his push to expand a downtown community redevelopment agency west into his district’s Allapattah neighborhood. That agency, called the Omni CRA, is tasked with reducing “slum and blight” in the city’s Omni neighborhood, an area north of downtown in District 2.

The Omni CRA is chaired by Pardo, the District 2 commissioner. It is currently awaiting City Commission approval for an “extension of life” that would guarantee funding until 2047 so it can complete projects like a collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to relocate a public school to a city-owned plot of land known as Biscayne Park. The public school plan was previously shelved in favor of a deal with David and Leila Centner to build a sports dome on the land, which is across the street from their private school, Centner Academy.

READ MORE: Inside Miami’s $10M deal with Centner Academy that beat out public school’s expansion plan

Facing pushback because of the deal’s ties to the criminal corruption charges against former City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, the Centners pulled out of the deal in March. (The Centners have not been charged and have denied any wrongdoing.)

Speaking to the Herald, Gabela said the public school plan is possible because of him. “I’m the guy that stopped the Centners,” he said.

But in the ensuing months after the Centners withdrew, Gabela has sought to leverage his vote for approval of the Omni CRA’s extension of life in order to get funding for his district to address pressing issues like poverty and homelessness. He is opposed to approving the Omni CRA’s extension of life if it doesn’t include an expansion into his district.

The commissioners have entertained Gabela’s efforts and twice deferred the vote to fund the Omni CRA — much to the dismay of Pardo, who has argued that there are other avenues to fund Gabela’s district that don’t involve changing the Omni CRA’s boundaries.

“These two things can happen, and it shouldn’t be used as political bartering at all,” Pardo said at a June meeting.

Gabela has said there is no alternative that would get funding to his district quickly enough.

The Omni CRA extension of life is scheduled to go back before the City Commission at the first meeting in September.