Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela now wants to ‘undo’ controversial pension vote

Following two days of backlash that included public rebukes from the former city manager and the incoming speaker of the Florida House, Miami City Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela now wants to rescind this week’s controversial vote where commissioners approved lifetime pensions for themselves.

“Let’s undo what we did last Tuesday,” Gabela told the Miami Herald on Thursday.

Gabela, who was the co-sponsor on the pension proposal, said he will ask his fellow commissioners to revisit the vote at the upcoming Oct. 24 City Commission meeting. He said he will then call for a repeal of the pension approval and ask his colleagues to send the question to a ballot referendum instead, letting the voters decide whether elected officials should get a pension.

“If they’re not willing to send it to voters, it dies right there,” Gabela said. “I’m done with the pension.”

A spokesperson for Commissioner Christine King, who co-sponsored the legislation with Gabela, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gabela described King as the “ author” of the proposal in the interview.

The commission approved pensions for elected officials in a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, with Gabela, King and Commissioner Joe Carollo voting in favor. Commissioners Manolo Reyes and Damian Pardo voted against the proposal. Pardo had wanted to send the question to voters, but because his colleagues approved it in spite of that request, he said he planned to opt into the pension program and receive a pension himself.

“I work as hard as everybody else,” Pardo said on Tuesday about his decision.

The City Commission can reconsider the vote if three out of five commissioners agree to do so.

Gabela said he’s received backlash since Tuesday’s vote. That included a heated exchange Wednesday on Spanish-language radio station Actualidad 1040 AM. During the segment, the hosts played back a recent clip where Gabela said the pension item was dead. Host Roberto Rodriguez Tejera then accused Gabela of lying to the public, while Gabela said he had a right to change his mind.

Speaking to the Herald on Thursday, Gabela said: “I am not gonna be the fall guy here.”

Will the mayor still veto?

Questions have swirled for the past two days about whether Miami Mayor Francis Suarez plans to exercise his veto power to invalidate the pension approval.

A spokesperson for Suarez did not immediately respond Thursday evening to a question about whether he intends to issue a veto now that Gabela has announced a plan to rescind the vote. Since the vote took place Tuesday, at a meeting where Suarez was not present, neither Suarez nor his spokesperson have responded to multiple requests from the Herald about whether he will veto the legislation.

Suarez has 10 days after the vote took place to issue a veto. The last time Suarez vetoed a vote was on Christmas Eve when he overturned changes to a city voting map.

The city’s current elected officials have the option of either taking or refusing a pension, but the mayor has also not responded to questions about whether he himself plans to opt into the pension program. An actuary analysis conducted for the city earlier this year estimated he would eventually earn a monthly benefit of more than $10,300 under the plan, totaling about $124,000 annually.

Public fallout

In the wake of Tuesday’s vote, Miamians expressed their dismay on social media and via email.

Former Miami City Manager Emilio González also weighed in, calling the decision by city commissioners to approve pensions for themselves “shameful and despicable.”

González, who was the city manager for about two years until he resigned in January 2020, said pensions are “the third rail that will destroy the city’s budget.”

And while Gabela was live on the air during Wednesday’s Actualidad 1040 AM segment, Rodriguez Tejera read aloud a text message from Florida’s incoming Speaker of the House Daniel Perez, who said “if the city has enough money to give themselves pensions then I guess they don’t need money from the state. Their budget must be overflowing with cash.”

In a follow-up statement, Perez did not repeat the comment about state funding. However, he said it is “unacceptable that Miami city commissioners are lining their own pockets at the expense of so many hardworking people in our city.”

“It is troubling to see elected officials placing their financial interests above the needs of the community,” Perez continued. “The provisions outlined in this ordinance create an unstable financial burden on taxpayers, rewarding politicians with lavish retirement packages while many families struggle to make ends meet.”