Ryan Nicol
Members of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation were on hand Friday to hear pitches from the community ahead of the upcoming 2019 Legislative Session.
And while a diverse set of voices were heard, the issues of housing, education and the environment were touched on throughout the meeting.
Friday’s gathering was held at the Miami-Dade County School Board Administration Building in Miami.
Leading the meeting was new chair of the Miami-Dade delegation, state Sen. Oscar Braynon II of SD 35. State Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez of HD 105 served as the delegation’s vice chair.
Much of the county delegation was on hand for the meeting, including several newcomers, such as Cindy Polo of HD 103, Michael Grieco of HD 113, and Jason Pizzo of SD 38.
The meeting kicked off with remarks from members of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, including Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Carvalho began the bevy of calls to increase education funding for the county’s public schools.
“I have no doubt that under your leadership, your determination, your courageous action, we will achieve equity in funding for our community,” Carvalho said.
Carvalho also referenced new requirements that armed resource officers be placed in schools following the February shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. The superintendent joined officials from other counties in dubbing it an unfunded mandate.
“Whatever is allocated statewide cannot in any way disadvantage our local community.”
Members of individual schools were also on hand to make a more personalized pitch.
President Jaffus Hardrick of Florida Memorial University asked the legislators for $500,000 for its aviation and safety program, $250,000 for health and natural sciences and $1 million for online learning.
Representatives from Miami-Dade College, the United Faculty of Miami-Dade, and the United Teachers of Dade seconded those calls for additional funding for public education, specifically in Miami-Dade County.
Newly-named Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran could complicate those calls. He has routinely advocated for buffing up alternatives to public education, such as charter schools.
Talk eventually moved to environmental issues, with Laura Reynolds of the Florida Native Plant Society requesting the state carve out more money for conservation land.
“One of the best things you can do, low hanging fruit, is make sure we can buy conservation land,” Reynolds said.
“It can clean our water. It can hold our flood waters. It can help us to balance all that development that is going on.”
And representatives from multiple cities, including Aventura, Miami Beach and North Miami Beach, kept hammering at their region’s drainage issues, saying they needed help from the state to upgrade their systems.
Calls for help in establishing affordable housing were also recurring. County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava led the charge.
“Housing affordability is a huge issue in this county,” Levine Cava said.
“We are one of the worst in the nation for the mismatch between our cost of living and our income.”
Levine Cava pointed specifically to the Sadowski Act, which is supposed to set aside tax money for help with affordable housing.
But those funds have often been diverted back in the general revenue fund, to be used on different projects. Levine Cava called for a stop to the practice, and was joined Friday by members of the Miami Workers Center and the Miami-Dade Branch of the NAACP.
Of course, the discussion throughout the day wasn’t limited to just three topics.
Members of the county’s art community were on hand to push for more funding for the arts. Their call coincides with Miami Beach’s Art Basel, which is running through Sunday.
Several aspects of the criminal justice system need fixing as well, with Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin demanding an update of the county’s “outdated, broken, insufficient, unsustainable” system.
And Public Defender Carlos Martinez requested a pay raise for his attorneys from $45,000 to $52,000, citing “astronomical” turnover.
Those are just some examples of the dozens of requests made to lawmakers throughout the meeting. How those calls register with the legislators will be apparent when the Legislative Session begins in March.
