Jesse Scheckner
Republican Rep. Fabián Basabe is asking the city of Miami Beach to host a public town hall this Fall where he can give residents up-to-date information about new laws passed in Tallahassee.
Oh, and he wants to sit in a dunk tank, with the local PTA selling tickets.
In a letter to City Manager Eric Carpenter, Basabe commended Mayor Steven Meiner for his planned town hall at the Miami Beach Bandshell on May 20.
Basabe said he wants to build on that format by hosting a similar event after this year’s extended Legislative Session concludes and Gov. Ron DeSantis has acted on pending bills.
“This timing ensures that residents receive accurate, up-to-date information on the laws that will directly affect their lives,” Basabe wrote.
He noted that many of his constituents have not had opportunities for in-person engagement with him due to what he described as a lack of public forums and the absence of debates during the last election cycle.
A city-facilitated town hall, he said, would offer a neutral, accessible venue for communication and civic participation.
Basabe requested that the event be open to the public, livestreamed and aired on Miami Beach TV to ensure broad access. He also offered to cover any costs associated with using the Bandshell, pending documentation of how similar events have been handled in the past.
To further involve the community and incentivize turnout, he proposed a light-hearted addition: a dunk tank fundraiser benefiting the PTA, with himself as a volunteer participant and the PTA “setting the price of tickets and keeping 100% of the proceeds.”
Basabe framed the request as an effort to promote “presence, accountability, and access” between elected officials and residents.
“The people of Miami Beach deserve to hear from their State Representative, and I hope the City will support this opportunity to promote open dialogue and public engagement,” he wrote.
Whether the city will agree to host the event has not yet been confirmed.
Elected by a razor-thin margin in 2022 to represent House District 106, a coastal district in northeast Miami-Dade County, Basabe won re-election in November with 51% of the vote in one of the cycle’s most-watched state races.
After a lackluster 2024 Session in which he passed no legislation amid ample personal controversy, he had a much more successful round of lawmaking this year, passing five bills, including measures to safeguard historic structures and crack down on irresponsible owners of derelict vessels.
