Voters in Miami-Dade ended more than six decades of unsuccessful attempts on Tuesday by narrowly approving an amendment to the county's Organic Charter that establishes an independent board with the authority to set the salaries of the 13 commissioners, reported the Miami Herald.
Referendum 1 was supported by 367,272 votes in favor (51.63%) compared to 344,037 against (48.37%), with nearly 99% of the expected votes counted, making it the closest result of the day.
The county's Organic Charter, adopted in 1957, sets the base salary for commissioners at $6,000 per year, a figure that has not changed in nearly seventy years, despite additional supplements that raise the actual compensation to around $83,000 a year.
Approximately a dozen proposals to modify that base salary have failed at the polls since the 1960s, including one in 1961 and another in 2012.
The approved amendment does not establish a specific salary: it creates a commission of five independent and unpaid members, appointed by the presiding judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, the state attorney, the public defender, the executive director of the Ethics Commission, and the county Inspector General.
His decisions will be final and cannot be modified by the Board of Commissioners itself, with a reference ceiling of approximately $127,779 annually, derived from the state formula for counties with more than one million inhabitants.
With the approval of Referendum 1, the new independent salary commission must be established and issue its first determination before the commissioners can see changes to their base pay, a process whose timeline has not yet been defined by the county.
At the other end of the day, voters decisively rejected Referendum 6, which would have loosened restrictions on commercial advertising in county parks: 440,809 votes against (60.34%) compared to 289,731 in favor (39.66%).
Although the proposal did not explicitly mention any company, the debate was marked by controversy surrounding the marketing campaign for Grand Theft Auto VI in public spaces of the county, which included a "Welcome to Vice City" sign on the roof of the Kaseya Center for $975,000 and a total advertising package of $3.9 million with Rockstar Games in facilities such as the airport, PortMiami, and the public transportation system.
Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz and Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermúdez had led the opposition with the slogan "Miami-Dade County is not Vice City," arguing that public resources should not be used to promote "a video game franchise built around criminal activity."
The other four referendums submitted for voting were approved by large majorities.
Referendum 2, which extends the residency requirement in the district for candidates for commissioner from six months to one year, received 76.96% support.
Referendum 3, which allows for the synchronization of special elections to fill vacancies with already scheduled elections, was supported by 73.61% of voters.
Referendums 4 and 5 updated the Organic Charter to reflect the creation in 2025, through a constitutional amendment in Florida, of four new elected offices in the county: sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, and elections supervisor.
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