The Miami City Commission on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
Could the Miami City Commission increase from five to nine commissioners? An activist group says it’s collected enough signatures to get a proposal on the ballot as early as this year that would change the city’s governance structure.
That group, Stronger Miami, announced this week that it has collected over 20,500 petitions in its effort to move the city from odd- to even-year elections, and to increase the size of the City Commission. It needs 20,426 valid petitions — 10% of the city’s registered voters — to get the proposed charter amendment on the ballot, according to the city clerk.
“This is what democracy looks like when residents demand better. More than 20,500 Miamians signed their names to say they want real reform at City Hall, and Stronger Miami has delivered,” Mel Meinhardt of One Grove Alliance, an affiliated group, said in a statement.
While the group has made major headway with its petition drive, it’s not a done deal yet. So far, the city clerk’s office has received 18,508 petitions, according to City Clerk Todd Hannon, and 7,203 of those have been certified by the supervisor of elections, Hannon said.
Stronger Miami has not specified when it’s aiming to get the proposed charter amendment on the ballot, saying only that it hopes to do so “as soon as possible.”
“We are in contact with City officials and hope to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the timeline and process,” said spokesperson Claire VanSusteren.
As it stands now, five Miami city commissioners represent about a half-million residents in Florida’s second-largest city. Stronger Miami argues that increasing the size of the commission will make Miami’s elected officials “more responsible and accountable to the neighborhoods they serve” by decreasing the size of the districts they represent.
The group is also pushing to switch the city to even-year elections in order to align with statewide elections and increase voter turnout. The Stronger Miami proposal would move elections to even years starting in 2028, shortening the current elected officials’ terms.
Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo speaks to Commissioner Christine King at Miami City Hall on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
The effort by Stronger Miami is separate from a push led by Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo to move the city to even-year elections. The Pardo proposal is on track to land on the August ballot as a referendum, pending one more vote from the City Commission. Under that proposal, the winners of the 2027 and 2029 City Commission races would be elected to one-time five-year terms, allowing the city to sync up with the even-year election cycle starting in 2032. City Commission and mayoral terms are typically four years in Miami.
While Pardo and Stronger Miami agree on principle about the switch to even-year elections, they disagree on how to get there. Last month, after Pardo’s proposal advanced, Stronger Miami issued a statement saying residents should not need to wait six years for the change to go into effect.
“Miamians have been clear: they want accountable, transparent local government and higher voter participation in city elections. Holding a vote to move Miami’s Commission elections to even-numbered years is a step in the right direction,” Stronger Miami said. “However, the City Commission’s proposal delays this meaningful reform until 2032 and extends the terms of the commissioners elected prior to implementation by a year. Miamians shouldn’t have to wait that long for change.”
Further complicating matters is the next election for mayor.
Mayor Eileen Higgins speaks during the first Miami City Commission meeting of 2026 at Miami City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
Mayor Eileen Higgins, who was elected in a December runoff, had promised on the campaign trail that she would shorten her own mayoral term to just three years to get the city on an even-year election cycle. When the commission discussed Pardo’s proposal at last month’s commission meeting, Higgins requested that the mayor’s race be splintered off into a separate ballot referendum, allowing her to shorten her term. After some back and forth, the commission agreed.
So on Thursday, the City Commission is voting on a proposal to direct the city attorney to draft ballot language for a referendum asking voters to shorten Higgins’ first term to end in 2028, moving up the next mayoral race to August 2028 — more than a year from its scheduled date of November 2029.
If things go according to that plan, Miami voters will weigh in on at least two ballot questions related to even-year elections this coming August: one that would extend the next City Commission terms by one year, and another that would shorten the mayor’s term by a year.
City Attorney George Wysong previously said the City Commission has until May to finalize those ballot questions and any others it wants to put forward in August.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 2:17 PM.
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Tess Riski covers Miami City Hall. She joined the Miami Herald in 2022 and has covered local politics throughout Miami-Dade County. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.