by Andi Hale
When I heard that there was a both a Surfside city mayor and county mayor for Miami Dade County I was confused. I had to dig a little deeper for the rest of the story.
Florida has three different forms of government depending on which county your are talking about. Miami-Dade is one of three that use the Commission-Executive Form of government. Only three charter counties have adopted the commission-executive form of government (technically called the “county executive form” in Florida Statutes): Duval; Miami-Dade; and Orange. Like the commission-administrator form, the commission-executive form differs from the traditional commission form in that there are separate roles for making policy and implementing policy. However, it differs from the commission-administrator form, as well, because the person responsible for the executive role (the mayor in the case of these three Florida charter counties) is elected by the county voters rather than appointed by the board of commissioners.
So we heard that the Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was heading up the rescue operation in the Surfside tower collapse. Interestingly enough, she was in the White House the day before. Supposedly they were discussing gun crime.
