Election Season Comes for
‘City of Excellence’
Three Commission Seats Are Up on March 6

There will be no runoff elections this year in Aventura.

By Randy Abraham

With two incumbents so far running unopposed for re-election, Aventura’s March 6 election is not shaping up as a series of hotly contested contests.

However, for the seat Commissioner Harry Holzberg will soon vacate because of term limits, two political newcomers have filed to succeed him: his wife Teri Holzberg and Gustavo Blachman.

Seeking their second terms of office are Commissioners Bob Diamond and Zev Auerbach, both of whom could prove formidable opponents for challengers.

Diamond spearheaded discussion two years ago of enacting a building moratorium, just before the 2005 municipal elections. That issue, one of the most talked-about all year in Aventura, led to a nine-month-long building moratorium, the fourth in the city’s ten-year history, that concluded in early 2006 and led to the revamping of the city’s land use regulations as part of an attempt to address significant growth in recent years.

Auerbach could also be tough to unseat. Two years ago, the advertising executive financed his own campaign and defeated incumbent Patricia Rodgers Libert.

Blachman has kept a low profile in civic affairs but has recently begun attending city meetings. Holzberg has been a constant presence at commission meetings since the city was formed.

Her candidacy recalls the attempt two years ago by Muriel Cohen to succeed her husband, Commissioner Ken Cohen, who faced term limits in 2005. Cohen lost in a runoff election to Commissioner Michael Stern.

There will be no runoffs this year in Aventura. Voters in 2006 agreed to do away with runoff municipal elections. The previous system, used throughout much of Miami-Dade County, required that a candidate receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast in that particular race to win office; if no candidate attained that, a runoff election would be held two weeks later between the top two vote-getters.

Now, a candidate needs only to get more votes than his or her opponent, or opponents.

Supporters of the prior election system argued, unsuccessfully, that runoffs help ensure a clear choice between front-runners and that winning candidates represent a mandate from voters. Also, some critics have said that without runoffs, incumbents could encourage “spoiler” candidates to enter a race for the sole goal of dividing the opposition.

Another change to the election system is that former commissioners who served the maximum of two four-year terms must now wait four years before seeking office again.

Any citizen who is a qualified elector of Miami-Dade County and has resided continuously in the city of Aventura for at least one year preceding the date of qualifying is eligible to run for a seat on the City Commission. The city is divided by the William Lehman Causeway into two residential areas, and the city charter requires that two commissioners reside in the northern area and two in the southern area, with two commissioners elected at-large without regard to residence. However, residents, regardless of where they live in the city, can vote for all municipal candidates.

The qualifying period for candidates runs from 8:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 5 to 4:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 9. As in the 2006 charter revision special election, Government Center will serve as a polling place in the absence of the Northeast Regional Library, which was destroyed by Hurricane Wilma.

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