The Florida Sheriffs Association is appealing a Miami-Dade County judge’s dismissal of the FSA’s lawsuit challenging the County Commission’s intention to maintain authority over police services ahead of an independent sheriff’s election in 2024.
The FSA filed the lawsuit in the 11th Judicial Circuit after the commission passed a resolution to continue the Miami-Dade Police Department’s role of providing police patrol services in the county’s unincorporated areas.
The association contends that a 2018 statewide constitutional amendment removing charter counties’ authority to abolish such county elected offices as the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections or circuit court clerk prevents the commission from continuing to oversee police services in unincorporated areas once an elected sheriff is elected in 2024, according to the complaint.
Judge Vivianne Del Rio, however, dismissed the association’s lawsuit Feb. 9, concluding that litigating the issue was premature because no Miami-Dade independent sheriff has yet been elected and that the association lacks standing to sue.
“Any harm arising from the implementation of the resolution’s inchoate policy is simply too hypothetical for adjudication at this time,” the judge said in her decision.
The FSA’s legislative chairman, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, said a notice of appeal would be filed this week and that the association would aggressively seek a remedy to its concerns, whether it be through the court system or through the state Legislature. The commission ought to follow the state constitution and the law and do the right thing, according to Gualtieri.
“Since they choose not to want to do that, we’ll continue to pursue all remedies available to us, including filing an appeal with the district court of appeal,” he told the Florida Record.
Under the terms of the commission’s resolution, the role of the future Miami-Dade elected sheriff would simply be to serve papers out of the court system, while the current countywide police department would provide services under the authority of the mayor, according to Gualtieri.
“What they want to do is marginalize and really negate what the sheriff is supposed to be doing by not funding the sheriff and maintaining their own police department," he said.