Miami’s Keon Hardemon will resign for County Hall campaign, but not until November

Keon Hardemon is resigning from the Miami City Commission to run for a seat on the County Commission, he said Thursday, though he will not be leaving his office until November.

As commission chairman, he will continue to hold the gavel and manage the flow of legislation in the government of Miami-Dade’s largest city for the next few months as he campaigns for higher office.

Hardemon, 36, had already stated his intention to formally launch a bid for the District 3 seat on the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, but said he would turn in his letter of resignation Thursday. Term limits are forcing Audrey Edmonson to vacate the county seat this year.

Hardemon currently represents Miami’s fifth district, which includes Overtown, Wynwood, Liberty City, the Upper East Side and Little Haiti.

In order to run, Hardemon must resign from his City Commission seat, which he has held since 2013. Election laws require Hardemon to submit an irrevocable resignation letter to the city clerk at least 10 days before first day of the qualifying period for the County Commission seat. That period opens May 26.

Hardemon addressed his resignation near the end of Thursday’s virtual commission meeting, held via a video conference. Just before adjourning, Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla asked Hardemon if he was leaving the commission. In between compliments from Díaz de la Portilla and other commissioners, Hardemon read his letter.

“My tenure as a Miami City Commissioner has been an incredible experience for a child born in poverty and raised to be a servant of his community,” he wrote. “I will forever be grateful to our electors for the tremendous duty they bestowed upon me.”

State law allows Hardemon to remain in office until the date of the swearing in for his new office, if elected. That means Hardemon will remain a Miami commissioner until shortly after the Nov. 3 election.

“Indeed gentlemen, I will be here,” Hardemon said on the video call. “We still have a lot of work to do, and lot more time.”

Even if he does not win the county race, Hardemon will be leaving Miami City Hall a year before his term expires in 2021. The City Commission will need to decide if it will appoint a successor to finish the term or hold a special election.

Six other candidates have declared their intention to run for the District 3 seat: Brian Dennis, Monester D. Lee-Kinsler, Eddie Lewis, Tise M. McGhee, Gepsie Morisset-Metellus and Temidayo Olukemi Ogendengbe.

Young commissioner

Hardemon was first elected when he was 30, then an assistant Miami-Dade public defender. He’s the son of a Miami police officer and scion of one of Liberty City’s most politically active families. In recent years, he has served as chairman of the commission, using his pulpit to speak on poverty, his philosophy on redevelopment and race relations while moderating the debate among commissioners. He’s vouched for improvements to parks throughout his district, and he sponsored the paving and lighting of alleys in several District 5 neighborhoods.

The commissioner has described real estate redevelopment as a necessary tool to revitalize communities, a topic that has drawn an increasingly divided response from Miamians over how projects are planned, approved and constructed. The debate is set against the backdrop of an affordable housing crisis, which has led to opposition to large-scale developments that don’t provide guaranteed affordable housing units.

People shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhood to build wealth, enjoy a drink or go to a good grocery store, Hardemon has often said. How to make that happen has been the subject of fervent debate, which has found the commissioner taking controversial positions.

Last summer, when commissioners considered a massive $1 billion plan to build a high-rise residential and commercial complex in Little Haiti, Hardemon negotiated with developers to secure a $6 million contribution to the city for affordable housing projects. Critics complained that the developers should be required to build or finance affordable units in their projects.

Generally, Hardemon has favored promoting home ownership over rentals as a strategy to combat the housing problem. The commissioner provided a key vote on a proposal to create a $400 million bond program that voters approved in 2017. Hardemon used his swing vote to push for a $100 million allocation to affordable housing under the Miami Forever bond, five times the amount in the initial proposal.

Political fundraising

Hardemon and political groups affiliated with him and his aunt, lobbyist and political consultant Barbara Hardemon, have raised nearly $787,000 since last year. Two electioneering communications organizations tied to him and registered with the county, Improve Miami and One Miami-Dade, have collected contributions from several moneyed interests in Miami, including some who have business before the city.

Two of the largest donors to Hardemon’s political ambitions: Jorge and Jose Mas, the brothers who run the infrastructure firm MasTec and are local investors in the Major League Soccer franchise Inter Miami. The brothers and affiliates have given $60,500 in campaign donations to Hardemon’s two political groups and directly to Hardemon’s campaign account.

The Mas brothers are in the middle of negotiating terms for a 99-year lease to convert city-owned Melreese golf course into a sprawling campus with a hotel, mall, offices, a public park and soccer stadium that would host the team’s home games. The lease has not gone before the commission yet. Depending on when Hardemon leaves office, he might vote on the deal.

The Mas team hired Barbara Hardemon as a consultant in the days before a pivotal commissioner vote on the $1 billion redevelopment proposal. She registered as a lobbyist for the group three days before the vote, and she arranged a lunch at a waterfront restaurant between her nephew and the Mas brothers. Hardemon later voted to place the proposal on the ballot in November 2018.

Another well-known donor to Hardemon: Ultra Music Festival, the electronic dance music event that has been staged on public land in Miami for several years. A frequent donor to Miami politicians, Ultra and associated entities gave Hardemon $17,000 in the summer of 2019 in the weeks leading up to a vote on an agreement to allow the three-day festival to return to Bayfront Park this year. Hardemon sponsored the item, which passed.