Miami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner is running for mayor, adding to crowded field
Miami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner filed to run for mayor Friday, touting integrity and a tough-on-crime approach as cornerstones of his campaign to replace term-limited Mayor Dan Gelber in November.
Meiner, an enforcement lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission who defeated Kristen Rosen Gonzalez for a commission seat in 2019, faces a field that includes former commissioners Michael Gongora and Michael Grieco and former MTV executive Bill Roedy.
“I will lead as I have governed, with a sense of urgency to provide safe, clean, quiet neighborhoods,” Meiner wrote in a message to residents.
Meiner, 51, has sought to position himself as a principled, objective voice on an often-polarized city commission. On Friday, he said he has not hired a professional campaign consultant and plans to stay away from attacks on his opponents.
“I believe the unrelenting negativity takes the focus away from the important issues our Mayor and Commission must address, degrades our City, and disrespects our residents,” he said.
Much of his legislation has focused on cracking down on crime, including by beefing up the city’s municipal prosecutor program and pushing for a secured perimeter around Ocean Drive during next year’s spring break.
Meiner has also looked to address residents’ quality-of-life concerns, proposing noise-detecting cameras to monitor loud cars and moving to restrict charter boat hours at Miami Beach Marina.
“Although law and order and reducing crime is job number one ... the fight does not stop there,” Meiner said. “I have proven to be a bold leader, and an independent voice with a strong moral and ethical compass.”
In 2021, Meiner sponsored an ordinance that made it a crime to stand within 20 feet of police officers with the “intent to impede, provoke or harass” them. The law was controversial, and Miami Beach police stopped enforcing it after police arrested over a dozen people under the ordinance, almost all of whom were Black and in the process of video recording officers.
Meiner is likely to face pressure from his opponents in the coming months to discuss his views on LGBTQ issues in gay-friendly Miami Beach. Meiner has voted against some of his colleagues’ more symbolic proposals related to social issues, including to name a street after the former San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, saying he believes the matters fall outside the commission’s purview.
Meiner supported an item last year to designate October as LGBTQ History Month in Miami Beach, but voted against a separate proposal to condemn the Miami-Dade School Board for rejecting recognition of the month, arguing it went “way beyond our lane” as elected officials.
After Commissioner David Richardson suggested Meiner was “building quite a record of voting against the LGBT community,” Meiner said he took offense to the suggestion and noted that he only opposed the street renaming because Milk didn’t have ties to Miami Beach.
“I am so upset right now that my colleagues have chosen to attack me for their own personal gain,” he said. “There should never, ever be discrimination of any kind, in any forum.”
Meiner’s decision to run for mayor means his commission seat will be up for grabs in November, along with two others being vacated by Ricky Arriola, who is term-limited, and Richardson, who is running for Miami-Dade tax collector.
That means four of seven spots on the dais — all at-large seats representing the entire city — will change hands.
One candidate, real estate broker Andres Asion, has filed for Meiner’s seat. David Suarez, a marketing director and local activist, is running for Arriola’s position. And three people have lined up for Richardson’s seat: Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, Joseph Magazine and Marcella Novela.
