Miami-Dade County Government

Government may seem very confusing to you.  In school, you may have studied civics and learned about government.  You probably know that there is a federal government that serves the entire United States of America.

You may even know that there is a government that serves the entire state of Florida.  

Some of the things you need or want in your neighborhood are taken care of by a different kind of local government, like a city or village or town. Each city, village or town has its own mayor and commissioners too. There are 35 cities in Miami-Dade County.

For right now, though, we’re going to cover county government.

Here, we’re going to tell you about local government in Miami-Dade County.  Local government is really important because we deal with the things that affect you each and every day.  Miami-Dade County is responsible for providing police protection, and fire rescue services.  We’re responsible for building libraries and filling them with books.  We make sure you have parks to play in, and we offer special programs like summer camps.

It’s important to know what people need and understand what their problems are.  For this reason, people who live in Miami-Dade County are asked to vote for people (called elected officials) to represent them when important decisions are made.  The Mayor is one of these people.  All the voters who live in Miami-Dade County elect the Mayor.  In addition, we have Commissioners, and Commissioners are there to represent people who live in neighborhoods throughout the county.

Let’s take an example:  you want a new library near your house.  What would you do?  You could contact your elected officials, either the Mayor or your Commissioner, and tell that person what you think.  If you don’t know who this person is, call the Miami-Dade County Answer Center at: 3-1-1 or 305-468-5900 if calling outside Miami-Dade. 

Now that you’ve told this person what you think, he or she takes a look at all the other things that have been asked for by other people who live in the county.  He or she attends meetings to discuss these things.  The meetings are called Board of County Commission meetings, and they usually take place twice a month.  You can even watch one of these meetings on TV on one of your government access channels.  Together, the Commissioners talk about all the things that need to be done, and they vote on those that seem to be the most important.  The Mayor takes a look at this list and has a chance to vote himself if he doesn’t agree.

So why doesn’t everything you ask for get done?  That’s a really difficult thing, because the county has a budget, just like you may have an allowance.  If your allowance is only $5.00 a week, and you have a list of toys you want to buy that equals $10.00, you have to make some decisions, right?  Same thing with the county.  The county tries to do as much as we can with the money we have.

Where does the money come from?  Much of our budget comes from taxes.  Taxes are collected on things you buy or own.  If your parents own a house, they pay property taxes.  If you buy a new bicycle, some of the money you pay goes to the government.  And this is the money that is used to pay for the services government provides to you…the parks, the library books, the police, buses and much more.

Once the decisions are made about what the county must do, there are many people who work hard to make sure it all gets done.  In Miami-Dade County, there are 30,000 people, called employees, who work as police officers, librarians, firefighters, bus drivers and much more.  These people all work under the direction of the County Manager, who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of county government. That’s a big job! Just think of the County Manager as a vice principal and the Mayor as a principal of the county.

Now that we’ve covered all of this, let’s summarize!

	Here in Miami, what is the name of the county government?  Miami-Dade County
	Who votes for the Mayor?  All residents of Miami-Dade County
	Who is our Mayor?  Carlos Alvarez
	How often does the Board of County Commissioners meet?  Twice a month
	Where does most of the money come from to pay for county services?  The county budget, which is made up of tax revenue and other money
	Who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of county government?  The County Manager
	Who is Miami-Dade County’s Manager?  George M. Burgess

 
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This page was last edited on:   February 08, 2006