Op-Ed by Commissioner Gilbert “Sets the Record Straight” on Water Surcharge Issue Between North Miami Beach and Miami Gardens

Over the past few months there have been debates over the water issue happening in Miami. To recap, back in 2018, the city of Miami Gardens sued North Miami Beach for adding a 25% surcharge to the water bills of residents who lived outside their boundaries and the legal battle laid the groundwork for House Bill 11. Filed by Rep. Felicia Robinson in 2024, HB11 aimed to ban municipalities from charging people more simply because of where they live.

Now, Commissioned Gilbert has released an op-ed rebutting claims that he calls “factual misstatements and/or characterizations” from Mayor Michael Joseph in his recent op-ed regarding the issue. Mayor Joseph claimed that the 25% surcharge ensures that the operational costs for maintaining the water facility is equally shared. According to the City of North Miami Beach’s own legal documents, the operating revenues that maintain the infrastructure “excludes Outside City Surcharge Revenue as these revenues are passed through directly to the General Fund.” 

Commissioner Gilbert goes on to confront another glaring issue: the amount of revenue that the City of NMB claims to receive from Miami Gardens has fluctuated between $3 million and $5 million with no clarity as to where the money goes. He states that the findings of his report confirm that the “removal of the surcharge paid by Miami Gardens ratepayers does not affect the water delivery system, operations, or the rate that is paid by customers of North Miami Beach Water and Sewer” because the current charge should be going to the general fund which cannot be used for maintenance. This means NMB has been perfectly fine operating with its current residents funds. 

In the remainder of the op-ed, Commissioner Gilbert claims that NMB did not try to work out the issue “neighbor-to-neighbor”, that the illegal assessment of the surcharge should be refunded to residents in Aventura, Miami Dade, and other areas that NMB supplies, and that the offers to resolve this dispute have not been “serious.” NMB asserts that Miami Gardens can “build and operate their own water utility” or “buy their interest out of North Miami Beach Water”—the first is illegal and the latter was offered in the final hour of legislation. 
Commissioner Gilbert believes that this issue isn’t too complex for constituents stating: “this story is a story that is as old as time. People take advantage of other people.” For the Commissioners full statement, read more here.

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