Miami-Dade spent over $4,000 on three portraits of commissioner

Miami-Dade County paid for three portraits of Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III before choosing a cheaper reproduction for a new wall in the County Commission chambers, a sequence that put more than $4,000 in public spending under fresh scrutiny.

Records show the first portrait cost $2,000 and was painted by Rahiem Milton. A second portrait, by Sitki Dogan, cost $2,500, according to an invoice. Headlines on the episode put the total at more than $4,000, with versions citing $4,500 and $4,780.

The portraits were tied to the July 13 unveiling of a new portrait wall honoring former board chairs. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava attended the event with fellow commissioners as the county introduced the display inside the chambers.

The central question is why county money covered multiple commissioned portraits of the same commissioner before the county settled on the least expensive reproduction for the wall. Gilbert III was outgoing and running for Congress, which made the spending look less like a routine archival choice and more like an image project paid for with public funds.

The controversy also cuts to fairness in how Miami-Dade treats its own money. A portrait wall meant to honor past board chairs instead became a test of whether the county was willing to spend thousands on a sitting commissioner’s likeness while choosing a cheaper print for the final display. That contrast is what turned the transaction into a political issue rather than a simple art purchase.

Local 10 put the question directly to readers on July 23, asking whether Miami-Dade should have paid over $4,780 for three portraits of the outgoing commissioner running for Congress. The polling framed the spending as more than a bookkeeping issue and as a question of whether the county had crossed a line between public commemoration and taxpayer-funded self-promotion.