Economic Development & Job Creation
Miami-Dade needs a mayor that will have a presence in Tallahassee and Washington, instead of sending staff or a lobbyist. We need a mayor that has the relationships needed to get things done and to attract new industries to Miami-Dade.

As an attorney and a school board member, I have successfully lobbied in Tallahassee and Washington for our school system. As Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I will take Miami-Dade County’s agenda to Tallahassee and Washington and advocate for what is important for our residents from economic incentives to infrastructure investments.

Here at home, we must also reorganize and restructure the Beacon Council so that it does what it was created to do, which is to assist local, small businesses and create zones of economic empowerment—not just give out awards. One of the many reasons that the current administration’s economic incentives have been such a disaster is because Carlos Gimenez fails to understand the importance of education, not only in training and retooling of our workforce, but also the role of education in attracting new industries. We need to look beyond temporary constructions jobs and offer developers and corporations the skilled work force that they need to succeed in Miami-Dade.

Let’s put elevating quality of life back in the economic development equation. Let’s demand true economic development, one that ensures that our tax dollars benefit our residents instead of tourists and developers.

Public Transit
Every resident of Miami-Dade County agrees on one point — that the traffic and gridlock in our county is unbearable. But before we get to my solutions we need to be honest about three things: this traffic and transit crisis didn’t happen overnight, we cannot fix the current problem without tackling the broken promises and lies that lead to this gridlock, and the cost of our traffic crisis is time.

The current mayor loves to blame the increasing traffic woes on Miami-Dade’s car culture, but the reality is that this problem was created by his lack of leadership, misuse of transit funds and failure to insist on transit solutions when approving density changes. For years, Gimenez has been using the People’s Transportation Plan half-penny tax funds to fill operating gaps in transit department instead of investing in the transportation infrastructure that voters approved that tax for. He says that there is no federal money for transit infrastructure, but fails to inform residents that Miami-Dade County has not applied for available federal funding in his five years in the mayor’s office. He has spent millions on articulated buses, but failed to synchronize our lights. And he has championed large scale development near residential areas, while he refused to demand that said projects invest in and expand public transit options.

Well, I’ve been at the school board roughly the same amount of time that Gimenez has been mayor of Miami-Dade County, and in my first term as a School Board member, I proposed and championed a five-year plan to replace old and inefficient school buses. At the time the economy was in a tail spin and the state of Florida was threatening to eliminate transit funding. Our old buses were breaking down regularly and costing us a small fortune, so we sold them, replaced them with energy efficient buses that exceed the state’s safety requirements, reorganized routes and saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational and maintenance costs; proving that hard economic times are not an excuse for inaction but an opportunity to innovate.

Because your time should be spent with your loved ones, not in gridlock.

Public Safety
There is a direct connection between the recent shootings that have claimed dozens of young lives in our community, and the drastic cuts to the Miami-Dade County Police Department made by the current mayor. As part of his 2014 ‘restructuring’ Carlos Gimenez eliminated special units like the Gang Investigation Unit, and placed some of those officers in homicide and narcotics. Today, he deflects by claiming that disbanding the unit wasn’t his idea, but the reality is that it could not have been done without his input or approval.

Our children’s safety has always been and will remain my priority. This is why on my first day in office as Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I will restore the Gang Investigation Unit because it is a vital cross-jurisdictional division that needs to work with municipalities to reduce and prevent violent crime. As your Mayor, I will work to proactively stop gang violence, instead of just reacting to it. You will never hear me say that it is not my problem, because the safety of the residents of Miami-Dade County is and will always be my priority.

But restoring specialty units is only the first step in making Miami-Dade County safe again. As your Mayor, I will work with our police department and police union to immediately hire more police officers so that we can investigate and close cases — not just fill out reports for insurance claims. Together we will ensure that our officers have the vehicles and equipment that they require to get the job done.

Currently, the Miami-Dade County Police Department is 475 officers short, not including the dozens of seasoned officers that are retiring in the coming months. And yet the lack of adequate police force is not our only problem. Miami-Dade County also has a shortage of firefighters, as many are leaving for opportunities elsewhere. And while there will be three graduating classes this year, we are still not caught up in terms of demand. In the last nine years, 911 rescue-related calls have seen an increase of more than 10 percent.

As a mother and as your Mayor, I will insure that Miami-Dade County government’s number one priority is the safety of our residents. I will do so without raising taxes but rather by ensuring that government spending is focused on services to residents – not on corporate welfare and private bailouts.

Together we will forge a county budget that puts residents first.