Garcia wins re-election as property appraiser
Pedro J. Garcia, who as the first elected Property Appraiser of Miami-Dade County has held the position for nearly 12 years, staved off a challenge by one of his own employees to win re-election on Tuesday.
With 808 of 860 precincts reporting, Garcia led Marisol Zenteno by 54 percent to 46 percent.
Garcia, 83, said he went against the wishes of his wife and family when he decided to run for re-election after the COVID-19 economic shutdown.
“I couldn’t abandon my post at a moment when we were are all suffering economically,” Garcia said. “I couldn’t turn my back on Miami-Dade County, where I have always been so happy and I will able to help so many people who will be in need. Our entire department is going to have to come together and work to help people.”
He has held the seat since 2014. He was running unopposed until Zenteno, who has done valuation and analysis for the Property Appraiser’s office for three years, announced she was running for his seat on June 8, just two days before the filing deadline.
Zenteno, 53, ran on a platform that promised to bring the department into the 21st Century. Her plans included updating the department’s public website into several languages to better reflect the diversity of the area’s residents.
She also promised to provide assistance for taxpayers who wanted legal representation while disputing their annual tax assessments but couldn’t afford to hire lawyers.
“This has been an incredible ride,” said Zenteno, who watched the election results live come in live on Tuesday with her family and colleagues via Zoom. “It’s amazing that a little girl from the Dominican Republic could run a grassroots campaign like this one for the right reasons. We need a change in leadership and a change of culture in the Property Appraiser office. Right now it’s a culture of fear and retribution.”
Zenteno previously said that she would return to her regular job on Sept. 1 if she lost the election.
Garcia stressed the importance of his experience in the job and how critical it will be in the next year, when his office will assess property and personal belongings values in a county still recovering from the COVID economic shutdown.
Among the chief duties of the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser is annually assessing the value of all real estate properties within the county and providing them to various municipalities and jurisdictions. The funds are critical; for the county’s current 2020 budget, property taxes alone make up 35%, or nearly $2 billion, of the overall $8.9 billion budget.