New faces, energy and ideas for the Miami-Dade County Commission
appointed her, on a 10-1 vote, rather than hold a special election.
The appointment gave Cohen Higgins what has essentially been a 1 1/2-year audition. In that time, the Miami-Dade native and child of Jamaican immigrants scored some wins as she pushed what she called an “aggressive agenda.”
Among the accomplishments she cited: helping to secure $3 million in state money to improve the South Dade Trail, getting an additional 154 parking spaces at the public Black
Point Marina and pushing for construction of the 87th Avenue bridge — though that project angered Palmetto Bay residents who said it would cause a traffic nightmare.
She said the top issues now facing the district are traffic and transportation, public safety and environmental concerns, including Biscayne Bay. Cohen Higgins is chairwoman of the Biscayne Bay Water Management Advisory Committee.
“It’s the community where I was born and raised. I don’t just know the issues — I’ve lived the issues,“she said.
The same could be said for Arellano. The real estate agent and swim coach has laid a grass- roots foundation to run for pub- lic office. As vice chair for the Hammocks Citizens Advisory Committee, she meets with residents monthly to discuss community concerns and the role of police in the community.
That’s valuable experience and it shows in her good grasp of the issues.
She said the district needs better transit and increased police and fire services. Citing “rampant overdevelopment” in the district, she also wants to focus on smarter development and a hold-the-line approach to the Urban Development Bound- ary, which divides MiamiDade’s suburbs and its agricultural belt.
“We need a plan for the future and not just homes for today,” she said.
She decided to run, in part, because of her own experience attending County Commission meetings but not always feeling heard: “We give up a day at work, we sit in traffic . . . and we spend the entire day there and we get two minutes — if we’re not cut off — and they complete- ly disregard what we say.”
Baez-Wallis, who worked at Jackson South Medical Center, part of the county-funded Jack- son Health System, also was motivated to enter the race by seeing the need for greater advocacy. As a healthcare professional during the pandemic, she said she saw outreach to communities on vaccines not working very well. That led her to realize she wanted to play a bigger role in advocating for her community.
She said she hopes to push for “responsible growth and look at innovative solutions and differ- ent problems from a different perspective, from the perspective of the healthcare worker and the nurse.”
She said her health background will provide a “different perspective to the commission and to problem solving in general.”
Baez-Wallis easily identified key issues in District 8. In Palmetto Bay, she said, it’s bridges and traffic. In Homestead, it’s workforce housing and in the Redland, it’s lot size and rezoning.
Baez-Wallis would join Arella- no in stopping any expansion of the UDB, while Cohen Higgins said she is not completely opposed to the possibility of some development but wants a caseby-case evaluation. Overall, she favors the most recent approach by the county of increasing housing density as a way of creating more housing inventory and, with it, more affordable options.
All of the candidates recognized that, as the district grows, public transit is key, notably Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT. The futuristic electric bus network planned for a 20-mile stretch of U.S. 1 in South Miami-Dade is now delayed by about a year, until early 2024.
Arellano said she’s anxious to see the project finished, but that South Dade still needs better east-west connectors to public transit, while Baez-Wallis said she wants to see the county work on fixing the transit it already has running. Cohen Higgins called it a “very, very important project for South Dade” and said she had recently visited the construction site to get a firsthand update.
And on the election of a coun- ty sheriff in 2024, an issue that all commissioners will face, all of the candidates worried about how the new system will affect police service and response time. Cohen Higgins said that law enforcement officers have told her they want to stay under county control and “that’s going to carry tremendous weight.”
For the last 1-1/2 years, Cohen Higgins has done the work to stay on top of complex issues facing the county. Despite a misstep when she pushed the 87th Avenue bridge construction through the commission too quickly to allow her constituents to be heard, she has taken the job seriously, grounding herself in facts and accomplishing tangible results. She has Levine Cava’s backing as well. She has earned the right to ask voters for four more years.
We commend her opponents for their willingness to work for the betterment of their commu- nity and hope they continue to seek involvement in the political process to gain more experience for possible future runs.
The Miami Herald recommends DANIELLE COHEN HIGGINS for Miami-Dade Commission, District 8.
DISTRICT 10
Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto has been a fixture in this western Miami-Dade district, representing it for 40 years, first as a state legislator and then as a commissioner since his election in 1993.
During his tenure, Souto, a “pothole commissioner,“was considered unbeatable and never faced serious opposition. That’s impressive. He brought home the bacon to the district, but Souto’s final year in office has been somewhat marred by his ill-fated, end-run attempt to incorporate the district into a city and, some say, run to be its mayor. The sprawling district encompasses Kendall, Westchester and Fon- tainebleau, along with other unin- corporated southwestern areas of the county. Residents’ outrage end- ed the incorporation talk.
This open seat has attracted four candidates: Anthony Rodri- guez, a Republican state legisla- tor who is giving up his seat to run for this local office; Martha Bueno, chair of the West Kendall Community Board and community activists Susan Khoury and Juan C. Sanchez, both with little money in their coffers but passionate in their desire to improve life in the district.
If money is an indicator, which it is, Rodriguez is by far the front runner with about $1 million, a bundle for a commis- sion race. Rodriguez is a wellconnected Republican in Tallahassee, but he has done little campaigning for this commission seat.
Rodriguez didn’t respond to the Editorial Board’s invitation for a candidate interview. We understand he has skipped other candidate forums, though the three other candidates took part. That seems to run counter to the job he wants, as a public servant.
Bueno is a registered independent, but is a self-described Libertarian. She is a hemp farm- er and is for legalization of marijuana.
Bueno, a Cuban American, has raised $25,000 and says addressing the need for affor- dable housing and traffic issues are a priority in the district. She decided to run, fueled by dissat- isfaction. She makes solid sense.
“I was upset that our voices were not being heard. I want to make a difference, and I want the district’s residents to be heard,” Bueno told the Board.
As head of the West Kendall Community Council, Bueno is well-versed in the district’s needs and appears well-prepared to tackle its challenges.
The Miami Herald recommends MARTHA BUENO for the Miami-Dade Commission, District 10.
DISTRICT 12
In the election for MiamiDade County Commission District 12, voters will choose between the founding mayor of Doral and a former Sweetwater commissioner who pleaded guilty to lying. The choice should be a no-brainer.
Juan Carlos “J.C.” Bermudez, 60, was one of the civic leaders who pushed for the 2003 incorporation of Doral, then a warehouse district, into what’s now a burgeoning city. He served as mayor from its creation until he hit term limits in 2012.
After sitting it out for four years, he was reelected in 2016.
Jose “Pepe” Diaz, the incumbent in District 12, has reached his term limit.
Bermudez, a lawyer, has a wealth of knowledge about local government. He’s the vice chair of the Miami-Dade County Transportation Planning Organ- ization (TPO) and president of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities. His TPO experience comes handy in dealing with western Miami-Dade’s traffic issues. He’s well versed on the county’s SMART plan to increase public transportation routes, including an east-west corridor along State Road 836.
Bermudez said responsible growth is one of the main issues facing District 12, which has large swaths of western lands along the Everglades. He also gets that even though the district is far from the coast, it’s vulnerable to sea-level rise.
“Everybody thinks about Miami Beach only, when you’re talking about climate change,” Bermudez told the Herald Editorial Board. “We actually abut the northwest well fields, which are very important to the [drink- ing] water flow for the county and in District 12.”
He said he’s not against expanding the county’s Urban Development Boundary, which creates a buffer between urban development and environmental and rural lands, to accommodate more growth and affordable housing. But he said the county needs to plan how that’s going to happen instead of hav- ing a piecemeal approach. We were disappointed that Bermusioners dez didn’t have a position on the highly publicized proposal before the County Commission to expand the UDB for an industrial park in South Dade that could hurt Biscayne Bay restoration. We had hoped for more assurance that he would stand up against unnecessary urban encroachment on the environment, especially when he has received thousands in campaign contributions from developers, real estate and construction companies, his campaign filings show.
Bermudez hasn’t been without detractors during his long political career. In 2015, the Doral City Council voted 4-1 to rename J.C. Bermudez park as Doral Central Park. The vote seemed to stem from his soured relationship with some council members. Bermudez called it a “game of politics” at the time.
Any controversy surrounding Bermudez pales in comparison to his opponent’s record.
Sophia Lacayo was arrested in 2020 on perjury charges that led to her resignation from the Sweetwater Commission after a year in office. Police said she lied about meeting the city’s two-year residency requirement for candidates by saying she was renting a room in the city. She pleaded guilty and was prohibited from running for public office during her one-year probation term. The Herald Editorial Board emailed, called and texted Lacayo several times to invite her for an interview, but she did not reply to accept our invitation.
Lacayo also tried to keep voters from accessing information about her perjury charges by asking a county judge to seal her case. She only backed off her request after the Herald reported on it.
Most recently, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has threatened legal action against Lacayo over mailers that falsely suggest Levine Cava has endorsed her.
Courts issued about
$350,000 in judgments against Lacayo Trade Group, the Doral company that owns her taxpreparation business, between 2016 and 2019, the Herald reported.
We question Lacayo’s character and fitness for elected office and worry she’s trying to outspend her opponent to distract voters from her troubling past. She has spent more than $875,000 of her own money or money from companies she owns, the Herald reported. Bermudez has raised about $875,000 from donors.
Because of his track record, civic involvement, knowledge of local government — and a perilously unqualified opponent — the Miami Herald recommends J.C. BERMUDEZ for MiamiDade Commission, District 12.