As I finish out my term as your Mayor, I want to take the opportunity to thank the people who have made it possible for me to serve.
I want to thank you, the residents of Doral, for having the confidence and faith to elect me as your first-ever Mayor. As difficult as starting a city from scratch has been, I have enjoyed serving in this inaugural position to help build this city with you. I always said that we would build the City “from the bottom up — not from the top down,” and I thank all the advisory board members, residents and business people who have served and helped build Doral.
I also want to thank the parents, teachers and principals who have helped educate and coach our children. When the city started there were few schools, no baseball, soccer or football fields or basketball courts. Today we have award-winning parks, new and clean streets, a community center, a new government center and public works yard among many other new projects and successes.
have kept my promise to create the most transparent and open government without raising taxes. Through ‘Doral Dashboard’ we have implemented performance-based measures, evaluating both ourselves and our projects in the public eye. All major city contracts (over $15,000) can be found on the Internet along with an analysis, and whether the project is on schedule and on budget.All of our meetings are televised; we have a quarterly newsletter, an interactive web page with all public records available, a radio station, twitter and Facebook. Information about what is happening in your city is there for everyone to see. No other county government provides such accountability.
I would like to thank Michael and Grant Miller for giving me an opportunity to speak and write about the issues that impact Doral. It seems like only yesterday that, as president of One Doral, I met for lunch with Michael Miller who gave me the opportunity to write in the Doral Tribune. Michael and Grant provided me with a printed voice to challenge county commissioners by advocating the needs of our community which eventually became a city.
I thank all who administer our city government: the manager, assistant manager and all the directors and employees. (Their dayto- day work has made us shine!)
I also thank the many business owners who believed in our vision and supported the incorporation of Doral. They continue to help make Doral a better and stronger community. Finally, I
thank my family for letting me dedicate so many hours to the community as a public servant. My wife, Vivian, and daughters, Eneida, Elena and Elisa, have been more than patient on the many days and evenings their husband and father worked on behalf of Doral. (Thank you ladies, I love you, very much!).
God having blessed me as being the first Mayor of this wonderful city, I will continue to be active, participating alongside One Doral founders, the West Dade Federation and others in our community by serving on the Board of the Doral Community Coalition. We intend to protect what we have built and make that even better by insisting that newlyelected officials act with honesty, ethics and foresight.
The most important elections in our city’s history are coming when we will decide who our future leaders will be, choosing those who are pledged to follow the path we have established or open up our city to outside interests. Some have asked me who I would support in these elections, and after much thought, I will only be involved in supporting candidates for two positions.
For Mayor, I endorse Frank Bolanos, a former member and chair of the Miami Dade County School Board and a member of the Doral Community Council. Frank is honest, educated, and able to communicate well with other governments and has the public and private sector experience to move us forward with honesty. I also endorse Elena Ortega- Tauler for Council Seat 1. Elena is an honest, experienced businesswoman and lawyer who will bring fresh, new ideas to our City while protecting what we have built.
Tax Millage Rate Lowered Again
When I ran for Mayor, I promised to build our city from scratch without raising the tax millage rate. We have kept that promise. This September we lowered our millage rate to 2.2215 mills, lowest since the city’s inception and lower than the millage rate before we incorporated.
In addition, despite finally getting rid of mitigation after a long and protracted battle with the County, there is still a $23 million budget surplus left to our new mayor and council.
Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez can be reached at mayor@cityofdoral.com
