Hialeah voters to weigh in on Mayor’s race, four Council contests in citywide election

Monday marked the kickoff of early voting^[1] in Hialeah, where residents are choosing among 17 candidates vying for four elected posts at City Hall, including Mayor.

The race, culminating on Nov. 4, comes amid rising concerns over the cost of living, maintenance of public infrastructure and the city’s bookkeeping.

Accordingly, the priorities of nearly every candidate on the ballot^[2] overlap.

Of the five contests, just two are guaranteed to result in a clear winner on Election Day. The rest have enough candidates that it’s possible none will secure more than 50% of the vote to win outright.

In such a case, the top two vote-getters will compete in a Dec. 9 runoff.

The Hialeah Mayor and seven Council members are elected at-large, meaning there are no districts and voters have a say in every race, regardless of where they live.

Elected officials in Hialeah serve four-year terms^[3], with Mayors limited to two consecutive terms and Council members serving no more than three consecutive terms.

Hialeah’s elections are technically nonpartisan, though party politics can influence races. Unless otherwise noted, every candidate running is a Republican.

Mayor

In April, Jackie Garcia-Roves became Hialeah’s first woman Mayor^[4] when her peers on the Council appointed her to the post after Esteban “Steve” Bovo resigned to take a federal lobbying job.

Four men — Council member Jesus Tundidor, former Council member Bryan Calvo, Bernardino “Benny” Rodriguez and Marc Anthony Salvat, who has no party affiliation — are running to deny her a full, elected term.

At a televised debate^[5] this month, the candidates clashed over promises of tax cuts and rebates as the city faces a fiscal crisis, as finance officials called it.

Garcia-Roves and Tundidor defended a recently approved $200 homeowner rebate that drained $6.4 million from city coffers and delayed 18 public projects. Both pledged continued relief “as long as the city can afford it.”

Calvo blasted the rebates and tax-cut talk, warning Hialeah “doesn’t print money” and that city taxpayers inevitably pay.

Salvat and Rodriguez, meanwhile, echoed calls for affordability but offered few details on how to fund their alternative proposals.

Garcia-Roves, 43, was first elected to the Council in 2019 as part of then-Mayor Carlos Herandez’s slate. She was re-elected unopposed in 2023.

If elected, she vows to stop all tax increases, expand senior services, improve city parks, help small businesses grow, strengthen public safety, secure state and federal infrastructure funding, lower utility costs and build more affordable housing.

Last week, she was fined $250^[6] for multiple violations at her home, including building without a permit.

Tundidor, 35, was also elected in 2019 despite not being on the ex-Mayor’s list of preferred candidates. And he, too, was elected without opposition four years later.

Before winning a local office, he worked as an aide to former state Senator and current Miami-Dade Commissioner René García, who briefly flirted^[7] with a run for Hialeah Mayor early this year.

Tundidor, who has distinguished himself as a levelheaded^[8], policy-focused official, is running on a platform that prioritizes reducing government waste, lowering property taxes, repealing “burdensome” regulations, supporting small businesses and increasing police presence.

He also wants to block overdevelopment, expand senior services and prevent the illegal housing of recreational vehicles in residential communities.

Calvo, 27, made history in 2021 as the youngest person ever elected to the City Council. He previously worked as a legislative aide to Hialeah Gardens Sen. Bryan Ávila.

As a Council member, Calvo frequently butted heads with Bovo, whom he sued in 2023^[9], alleging that Bovo was hampering his ability to investigate problems with the city’s emergency call center.

A Miami-Dade court subsequently tossed the complaint^[10], and the Council voted 6-1 for a resolution condemning Calvo’s suit.

Calvo, who resigned from office last year after an unsuccessful run^[11] for Miami-Dade Tax Collector, told the Miami Herald^[12] he’s running to “bring real change” to City Hall by cutting government waste, reducing water bills, lowering taxes and fighting corruption.

Rodriguez, 79, said he wants to attract more business to the city, create educational opportunities for residents, crack down on crime and improve government transparency.

Salvat, a 32-year-old real estate entrepreneur, told the Herald that because he’s not a politician, he owes no “political favors” and is beholden only to the people. If elected, he said, he’d fight to lower taxes and water bills, improve safety and end the city’s “mismanagement of funds.”

City Council, Group 3

Three women are running for the open Group 3 seat: no-party candidates Jessica Castillo and Kassandra Montandon, and Gelien Perez, the race’s lone GOP candidate.

Castillo, 37, said she wants to improve City Hall’s responsiveness to residents’ concerns, reduce traffic congestion, improve the city’s infrastructure, lower taxes and better protect the public against crime.

She does not appear to have a campaign website. Her campaign’s Instagram page^[13] hasn’t been updated since August.

Montandon, a 30-year-old Realtor, also wants to lower property taxes while supporting small businesses and promoting financial literacy. Improving educational resources is also on her agenda.

In running for office, she’s leaned into her experience in financial education and community service. She is the Educational Director at the Center for Financial Training at Miami Dade. She’s also co-Chair of the Future Bankers Camp and serves on the Miami-Dade Public Schools Academy of Finance Committee.

Perez, 35, is a former Director of Human Resources for the city and worked as an aide in the Mayor’s Office more than a decade ago. Today, she works as a real estate broker and the Chief Compliance Officer for American Vision Group, an eye care services company headquartered in North Miami Beach.

Her platform includes supporting first responders and small businesses, opposing millage rate increases, funding park programs, advocating for seniors’ health services and improving city infrastructure.

In her past executive role with the city, Perez became the subject of a two-year investigation by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE), which found that employees under her influence received significant pay raises^[14]. At the same time, she acted as their real estate agent.

She unsuccessfully applied for a seat on the Council last year.

City Council, Group 4

Five people are running to fill the vacancy Garcia-Roves left when she ascended to the mayoralty this year. The Council voted to punt the issue to the Nov. four election after its six members could not escape a deadlocked vote^[15] in May.

Candidates for the post include Mariana Chavez, William “Willie” Marrero, Javier Morejon, Juan Santana and Phillip Kennedy.

Chavez, 20, contends that as Hialeah’s youngest candidate, she’d bring a “fresh voice, a new perspective and the courage to challenge what’s working” to the Council.

Like others running, she appears to have eschewed a traditional campaign website. She told the Herald that fundamental problems in the city, like potholes, aren’t being fixed even as residents face increasingly high living costs.

She vows to lower water and sewer rates, invest in educational and job opportunities and “protect our parks, neighborhoods and our future.”

Marrero, 23, is a former aide to Council member Luis Rodriguez and a student at Florida International University pursuing a degree in public administration. He also does not appear to have a campaign website.

In May, Morrero was the preferred pick for the Group 4 seat for three of the Council’s six members, but opposition from others blocked his appointment.

He said he’s running “to be a voice for working families, our elderly neighbors, and the first responders who keep us safe.”

Morejon, 34, works by day as a land-use specialist and plat manager and boasts a solid record of volunteerism. He’s a former Chair of the Hialeah Beautification Board, Vice Chair of the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Board and Vice Chair of the Sweetwater Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Board.

He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade.

He’s running on a promise^[16] to beautify Hialeah, repair its infrastructure, lower city service costs, support public safety, and restore government transparency and accountability.

Santana, a 42-year-old activist and entrepreneur, ran twice for Hialeah Mayor and sought several appointments to the City Council.

He told the Herald he’s running this year to stop “rising property taxes, gentrification and displacement’ of residents.

Santana is Vice President of Positive Hits Community Service Group South^[17], a nonprofit now in its ninth year that helps low-income residents.

Kennedy, 56, is a retired Hialeah Police lieutenant currently employed by the Miccosukee Tribe. His LinkedIn page^[18] shows past employment at the Florida Department of Corrections. He does not appear to have a campaign website.

In January, Kennedy was involved in an incident in Naples, where local police arrested him for whipping a 10-year-old boy^[19] with a belt. A video^[20] of the incident and a report from Wink News^[21] referred to the child as his son and shows him asserting that “corporal punishment is not a crime.”

City Council, Group 6

In a Highlander-esque^[22] instance of election bracketing, two appointed City Council members are squaring off for one seat.

The first is Juan Junco, 87, who made history^[23] last November as the oldest person ever to take a seat on the panel, when his peers voted unanimously to appoint him as Calvo’s replacement.

Junco, a former member of the Hialeah Housing Authority^[24], spent decades working in the private sector as a plant manager and production supervisor.

He does not have a campaign website.

His opponent, Melinda de la Vega, is a 39-year-old sales executive for insurer Aetna, for which she’s worked nearly her entire adult life. She was appointed in July 2024^[25] to replace former Council member Angelica Pacheco, who was federally indicted^[26] on health care fraud charges.

De la Vega said she wants to better support and equip police, prevent overdevelopment, oppose tax increases, provide vital resources to the elderly, help small businesses, improve parks and youth services, and crack down on illegal dumping.

She is a member of the Hialeah Pan American Lions Club^[27], which provides humanitarian services to the community, including help with back-to-school programs, hunger relief and support for children with diabetes.

City Council, Group 7

In the last City Council race, incumbent Luis Rodriguez is angling to defend the seat he won in 2021^[28] as part of Bovo’s slate. He’s since ascended to the panel’s presidency.

Rodriguez, 52, says that if re-elected, he’ll fight tax and fee increases, improve neighborhood safety and police support, increase funding for parks and recreation youth service, and “provide reliable government services for residents.”

He works by day as a sales director at Auto Value Parts Stores^[29], a job he describes on his campaign website^[30] as being the “operations manager for a Fortune 350 company.”

In August, Rodriguez filed for bankruptcy^[31], citing more than $102,000 in personal debt from credit cards, loans and living expenses. He insisted that his financial troubles are private and unrelated to his city duties.

His challenger, 45-year-old lawyer Abdel Jimenez, is a former Miami Springs Police officer and a former member of the Hialeah Planning and Zoning Board. He unsuccessfully ran for the Council in 2021.

Jimenez told the Herald that if he wins Nov. 4, he plans to prioritize passing fair legislation, improving Hialeah’s permitting process, lowering utility fees and having the city take over its trash collection program rather than outsource it to private operators.