Don Slesnick, a former Coral Gables mayor, was appointed by Eric J. Baron, president of Florida State University, to the board of directors of the LeRoy Collins Institute. The board includes current and former elected officials, educators and citizen activists from across Florida. “I am pleased to be given the opportunity to serve alongside such distinguished board members,” Slesnick said.
The Institute is a non-profit organization affiliated with the State University System of Florida, located in Tallahassee at Florida State University, which performs research studies about key government issues and policies affecting all Floridians.
Years in the Making: Florida’s Underfunded Municipal Pension Plans is the Institute’s most recent publication. Its findings outline why Florida’s public employee pensions are under-funded and how cities must make strides to resolve this situation.
The non-partisan reports generated by the Institute are distributed to legislators, local officials, educational institutions, the public and the media in order to promote responsible law-making practices.
After having finished his fourth term as mayor in 2011, Slesnick vowed to stay involved in public policy debates at state and local levels — issues affecting Florida’s quality of life. Since then, he has been elected to several boards that rely on his knowledge and expertise.
Don Slesnick served as mayor of Coral Gables from 2001 to 2011. He also served as the 2009-10 president of the Florida League of Mayors. Slesnick continues as the managing partner for the law firm of Slesnick & Casey. He has been in private practice since 1976, representing public sector employee organizations. Prior to that he held management positions with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Miami-Dade County Police Department. Slesnick received a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, a JD from the University of Florida and a MPA from Florida International University. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985; is a Florida Bar Board Certified Specialist in Labor & Employment Relations and a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers and a member of the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators.
Slesnick is a Vietnam veteran and a former U.S. Army advisor to NATO forces in Germany. He retired from the Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel, and now serves the Chief of the Army Reserve as one of his “Ambassadors.”
He has been active in numerous civic and business organizations which include the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee and served two terms as chair of the Coral Gables Community Foundation. He was founding chair of “Team Miami” which led the efforts to relocate U.S. Southern Command to Miami and to save Homestead Air Reserve Base after its destruction by Hurricane Andrew.
