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The first thing you notice when you talk to Jose Regalado is that he is a man of two worlds – the Miami of the past and the Miami of the future. Like his father, he’s a small government Republican who deeply believes that you make a difference in resident’s lives by efficiently delivering the basic services they need for their families – public safety, streets and sidewalks, parks, flood control, a city that works for them.
That philosophy led him to build a close relationship with his old boss – former Commissioner Manolo Reyes – where Regalado served as chief policy advisor for several years before being recruited by the city administration for roles that included assistant to the city manager and assistant director of the building department.
In a city too often caught up in political scandals and infighting, Reyes emerged as a great example of the kind of old-school public service we all want. Regalado learned from the best how to work closely with residents to solve real issues, from safer streets to better services for seniors.
So when Reyes’ widow Selva “Chacha” Reyes personally asked Regalado to consider running to replace her late husband, he was deeply honored by the unexpected request. He knew that it was her heart-felt way of continuing her late husband’s legacy of residents-first public service.
“Working with and learning from Manolo was like returning to the Miami of my childhood,” Regalado says. “He insisted on doing right by residents. But he was also always open to new ideas about how to best serve them.”
Regalado is also a big-picture thinker enamoured of good public policy and planning for the future. Famously, he is the one who convinced his father, then Mayor of the city, to champion sea level rise as an emerging threat. That advocacy led to the successful passage of the Miami Forever Bond, to help the city address flooding issues and other infrastructure needs.
In Reyes’ office, he crafted policies aimed at increasing affordable housing, protecting the elderly and removing bureaucratic red tape for residents and businesses. As an administrator, Regalado was a key figure in the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinating restaurant recovery programs and vaccine and meal delivery programs for elderly residents. He also coordinated many of the city’s internal resilience functions, modernized building department operations and building safety procedures, and expanded programs that supported homeowners and fast-tracked affordable housing.
The combination of deep commitment to Miami and hands-on knowledge of how city government operates makes Jose Francisco Regalado the top choice for District 4 City Commission.
His plan to help Miami meet its future successfully while honoring its past is exactly what residents need now.
If we needed any other incentive, his opponent Ralph Rosado’s reported alliance with scandal-plagued Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is another reason to endorse an independent voice on the city commission.
Early voting is May 30-31, and June 1st. The election is June 3rd.
Jose Regalado’s ballot number is 90.
