David Soderholm is running for Palmetto Bay Council District 3.
Soderholm is married to his wife, Kimberly Soderholm, and has a daughter, Rebecca, and two step sons, Alex and Anthony Morales. He graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High in 1978, from Appalachian State University in 1982, and has been a teacher and coach from 1982 until present.
All candidates were asked the following questions:
Q. If elected, what would you do in the first 100 days?
A. “If I’m honored in being elected, I will bring civility and teamwork back to our council. We must work together in representing our great community and face and resolve all our challenges — traffic, overuse of parks, development, and many other issues.
These can only be solved working together and not through mudslinging, fear and fake comments. We all should focus on improving our quality of life, our schools and our community, and we must do this representing our residents with dignity.”
Q. What motivated you to run for office?
A. “This is a unique community that faces great challenges in the days to come — traffic, parks, community center, development, financial solvency, events for our residents, drainage, increasing insurance rates, safety of our schools, all important issues that must have a plan in place to be able to help our community become better. Some of these issues are not totally in our control, however we cannot simply stop asking for what is right for our village and continue fighting foolish litigation. Our committee’s voices must be heard and acknowledged by the council, but we also must listen to our residents. Teachers develop a yearly plan for their classrooms; council members should also lay out expectations for each year prior to the budget and expect staff to follow through with the annual vision for the betterment of our village.”
Q. Why do you think you would be the best candidate for the position?
A. “I am lucky to have grown up in this community, attended the area schools, played in our parks and now teach and coached your children at Palmetto High School. I have given my time to our community by being a coach, working with the Homestead Race Track, the Orange Bowl Committee, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. With these, I’ve learned that to accomplish goals takes dialogue and teamwork. These experiences are what I bring to the table to build a unified council that works together. I pledge to the residents an open, honest, ethical dialogue as an elected official and will dedicate my time and energy to making this an even greater place to live.”
— Gary Alan Ruse
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