Patrick Fiore is running for the Palmetto Bay Village Council District 1 seat that will be vacated by Ed Feller, MD. Fiore has been a resident of South Florida for more than 20 years and he and his family have lived in Palmetto Bay since May 2007.
“I’ve always been active in my community,” Fiore said. “We moved to Palmetto Bay three years ago because we like the quality of life here. I want to help that continue.”
Fiore’s wife, Judi, is a teacher with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Their daughter, Alixandria, 16, will be a senior at Coral Reef High School in the fall and their son, Gian, 13, will be in ninth grade there.
Currently working as an operations and consultant manager with the State of Florida, Fiore has over 35 years experience in the social service/child welfare and investigations fields in both Pennsylvania and Florida.
His community service includes being president of Adagio at the Hammocks Homeowners Association and a board member; chair of the Hammocks Election Committee; a member of West Kendall Community Council, originally appointed by Commissioner Joe Martinez in 2000 and elected outright in August 2004; active in Citizens Crime Watch in the West Kendall area and Howard Drive sub-district neighborhood; Hammocks Optimist Club program coach and assistant coach from 1998 until 2005 in the soccer and baseball programs, and youth football coach South Dade YMCA2009; participated in various charitable events in the Miami area, including the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
Fiore said he believes that his background and skills would assist him on the council.
“I think my ability to communicate with people is a great asset, especially in a diverse area like Dade County,” Fiore said. “I speak Spanish and a little Creole. In walking around the village campaigning I have met all kinds of people. People-to-people contact is the best kind of campaigning, and the best way for me to get to know as many residents as possible and for them to get to know me.”
He said that, if elected, he has a number of clear-cut goals in representing the village.
“I’d like to see some form of tax relief for our residents, since the village no longer has to pay the mitigation money,” Fiore said. “That was the homeowners’ money and I would support a partial tax credit for the homeowners so we can keep our local taxes as low as possible. I’d also like to see greater access to the water for our residents for things like fishing and kayaking or just strolling along the bay.
“We call ourselves Palmetto Bay, but there are only a few places where we can actually get to the water. If we can increase access while still safeguarding the protected areas and wetlands, I think that would be good. Another important goal is ensuring that we have an austere budget. We’re going to have to do more with less, because the revenues are just not going to come in.”
According to Fiore, some of the basic needs are still the same but even more important these days.
“I think that we need to bring jobs here,” Fiore said. “We need to bring businesses to Palmetto Bay, especially in the US1 corridor. We need to give them some kind of tax break incentive to relocate here, and maybe one for hiring Palmetto Bay residents. We have a lot of empty buildings on US1 on the Palmetto Bay side. We also need to concentrate on day-to-day issues.
“What I’m hearing from people are their concerns about roads, about drivers speeding through the village, and about traffic lights that need to be synchronized better. We need to work with our county and state partners to address a lot of these traffic concerns.”
He also wants to improve quality of life issues for the village — maintain services, parks, recreation, police and fire rescue, and he supports enhanced programs for senior citizens.
He would sponsor a “day with your councilman” once a month, where residents can sign up and ride with their councilmember and village manager to view first hand problems on site.
For more information about his campaign, call him at 786-200-9344, send an email to info@PatrickForPalmettoBay.com or visit his website at www.patrickforpalmettobay.com.
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