Candidates for Doral Council Seat # 2 Present Their Qualifications and Projects
By: María Alejandra Pulgar
@marialepulgar – NAHJ #37172
The following candidates registered and qualified: Pete Cabrera (Incumbent), Liliana Campa, José Manuel Lorenzo and Carlos Pereira
Pete Cabrera
Incumbent Pete Cabrera has been a resident of Doral for 30 years and for more than half that time he has been involved in the community. He moved here with his family when his two children were very young and says “they were one of the main reasons why I got involved in public service”. The lack of parks, schools or community activities in the area prompted Cabrera to take an active role in finding ways to solve those issues.
His lengthy experience in public service gives him “a deep understanding of all aspects of government including budget, zoning, building codes, general city codes, parks and community programming, jurisdictional boundaries, and legal limitations. Possibly most important I know the channels to help not only solve issues but be pro-active in improving the quality of life for our community.”
As a man who places family at the highest place in his priorities, Cabrera appreciates that Doral residents are very family-oriented, a testament of their character and values. He values the diversity in cultures present in the city. “We have all learned to be enriched by this diversity. I am truly honored to have the opportunity to represent the residents and all the businesses we have in our City.”
Before becoming a Councilmember in the Founding City of Doral Council, where he served until 2011, Cabrera was Vice-President of “One Doral” a community based organization that helped in the incorporation process. He participated on many committees in the County representing Doral where they work on school boundaries and Council liaison for the creation of the Doral Police Department. As a devout Catholic, Cabrera is a founding member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and was its first registered parishioner.
Priorities and projects
He was elected back to the City Council in 2014. As member of the current Council, Cabrera participated in the Strategic Planning sessions that determined the priorities for next year and considers that his highest priority would be everything involving youth and families. He wants to “continue to focus on our communities overall quality of life that includes traffic, safety, quality jobs in the area, parks, recreation, culture, performing arts, family events.” He also wants to do more initiatives for families with special needs.
For him, to continue keeping Doral as one of the Best Places to live in America it will require “knowledge and experience to help ensure its success” when working with the County on creative “ideas to solve the regional issue of traffic.” Also, he wants to continue working on guidelines to help with smart growth of the city; continue focusing on school and community safety, and also working with a Task Force that has been created to find sources of the odors that affect parts of the city.
What would you like to be your legacy?
“Public Service has been a tremendous sacrifice, time away from my family and business, loss of production in my business, tolerating false accusations but I would not think twice one moment from doing it again. I am truly honored that the residents of Doral have elected me to represent them. Those who know me know that I am not about making promises to try to be popular or about getting credit or glory; they know that I am about action and results for our community. I actually am not really concerned about leaving a legacy, I am more concerned about looking at myself in the mirror and knowing that I served this community with integrity and hard work always doing what I thought was in the best interest of this amazing City”.
Liliana Campa
Liliana Campa has lived in Doral since 2010 with her husband and two sons. She owns and manages a healthy lifestyle restaurant.
Her knowledge of the operation of the City comes from her first-hand interaction with multiple departments of the city during the process of opening her two business locations in Doral, and her participation in numerous social and cultural events.
As a resident, Campa has “closely and quietly observed the council meetings and workshops” taking advantage of “them being aired on channel 77 and available for view online… “I have always taken an interest in the decisions being taken by our city government not only because of their direct impact on my daily quality of life but on my business.”
One of her reasons to run for office is the “opportunity to offer more support and emphasis on culture, social and family events.” She considers that participating on “city boards, particularly the parks and recreation board would have been a wonderful opportunity” although she had never been asked or appointed to serve. “I decided I would be more involved in our city earlier this year when I realized how frustrating it is to continue to see deficiencies in the cities administration with no solutions in sight, not only as a business owner but as a resident.”
Campa considers that her “daily dealings with governmental departments” and her experience as entrepreneur and beauty pageant participant “has prepared and allowed me to meet many insertional people who have shaped the person I have become […] I’ve learned that we should to take a more active and vocal role in government.”
As a council member she would focus “on improving our sense of pride for our city and multiple cultures, however, I believe this is due to a lack of positive reinforcement campaigns to educate our multicultural population on the importance of participating in being socially responsible residents.”
Priorities and projects
One of her main concerns is that Doral is losing its family oriented, quiet small-town feeling and considers “overdevelopment has been one of the leading factors in creating this problem. So for me step one is changing the people that have gotten us here” and focusing on “delivering quality infrastructure and services for our growing population.”
To achieve that goal she plans to “Promote more citizen engagement, educational, and social opportunities. In the short term, this should help our citizens integrate more efficiently into our community.”
What would you like to be your legacy?
“I think like most public servants, I would want to leave a legacy of dedication to our city, positive changes, results, and long-term solutions for our city’s future.”
José Manuel Lorenzo
José Manuel Lorenzo has owned a house in Doral since 2005 but moved definitely to the US with his wife and children in 2011. He is a graduate in Computers Science and works as a marketing and business advisor with local and international clients.
Lorenzo completed the City of Doral Mayor’s Government Academy with the class of 2018 and regularly either attends or watches the council meetings to be informed of the decisions.
He has focused his social responsibility efforts participating on “civic organizations helping the Venezuelan Diaspora, creating strategy campaigns in social media to improve their communication.” Lorenzo created in Venezuela the campaign “Con mis hijos no te metas” (Do not mess with my children) to educate parents on how to prevent political indoctrination in their schools.
He decided to run for councilmember in Doral because he wants to use his talents to demonstrate “that Venezuelans have qualities to do better” in local government. Lorenzo wants to use his strengths to complement those of the current Council, especially “to develop a soul for this city and attract citizens to events which capture their attention to invest their time, allowing our businesses to grow in a sustainable way.”
He considers that “diversity, educational level, love for nature and outdoor activities, entrepreneurship and patience” are the best qualities of Doral residents, but that they have to improve on their “political involvement, language barriers, little respect for traffic rules, and poor involvement in social relations.”
Priorities and projects
Lorenzo considers the main issues in Doral to be “traffic, unorganized constructions, garbage smell and respect for traffic rules”. He believes that the use of technology will allow the City to “evaluate the impact that all projects have in the quality of our life with a special emphasis in those that impact traffic, give more priority to the residents of our city and check the balance of support for developers.”
If elected he wants to propose “ developing routes for relief of the commute, retaking the project of access to the turnpike from the 25th avenue, improving all the crossing stacks at traffic lights, limiting the circulation of trucks in peak hours in certain streets. It is not acceptable that the leaders of the city continue claiming that the issue with traffic is in all of South Florida. That does not justify that our internal problems with it aren’t being solved.”
What would you like to be your legacy?
Transform Doral into a city protagonist of the future.
Carlos Pereira
This is the third time Carlos Pereira runs for office. He ran for Florida House in 2014 representing the Democratic Party and for Doral Council in 2016. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and has worked as Television Commentator and Political Analyst.
He has lived in Doral since 2013 with his wife and daughter. Although he has not participated in the Doral Government Academy, he regularly attends council meetings and other activities.
He is the president of Venezuelan-American Democratic Club, Director, Special Projects for DEC Miami-Dade and Spanish Spokesperson for People Against Illegal Guns for the National Mayors Association.
Pereira ran for Seat 1 in 2016 because he “felt that the City of Doral needed a change in direction.” He lost in the first round with 18% of the votes and the seat was defined in runoff elections. In this opportunity, Pereira runs for seat 2 and has focused his campaign on his interest to support the art and culture in the City.
He has always strived to uphold the highest ethical standards possible in his community involvement, his profession and in his personal life, therefore part of his commitment as candidate for the City of Doral Council is to work for the accountability and transparency in the functioning of the city’s government.
He considers the residents of Doral are very “enterprising and innovative people. They bring to Doral the hopes and dreams, not unlike the ones that immigrants who came before them have brought to America. By the same token, they can also be easily misled because they don’t know the system.”
Priorities and projects
In his opinion the main issues Doral confront are “traffic, high rent (not enough affordable housing), environmental and air-quality issues, rising crime and overdevelopment and flooding”.
He also thinks that the priorities defined by the current council in the strategic plan are “all well and good as long as they are implemented with the consideration and respect that the citizens of Doral deserve.”
If elected he wants to “revive the arts and cultural scene by creating a cultural arts center in the City of Doral where the many talented Doral artists and art lovers can enjoy and come together. Nothing brings a community and its people together better than the international language of the art and music.”