City of Doral has a new City Manager

DORAL, FL – Rey Valdes is the new City Manager for the City of Doral after appointed at a special council meeting on Monday with a 3-2 vote. He will be replacing former Interim City Manager, Kathie Brooks.  

Council members Digna Cabral, Maureen Porras and Vice Mayor Oscar Puig-Corve voted in favor of hiring Valdes, while Mayor Christi Fraga and Councilman Rafael Pineyro voted against it.

From 2018 to 2022, Rey Valdes served as a Public Information Officer for Doral’s Police Department, later as a special assistant to the City Manager and lastly as a Deputy City Manager under the leadership of previous City of Doral Mayor, Juan Carlos Bermudez. He resigned from that position in December 2022. 

The vacancy for City Manager opened on Jan.31, 2024, when the then City Manager, Barbara Hernandez, was removed from her position at a council meeting for a majority of votes in what turned in a very moving meeting where many residents reached to the podium in the public comments section to express their disapproval of letting her go before the decision was taken. 

Right after, Deputy City Manager, Francisco J. Rios, filled the position, followed by Interim City Manager, Kathie Brooks that was elected on Feb. 20 during an emergency special council meeting. 

Rey Valdes, a retired major from the Miami-Dade Police Department who worked for the agency for 33 years, including in the narcotics bureau and homicide division, will have an initial annual salary of $245,000, and the transition period for the position will last one week, until June 12, when Doral’s next regular monthly meeting is scheduled.