Doral representatives advocated for the community in Dade Days
DORAL, FL – City of Doral Mayor Christi Fraga and other Doral representatives came back from a successful visit at Tallahassee’s Dade Days.
The two-day event— which in 2025 took place April 8 and 9— happens every year during the annual Florida Legislative Session and includes more than 1,000 people, representing over 200 organizations, making it the ideal platform to advocate for Doral’s needs and priorities.
This year, councilmembers Nicole Reinoso and Rafael Pineyro, as well as the City of Doral manager, Zeida Sardiñas, and the Chief of Doral’s Police Department, Edwin Lopez, joined Christi in the pursue of more resources that would benefit our community.
“It was important for us to be in Tallahassee at some point throughout the session, because it’s an opportunity to get in front of legislators that make decisions that impact our city, so we wanted to make sure we were lobbying for things that will benefit us, but also lobbying against things that don’t benefit us,” said Fraga in an interview with Doral Family Journal.
She also said the event proved to be useful for strengthening ties with the county. “We saw, you know, the county mayor, we saw the sheriff, we saw all of the local elected officials making their rounds. It was a great way to connect with everybody, share our thoughts, and work together to improve the quality of life of residents of Miami-Dade County.”
The first topic of interest—as it’s one of Doral’s first-line priorities— was public safety, for which the city asked about almost two million dollars in support of law enforcement.
Specifically, the aim is to find funding for a new mobile command post, drones and special technology for surveillance that allow the municipality to continue enhancing public safety, not just for residents and businesses, but also for dignitaries visits such as those of President Donald Trump.
“Doral is very much a place that has a lot of prominence to the government with a lot of sensitive facilities,” said Fraga. “We want to make sure we have cutting-edge and advanced technology and that costs money. We have the lowest millage rate in all of Miami-Dade County, so we do a lot with very little, and we ask the state for some support if possible.”
On this matter, one of the main goals is to build a new police headquarters that would be a full campus for law enforcement and public safety. For that, the city met with the Department of Environmental Protection as they own the land where the police substation is to extend the lease.
In addition, the Doral commission in Tallahassee asked for the TDT (Tourist Development Tax) to be considered within the tax reform package that the state is exploring, which would help create reoccurring revenue in perpetuity for the city from tourism— something that is not happening right now.
Dade Days, a key event in the fight against the incinerator
Among all the topic discussed during the two-day event, perhaps one of the most relevant ones was related with the controversial incinerator as city representatives met with all the legislators that are carrying the bill about it.
The conversation between the city and the state on this matter started two years ago— right after the incinerator burned down— when Mayor Fraga invited senator Bryan Avila and state house representative David Borrero to witness how close residents were to the facility.
“One of the things I asked them was to study passing legislation, so that no future facilities— of this kind— could be built within one mile radius of residents, and they did that. This year they proposed legislation that would prohibit the development or redevelopment of these types of facilities near residential areas.”
Under this purpose, one of the legislators they met with was Meg Weinberger, who is also carrying the bill at the house. “We are very, very confident that it’s making good progress, and that we could potentially see that bill be signed into law,” Fraga sentenced.
She also mentioned Governor DeSantis was able to see firsthand how close the incinerator is to residential properties in Doral last week when he was playing golf. “If it passes the House and the Senate— the bill— we should have a bill signed into law that would not allow for the facility to come back to Doral.”
For now, all hopes lie in the governor as he gets ready to sign the budget and the legislation that would represent a win for Doral, typically before June.
“We’re very lucky right now that the speaker of the house is a Miami-Dade County guy— Daniel Perez. He has represented Miami-Dade and South Florida for six years now, and we’re hoping that he will make sure we get the funding that we need as a county and as municipality to continue to have what we need to provide services to our residents.”
“Everybody’s always fighting for their area, but I do believe we have a lot of champions right now in Tallahassee, regardless of the differences we could have sometimes. I think it was a successful visit and that we’re going to get the things we asked for,” Fraga concluded.
Photo by @christifraga