The October meeting of the Doral Community Council was an extremely eventful one. Chairman Ralph Arza resigned with the completion of his two-year term, Mary Swofford was selected to fill his seat, while Jerry Howie was elected to be the new chairman, and Carolyn Casserta was picked to be the new vice-chair.

(Left to Right) Doral’s Leadership Attending the Community Council Meeting: Rolando Oses, WDFHA Secretary; Morgan Levy, WDFHA President; Jerry Howie, Community Council Chairman; Carolyn Casserta, Community Council Vice-Chair; Ralph Arza, Outgoing Chairman Community Council; Jesse Jones, WDFHA Vice President; Odel Torres, Community Council Member, WDFHA Vice President. 

After considering several candidates, the Council settled on Swofford, who had sought out several of the council members before the meeting to discuss the job. Arza, in particular, was impressed by her, and drew parallels between his own candidacy and hers.

(Left to Right) Outgoing Chairman Ralph Arza with new Chairman Jerry Howie

“I was introduced to Mary Swofford by Odel Torres and I was very impressed by her integrity,” said Arza. “When I first ran for the Community Council, I ran in ooposition to the WDFHA, largely because I didn’t know them, but also because I was concerned about one group becoming too empowered. It turns out I was wrong about them, and their support and guidance have been crucial to the success of this Council.”

Arza continued, “Right away she asked me, ‘Ralph, what commitment or freedom do I have to vote differently than the people that support me?’ That sort of independent thinking and strength would serve this Council well—she truly impressed me.”

Swofford was elected by a vote of four to one, with the other vote going to Tom Daley, who ran against her for the seat.

The Council, which was initially supposed to fill two seats at the meeting, voted earlier in the meeting to only elect one member now, and wait until the next meeting to elect the other by a four to one margin.

Jerry Howie, at that point still the vice-chair of the council, agreed with the proposal, which was set forth by Arza.

“We deal with some very complicated issues here, we need to expose these new members slowly,” said Howie.

Later on there was some sadness when Arza announced the end of his successful two-year stint as chairman. 

“I want to thank every member of this board—I really has been a fun ride. I’m going really miss working with you guys… We made some mistakes along the way, I made some mistakes along the way, but like I tell the young people I work with, it’s OK, because I learned from them, we learned from them,” said Arza.

Both WDFHA President Morgan Levy and Vice President Jesse Jones spoke of the tremendous job that Arza had done since being elected. Specifically, they described what a pleasure it had been to watch Arza’s “growth”, and “maturing process”, eventually shaping the Doral Community Council into Miami-Dade’s best.

Howie, who served alongside Arza as vice-chair, read aloud a letter that praised Arza’s accomplishments and well received by everyone in attendance. (It is printed in its entirety in this issue of the Tribune).

Just a few minutes later, Howie was elected chairman and Casserta as vice-chair by a unanimous vote.

Howie spoke briefly, lightening the mood by saying, “I am honored to be chosen by my peers to be the new chairman. It will be difficult to fill Ralph’s shoes—not because he had big feet but because he had big talent.”

The Council also decided to recommend to the Mayor, the County Commission, and County Manager a change in the structure of the Doral Community Council. In order to retain some continuity between boards, the Council wants to stagger elections so there will be experienced members on the board at all time to teach the new ones.

Initially, Arza proposed that the three on the original board, Casserta, Jose Cancio, Sr., and Howie, should stay on through 2002, and those seats should always be four-year terms.

However, Cancio announced that he would be retiring in 2000, so Arza suggested that Torres’ seat be moved to group one, since he had the next most tenure. Therefore, Cancio’s seat as well as Swofford’s, and the yet to be determined sixth seat, would comprise group two, which will face re-election every two years.

The seventh seat on the Council is appointed by Commisioner Miriam Alonso, and is not subject to the new proposal.

Th Council also incorporated into that same measure a proposal to separate the area into four different voting precincts, while retaining an open election.

The combined recommendation proposal passed by a four to one margin and will be forwarded to the County Commission.

Other business discussed included an update on the County Blasting Committee by Jones and Casserta volunteered to study the ingress and egress procedures at the Ryder School, which had drawn some criticism.

The Council also voted to commend the County Commission for their commitment to maintaining the South Florida Building code in the face of statewide pressure.

The December 16th meeting was cancelled as a result of trouble scheduling a facility, and will instead be re-scheduled for sometime in January.