UPDATED: Faced with a future opening on the town council, Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid didn’t look at past councilmembers or candidates. He looked to the audience in commission chambers.
Cid intends to name Marilyn Ruano to fill the seat that will be left open after the July 25th meeting, the last for 
Councilman Tony Lama, who took a job with Amazon and is moving to Seattle to pursue a dream and try to make the world a better place for all of us.
Ruano is an accountant with a family business in Miami Lakes and a former PTA board member and current homeowners association president. She has also been a regular attendee of council meetings for the past 10 years. Which means she has stamina.
“That was very important to me,” Cid told Ladra late Friday, about her attendance to the town meetings, when he placed the item on the agenda for the next meeting Tuesday. “And it would be good to have an accountant on the council.”
Ya think?
Read related story: Miami Lakes: Tony Lama takes Amazon job — in Seattle
The town charter gives Cid 30 days from the day of Lama’s resignation, which will likely be July 26, to make a nomination the council must then approve. He can’t name her on Tuesday, because Lama has yet to resign. But he wanted to report his intent to name Ruano and set a special meeting date to consider the resignation effective date so that he can make the nomination.
“Expressing my intention to nominate in advance allows the public the opportunity to meet the nominee in a transparent fashion,” Cid wrote in his memo to the vice mayor and council members. “Mrs. Ruano understands firsthand the importance of being an independent voice working for all Miami Lakers. Mrs. Ruano possesses incredible strength and the heart of a public servant.”
Also, fyi, if a nomination isn’t confirmed within 90 days, they have to have a special election. Which they could force if they want someone else. But it would cost the city “an arm and a leg,” Cid said. A pretty penny for their size town. Lama’s term ends in 202, but if confirmed, Ruano would serve until the next regularly scheduled election which is the countywide election in August 2018.
Cid’s item memo has Ruano’s bio attached, which shows she has been president of the Royal Palm Estates HOA since 2013 and was active long before that in her sons school and the Miami-Dade School Board committees. She also serves as vice chair of the Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board. Cid appointed her to it in 2014.
The mayor said he had been approached by a few residents and that some people had openly advocated for someone else. “But the good thing about Miami Lakes is we have deep talent pool,” Cid said. “There are dozens of people who are more than qualified. I just felt that the fact that she had been to every meeting for the last 10 years and that she was president of her HOA was something that was important to me.”
But Ladra can’t help but wonder if the mayor is trying to give her a leg up in the 2018 elections, for which Ruano had already filed paperwork in April. Lama told Ladra that he and Cid had been urging her for months to run for office.
And positions her as an incumbent when she does run.
According to some well-informed sources, including a fellow gadfly, she is a good addition to the council with no agenda other than 
whatever is best for the town and residents of Miami Lakes.
“Securing funding for tutoring, classes and much needed educational programs at our local area schools, and promoting and encouraging a love of reading at an early age has made this a very fulfilling experience,” says her bio, which seems specifically tailor written for the council’s consideration of her nomination. “With over a decade of community service, including regular attendance at Town Council meetings, I have voiced my concerns on matters affecting the future of Miami Lakes. I look forward to serving my community for many years. The past 10 years have been very rewarding and I know, in my heart, that the best is yet to come.”
In an email responding to questions, Ruano said she was concerned about the traffic jams that might come from the American Dream megamall planned just north of the town and wants to see the traffic study before she takes a position. She also said she was also waiting on the traffic study to opine on the opening of the 170th Street bridge, but her answer seems to indicate she expects it will not alleviate traffic for Miami Lakes, only make it worse. She is adamantly opposed to opening the 154th Street bridge.
She plans to concentrate on maintaining the quality of life that the town enjoys. “Our residents deserve leadership that listens to their concerns and does everything in their power to preserve the small town feel that initially drew us all to this beautiful town,” Ruano wrote.
And she has her predecessor’s blessing.
“I gave him my thumbs up,” said Tony Lama. And no, it doesn’t look like a Sunshine Law violation for them to have discussed it because Lama will be gone and will not vote on his replacement.
“She’s been an active member of our community for quite some time. She is vocal but fair. Even with individuals she was not in line with, she’s always been very respectful,” Lama said. “And I agreed 100 percent that it would be nice to have a woman on the council.”
That’s one thing she’s got going for her. The other thing is that she was an early critic of former Mayor Michael Pizzi — which means she’s smart.
Miami Lakes: HOA pres picked to replace Tony Lama added by Ladra on
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