Jose Regalado resigns city job to run for Miami commissioner in District 4

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It’s in their DNA.

Jose Regalado, the son of former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, who is now the Miami-Dade property appraiser, and brother of Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a former school board member, resigned from his job as the assistant building director with the city of Miami Monday to run for commission in District 4, where there is a vacancy created by the death of Manolo Reyes. On Tuesday, Jose Regalado filed his candidate’s oath and campaign account information.

There will be a special election June 3.

“This decision was not made lightly,” Regalado wrote to City Manager Art Noriega. “I had hoped to continue contributing to the work ahead, but sometimes the call to serve takes a different form than expected. After thoughtful reflection, I’ve decided to pursue the opportunity to serve the city in a different capacity by seeking the vacant commission seat in District 4.”

Regalado, 40, told Political Cortadito that he was encouraged to run by Selva “Chacha” Reyes, the late commissioner’s widow, who called him Saturday. He went to their house on Easter Sunday, and they talked for hours, he said.

“She said, ‘You’re the only person who can fill his shoes,'” said Regalado, who started his government career in Reyes’ office. “It felt like the right thing to do.”

Read related: Miami voters to fill Manolo Reyes’ District 4 seat with June special election

Up to now, everyone had said that Rafael Cabrera was the heir apparent and Reyes’ choice for his successor. But las malas lenguas say he may not have a year of residency in the district. He would have in November, but not for a special election in June. The special election in District 4 already has another candidate, Ralph Rosado, who has been campaigning for this for years. Another candidate, Antonio “Tony” Diaz — who intended to run in 2019 but did not qualify to support Reyes — also filed an oath and account information Tuesday afternoon.

Rosado is the preferred candidate of Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is said to be running for mayor and who reportedly blew a gasket when he learned that Jose Regalado would run. His older brother Tomas N. “Tommy” Regalado, ran for commission in District 3 in 2017, against Carollo. He came in fourth with 15.5% of the vote (behind Carollo, Alfie Leon and Zoraida Barreiro) in a crowded field.

How does Jose know he’ll do any better than his brother? Well, for starters, that was District 3. District 4 is where his dad, the very popular former mayor who just won a countywide race, started his political career as commissioner in 1996. It’s Regalado Country.

Jose Regalado was born and raised in District 4 and steeped in Miami politics his whole life. He was an underwater ocean photographer before he decided to become a public servant, but he always worked on his father’s and sister’s campaigns. He was hired as chief policy advisor for District 4 in 2017, just as Reyes was elected. He stayed there for almost two years before he became the chief of staff to the deputy city manager in 2019. After five months, he became the assistant to the city manager, where he coordinated the mobile COVID-19 vaccination program for elderly, homebound residents and co-created the COVID-19 restaurant recovery program. In 2021, he became assistant building director.

He knows the city code by heart. He has written legislation. He helped manage a department with 400 employees and a $44 million budget, creating the first “resilience team” and a process to hold developers accountable for their damages.

“When I chose to enter public service, it was with the clear intention of contributing to the community that shaped me,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “I came to local government because I believe it’s where the most immediate and lasting impact can be made, where decisions affect people’s daily lives in real time, and where trust is built or broken not with rhetoric, but with action.”

Read related: Miami remembers Manolo Reyes while Joe Carollo kicks off mayoral campaign

His resignation is effective immediately, but Regalado offered to hang out as long as needed for a smooth transition. He filed is candidate’s oath and campaign account information on Tuesday.

Regalado’s salary at the city in 2023 was $152,417 a year. As a city commissioner, he will be paid a salary of about $58,000, but with added benefits like car and cell phone allowances it gets closer to $100K. It’s still a deep pay cut. But Regalado told Ladra Tuesday that he still lives in the house he grew up in and has driven the same truck for 10 years. He also said he plans on being a full time commissioner. And he plans to stick to the Reyes playbook.

“Manolo was not able to finish everything,” Regalado said, referring to capital improvement projects that are still underway or in the planning stages. He aims to finish them for the late commissioner. The youngest of the Regalado clan says he has learned from both Reyes and his father. He plans on being a “pothole commissioner,” like they both were.

“Manolo was big on service, values, integrity,” he said. “He never forgot about the little person, the residents who came in, who are frustrated. That’s core to who I am.”

But he is also focused on the big picture. Regalado’s issue is climate change. He was co-chair of the city’s Sea Level Rise Committee and sits on the national board of state floodplain managers, which promotes and ensures sound land use development in floodplain areas to promote public health and safety, minimize loss of life and property, and reduce economic losses caused by flood damages.

“Everything we are doing now with urban planning policy is not enough,” Regalado told Political Cortadito. “We need to be looking 50 years from now. We need to plan the future and still be able to address the concerns of today and fix things today.”

Step one: Run for city commission.

  Jose Regalado, Manolo Reyes, Ralph Rosado