Endorsements, debt and old arrests: Hialeah Council candidates sprint to Nov. 16 runoff

Hialeah voters anointed a new mayor on Nov. 2, but they’re already voting again as two races that will determine the fate of a new-look city council remain undecided.

The two council seats are heading to a Nov. 16 runoff after candidates in the city’s Group VI and Group VII campaigns failed to garner 50% of the vote in last week’s election. In the race to claim Hialeah’s Group VI council seat, Bryan Calvo and Angelica Pacheco are facing off after Pacheco received 29.49% of the vote and Calvo received 28.29% during the first round of voting. In Group VII, the candidates are Luis Rodriguez, who received 42.35% of the vote, and Maylin Villalonga, who received 19.7%.

The winners of the races will fill spots on the city’s seven-member council and influence how new Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo’s agenda is received. The council, which votes on legislation and decides how tax dollars will be used in the majority-Cuban city of about 230,000 people, is expected to have another opening soon after Bovo’s stepson, Oscar De la Rosa, said he would resign to avoid a potential conflict with his stepfather.

About 26,000 mail ballots requested by Hialeah voters were placed in the mail on Monday, according to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections. But expectations are that 10,000 or fewer voters will participate in the second round of voting.

The Group VI Race

The biggest wildcard on the Nov. 16 ballot is the contest between Calvo and Pacheco, who were separated by little more than 1 percentage point after votes were cast in the first round.

At 23 years old, Calvo is over a decade younger than any other candidate.

“There’s a feeling out there that in government people want fresh faces,” Calvo said. “They want young people to take the reins … and public service has been in my heart sense I was a little kid.”

Calvo grew up in Hialeah and then went to Harvard to study political science. Upon graduating he returned to Hialeah, married his high school girlfriend and is now in his third year of law school at Florida International University.

His goals if elected are focused on living costs.

“Our city is growing … we need to make sure we can keep rent prices down, that is a number-one priority,” he said. Additionally, he wants to reduce water costs. “Whatever we can do to alleviate water costs, especially to those elderly residents that are on a fixed pension, I think is much needed.”

His opponent Pacheco, 38, is a small business owner, a married mother of five and a registered nurse. She also hopes to alleviate water costs, provide increased police pay and streamline the process for small business registrations.

“Right now the process for obtaining a permit or business license can be difficult,” she said. “A lot of people who want to start a business in Hialeah don’t have any experience so they need guidance. I want to focus on making that process a lot easier.”

Among the small businesses associated with Pacheco and her husband, Daniel Pacheco, are a rehabilitation center and farm stores. During the pandemic, four of their businesses received over $500,000 combined in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, which she says she used to pay her employees and keep her businesses afloat. Although the couple has donated or loaned more than $17,000 to her campaign, she said the money came from her savings.

“Because of that money we were able to keep our business open,” she said. “That money saved our business and I am very thankful for that.”

Pacheco has spent the last few days explaining the loans to reporters, and discussing several arrests after the blog Political Cortadito first reported them.

In 2004, at the age of 17, she was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count each of battery and criminal mischief in what police described as a domestic incident. She pleaded no contest to four counts and received six months probation. Pacheco says her stepfather at the time had locked her mom inside the house and she had an altercation with him. She says her stepfather abused her and her mother for years.

In 2011, she was charged again, this time in Miami-Dade County, with one felony count of child abuse without harm. She says her son reported a teacher that had spanked him. When she refused to speak to the police officer, she says, police arrested her. She pleaded not guilty and prosecutors dropped the charge.

During this same time period, from 2002 to 2012, Pacheco received dozens of traffic citations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties for alleged infractions such as knowingly driving with a suspended license, driving without insurance and speeding. Several citations were criminal in nature. She says these problems stemmed from being a young mother in an abusive relationship.

“I lived with a man who beat me and my children,” she said. Pacheco says she worked 70 hours a week to support him and her children. “I had three accidents where I fell asleep behind the wheel ... I am just thankful to God I didn’t die in a car accident. It was the darkest days of my life.”

When she was 20, she left her abusive partner. One month later, she says, she met her current husband. They have now been married for 14 years and have a child together.

“I have never pretended to have a perfect life,” Pacheco said. “I know what it is like to work hard, to be a survivor, to raise a family, to have a job and to pay bills. That is what has prepared me to serve the people of Hialeah.”

Bovo is not expected to endorse in the race. But the scrutiny of Pacheco’s record, which some blame on her political opponents, has driven at least one prominent official — Miami-Dade GOP Chairman and Hialeah-area County Commissioner Rene Garcia — to support her.

“I was thinking of staying neutral until I saw these frivolous attacks on her personal character,” Garcia told the Miami Herald on Tuesday. “She’s a woman who has had a hard life, and they’re using that her against her.”

The Group VII Race

After finishing neck-and-neck on Nov. 2, Calvo and Pacheco will be fighting for support among a smaller group of voters now that they’re head-to-head. The same is true in the city’s Group VII race, which features, Rodriguez and Villalonga, two longtime Hialeah residents who have similar messaging.

Rodriguez, 48, a married father of two, is the son of Cuban immigrants and a commercial sales manager for Advanced Auto Parts, he grew up in Hialeah and attended public school. When he moved back to Hialeah in 2016 he noticed a change in the city’s parks.

“I grew up in the parks … but when I moved back, I didn’t see much activity,” he said.

Rodriguez spent his evenings after school playing sports in city parks. He said he hopes to make the parks a place where kids will return.

He said he has also noticed high turnover within the city’s police department.

“A lot of our police officers are leaving and going somewhere else,” Rodriguez said. Although unsure of the cause of turnover, he hopes to reduce it if appointed.

Rodriguez, like Pacheco, is endorsed by Garcia, a longtime friend and his wife’s coworker.

His opponent, Villalonga, has lived in Hialeah since she immigrated from Cuba 23 years ago. A 38-year-old married mother of three, she earned her associate degree from Miami-Dade College and works in banking. She currently owes $20,522.62 on a Chase credit card, but is currently working with a lawyer and negotiating a settlement.

She too is concerned about the police officer turnover rate.

“A lot of cops start in Hialeah but move to other cities,” she said echoing Rodriguez’s observations. “I am here to support the local law enforcement … I want to get people to stay here in Hialeah.”

She is also concerned about the city’s parks, which she says have been “abandoned” because they aren’t safe anymore.

“I have seen a surge in crime … It’s not safe for a family to go to the park anymore,” she said.

Villalonga wants to bring more “surveillance” to the parks and make them a safer place for families to go. She wants to couple this with providing more funding for youth extracurricular activities. “I want to have places for kids to go and interact with other children …not just being at home with video games.”

Miami Herald researcher Monika Leal contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 5:47 PM.