Three members of the Miami Lakes town council said farewell to the public during their final meeting in October.
Mayor Manny Cid and Council members Luis Collazo and Marilyn Ruano termed out of office on Nov. 5.
Cid served the longest, beginning in 2012 when he was elected councilman. He was vice mayor in 2013, was elected mayor in 2016 and ran without opposition in 2020.
Collazo, a social worker who works in health care, was elected in 2016, won without opposition in 2020 and served one year as vice mayor.
Ruano, an accountant with her own firm, was appointed to the council in 2017 to serve out the term of former Vice Mayor Tony Lama. She was unopposed when she was reelected in 2018 and retained her council seat in the 2020 election.
Collazo and Ruano both volunteered before running for public office: Collazo on the Elderly Affairs Committee and Ruano on the Education Advisory Board.
Cid, who is a partner in a restaurant, did not make himself available for an interview.
As mayor, he oversaw innumerable ribbon cuttings for businesses and was often photographed getting the health or other services that were offered by the new firms.
For several years Cid has hosted The Mayor’s Gala, a fundraiser that supported activities of the Special Needs Advisory Board.
He had a mobile office and kept office hours on two Saturdays each month to meet with residents at Town Hall.
Cid pushed to enable remote public comments and Zoom access for the public during council meetings, which increased transparency. He also expanded the use of social media to reach constituents on platforms
such as X, Instagram and Facebook.
As his term as mayor was drawing to a close, Cid was one of six Republican men who this year ran against Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who retained her office.
He also applied for the deputy town administrator job in Southwest Ranches.
“The proudest thing of all is leaving the town in better hands,” Cid said during the Oct. 29 council meeting.
In separate interviews, Collazo and Ruano shared some thoughts about their years in public office.
Q: What’s your favorite memory of being on the council?
“I think Manny [Cid] said it. You remember moments … but there is one thing in particular, I said it in my farewell address,” Collazo said. “The ribbon cutting for the [T-ball] park we did for the little kids. It was just not so much of the personal connection with [my son] Cody but the legacy that you leave behind, that kids are going to continue to benefit.”
“My absolute favorite memory on the council was when Luis Collazo referred to me as Wilson from the movie “Castaway,” Ruano said. “That is one of those things I treasure. Because Luis said he was on an island by himself, he was the new kid on the block. And when I got there, I was the new kid on the block and he was like, ‘You know what? You’re my Wilson.’”
Q: What’s your greatest accomplishment?
“I really believe the work we have done to replenish the sinking fund that from a legislative perspective is the gift that will keep on giving to future councils,” Collazo said. “A lot of good things have come from that.”
“I would say my greatest accomplishment is the creation of the Special Needs Advisory Board,” Ruano said. “That was my goal when I came onboard as an elected official, to advocate for individuals on the spectrum and who had neurological disabilities. I felt like they were the forgotten members of our community. I’d been working with the Hope for Autism team for many, many, years and realized the importance of what happens to these individuals after they age out of high school. … once they turn 22 they age out of the system … and there wasn’t anything that the community was offering them. I think that the progress we have made in that particular area has been so great.”
Q: What is next for you?
“I think in some way, shape or form, we’re going to stay involved whether it’s supporting the community or giving back in different ways,” Collazo said. “You don’t just turn that off. I don’t know what it’s going to look like but it’s never going to go away.”
“I will go back to focusing on my office my job,” Ruano said. “My work suffers a little bit during this time because you’re not 100% in your professional capacity at work.
“Everybody has to cut you some slack to get things done, you’re juggling so much,” she said. “I will go back to giving back to my clients 100% of me, and they’re going to be very happy with that. [But] I’ll never take a break serving. For sure, you’ll see me in the community. There’s a couple of committees that are recruiting me. I’ll definitely join a committee, and you’ll see me in the chambers again because the chambers feel like home. I never want to be a council member that doesn’t come back.”
Q: What is your message to Miami Lakers?
“I just wanted to thank the community for a great, great eight years,” Collazo said. “Everybody is saying thank you for your service, but I’m the one that’s grateful because they gave me an opportunity to serve.”
“All I can say is thank you, because they were entrusting me with their community … their greatest asset,” Ruano said. “So, I feel like I was very blessed. The friendships I have made along the way, with so many beautiful people, I get to keep those. A great big thank you is all I can say.”