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Commissioner’s Message continued

employer who is very supportive of my city commitment and
gives me the flexibility I need. And I am very proud to have
been named their Doctor of the Year last year.

Through it all, I have not missed a single Commission meeting
or conference, giving a well-researched vote on every item
that has come before me. I hold regular pre-agenda meetings
and meet with constituents frequently, which I’m also proud to
say has resulted in many important accomplishments for our
city, such as:
For public safety: signing contracts and adding funding for
additional police and firefighters; bringing EMS squads up to
the standard three (3) paramedics per unit; instituting a pilot
program for training police to be EMT certified.
For infrastructure: more than doubling our commitment to
flooding stormwater projects.
For our quality of life: opposing overdevelopment; voting
against a PDD proposal which would have allowed 500 ft. tall
high-rise condos being built next to residential areas; taking
led to my becoming involved with our neighborhood on the task of working with the County on homeless solutions.
association, the Rio Vista Civic Association, and to serving For Parks: advocated for revisiting, reworking and loosening
as President of RVCA for 14 years. Working with a number the absolute dog prohibition to empower neighborhoods to
of outstanding, civic-minded neighbors committed to making allow dogs on leashes in select parks of their choosing. Also,
Rio Vista the best neighborhood it could be turned out to be mine was the voice that spoke out and the vote that saved the
invaluable experience for the many issues I’ve faced as your Las Olas median from being removed.
Commissioner. For example: twenty years ago, working with
surrounding neighborhoods, we successfully fought the For all of these accomplishments, we still have much to do.
Federal Government when they tried to take away Hardy And to get things done, we have to set priorities. We need to
Park for land to build a new courthouse; working with the city work cooperatively with Broward County on the critical issues
we doubled the size of Hector Park in Rio Vista; our RVCA of commuter rail, homelessness, and affordable housing. We
efforts over many years resulted in building much-needed new need to implement the sewer and stormwater infrastructure
fire stations and EMS units in our district; and we advocated projects already identified and bring that same urgency to
for traffic solutions on SE 17th Street, especially the Port how we deliver our drinking water. We’re known as ‘the
Bypass Road. These projects are being realized now and Venice of America’ and the health of our waterways must be
they are just a few of the many neighborhood and community addressed. We need to develop nature-based solutions to
improvements I was proud to help bring about while serving clean waterways that do not rely upon costly and
as RVCA President. questionable engineering and chemical solutions. We need to
be better stewards of the City’s land and finances.
Another question I’m frequently asked is how I’m able to
manage my time as your District 4 Commissioner and as All of these things CAN be
a cardiologist at Broward Health Medical Center done…with your support,
(fka Broward General). your involvement and with
your commitment to your
I’ve always set aside a large portion of my life for community neighborhood and your city.
involvement, and since being elected I’ve simply substituted
city work for what I was already doing as a volunteer. You
could say I took my community voice and brought it to the Warren Sturman
City Commission. I particularly like devoting my time to public District 4 Commissioner
outreach, including hosting community townhalls, workshops, City of Fort Lauderdale
and visiting our HOAs and neighborhood civic associations.
As a cardiologist, I am fortunate to have a great staff and an

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