Four seats on the Hialeah Council were up for grabs Tuesday, and two will soon be filled as races for two others head to Dec. 9 runoffs.
With 44 of 45 precincts reporting, Council member Melinda De La Vega won the race for the panel’s Group 6 seat with 60.5% of the vote, while Luis Rodriguez won re-election to the Group 7 seat with a 57% share of ballots cast.
They beat Council member Juan Junco and lawyer Abdel Jimenez, respectively.
The more crowded Group 3 and Group 4 contests remain undecided, as no candidate in either scored more than 50% of the vote to win outright.
In Group 3, Gelien Perez and Jessica Castillo performed best with 40.5% and 36% shares of the vote, respectively. They’ll leave behind candidate Kassandara Montandon as they compete in a runoff.
In Group 4, William “Willy” Marrero and Javier Morejon took 25% and 23% of the vote, outpacing candidates Juan Santana, Mariana Chavez and Phillip Kennedy.
Tuesday’s races for Mayor and Council were at-large contests, meaning voters had a say in every race, regardless of where they live.
City Council, Group 6
In a Highlander-esque instance of election bracketing, two appointed City Council members squared off for one seat.
Thirty-nine-year-old De la Vega, the victor, works as an insurance sales associate. She was appointed in July 2024 to replace former Council member Angelica Pacheco, who was federally indicted on health care fraud charges.
She is a member of the Hialeah Pan American Lions Club, which provides humanitarian services to the community, including help with back-to-school programs, hunger relief and support for children with diabetes.
In a full elected term, De la Vega said she wanted to better support and equip police, prevent overdevelopment, oppose tax increases, provide vital resources to the elderly, help small businesses, improve parks and youth services, and crack down on illegal dumping.
(L-R) Juan Junco and Melinda de la Vega competed in a “loser leaves” contest. Images via Hialeah.
Junco, 87, made history last November when he peers voted to unanimously appoint him, making him the oldest person ever to take a seat on the panel.
He is a former member of the Hialeah Housing Authority and spent decades working in the private sector as a plant manager and production supervisor.
City Council, Group 7
In the last race, Rodriguez, the 52-year-old incumbent and the City Council’s current President, promised to fight tax and fee increases, improve neighborhood safety and police support, increase funding for parks and recreation youth service, and “provide reliable government services for residents” in a second term.
He works by day as a sales director at Auto Value Parts Stores, a job he describes on his campaign website as being the “operations manager for a Fortune 350 company.”
(L-R) Luis Rodriguez and Abdel Jimenez, Images via Hialeah and Abdel Jimenez.
In August, Rodriguez filed for bankruptcy, citing more than $102,000 in personal debt from credit cards, loans and living expenses. He insisted his financial troubles are private and unrelated to his city duties.
His challenger, 45-year-old Jimenez, is a lawyer, former Miami Springs Police officer and past member of the Hialeah Planning and Zoning Board.
Jimenez told the Herald that if he won this year, he would prioritize passing fair legislation, improving Hialeah’s permitting process, lowering utility fees and having the city take over its trash collection program rather than outsource it to private operators.
This year’s Group 7 contest was a rematch. Rodriguez and Jimenez also ran against each other for the seat in 2021.
City Council, Group 3
Castillo, 37, ran on a promise to improve City Hall’s responsiveness to residents’ concerns, reduce traffic congestion, improve the city’s infrastructure, lower taxes and better protect the public against crime.
She appeared to largely eschew online campaigning; she had no campaign website, and her campaign’s Instagram page hasn’t been updated since August.
Montandon, a 30-year-old Realtor, also wanted to lower property taxes while supporting small businesses and promoting financial literacy.
Improving educational resources was also on her agenda.
Montaldo leaned into her experience in financial education and community service while running for office. She is the Educational Director at the Center for Financial Training at Miami Dade, co-Chair of the Future Bankers Camp and serves on the Miami-Dade Public Schools Academy of Finance Committee.
(L-R) Jessica Castillo, Kassandra Montandon and Gelien Perez. Images via the candidates.
Perez, 35, is a former Director of Human Resources for the city and worked as an aide in the Mayor’s Office more than a decade ago. Today, she works as a real estate broker and the Chief Compliance Officer for American Vision Group, an eye care services company headquartered in North Miami Beach.
Her platform included supporting first responders and small businesses, opposing millage rate increases, funding park programs, advocating for seniors’ health services and improving city infrastructure.
In her past executive role with the city, Perez became the subject of a two-year investigation by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE), which found employees under her influence received significant pay raises. At the same time, she acted as their real estate agent.
She unsuccessfully applied for a seat on the Council last year.
City Council, Group 4
Chavez, Marrero, Morejon, Santana and Kennedy launched bids to fill the vacancy of former Council member Jackie Garcia-Roves, who was appointed interim Mayor in April.
Chavez, 20, contended that as Hialeah’s youngest candidate, she’d bring a “fresh voice, a new perspective and the courage to challenge what’s working” to the Council.
Like others running, she skipped having a traditional campaign website. She told the Herald that fundamental problems in the city, like potholes, aren’t being fixed even as residents face increasingly high living costs.
Chavez vowed, if elected, to lower water and sewer rates, invest in educational and job opportunities and “protect our parks, neighborhoods and our future.”
Marrero, 23, is a former aide to Council member Luis Rodriguez and a student at Florida International University pursuing a degree in public administration. He also didn’t have a website.
In May, three of the Council’s six sitting members wanted to appoint Morrero to the Group 4 seat, but opposition from others blocked his appointment.
He said he’s running “to be a voice for working families, our elderly neighbors, and the first responders who keep us safe.”
(L-R) Mariana Chavez, William “Willie” Marrero, Javier Morejon and Juan Santana. Not pictured: Phillip Kennedy. Images via the candidates.
Morejon, 34, works by day as a land-use specialist and plat manager and boasts a solid record of volunteerism. He’s a former Chair of the Hialeah Beautification Board, Vice Chair of the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Board and Vice Chair of the Sweetwater Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Board.
He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade.
He ran on a promise to beautify Hialeah, repair its infrastructure, lower city service costs, support public safety, and restore government transparency and accountability.
Santana, a 42-year-old activist and entrepreneur, ran twice for Mayor and sought several appointments to the Council.
He told the Herald he was running this year to stop “rising property taxes, gentrification and displacement” of residents.
Santana is Vice President of Positive Hits Community Service Group South, a nonprofit now in its ninth year that helps low-income residents.
Kennedy, 56, is a retired Hialeah Police lieutenant currently employed by the Miccosukee Tribe. His LinkedIn page shows past employment at the Florida Department of Corrections. He does not appear to have a campaign website.
In January, Kennedy was involved in an incident in Naples, where local police arrested him for whipping a 10-year-old boy with a belt. A video of the incident and a report from Wink News referred to the child as his son.