PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Four officials from the city of Port St. Lucie have been recognized by the Florida League of Cities with the 2026 Home Rule Hero Award for their advocacy work during this year\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n
The recipients are Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo, Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan, Deputy City Manager for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation Kate Parmelee, and Finance Director Stephen Okiye.<\/p>\n
According to the Florida League of Cities, the four were recognized for engaging with state lawmakers throughout the session by sharing local data, insights and examples aimed at informing policy decisions and representing municipal interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal voices matter, and during the 2026 Legislative Session, these leaders made sure those voices were heard,\u201d said Casey Cook, the organization\u2019s chief of legislative affairs. \u201cBy engaging early, often and thoughtfully, they helped elevate the municipal perspective and reinforce the importance of local decision-making. We sincerely appreciate their dedication and are proud to recognize their advocacy on behalf of Florida\u2019s cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Home Rule Hero Award is given to local government officials, both elected and nonelected, who respond to the league\u2019s requests to contact members of the Legislature and provide a local perspective on policy issues.<\/p>\n
Home rule refers to the authority of local governments to address community issues with limited state interference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Four officials from the city of Port St. Lucie have been recognized by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-239921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}