{"id":93124,"date":"2025-12-23T00:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93124\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T00:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:06:14","slug":"gov-desantis-reappoints-richard-blanco-fatima-perez-to-greater-miami-expressway-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/93124\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. DeSantis reappoints Richard Blanco, Fatima Perez to Greater Miami Expressway Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gov. Ron DeSantis is reappointing two current members to the Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The reappointments of Richard Blanco and Fatima Perez now move to the Senate for confirmation, where lawmakers will weigh in on the leadership of the agency responsible for managing and maintaining Miami-Dade\u2019s major toll road network.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Blanco, currently the Chief Technology Officer at Internos Group, LLC, brings a technology and business background to the Board. In addition to leadership roles at Business Network International and planIT Systems, Inc., Blanco holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration from Florida International University.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perez, a veteran of state and local politics, serves as Director of Koch State Government Affairs. Her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes time as Chief of Staff for the City of Miami Beach, partner at Southern Strategy Group, and public policy manager at Akerman. She earned a bachelor\u2019s degree from Florida State University and a Master of Public Administration from Florida International University.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Republican Coral Gables resident, Perez has donated twice at the state level, Division of Elections records show: a $250 check to U.S. Sen.\u00a0Rick Scott\u00a0in 2014, while he was serving as Governor; and $100 to the successful 2016 Florida House campaign FIU President\u00a0Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez, Florida\u2019s immediate past Lieutenant Governor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the federal level, Perez\u2019s donation activity is almost exclusively represented in contributions to\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/committee\/C00236489\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/committee\/C00236489\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Koch Industries PAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Both appointees have been central figures at GMX, which oversees the region\u2019s all-electronic toll expressway system \u2014 including the Dolphin (SR 836), Airport (SR 112), Don Shula (SR 874), Snapper Creek (SR 878) expressways and the Gratigny Parkway (SR 924) \u2014 that serves as a key artery for commuters in Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The agency, formerly known as the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), transitioned to state control following a high-profile legal battle that culminated in 2023, when a Leon County judge dissolved MDX. That transition aimed to clarify governance and give the state a stronger hand in the system\u2019s operations and long-term planning, particularly regarding toll pricing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">State law lays out a nine-member governing body for GMX with appointments by the Governor, Miami-Dade County and the county\u2019s metropolitan planning organization. Appointees must have experience in fields such as transportation engineering, tolling or planning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perez, who presently chairs the governing Board, and Blanco, who serves as Board secretary, will be positioned to continue shaping the agency\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">___<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis is reappointing two current members to the Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX). The reappointments of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49761,49762,49763,123,125,124,49764,412,25213],"class_list":["post-93124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-fatima-perez","tag-gmx","tag-greater-miami-expressway-agency","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-richard-blanco","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tolls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93124","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=93124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}