Carlos Álvarez | |
|---|---|
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| 6thMayor of Miami-Dade County | |
| In office November 6, 2004 – March 18, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Alex Penelas |
| Succeeded by | Carlos A. Giménez |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 30, 1952[citation needed] |
| Party | Republican |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Florida International University (BBA) |
| Profession | Police officer, politician |
Carlos Álvarez (born September 30, 1952[citation needed]) is aCuban American politician, and the formermayor of Miami-Dade County. He was first elected mayor in 2004, and re-elected in 2008. His mayoralty ended in March 2011 aftera recall election. In both mayoral elections, he listed his party as "No Party Preference",[1] but an article inThe Christian Science Monitor described him as a member of theRepublican Party.[2]
Carlos Álvarez was born inCuba September 30, 1952.[citation needed] When he was eight years old, his family emigrated toMiami, Florida.[3] Alvarez earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Florida International University in 1974. He completed training at the Senior Management Institute for Police and graduated from theFBI National Academy, 145th Session in June 1986.[citation needed]
In 1976, Álvarez joined theMiami-Dade Police Department. He was promoted through the ranks and, in 1997, became director of the MDPD.[3] He served as director from 1997 to 2004. His tenure as director was called "relatively free of trouble, at least by local standards" by theMiami New Times, although in 2004 a group of policemen who served in the department described his management style as marked by "favoritism and retaliation".[4]
Carlos Álvarez ran for mayor in the 2004 Miami-Dade mayoral election, and defeated his opponent County Commissioner Jimmy L. Morales.[5] He became Miami-Dade County's sixth mayor, replacingAlex Penelas. In 2007, Alvarez successfully launched a referendum to give the mayoralty more power, giving him direct control of the county's bureaucracy.[6]
He was re-elected as county mayor on August 26, 2008, for his second term.[7] In 2009, Alvarez led a successful yet controversial effort to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of the city's money to build what would eventually beLoanDepot Park on the site of theOrange Bowl to retain theMajor League BaseballMarlins in the region. In August 2009,The Miami Herald revealed that Alvarez had recently given pay raises to close aides, including his chief of staff Dennis Morales, whose new salary was over $200,000 a year. In September 2010, Alvarez pushed for a 12% increase in theproperty tax rate.[6]
An effort to recall Alvarez began in October 2010, backed by billionaire businessmanNorman Braman, a former owner of thePhiladelphia Eagles, over Alvarez's simultaneous tax increases and pay raises for upper echelon county workers.[6] Braman spent more than $1 million of his own money on the effort. Alvarez was recalled in a March 15, 2011 election. More than 88% of the voters (some 176,000 people) voted for recalling Alvarez. The election was the largest municipal recall vote in United States history,[2] and the second largest in the U.S. of any kind after the2003 recall election of California governorGray Davis.[6] He officially left office on March 18, 2011 when the county canvassing board certified the results.
Álvarez was divorced twice,[8] and is the father of two sons and one daughter.[3] His eldest son, Carlos Alvarez Jr., is a convicted serial rapist[9][8] and registered sexual predator.[10]
After the recall, Álvarez beganbodybuilding. In January 2013, he emerged from relative seclusion to compete in the National Physique Committee's South Florida “Over 60s” Master's bodybuilding competition, where he won first place.[11]
In April 2016, he was arrested on a domesticbattery charge after a fight with his girlfriend. According to the police report, his girlfriend's teenage daughter told police that Álvarez had been violent toward her mother since 2013.[8]
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