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LEADERS FACE NEW CHALLENGES
Tampa and Miami mayors navigate COVID-19 uncertainty
George Diaz
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Look for more interviews with Florida leaders from around the state in upcoming issues of Growing Bolder magazine.
Francis Suarez and Jane Castor wear their historic benchmarks well, carrying them as a source of pride in the communities they serve.
As the son of former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez – the first Cuban-American mayor of a city in the United States – Francis Suarez builds on the family name to shape his own legacy in the City of Miami.
Castor became Tampa’s first openly gay mayor and only the eighth openly gay mayor in Florida in 2019.
But those moments in history only reveal part of the story. Suarez and Castor could have gone to faraway places and set a different course in their lives. Instead, they chose to stay home.
Castor graduated from George D. Chamberlain High School in 1977 and then attended the University of Tampa, where she became a notable athlete, emerging as a star in the women’s basketball and volleyball teams.
Suarez attended Belen Jesuit, an all-boys preparatory school, in Miami, and would eventually rise to the top 10 of his class at Florida International University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1996.
They remain on the local front lines today, only with stronger resumes. They lead two vibrant and diverse cities in a time of crisis, facing the daily challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growing Bolder caught up with both to allow them to reflect on those experiences, and how they draw from those GROWING BOLDER / VOL. 42experiences in their everyday challenges. 25
Jane Castor
“Let’s make kindness contagious,” Jane Castor often tells her constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The words aren’t fluff or political theater. They are necessary. Four words that will help define your day, how you move forward, and how you treat others.
“We want kindness to be more contagious than this virus,” she said.
Reality often gets in the way. The virus has been an allconsuming thing for just about everyone, including the person who has held that title as Mayor of Tampa since April 23, 2019, when she won a runoff election against David Straz. Castor won with 73 percent of the vote.
The people’s strong faith in Castor is reflected in glowing reviews. CNN praised her as a “political star” when she was elected. Castor was recently featured in The Hill – an influential political website – as one of “six mayors making a difference.”
The article praised Castor’s commitment to increase student engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially among young girls.
Castor, now 59, can relate to much of that experience in her life. She didn’t settle for traditional roles after graduating from college.
Degree in hand, Castor joined the Tampa Police Department, where she served 31 years and eventually became the city’s first female Chief of Police. After leaving the police force, she found other challenges serving the public.
“I never had any intentions of being a politician or running for office, just the way that circumstances arose,” she said. “My two predecessors were incredible leaders of our city and also good personal friends, so it was really in conversations with them that led me to consider running for Mayor of Tampa.”
Like every other mayor in the country, Castor didn’t have “international pandemic” on the list of challenges she expected to face. She used her background in law enforcement to deal with the daily challenges.
“In law enforcement, I always say you have plan A, plan B, plan C and then you have what really happens,” she said. “That unexpected, you’re used to dealing with that. That I think is very important.”
“It’s been tested in a number of ways, but I have always throughout my life especially in service to our community, I’ve always tried to make decisions that are in the best interests of our entire community. That’s going to make a lot of people happy and it’s going to make a lot of people unhappy. But at the end of the day, I try to do what’s in the best interests of the community.”
Every community isn’t monolithic. Some folks are strict about masks and social distancing. Others not so much.
Castor has tried to stay above the fray, sticking to science, facts, and common sense.
“The science tells us clearly that the best way to avoid transmission of this virus is to practice social distancing, wear a mask, wash your hands,” she said. “The pushback on the mask has really confounded me. I don’t understand how such a simple thing like wearing a mask could not only protect you but protect others. It shouldn’t be a negative issue.”
Leadership requires a delicate balance of push and pull. Castor has added levity to a purpose by engaging in online dance parties, TikTok videos in hopes of reaching a younger audience, and showing off a Tampa flavor with her masks.
“Mayor Jane’s Karaoke Dance Party” began in April airing on iHeartMedia radio stations. First song on the playlist: “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
She is also part of a “homemade mask brigade” and wears a series of personalized masks that people have made for her. Many are Tampa-centric, including one with a skyline of Tampa. Another is reversible with “TPA” on one side, and an image of Wonder Woman on the other.
“I’m just a veritable message board of masks,” she said.
There’s another message Castor wants to get across, more important than a fashion statement to her 393,000 constituents.
“Those initiatives we took were just to remind people of the basics of kindness, the sense of community,” she said. “and although we are facing difficult times, we still have fun.”
Francis Suarez isn’t just an informed spectator with a front-row seat to the COVID crisis. He also happens to be the second confirmed case in Miami-Dade County. In midMarch, his image popped up on a video on a big screen at City Hall, announcing that he was placing himself in isolation in case he had contracted the Coronavirus. It was confirmed the next day.
He would then go into isolation for 18 days, away from his wife and two children, but still accessible to a city of 480,000 residents. The experience proved invaluable from a leadership standpoint.
“I was able to put a lot of people at ease as to what would happen if they did get sick, so that was one thing,” he said. “The second thing I realized was how important it is to get quick turnaround time on testing. Because I was able to get the information quickly, I was able to avoid my wife getting sick, then my family getting sick, and that’s something that I think we need to do a much better job of going forward. Our turnaround time for results is way too long still.
“I think the other thing was I was very asymptomatic. And so, it led me to believe that you can be asymptomatic and still be a transmitter.”
Suarez, 42, has mined that information to lead his community with a proactive approach. On July 17, the City of Miami issued an emergency order, making masks mandatory while in public.
The pandemic has obviously been the biggest challenge for Suarez, who was first elected on November 7, 2017 with 86 percent of the vote. Suarez is the first Miami-born mayor, although duty to public service runs through the core of his family roots. Through his father’s eyes, Suarez got a firsthand look of the balance between public life and civic service.
“When he first ran for office, I was two years old, and I think my first political commercial I did was on his lap. Vota por papi por favor. (Vote for my dad please).
“And certainly, seeing his career was incredibly inspiring. It allowed me to put a premium on helping people as opposed to making money, being wealthy, which is a choice that we must make.
“I wasn’t one of these kids who grew up always wanting to be in politics. I’d seen the good and the bad of it when my dad was in office. I sort of backed into it, if you will. I got married, I bought a house, I got involved, like my homeowner’s association.”
He polished his political chops as a commissioner before running for mayor, earning respect along the way. Suarez served as a City Commissioner of District 4 for eight years and was also as Vice-Chair of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization and was once President of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities. In other words, he isn’t riding on papi’s coattails.
“There’s little sense of dynastic entitlement, a refreshing pivot from other city of Miami races,” The Miami Herald wrote in its endorsement of Suarez. “Rather, it’s the next logical step. He has a record to run on — and it’s a solid one.”
That record grows exponentially, even through the prism of a pandemic.
Francis Suarez
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Being able to breathe, is a feeling that you want to rejoice instantly.
At 70, Ed Henry lived through a double lung transplant. Today he’s back to work, in the gym, and looks forward to his morning walk at sunrise — a daily reminder of a new beginning. He thanks his donor, his surgeons, and his Florida Blue Nurse Care Manager, who helped get him liquid oxygen when he didn’t know where to turn, which kept him alive until he could get the double lung transplant.
— Ed Henry
