Cindy Lerner Running for County Commission District 7
By Hal Feldman | Originally Published in the Pinecrest Tribune
Cindy Lerner, running for County Commission
Cindy Lerner is no stranger to the people of Pinecrest. In the early days of the Village’s incorporation, the Council was proposing to force all residents to move over to the County water supply, where they would have to pay a hefty tax for the changeover. She and her neighbors organized to successfully fight and stop that special taxing district from happening. Soon thereafter, Cindy’s neighbors, in a groundswell of support, strongly encouraged her to run for Mayor. She won and served two terms as the third Mayor of Pinecrest from 2008-2016. “I spent most of my efforts with visioning for our young Village,” explained Lerner. “I felt we were lacking in public engagement, so we created multiple advisory groups, including ones for transportation and environmental.” For Lerner, it was about getting residents involved on how they wanted to move forward.
Fast forward to today. Lerner is running to become County Commissioner for District 7. The district, which represents Pinecrest, a large section of East Kendall, South Miami, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove and Key Biscayne, has its non-partisan Primary Election on August 20. Should a candidate get more than 50% of the votes, they’ll immediately win the race.
Lerner, who has spent years in driving government forward in a responsible manner, says, “I believe in grassroots efforts to solve problems and advance opportunities.” After being Pinecrest Mayor, Lerner joined the National League of Cities. “In the Chair position of Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, I traveled around the country and learned best practices to bring back home and apply throughout Miami-Dade County,” explained Lerner. “In 2009, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Plan was introduced. It was Palm Beach, Broward, Dade and Monroe Counties sharing the science of environmental change because we are at ground zero for climate change.” Lerner took this information to heart and made it her marching orders. “I felt we should lead the charge to combat the sea level rise, severe weather and other climate threats, but found many surrounding communities just didn’t embrace the challenge.” To date, Cindy still works toward this goal. She works with the League of Cities and the County to collaborate on this and other goals.
“I’m a fighter,” touts Lerner. “We deserve a fighter who’ll ensure our interests as a community are always prioritized over the corruption, self-dealing and influence peddling that have become business as usual for those in power.” Her goal is to assure collaboration between the County and its cities in solving issues. She believes economies of scale and cooperation will lead us to successfully solve the overpopulation, traffic and transit issues we have today. Improving County parks is also one of her passion goals.
Cindy is currently campaigning strongly to win the District 7 Seat. You can learn more about her and her vision for our future at cindylerner.com. Please get out and vote on August 20.