When Jerry first campaigned for Miami Beach City Commission in 2005, he outlined his priorities in a 6-point plan. It was an ambitious agenda, even for a veteran commissioner. But Jerry kept his promises and delivered tangible results.

Thanks to Jerry, our great city has become an even better place to live, work and play.

Keeping Our Streets Cleaner. In response to Jerry’s leadership, the city developed a procedure to measure the cleanliness of our streets and sidewalks. The Cleanliness Index and Assessment Program has resulted in significantly cleaner streets, and more satisfied residents and business owners. This program measures performance, from Very Clean to Very Dirty, and provides guidance on areas needing improvement.

Making Our Beaches Safer. Keeping our residents and tourists safe while they enjoy our world-class beaches is one of the most important public services the city can provide. That’s why Jerry worked so hard to add three new lifeguard stands throughout Miami Beach. The result has been more than 40,000 preventions in just 2007 alone.

Stopping Power Outages. Before Jerry was elected in 2005, our community was hit by two hurricanes. Each caused large-scale, extended power outages in Miami Beach. Jerry brought together residents and FPL executives to work out both short- and long-term solutions, including the under-grounding of transmission lines. FPL has since made substantial improvements and upgrades to our city’s power grid, resulting in a more robust and reliable power supply. And FPL agreed to subsidize the cost of burying power lines in four neighborhoods that requested underground electric utilities.

Speeding up Neighborhood Improvements. Before 2005, the city commission and administration focused on completing public works projects in parks and other non-residential areas. As a result, far too many residents felt frustrated that their neighborhoods were being ignored. Jerry led the charge to make improvements to neighborhoods the top priority. Since then, at least three major neighborhood projects were completed and more than a dozen more were finally commenced.

Building World-Class Cultural Facilities. Jerry has been a long-time supporter of arts and culture in Miami Beach, having spearheaded the renovation of the Byron Carlyle Theater before he was elected. While on the commission, Jerry avidly supported the establishment of a new, world-class concert hall for the New World Symphony. This new facility, designed by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, includes a park and parking garage. It will provide more cultural offerings to residents and visitors, and enhance the city’s reputation world wide.

Improving Our City's Public Schools. During his first year in office, Jerry successfully worked to expand cultural offerings to our public school students.  The city now offers a multitude of after-school cultural arts programs in our city parks, at no charge. The city also provides bus transportation from each school to neighborhood parks. More recently, the city entered into an agreement with the Miami-Dade School Board to offer an International Baccalaureate (I.B.) program at the (K-12) levels in each of our city’s schools.