Esteban Bovo Jr.: Hialeah mayor looks to streamline development process

Esteban Bovo has a lifetime in public service. He became a Hialeah council member in 1998, was reelected various times and became council president. The accomplishment as a councilman of which he is most proud is legislation that bars sexual predators from a radius of schools and parks; then the county adopted its own legislation, superseding his initiative. 

In 2008 he was elected to the state House of Representatives for Hialeah and Miami Lakes until 2011, when he became a county commissioner after a recall election for a sitting commissioner. 

As a state representative, he successfully brought legislation that would incarcerate someone who left the scene of a fatal accident. As a county commissioner, he was chair of the board, chair of the Census Committee in 2020, chairman of the Transportation Committee, and chair of the Finance Committee. 

“In those capacities, I worked very hard to make sure that we were very fiscally responsible with the money and worked extensively on transportation issues,” he said. Mr. Bovo was also chair of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority and of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization. 

“I’ve had a lot of experience in the realm of transportation, and it prepared me to be the mayor of the City of Hialeah, which is the second-largest city of Miami-Dade County and sixth largest in the state of Florida,” he said. 

Mr. Bovo was elected mayor in November 2021, one year after he ran to become county mayor in 2020 and placed second. 

As mayor, he has many plans to improve Hialeah and the quality of life. As a father and a married man, he makes time to be with his family, coaching his 11-year-old son in basketball, reading about history, and listening to all kinds of music. 

Mayor Bovo spoke with Miami Today reporter Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow. 

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