A career politician and a nurse compete in November Hialeah Council seat 4 election

The election to decide who will occupy seat 4 on the Hialeah City Council is revealing divisions between those who support traditional politics and voters who want new blood.

On November 8, the city’s voters must choose who will finish the term left vacant by ex-Councilman Oscar De La Rosa when he resigned to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest after his stepfather, Esteban Bovo Jr., won the mayoral election in 2021.

The contest pits incumbent Vivian Casáls-Muñoz, a veteran politician with more than 13 years of experience, against Angelica Pacheco, a nurse who lost a runoff election last year for City Council. Both candidates are affiliated with the Republican Party.

Vivian Casáls-Muñoz

Casáls-Muñoz, a 55-year-old mother of two, has been acting councilwoman for the seat since February, when she was appointed by her colleagues on the council. She recently explained to el Nuevo Herald that she returned to the council “at the request of the mayor,” who asked her to come back after his stepson left office.

It’s not the first time that the politician has entered the Hialeah City Council on an interim basis. She began her political career that way when Eduardo González vacated his seat in 2006 to became a state representative. “His seat was vacant, and I was appointed as councilmember,” she said.

In her tenure as councilmember, Casáls-Muñoz, currently the director of public relations for Hialeah Park Casino, claims to have focused primarily on supporting people with disabilities and achieving zoning changes in southeast Hialeah.

Casáls-Muñoz was accused in 2015 of “selling her vote” in favor of changing the zoning of a 10-acre lot to build an apartment complex. An investigation by the Miami-Dade Ethics and Public Trust Commission determined that “there was no probable cause that she had acted improperly with respect to the land use amendment.”

But not everyone is satisfied with her candidacy.

Milly Herrera, a former council candidate, said that the council’s appointment of Casáls-Muñoz was “like a theater play with everything already prepared in advance.”

Herrera regrets that with the appointment of Casáls-Muñoz the city did not give another of the 13 applicants the opportunity to assume that legislative position. In this election “I didn’t run because I’m not going to get into that mud,” she said.

Bovo openly supports Casáls-Muñoz’s candidacy and has begun campaigning for her in all his public appearances, from donating oxygen masks for pets to promising a subsidy to help people pay rising utility rates.

Criticism of her management is not new. In 2018 another candidate, Tania García, ran against Casáls-Muñoz and said, “I feel betrayed by her. We don’t have a voice on the council, that’s why I’m running.”

Angelica Pacheco

Pacheco, 36, is a small business owner in addition to being a nurse. She is twice-married and she is the mother of five children. She says the bureaucratic difficulties of establishing a small business in the city convinced her to run.

She says her goal is to support entrepreneurs and small businesses, although she also proposes to reduce the cost of water and sewer, one of the main concerns of city residents.

“I am going to run until I get a seat. I want to have an opportunity to serve the residents,” said Pacheco.

The silent crisis that affects everyone in Hialeah: the exorbitant price of water and sewer

Pacheco ran for City Council last year and received more votes than any other candidate running in the first round of that year. But she ultimately lost in a runoff election against Bryan Calvo as domestic violence scandals and the arrests that have dotted her life appeared to become a problem for her campaign.

When Pacheco was 17, she was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of criminal damage and assault in what police described as a domestic incident. She was sentenced to six months of probation. Last year, she told the Miami Herald that she’d had an altercation with her stepfather because he had locked her mother inside the house, which ended with a call to the police and her subsequent arrest.

“I have nothing to feel ashamed of, I didn’t choose what happened to me. I was a victim of domestic violence,” Pacheco told el Nuevo Herald. “I want my story to help raise awareness in society, to stop being a taboo. What makes me afraid in life is living in fear. Living in an invisible prison.”

The nurse explained that she was arrested because she did not have the money to hire a lawyer. “They assigned me a public defender, which is like not having a lawyer,” she said.

She said she is running again because she doesn’t think someone like Casáls-Muñoz should spend so many years in public office, “accumulating influence, especially among lobbyists.” she said.

Casáls-Muñoz did not respond to el Nuevo Herald’s requests to clarify the allegations.

So far Pacheco has raised $7,445, while Casáls-Muñoz has received individual funds for $3,000, and $83,310.23 by Hialeah First, a political action committee (PAC), according to the City of Hialeah Campaign Treasurer’s Reports.