The Youngest Mayor in America Wasted No Time
When Bryan Calvo took the oath of office as mayor of Hialeah, Florida, he did something I’ve never heard another mayor describe. He took his hand off the Bible, sat down, and immediately started signing executive orders. Five of them in his first days in office.
That’s the kind of urgency you get from a 28-year-old — the youngest mayor in Hialeah’s hundred-year history, and the youngest mayor in America leading a city of more than 100,000 people.
I sat down with Mayor Calvo at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, just two weeks into his term. And I’ll be honest: I know Hialeah. It’s in my old hometown of Miami, and its government hasn’t always had the cleanest track record. Previous administrations have seen their share of trouble. So my first real question was simple — why would anyone take that on?
His answer stuck with me: “If I don’t do it, who’s going to do it?”
Calvo isn’t a political newcomer, despite his age. He served four years on the Hialeah City Council, where he says he lifted the hood on city government and found it was “actually worse than people told me it would be.” He’s also the first attorney — and the first Harvard graduate — ever to serve as the city’s mayor. But when I asked him why voters chose him, he didn’t point to his résumé. He pointed to his feet.
He personally knocked on more than 15,000 doors over the course of a year. His volunteers pushed the total past 50,000. In a five-way race that included two incumbents backed by what he called “the machine,” Calvo won outright with 52 percent of the vote — no runoff needed.
“People want to feel like it’s run in a neighborly way,” he told me about city government. “They want to have access. They want to be able to literally touch the mayor.”
So what did those five executive orders actually do? This is where it gets interesting, because every one of them is a good-government story:
He eliminated lifetime pensions for elected officials. Hialeah had former mayors collecting six-figure payments decades after leaving office. Calvo says ending the practice saves the city more than $2 million — money he wants to redirect into property tax relief for residents over 65, many of whom are on fixed incomes and facing some of the highest insurance rates in Florida.
He ordered a review of city contracts. More than 160 contracts hadn’t been put out to bid in over a decade. Every one of them is now under review.
He launched an audit of public works. Hialeah’s infrastructure is aging, the city is facing an $18 million lawsuit from Miami-Dade County over water payments, and Calvo wants a list of fixable problems on his desk within 120 days.
He took on the 911 system. When Calvo was on the council, the city was missing thousands of emergency calls a month due to staffing shortages. His order demands a full review, because as he put it: “100 percent of our calls need to be answered. It’s that simple.”
He created a financial crimes task force. One Hialeah ZIP code has been cited as a national hotspot for money laundering, and Calvo wants city, state, and federal partners cracking down together.
None of this is flashy. Contract audits and 911 staffing don’t make cable news. But this is exactly what good government looks like: finding the unglamorous problems that affect people’s daily lives and actually fixing them.
When I asked Calvo to define good government — the question I ask every mayor — he said something I think about a lot. Good government, he told me, isn’t about being a good mayor. “It’s about transcending and making it better for the people that come ahead.”
He’s also working to move Hialeah’s municipal elections from odd to even years, because turnout in city elections hovers around 10 percent. He believes the change could push participation as high as 80 percent. More voters, better representation. That’s not a partisan idea — that’s a democratic one.
Oh, and one more thing. Calvo insists the best French restaurant in Miami-Dade County isn’t in Coconut Grove or on Miami Beach. It’s La Fresa Francesa — “The French Strawberry” — right in the heart of Hialeah, opened by a Cuban who married a Parisian. I promised him I’d check it out on my next trip. I intend to keep that promise.
You can hear my full conversation with Mayor Bryan Calvo on The Good Government Show, wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you believe these stories are worth telling, like us, share us, and leave a review. We all need to talk about good government.
Dave Martin is the host of The Good Government Show, produced by the Good Government Institute, a nonprofit promoting civic engagement and civic education. Learn more at goodgovinstitute.org.
PULL QUOTES
- “If I don’t do it, who’s going to do it?” — Mayor Bryan Calvo
- “People want to feel like it’s run in a neighborly way. They want to have access. They want to be able to literally touch the mayor.” — Mayor Bryan Calvo
- “100 percent of our calls need to be answered. It’s that simple.” — Mayor Bryan Calvo, on Hialeah’s 911 system
- “Good government is not being just a good mayor… It’s about transcending and making it better for the people that come ahead.” — Mayor Bryan Calvo
- “I always believed that government can really do wonderful things if it’s run by the right people.” — Mayor Bryan Calvo
GGI BOILERPLATE
The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promoting civic engagement and civic education. Through interviews with mayors, county leaders, and public servants across the country, the show tells the stories of government working — and the people who make it work. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more at goodgovinstitute.org.