Faced with a future opening on the town council, Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid didn’t look at past councilmembers or candidates. He looked to the audience in commission chambers.

Cid intends to name Marilyn Ruano to fill the seat that will be left open after the July 25th meeting, the last for Councilman Tony Lama, who took a job with Amazon and is moving to Seattle to pursue a dream and try to make the world a better place for all of us. 

Ruano is an accountant with a family business in Miami Lakes and a former PTA board member and current homeowners association president. She has also been a regular attendee of council meetings for the past 10 years. Which means she has stamina.

“That was very important to me,” Cid told Ladra late Friday, about her attendance to the town meetings, when he placed the item on the agenda for the next meeting Tuesday. “And it would be good to have an accountant on the council.”

Ya think?

Read related story: Miami Lakes: Tony Lama takes Amazon job — in Seattle

The town charter gives Cid 30 days from the day of Lama’s resignation, which will likely be July 26, to make a nomination the council must then approve. He can’t name her on Tuesday, because Lama has yet to resign. But he wanted to report his intent to name Ruano and set a special meeting date to consider the resignation effective date so that he can make the nomination.

Mayor Manny Cid

“Expressing my intention to nominate in advance allows the public the opportunity to meet the nominee in a transparent fashion,” Cid wrote in his memo to the vice mayor and council members. “Mrs. Ruano understands firsthand the importance of being an independent voice working for all Miami Lakers. Mrs. Ruano possesses incredible strength and the heart of a public servant.”

Also, fyi, if a nomination isn’t confirmed within 90 days, they have to have a special election. Which they could force if they want someone else. But it would cost the city “an arm and a leg,” Cid said. A pretty penny for their size town. Lama’s term ends in 202, but if confirmed, Ruano would serve until the next regularly scheduled election which is the countywide election in August 2018.

Cid’s item memo has Ruano’s bio attached, which shows she has been president of the Royal Palm Estates HOA since 2013 and was active long before that in her sons school and the Miami-Dade School Board committees. She also serves as vice chair of the Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board. Cid appointed her to it in 2014.

The mayor said he had been approached by a few residents and that some people had openly advocated for someone else. “But the good thing about Miami Lakes is we have deep talent pool,” Cid said. “There are dozens of people who are more than qualified. I just felt that the fact that she had been to every meeting for the last 10 years and that she was president of her HOA was something that was important to me.”

We left a message with Ruano and emailed her and hope to get more information later. But according to a well-informed sources, including a fellow gadfly, she is a good addition to the council with no agenda other than whatever is best for the town and residents of Miami Lakes. 

“Securing funding for tutoring, classes and much needed educational programs at our local area schools, and promoting and encouraging a love of reading at an early age has made this a very fulfilling experience,” says her bio, which seems specifically tailor written for the council’s consideration of her nomination. “With over a decade of community service, including regular attendance at Town Council meetings, I have voiced my concerns on matters affecting the future of Miami Lakes. I look forward to serving my community for many years. The past 10 years have been very rewarding and I know, in my heart, that the best is yet to come.”

Ruano has her predecessor’s blessing.

“I gave him my thumbs up,” said Tony Lama. And no, it’s not a Sunshine Law violation for them to have discussed it because Lama will be gone and will not vote on his replacement. 

“She’s been an active member of our community for quite some time. She is vocal but fair. Even with individuals she was not in line with, she’s always been very respectful,” Lama said. “And I agreed 100 percent that it would be nice to have a woman on the council.”

That’s one thing she’s got going for her. The other thing is that she was an early critic of former Mayor Michael Pizzi — which means she’s smart.

Another elected office is suddenly going to be prematurely vacant soon: Miami Lakes Vice Mayor Tony Lama is expected to resign in July to move to Seattle for a plum job at Amazon dot com.

But the replacement will be an appointee until the next election in Miami Lakes, which is not until 2018.

Lama, first elected in 2012 and re-elected last November with 61 percent of the vote, will be the principal business development manager for the online giant, joining a former colleague who went to Amazon last year. Specifically, he will be working on the marketing and roll-out of new products and services. Something called “enterprise solutions.”

Let Ladra be the first to say wow.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Lama, 39, said Thursday. “It’s a good move for my family. It’s not so much about money. It’s an opportunity to work at a company that has been disruptive to so many industries and such a great place to work.”

His wife and four children, age 8 to college freshman, are excited about the chance to live in the mountains on the West Coast and be exposed to a different climate, both environmentally and socially. “It’s good for them to see the world from a whole different perspective,” said Lama, who has worked in the contact center software industry and discussed the move with his extended family and friends.

“I would have never guessed four months ago that I’d be contemplating a move outside of Florida and here I am,” Lama said. “These are exciting times with the technological changes in how businesses communicate with or deliver to consumers.”

Read related story: Graft in Miami Lakes: A tale of 2 council members, A and B

Lama’s last meeting will be in July — just in time for a newby successor to go through the budget process. He and his family will make the journey across the country over the summer, so the kids can start the new school year there.

According to the town charter, Mayor Manny Cid will then have 30 days to make a recommendation to the council, which would have to approve any nomination, to fill in the term until the next regularly scheduled election in Miami Lakes. That won’t be until the next countywide election, the August primary of 2018.

“It’s going to be a huge loss for the town,” Cid told Ladra. “Tony isn’t a guy to just be up there. He has put initiatives forward and he has thrown elbows when he has had to.”

Cid mentioned three big achievements right off the bat: the police contract, which became a model for other labor agreements in the Lakes and other municipalities; the Lakes Living app that allows residents to report a pothole with a phone pic; and Lama’s efforts to get a connection from 67th Avenue to the Gratigny Expressway as the main objectives that his collegue has accomplished.

Lama is to speak Thursday afternoon at the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization meeting to urge board to pass an amendment that would make the partial interchange at 67th Avenue a priority.

“He’s leaving us with a strong legacy,” Cid said.

But while it won’t be easy to replace him, Cid already has two or three people in mind for the recommendation. “We’re fortunate in Miami Lakes to have a deep, deep talent pool,” he said.

Let’s hope he considers Elizabeth Delgado, even if she is an ally of former Mayor Michael Pizzi. While she lost to Lama with only 39% of the vote last November, that still represents 4,930 Miami Lakes residents who put their confidence in her. That’s far more than seven councilmen.

And it might be nice to have a woman on the dais again.