Hialeah City Councilman and mayoral candidate Jesus Tundidor slammed interim Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves after the Miami Herald reported she was fined by the city's Code Compliance Department for multiple instances of illegal construction at her personal residence.
"You cannot ask residents to trust you while breaking the very laws you’re supposed to enforce," said Tundidor in a statement on Thursday. "Hialeah deserves leaders who act with integrity — not double standards."
"This type of conduct is unacceptable for any public official, especially for someone temporarily occupying the mayor’s office," he added.
Garcia-Roves, the former city council president, took on the role as interim mayor last April following the resignation of former Mayor Esteban Bovo, who took a new job as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
Garcia-Roves and Tundidor are among five mayoral candidates competing in the Nov. 4 election. A runoff election will be held Dec. 9, 2025 if no candidate receives a majority.
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The Miami Herald, citing public records, reported this week that Garcia-Roves was assessed a $250 fine for "building without a permit."
The inspection report detailed numerous unauthorized structures and modifications, including "addition, awning, re-roof, fence, and columns." Records showed two roof extensions — one an aluminum structure and the other appearing to be an enclosed home addition with plumbing ventilation stacks — for which no permits have been filed.
In a statement to the Herald, Garcia-Roves attributed the unpermitted additions to prior ownership, stating her father and mother purchased the home in 1985.
"I have made no renovations to the property," she told the Herald. "Like every other resident of Hialeah, I will comply and remedy any violation on the property that may have occurred prior to my ownership."
The Herald, however, reported that in her own mayoral campaign statement she indicated that she had lived at the residence since 1982.
