A Look Back at 2021

By Jeniffer Viscarra, Vice Mayor

(Friday, December 3, 2021) – As 2021 comes to an end, I want to wish all our residents a very happy and safe holiday season. For Sunny Isles Beach, 2021 was a year marked with surprises and tragedy.

As for surprises, the biggest was former Mayor Bud Scholl’s resignation, which left us with a four-person commission for about two months and, due to the run-off election, with a two-person commission (Commissioner Lama and myself) for two weeks. There were some challenges, but we managed and now Sunny Isles Beach has its first duly elected woman mayor. Two vacant commission seats must still be filled, so the campaigning will continue until January 2022. Please stay tuned; stay engaged. And, most importantly, remember that not everyone will agree with us. That should not surprise us nor lead to personal attacks on residents or the candidates’ children or families.

The great tragedy of 2021 was the fatal accident involving 11-year-old Anthony Reznick. Anthony’s accident sparked new legislation to create the Anthony Reznik Act, which aims to revise the definition of the term “aggressive careless driving” so that there are civil and criminal penalties. Rep. Vance Aloupis filed SB 476: Aggressive Careless Driving in the Florida House, and Sunny Isles Beach resident Sen. Jason Pizzo filed HB 297: Aggressive Driving in the Florida Senate. Residents can help support the legislation and, by extension, Anthony’s family by emailing Rep. Vance Aloupis and Sen. Jason Pizzo and expressing your approval. If you need help writing your letter or email, I will be happy to assist you.

Contact Vice Mayor Jeniffer Viscarra at seat4@sibfl.net or at 305.792.1750.