Mayor strives for consensus amid quarrels
Pinecrest Mayor Gary C. Matzner helped found the village and now is tussling with some tough - and controversial - issues affecting his community.
Ask Pinecrest Gary C. Matzner about his job and he talks about patience and persistence.
He’s had to have both lately.
The village has been embroiled in a court battle with Miami-Dade about leaving the county’s fire district while trying to find solutions for angry homeowners upset over having to switch from their well water to public water.
“I may be passionate about an issue, but if someone has a genuine argument against it, I try to listen to all points of view,” Matzner said. “There have been times when I have been persuaded on several issues.”
Take the well-water issue.
After listening to residents’ concerns, Matzner thinks the Village Council has come up with a compromise: Building the spine of the water pipe infrastructure and then trying to find a way to help about 1,200 residents pay for hooking up to the costly system.
About 300 would be so close to the spine that they would not have to pay extra, according to county regulations.
“What we’re trying to do is give people the access to water,” he added. “We don’t want to force anyone.”
The issue over leaving the Miami-Dade Fire Services may be trickier.
A judge ruled Jan. 26 that Pinecrest cannot hold a March 25 special mail-in ballot election to ask voters if they want to leave the Miami-Dade Fire Services Department because the ballot’s wording is unclear.
The village council will have to decide what to do next.
Matzner favors changing to the Coral Gables Fire Department, which he says would provide better service at a cheaper cost than the county would.
“Coral Gables [fire department] has a better rating than the county,” he said.
Matzner and his wife, Veronica, moved to South Florida in 1972. They bought a home in Pinecrest in 1984. They have four children.
“I came to [Pinecrest] for the beauty of the property,” said Matzner, who was elected mayor in 2004. “When I bought my original house, it had stables, and we had horses and chickens.”
He and former Mayor Evelyn Langlieb Greer led the village’s heated fights with the county to incorporate in 1996.
Pinecrest ultimately prevailed.
The incorporation effort led to numerous improvements in the area’s public services, he said.
Greer, the first mayor, along with the first village council, set up the village’s police force, parks and recreation department and public works department.
“Gary has picked up a number of the pending projects we had going,” Greer said. “He also has a vision for a number of new projects that he has been working to bring to success.
“He has definitely learned a lot about being mayor,” she added.
A new public park, Flagler Grove, on Southwest 104th Street and Southwest 77th Avenue, is set to open this spring. A library and community center also are being built.
“He’s trying to look out for what’s best for the village,” said Leslie Bowe, a member of the village’s founding council.
Matzner received his law degree from Temple University.
He balances his unpaid mayoral duties with working full time as a health care attorney at the Miami office of Akerman Senterfitt.
“My firm encourages public service,” Matzner said. “Akerman is a very community service-oriented firm.”
“I am not a career politician — some days I wish I had more patience,” he added.
“Many people are genuinely sincere about how they feel for or against a project, it’s just difficult when people come to meetings to make mischief or huff and puff and don’t really have a stake in what’s going on.
“Our goal is to improve, but not change the character of the village.”
Sometimes meetings get a bit heated, with city leaders taking opposite sides.
But Cindie Blanck, a former village council member and friend of Matzner’s, says that his success as mayor is due to his focus as a leader.
“Through thick or thin, Gary has been able to find consensus,” Blanck said. “I think he is the kind of person who takes an issue that he is aware of, and whether big or small, takes it to completion.
“I have to give him credit for staying with projects in spite of negative feedback. The hardest part is finding consensus, but that’s what makes the job meaningful.”
Photographs
First family caption: FIRST FAMILY: The Matzners at Flagler Grove Park, which opens this spring.
Dedication caption: DEDICATION: Vice Mayor Gail Serota, Mayor Gary Matzner, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and councilwoman Nancy Harter unveil the sign at Veterans Wayside Park in November.
Printed dedication photo credit: Allison Bezold / For The Miami Herald
Visible sign text: VETERANS PARKWAY; DESIGNATED BY THE 2007 PINECREST VILLAGE COUNCIL.
No separate credit is visible next to the family photo in this crop; do not assume the dedication credit applies to both. The sign reads Veterans Parkway while the printed caption says Veterans Wayside Park; retain both rather than silently reconciling them.