During her tenure, the city reached a settlement on the controversial placement of a new trolley garage, reached the initial resolution in the preservation of Sherman’s Oak on Lisbon Street, approved its 2014-15 budget and made progress on the plan for the two municipal parking garages on Andalusia Avenue and the Miracle Mile Streetscape project.

At the same meeting where Swanson-Rivenbark was officially sworn in, the city honored Olazabal by proclaiming Dec. 17, 2014, as “Carmen Olazabal Day” and saluted her for her leadership.
 

“It’s not something you asked for you were jumped into it on short notice, you didn’t miss a beat,” Mayor Jim Cason said at that meeting. “We got all these projects that were getting ready to be started or in the process of being implemented you kept them all going, there was no lack of leadership at all during that period.”

Carmen Olazabal, who served as interim city manager, received a special proclamation. In honor of her eight months as interim manager, Mayor Jim Cason declared Dec. 17 as “Carmen Olazabal Day” in Coral Gables.

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Police Chief Ed Hudak revealed findings of an FBI police department audit, which came after crime statistics were released in September. At that time, residents and commissioners accused the then-police chief of manipulating residential burglary statistics. An audit of the time period in question, January through August 2013 and 2014, showed that “the findings did not reveal any under-reported burglary offenses,” Jennifer Cook Pritt, director of Division of Criminal Justice Information Services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, wrote in the report.

WHEREAS, while serving as Interim City Manager, Carmen successfully developed the budget for the 2014-2015 Fiscal Year, thus reducing the City’s millage rate for the fourth consecutive year; she also approved a plan that will comprehensively replace about 3,000 sick and missing trees throughout the City, thus affirming the City’s commitment to the tree canopy; Carmen also helped develop and implement a social media policy and accompanying procedures; Carmen also had a hand in developing a seven year vehicle replacement budget program, that utilizes a mixture of funds from the motor pool reserve, as well as incremental increases from recurring revenues; a quarterly capital improvement project reporting process, to keep the Commission informed of projects in progress, was also created; Carmen also helped spearhead and plan the presentation of the Miracle Mile and Giralda Streetscapes to the Commission, which resulted on its approval after a multi-tier process, just to name a few initiatives undertaken by her; and

WHEREAS, in addition to contributing to many significant City initiatives during her tenure as Interim City Manager, Carmen demonstrated in many ways her deep and genuine love for our City as both a resident, and an employee and City Official, for her fellow co-workers, as well as for those individuals who have worked closely with our City; and
 

WHEREAS, it is altogether fitting and proper that the City recognize Carmen Olazabal and pay homage to her valuable contributions made to the City and thank her for her tenure as Interim City Manager

On behalf of the Coral Gables Chamber, we are pleased to acknowledge the professional and exceptional performance by an oustanding member of your team, Ms. Carmen Olazabal.  As Director of Building & Zoning, Ms. Olazabal has been a key element in the success of the Coral Gables Permitting Assistance Program that we established as a partnership between our respective organizations in an effort to retain, attract and create new jobs in Coral Gables.

To date, we are pleased to report that we have completed three projects that combined have a total job retention and creation impact of 313 jobs and a projected capital investment of $26.6 million.

We would not have been successful without such highly qualified and dedicated City professionals like Ms. Olazabal.  You certainly hired the right person for this important position at the City and we commend you on your selection of such a fine professional who understands the importance of ease of entry into the market for a business.

Turnaround times for new commercial permits have dramatically improved from a 55-working-day wait to now only 24 days