Saying she wants to continue projects from her previous term, Katie Petros announced Wednesday that she is running for mayor of Key Biscayne. Petros, who served on council from 2016-2020, said she decided to run for mayor after Vice Mayor Brett Moss pulled out of the race earlier this month.
The move means there will be a primary election Aug. 23 between her, former mayor Joe Rasco, and former lobbyist Fausto Gomez. It appears to be the first mayoral primary in Key Biscayne since 1996.
“We made a bold move to vote for the bond,” Petros said, adding that as mayor, she would pursue work on resiliency, stormwater, and power lines, in addition to a safety plan for the Rickenbacker Causeway. The $100 million bond authorization won resoundingly in 2020, although no funds have been borrowed while officials develop specific projects.
She said that generally, she sees Key Biscayne on the right track — but said she wants to work on easing community tensions. “I want to work on the path of coming together and inclusion as opposed to division.”
Petros said she hadn’t come to a position on a major question this election cycle — whether Key Biscayne’s debt cap should be raised to augment the resiliency bond. Voters will be asked that question in November.
Petros had earlier been considering a run for mayor, but held back because Moss, who was often a voting ally on Council, was running.
“I enjoyed working with Brett when I was on Council and I didn’t want one of us to knock each other out,” Petros said. Had Moss stayed in the race, Petros said she had been thinking about returning to council.
The current 7-member council only has one woman member, Allison McCormick, and Petros is the only announced female candidate. But she said she didn’t view gender as an important issue.
“Diversity is good, but the most important thing is to represent the community the way they want to be represented.”
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Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.