[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 794]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO THE LATE FORMER MAYOR VICKI COCEANO

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. KENDRICK B. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 25, 2005

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I 
rise to pay tribute to a truly great lady, Mayor Vicki Coceano, who 
became the City of Miramar's first female mayor in 1989 and led the 
city through an unprecedented period of growth. Mayor Coceano, who was 
known as the ``Matriarch of Miramar,'' died at the age of 81. She was a 
remarkable leader in many ways, a proactive and energetic public 
servant and a Mayor with an open door policy who spoke her mind on the 
dais.
  Mayor Coceano first became involved in politics after a hurricane 
damaged her back yard in 1960 and she couldn't find the mayor at the 
time for help. She fought the city and her developer before running for 
the commission in 1966, a bid she lost.
  She ran again in 1977 and won. She became one of Broward County's 
most recognizable and outspoken politicians during her 22 years in 
public office. During her tenure as Miramar's Mayor, Coceano oversaw 
landmark changes as the city grew from a sleepy bedroom community with 
cow pastures and vast tracts of empty land to a Broward boomtown, home 
to WTVJ-NBC 6 and a host of national companies.
  Her accomplishments included weakening her own job, using a city 
manager to run the city and raising money in the 1980s to build the 
youth center that now bares her named. Vicki Coceano, a native of 
Italy, retired as Mayor of Miramar in 1999.
  Outside of politics and family life, Coceano worked tirelessly to 
help senior citizens, serving on the Board of Directors for the Broward 
County Area Agency on Aging for 26 years. She served as president in 
1984, 1985, and 2003.
  On January 12th, family, friends and city employees gathered at St. 
Bartholomew Catholic Church to say goodbye to Vicki Coceano and to 
celebrate her life. We will all remember her for years to come through 
wonderful memories and the indelible mark she has left on our 
community.

                          ____________________