450th Commissioner: Katherine Fernandez Rundle

Since March 12, 1993, Katherine Fernandez Rundle has served Miami-Dade County as State Attorney. Ms. Fernandez Rundle’s series of being “The First” began in 1991 upon her election as the first woman president of the Miami-Dade’s Cuban American Bar Association.

Ms. Fernandez Rundle is also the first female Hispanic State Attorney in the history of Miami-Dade and in Florida’s history, having been appointed to the position and then subsequently re-elected to the office four additional times. Prior to that, she dedicated 15 years as an Assistant State Attorney. When she later served as Chief Assistant, she acted as legal counsel to the Dade County Grand Jury. As such, she presented hundreds of murder and capital cases and oversaw the issuance of reports that initiated major reforms in such areas as juvenile justice and revision of the building code following Hurricane Andrew. She received her degree from the University of Cambridge Law School, England.

Her strong leadership and devotion to preventing crime and the increased focus and successful prosecution of career criminals are hallmarks of her administration. Among her accomplishments, Ms. Rundle helped write and pass the Florida Punishment Code which eliminated the former sentencing guidelines formula and allowed judges to issue stronger sentences when the crime made such actions appropriate; she led the successful effort to pass the state constitutional amendment to give local governments the right to insure that gun sales at gun shows do not allow weapons to fall into the hands of criminals and juveniles; she has been a leader in creating programs to give the victims of crime greater accessibility to the criminal court system; and was instrumental in ensuring that Miami-Dade’s celebrated Drug Court became reality. She also successfully created a truancy intervention program that helped Miami-Dade’s school children avoid juvenile delinquency.

State Attorney Fernandez Rundle was a key partner in the creation of Miami-Dade’s Juvenile Assessment Center. This facility is intended to improve the working of our juvenile justice system by collecting sufficient information on juvenile offenders in order to develop better overall justice programming, better diversion programs and create effective juvenile sentencing alternatives for offenders. As a part of the Miami-Dade County Juvenile Crime Task Force, Kathy helped create a new pilot program aimed at juveniles who have been arrested with guns in their possession.

Congress established the St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 and charged it with ensuring a suitable national observance of St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary by complementing the programs and activities of the State of Florida and the City of St. Augustine. The members were appointed by U. S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar after considering the recommendations of the Mayor of St. Augustine, the St. Augustine City Commission, and the Chancellor of the University System of Florida, the Governor of Florida, and the Florida delegation in Congress.