Seat 2 - Steve Cody

Biography

Steve Cody was elected as Council Member from Palmetto Bay District 2 on November 3, 2020. Steve was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, and moved to South Florida at the age of one with his parents, his sister Kathleen and his brother William. After having moved from up north, the Codys added two additional daughters, Kelley and Sharon.

Steve attended Blue Lakes Elementary, Glades Junior High, and Southwest Miami High, graduating in 1975. He attended Florida State University and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in both English and Political Science in 1978.  He next attended law school at the University of Florida, receiving his Juris Doctor degree in 1981.  He joined the Florida Bar shortly after graduating. 

He moved into what would one day become Palmetto Bay with his wife Rita Maria Herrera-Cody and their three sons, Christopher, Michael, and Nicholas, in 1992, Daughter Ash Cody joined the family in 1994. The family has lived in the same house ever since.  Sadly, Rita passed away in July 2019 from complications following heart surgery after being with Steve for close to 41 years.

Upon graduating from law school, Steve took a position with the Florida House of Representatives as Legislative Aide to Rep. William E. Sadowski. After the end of the 1982 Session, Steve and Rita returned to Miami where Steve began to practice law.  During his legal career, Steve brought a number of memorable cases, including lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which changed the method of electing members of the Miami-Dade County Commission and the Miami-Dade County School Board. 

The Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the County, and the subsequent division of the County into 13 single-member districts, gave rise to a demand by areas like Key Biscayne and Aventura, and then Pinecrest, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Lakes, Miami Gardens, Doral, and Cutler Bay be allowed to form their own municipalities. That drive also led to the creation of Palmetto Bay. Steve often jokes that he is the “Godfather” of our Village because, without his devotion to that lawsuit for more than six years, Palmetto Bay and the other municipalities would never have been born.

Steve was also a commercial litigator whose clients included The Royal Bank of Canada, Rhode Island Hospital Trust, and Cessna Finance, among others. After venturing out on his own, Steve developed a specialty in mortgage foreclosure defense and even taught numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars on mortgage foreclosure topics. He also handled hundreds of cases brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act representing people with vision, hearing, and motion disabilities get access to government programs and commercial activities. 

Although a veteran of numerous political campaigns dating back to 1972, his run for Council Member from District 2 in 2020 was the first time he put himself forward as a candidate.