Carlos Rendo: An American Story
Mayor Carlos Rendo was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba in 1964 and fled the communist nation for the United States with his family as a young boy.
First arriving in Miami, Florida and then settling in Union City, New Jersey in search for a better life, Carlos’ father worked as a janitor and his mother worked on a factory assembly line as a proud member of the the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Growing up, Carlos and his parents lived on 12th and 8th Streets and were instantly embraced by Union City’s strong and vibrant Cuban-American community. He attended public schools – Thomas A. Edison Elementary School and Emerson High School – in Union City, and worked summers loading trucks to make extra money to support his family. He became the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Rutgers University in New Brunswick with a degree in political science and Temple University Law School in Philadelphia.
In 1996, Carlos moved to West New York and worked as the city’s planning board attorney, where he helped guide the community through a complex $800 million waterfront redevelopment project. He married his wife, Michelle, in 1997 and moved to Woodcliff Lake in 2000 to raise a family. Today, Carlos is a partner in North Jersey law firm of Mulkay and Rendo, P.C., where he specializes in family and immigration law.
In what he calls the proudest and most patriotic day of his life, Carlos became an American citizen in 1984 at the height of the Reagan Revolution. Inspired by Reagan’s message of limited government, personal freedom and blue collar values, Carlos has been active in the Republican Party ever since.
In 2013, Carlos was elected to the Woodcliff Lake Borough Council, and rose to Council President in 2015. In 2016, he became the first Latino elected Mayor in Woodcliff Lake’s history. Throughout his tenure in Woodcliff Lake, Carlos has worked in a bipartisan fashion to control taxes and government spending, preserve open space, reform affordable housing policy and make government more transparent. Under his leadership, taxes in Woodcliff Lake have remained under the 2% property tax cap.
Like Kim Guadagno, who is known for giving out her cell phone number to stay accessible to the people of New Jersey, Carlos gave out his phone number when running for mayor and has remained accessible to residents ever since. He began the practice of televising council meetings and also launched the popular “council-to-the-community” monthly meetings to gather direct feedback and input from residents about ways to improve Woodcliff Lake.
Carlos and his wife, Michelle, reside in Woodcliff Lake and can usually be found shuffling their three children, Christian (15), Daniel (13) and Sophia (8), back and forth from dancing school or baseball games.
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