City manager celebrates 50 years working for Pembroke Pines, receives key to city
Pembroke Pines City Manager Charles Dodge remembers the growing pains of launching Broward County’s first senior center in the late 1970s.
The city, which he said had about 25,000 residents at the time, was mostly made up of retirees and struggled to keep up with a growing demand for elder resources, such as a shuttle bus to drive the seniors from their homes to the center.
“The mayor at the time says, ‘Charlie, we love what you’re doing, but we can’t afford $10,000 on a bus,” the city manager said, recalling a 1978 commission meeting. “Unbeknowst to me, I think about 200 seniors showed up. There were seven commissioners at the time telling me they couldn’t do it. At the end of the day, all seven of them voted in favor of that bus.”
Dodge, who said he’s never recieved a “no-vote” on requests for seniors since, has an “amazing sixth sense of knowing everything that’s going on,” according to Mayor Angelo Castillo.
It’s one of his many qualities city officials and Pines locals lauded him for during a 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15 commisison meeting at Pembroke Pines City Hall, where he was surprised with a key to the city for his 50th work anniversary.
“It was a beautiful moment, and he couldn’t have been more gracious,” Castillo added. “Fifty years later, he hasn’t lost one bit of his ability to manage our city effectively on a day-to-day basis, and we’re very lucky to have him still.”
Dodge, 78, has lived in Broward County since 1972, though he originally hails from Worcester, Massachusetts.
His first jobs were as a mathematics teacher in Miami Shores and a social worker at the Economic Opportunity Coordinating Group of Broward County, where he coordinated job opportunities for high school graduates and senior citizens.
His career with the City of Pembroke Pines began in 1975, just 15 years into the municipality’s incorporation//start, as its community services director.
The role saw him usher in Broward County’s first senior citizen center in 1976, which took over the then-vacant, former City Hall on Southwest 13th Street and Southwest 67th Way. The center took on several lives — it moved to different locations and added perks including food services, activities and a housing program next door — before becoming the city’s prized Southwest Focal Point Community Center.
“At the time, I felt that there were no services available to them, especially some of the more elderly ... They didn’t really have any socialization programs,” Dodge said. “[Now] they have 500, 600 people who attend the center every day.”
He was appointed city manager in 1989, three years shy of the area’s biggest boom to date.
After Hurricane Andrew tore through Miami-Dade County in 1992, thousands flocked to the South Broward city, more than doubling its population in less than decade and also increasing the area’s need for wider roads, more parks, greater public safety efforts and extra schools. Today, Pembroke Pines is Broward’s second largest city, touting over 171,000 residents.
“Fifty years of work, and every day has been something new,” the city manager said. “There’s always a problem that has to be resolved. Finding strategies in a positive way to make things happen, I’ve always taken that as a challenge and have enjoyed it.”
Castillo said Dodge is famous at City Hall for “pulling a rabbit out of his hat,” having served in mutiple positions over the years — including code enforcement director, city clerk and assistant city manager — while doubling as the superintendent of the city charter school system, which he helped open in 1998.
“Crisis after crisis, issue after issue, hardship after hardship, in good times and bad ... You know, he’s remarkable that way,” the mayor said.
Dodge’s tenure has also seen him lauded with honors such as the Director’s Community Leadership Award from the FBI’s Miami division, the christening of a 35,000-square-foot city center in his name and a member spot on various public service boards across South Florida.
But his favorite role over the years, he added, has been that of a family man.
“I am a husband, I have children, I have grandchildren, and my focus is to enjoy every minute of time that I can spend with them,” Dodge said.
This story was originally published October 16, 2025 at 4:42 PM.
