The Coral Gables Commission will meet for a special meeting this afternoon to name an interim city manager after the abrupt resignation last week of Pat “My Way or the Highway” Salerno when he was apparently caught in a lie that he basically didn’t want to have to explain.
But Assistant City Manager Carmen Olazabal, who might be a natural option in any normal scenario, may not be the obvious choice here.
Either because she is a relatively inexperienced administrator who is — like everyone else in the city — not really in the loop on important municipal matters or because she is too much of an apologist for Salerno, part of the same problematic administration, city sources say that there are other people being more seriously considered.
And cbief among those are the two former assistant city managers — Dona Lubin Spain, who was sorta exiled to Historic Preservation after Salerno ran her out of town, and Maria Menendez (formerly Alberro Gimeenz) who got a new job as assistant city manager in Pinecrest to match her new name. Both have institutional knowledge and Ladra has it that either would be amenable to it. Of the two, however, Spain seems to be getting the most traction. She still works for the city and is as apolitical as they come, I am told.
Olazabal might be a very nice girl. But she is just way too fresh, many agree.
She joined the city in 2010, having previously been assistant director of the Miami Beach Building Department… hey, wait a minute. Isn’t that the department full of problems that led to the arrests of employees in 2012? Why, yes, it is.
She became assistant director of development services in 2012 and was promoted to assistant city manager for operations in March of 2013 and there are rampant scurrilous allegations of how she got there. Get your mind out of the gutter, people. I know the City Beautiful has a hot, steamy history, but this time it has something to do with her time at B&Z and the residential property that Salerno eventually purchased in the city on Anderson Road (more on that later; Ladra has filed a public records request).
Anyway, the overall sentiment is that she is not the person for the job and, if the commission wants to have a fresh, unbiased transition in that office, that sentiment may be right.
That’s why Ladra wants to suggest former county manager Merrett Stierheim, who is known for serving as an interim manager in cities rocked by scandal or financial strife — Miami, Doral, Miami Lakes. He even did a three-year stint as the superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools.
Stierheim, who lives in nearby Pinecrest, can parachute right in and not waste any time getting up to speed. One meeting with department heads and commissioners, individually, and he can steer the ship while the commission searches for a permanent replacement, which is likely to be a national search.
And, most importantly, Stierheim has no political agenda — except maybe wanting to leave a legacy as the man who saved the cities from themselves.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way.
Gables commission meets to appoint interim city manager added by Ladra on
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