Gables new city manager fave: Yvonne Soler-McKinley

Coral Gables could name a new city manager very soon, and while there are five finalists, sources tell Ladra there is only one that has the inside track.

My money is on Former Doral and South Miami City Manager Yvonne Soler-McKinley, who, sources say,was among the very first names floated to Ladra when Pat Salerno resigned back in April. Word is, Soler-McKinley got a phone call from some city leaders, maybe a commissioner, even before they hired a professional recruiting firm to find someone.

At the time, she was finishing the remodel of her new condo on Biltmore Way, two walking blocks to City Hall.

There are four other finalists, including Miami Parking Authority CEO Arthur Noriega and Miami Lakes Town Manager Alex Rey. The two others being considered are James Beard, Atlanta’s chief financial officer, and Pieter Bockweg, executive director of Miami’s Omni, Midtown & Overtown Park West CRAs. They were culled from a shortlist of 15 brought to the commission last month by recruiter Colin Baenziger, who also recommended Salerno five years ago. A citizens’ advisory committee met with eight of those for the preliminary interview and now five are moved on to the commission.

The city has been searching for a new city manager since Salerno abruptly resigned — after he was caught lying to the commission about a safety issue on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Commissioners moved with lightning speed to get a recruiting firm and to name an advisory committee for the task.

But Ladra thought they wanted to go to the private sector more and find a professional manager, not a bureaucrat from somewhere else.

If McKinley is chosen, Ladra is not sure, but I think she would be the first Hispanic city manager and the first female city manger of Coral Gables.

Meanwhile, like she sees the writing on the wall, Interim/Assistant City Manager Carmen Olazabal, who has been filling the post in the meantime and who many believe has been acting as a defacto puppet for Pat, wants to keep the extra 10 percent in salary she got when she got the interim position.

And there’s a very proposal for that on the agenda for today’s meeting at City Hall.

One might think that would be a difficult thing for her to get. The justification for the salary increase, after all, was that she would have an increase in her responsibilities and her workload. But this is municipal government. Mayor Jim Cason has now come up with a slew of reasons why Olazabal deserves to keep this 10% merit increase, as described in the resolution amending her interim manager agreement.

Olazabal’s work with the “tree succession plan, Bike Master Plan, RFP preparation for Garage 1 and 4, Teamster Union Contract, FOP Union Contract, Trolley Building settlement and Miracle Mile Streetscape Project — you know, that extra workload and responsibilities she was going to have — is the reason she should get paid the extra 10 percent, the resolution states.

Actually, those things are the reason she got paid the extra 10 percent since May. Past tense. Past projects.

Besides, Olazabal’s salary or the pension she gets to leave with should be something that the commission leaves up to Yvonne, er, I mean whoever the new city manager is to decide for herself, er, I mean themself.

Because Ladra has another bet: Olazabal’s days are numbered.

Coral Gables, Pat Salerno, Yonne Soler-McKinley

Gables new city manager fave: Yvonne Soler-McKinley added by Ladra on August 26, 2014
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