Despite issues with labor, blacks, he gets a key No. 2 post
When Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales said early last month that he was leaving the city for greener pastures, he claimed he didn’t have another job option. But Ladra and many others didn’t believe him.
Nobody leaves a $306,000-a-year job with nothing in hand, and it was only a month before the election that would see a fellow Democrat, Daniella Levine Cava, elected mayor. Many political observers whispered that he was ready to join her administration.
On Monday, la Alcaldesa made him Chief Operating Officer, overseeing water and sewer; transportation and public works; regulatory and economic resources; Miami International Airport and the seaport; parks, recreation and open spaces; solid waste management and elections.
Read related: Miami Beach manager Jimmy Morales resigns to pursue political voice, more
“Our community faces urgent infrastructure and operations challenges including the need to connect all corners of our county with reliable, efficient public transportation, and upgrading our water system to withstand the impacts of climate change and sea level rise,” Levine Cava said in a statement.
“Jimmy Morales brings forward-thinking leadership and nearly 25 years of experience in public service and city operations – in both elected and appointed roles at the County, and diverse cities from Doral to Miami Beach – to help us tackle these challenges and build a more resilient Miami-Dade for the 21st century,” she added.
There was no mention of the employee and labor issues, nor the terrible race relations under his tenure in Miami Beach, nor all the political hatchet jobs he allowed or performed for former Mayor Phil Levine.
The Communications Workers of America Local 3178 — which represents close to 400 employees, mostly lifeguards and 911 dispatchers — rented a billboard truck and sent mailers out to residents in 2018 after they were denied the same raises as other city employees for three years.
Read related: Miami Beach workers take on City Manager Jimmy Morales on raises
And earlier this year, the NAACP asked Morales and the police chief to retire after yet another clash with black visitors, this time spring breakers in March. This addition to Team Daniella’s administration is not going to be welcomed by everybody. Already there was a bit of resistance on Twitter.
“The culture of excessive force & police brutality that was fostered under the leadership of Jimmy Morales is not what we want to permeate in ANY of our county departments,” the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP tweeted after they learned of the appointment.
Morales, a onetime county commissioner (1996-2004) who ran for mayor unsuccessfully against Carlos Alvarez, will start the week of Dec. 14, he told his current bosses in an email Monday. This is waaaaay before the February date he put in his resignation letter, which means the Beach is pressed to name an interim at their very next commission meeting.
“I am surprised Jimmy Morales is now announcing he’s leaving in December after telling us last month he would stay until February and specifically said he was not leaving to accept another job offer,” Commissioner Michael Gongora told Ladra. “Now the commission will be challenged to appoint an interim city manager at our Dec. 9 meeting while we continue to work towards finding a permanent replacement.”
Morales had just extended his contract for four years in March of 2019. In addition to a salary increase — he was making $255K when he was hired in 2013 — he got an increase in retirement contribution, from $7,000 to as much as the IRS allows, and an increase in car allowance to $800 a month.
Gongora said he would like the next city manager to live in the city. “And be part of our community,” he added. Morales lives in Coral Gables.
Read related: Beach manager Jimmy Morales gets 4-year contract, more money
“I wish Jimmy well and am confident he will excel as a part of Miami-Dade County Mayor Levine Cava’s administration,” Gongora told Ladra.
He’s not going to be out of Beach issues completely.
“One of the attractions of this new post is that I can continue to work with city leadership on many issues of importance given the portfolio I will be overseeing, including the beach, public transportation, traffic and pedestrian/bicycle safety, resiliency, environmental issues (including the health of Biscayne Bay) and elections,” he told Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and commissioners in his email sent at 5:31 p.m. Monday.
The city manager did not return a call and text from Ladra. But his comment on the mayor’s press release indicates he is most excited about resiliency work.
“In my tenure as Miami Beach City Manager, I pushed our community to invest in critical infrastructure projects, like creating a resiliency and stormwater management program to prepare us against sea level rise, constructing the first LEED certified buildings built by the City, and developing approximately 20 acres of new parks and green space,” Morales said n his statement.
“Mayor Levine Cava has a bold agenda to deliver on our community’s most pressing priorities, like expanding transit and making sure Miami-Dade plays a leading role in addressing climate change,” he added. “I’m thrilled to start a new chapter as part of her team.”
In his resignation letter, however, he said he said he wanted to “re-engage with the world in a way that I simply cannot do right now” because his job is “truly all-consuming.” He wants to “reconnect with my many community interests that have taken a back seat these past seven plus years, including supporting our local national parks, advocating for the autism community and supporting public education at all levels.
“For the record, I am not leaving to accept another job offer. This is more about chasing my next adventure in life while I am still young enough to do so,” Morales wrote. “I have always wondered what it might be like to teach at a university, run a large not-for-profit or community organization, work at an investment banking firm, work at a different level of government or perhaps even explore my entrepreneurial side.”
Read related: Another Beach employee loses job to Mayor Philip Levine
Hmmmm. A “different level of government.” Was that a hint?
Yet, he also said he wanted to reconnect with his “political voice,” which he couldn’t do as a city manager.
“As a city manager, I am always very careful that my personal political and community agendas never prejudice the city in any way. Given the incredible issues that have come up during this 2020, not the least of which is addressing existential issues like climate change, pandemics and systemic racism, I feel the need to regain my voice and use what I have learned in my many years of service at the local level to perhaps influence a broader regional, state and federal agenda,” Morales wrote.
Won’t that need prejudice the county in some way? Will that voice have to be silenced again? And isn’t the COO job at Miami-Dade “all-consuming”?
Neither Gelber nor Commissioner Ricky Arriola returned calls, texts or emails from Ladra.
Morales has been the Beach manager for eight years. Prior to that he was the city attorney in Doral and, earlier, Marathon. Prior to that he was a commissioner in District 7.
The scuttlebutt is that he is pushing for the commission to make Assistant City Manager John Mark Taxis the interim. Las malas lenguas say Taxis wouldn’t get the permanent post.
Jimmy Morales leaves Miami Beach early for Miami-Dade and La Alcaldesa added by Ladra on
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