Miami CFO Larry Spring resigns from city job — for a private sector gig?

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Miami Assistant City Manager Larry Spring, the city’s chief financial officer, has submitted his resignation and will be leaving the city’s employ — for the second time — in about two weeks.

“As you know, over the last three years, I have genuinely enjoyed the opportunity to be back with my City of Miami family serving the residents,” Spring wrote in his June 19 resignation letter to City Manager Art Noriega. “Under your leadership we were able to achieve a great deal of progress and help position the City for prolonged success and financial stability.

“Thank you for the opportunity to come back. You will never know what it meant to me both personally and professionally.”

The resignation is effective July 18. His salary and benefits were more than $260,000 a year when he was hired in 2022 to oversee seven departments: Finance, grants administration, housing and community development, management and budget, procurement, risk management, and real e90state and asset management.

Spring thanked his colleagues, Mayor Francis Suarez and all the commissioners, ending with something that might hint to what he’s doing next: “Don’t worry, I am not leaving Miami, you will see me again!” 

In what capacity, however? Las malas lenguas say that Spring has left to take a job with a private entity that does have some connection to the city. Say, like, the Watson Island developers or Miami Freedom Park. Or maybe the Miami Riverbridge project, a mixed use complex approved by voters in 2022 that aims to transform the riverfront with three residential towers.

Or is it all the financial audits and investigations that have him running for the hills? Or is it that he can’t stand at the podium one more time and try to talk sensually while Commissioner Joe Carollo rants on in a delusional haze?

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In April, Spring moderated a panel titled “Public-Private Partnerships” at the city of Miaim’s Economic Innovation and Development Department’s Opportunity Zone Summit at the Frost Museum of Science. The panel featured Debra Sinkle Kolsky, President and Owner of Redevco, a South Florida-based real estate firm; Chris Hodgkins, Chairman of Miami Tunnel, the entity behind the city’s transformative port infrastructure project; and lobbyist Neisen Kasdin, Co-Managing Partner of Akerman LLP’s Miami office, a leading law firm specializing in urban development. They discussed how PPPs can drive “impactful projects,” that can benefit community experiences in retail, infrastructure, and urban redevelopment.

“Opportunity zones and public private partnerships are critical to meeting the needs of the City of Miami,” Spring said.

Spring — who worked in the city from 2007 to 2011 — was rehired by Noriega in April of 2020 as a $25,000-a-month financial consultant to assist with Miami’s economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named the chief financial officer in 2022, a position he left 11 years earlier — amid the investigation that eventually found one of his employees had hidden the city’s dire financial situation and basically lied to bond investors.

Spring was never charged, and he said he helped the SEC by testifying during the investigation. But it was around the same time that he let his Richmond Heights home be foreclosed.

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He also worked as North Miami’s city manager for about four years from 2016 to 2020, when he was fired. He left the city with a severance package that included 32 weeks’ pay and a $45,000 SUV. Spring also worked some time as an executive director of “productivity and decision support” at Jackson Health Systems. He has served as vice president/controller of Total Bank and executive director of the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency.

Since 2011, Spring has also continued to be managing director of, and the only principal listed for, Achievement Consulting Group, a consulting firm that specializes in real estate development, government relations, and financial consulting services. Some of the most notable include the development of Perez Art Museum, Frost Museum of Science, Miami Marlins Baseball Stadium, the Miami Port Tunnel, Midtown Miami Development in Miami, and the Sole-Mia Development in North Miami. Spring also led the bond financing process that funded nearly $1 billion in public infrastructure.

The corporation has remained active as he’s held the No. 2 position in the city administration.

Spring says he holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Tulane University and is a licensed CPA — but in the state of Georgia, not in Florida. According to the city’s website, he has served on several civic and nonprofit boards including the Miami Foundation, Miami Parking Authority, and the Universal Truth Community Development Corporation.

Efforts to reach him and manager Noriega Monday were not successful. But it wouldn’t be the first time a city employee finds a golden umbrella at work. Former City Attorney Victoria Mendez, who was fired last year, cultivated relationships with outside counsels, especially the one that hired her so she can continue working for Carollo and on other city cases.

Who wants to bet Noriega is next?

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  Art Noriega, Larry Spring, Miami politics