Miami’s Mayor-Elect Eileen Higgins has barely picked out her office chair and she’s already doing something unheard of in the Magic City: surrounding herself with grown-ups. Competent ones. With résumés.
On Friday, Higgins announced her incoming chief of staff and the transition team that will guide her first 100 days — and, folks, Ladra did a double take. No campaign cronies, no political strays, no future defendants. Not a primo in sight.
Instead, she’s surrounding herself with people who actually know how to run things. Which, after the Carollo-Sarnoff-Suarez clown car years, feels almost radical.
Read related: Eileen Higgins goes into Miami City Hall with a fire extinguisher and a smile
The new chief of staff is the old chief of staff, Higgins’ longtime right hand at the county, Maggie Fernández, otherwise known 
as the adult in the room. If you know how the commissioner operated at the county — quietly competent, forward-thinking, very un-Miami — Maggie is a big part of that.
Fernández isn’t just another insider. She’s a fixer, the good kind — the one who makes government work without needing her name on anything.
Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she has nearly 30 years of experience across local government, sustainability, public policy, and community engagement. She knows capital projects. She knows climate resilience. She knows public works. And most importantly in this city, she knows how to wade into the bureaucratic swamp without drowning or coming out smelling like, well, swamp.
Fernández says she plans to bring “energy and joy” to City Hall. Ladra will happily settle for “competence and no FBI raids.” But joy sounds nice, too.
The other big news is that Carlos Migoya will be among her advisors. The head Jackson Health has 40 years of banking experience before that and was the Miami city manager from late 2009 to early 2010, swooping in to fix a major budget crisis, 
balancing the city’s books by cutting costs and reorganizing. But he is not a hero to labor unions, who have protested his cuts at the nations’s largest public hospital many times.
Migoya, who makes more than $800,000 a year as Jackson’s chief executive office, is coming to help the new mayor for free, as is the rest of the volunteer advisory team.
Higgins has said she wants to do a wide search for the next top dog in Miami, even though las malas lenguas keep saying that Miami-Dade Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales or former transit and public works director Alice Bravo are going to get the post.
Read related: Furloughs proposed, then scrapped at Jackson in the midst of COVID19
The rest of the transition team is not that expected but still very un-Miami-looking. It’s a who’s who of people who make Miami run — not the ones who usually run Miami into the ground.
Let’s look at the roster:
- Gepsie Morisset-Metellus — the Haitian community’s North Star, co-founder of Sant La, admired across all neighborhoods and political lines.
- Jose Bermudez — business and government affairs pro (lobbyist) with influence across construction, banking, and policy shops. He was also special assistant to Gov. Rick Scott in his first term, special advisor to former Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer. In 2018, he was appointed managing director of Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’ inaugural team. In this role, he organized and executed events in advance of the January 2019 Florida gubernatorial inauguration. He may be the biggest surprise.
- Matt Haggman — innovation evangelist, former Knight Foundation Miami director, and one of the people who helped make “tech in Miami” mean more than “a guy on Brickell with a laptop.”
- Terry Murphy, Ph.D. — ethics and good-government whisperer and longtime OIG veteran. If Higgins wants to clean up the swamp, Doctor Murphy knows which mop to use where. Alcaldesa, he’s a keeper.
- Marta Viciedo — planning, transit, resilience expert and the civic brain who helped create the Better Bus System — which some love and some hate — when nobody else had the guts.
- Michele Burger — Miami Beach operative, policy planner, and climate brain who’s worked on everything from culture to infrastructure.
- Rebecca Fishman Lipsey — president of The Miami Foundation and philanthropy powerhouse, responsible for shaping half the city’s nonprofit ecosystem.
- Tina Brown — Overtown champion and CEO of OYC Miami, who tripled program reach and built a massive community facility without drama, indictments or ribbon-cutting scandals.
This isn’t a political reward board. This is a governance team. Yes, Miami, we are all adjusting. This is a different kind of mayor for a very tired city.
Higgins keeps repeating that her goal is simple: “Get City Hall working for the people of Miami.” Sure, lots of people say that.
But Higgins is backing it up by forming an advisory circle of people who know how to read budgets, manage projects, and look at ethics as something other than a punchline.
Read related: La Gringa Eileen Higgins makes history with Miami mayoral election victory
After years of chaos — commissioners screaming at each other, secret deals, FBI subpoenas, public records games, personal vendettas, the whole enchilada — Miami voters finally chose someone who ran on boring competence.
And guess what? She’s delivering boring competence. Miami might not know what to do with this.
Higgins says her transition team will shape a “bold, practical agenda” focused on affordability, public safety, infrastructure that 
doesn’t crumble in the rain, and a government that’s transparent, ethical, and responsive.
Honestly, the bar is so low at City Hall right now she could trip over it.
But if Higgins pulls this off, Miami might actually see a City Hall that fixes things without drama — instead of breaking things with drama.
With Maggie Fernández as Chief of Staff and this transition crew behind her, Higgins seems poised to run a grown-up operation — the total opposite of the last generation of mayors who treated the city like their personal group chat.
Is Ladra skeptical? Always. It’s part of the charm.
But this lineup is serious. Competent. Not for show.
And maybe — maybe — Miami finally voted in a mayor who intends to govern instead of grandstand.
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What’s Higgins position on the illegal demolition of the Coconut Grove Playhouse which she approved as County Commissioner. If she’s ok with breaking the laws on that issue, what other laws is she ok with violating?
Tina Brown is dynamic; however, I hope she includes ” transition associates” from the Overtown Community to her listening circle. Transition Associates are those people who were not chosen to sit as a member of the transition team but can and will provide deeper counsel for the person who is on the Mayors Transition Team. Important to avoid being perceived as a gatekeeper.
”Miami corruption appears to be permanent. Corrupt Manny Diaz followed 8 years later by the Baby Francis and now… Higgins…”
As an interloper so take my opinion as just that , you NEVER win in Miami politics you simply do not lose as badly .
I base this on where I grew up further North in the state and you do win , things get done , there is accountability .If anyone here disagrees with this interloper let me know as I have been wrong before .
More bad news. There is a rumor Eileen Higgins is going to hire another lobbyist. Yup, we hear Higgins is going to force the taxpayers to pay for the lobbyist Alice Bravo. Miami corruption appears to be permanent. Corrupt Manny Diaz followed 8 years later by the Baby Francis and now… Higgins…
Other than her Chief this list is very unimpressive and very little says oh wow good things to come.
And Morales or Bravo? Lets get someone not interconnected with the machine.. I would rather have someone with less experience and more there for the community than long time Dade bureaucratic. Find a smaller city manager or someone completely different. The title is enough to open any doors, we want fresh faces and fresh ideas, and not connected with the machine people. We want someone who the local lobbyist say, who is that? Not oh yea he is great.
Bring out the popcorn, this one looks to be fun! From the outside, but my heart will always be part 305. Main question is will the little city that could grow up to maturity or fail to crest that HILL and continue its decline like too many others, or most others sadly…yum yum sip
Did Christian Ulvert order Higgins to hire all these losers? Who is in charge?
Michele Burger is a lobbyist. She is a partner with LSN Partners, one of the sleaziest lobbying firms in Florida. Higgins forcing Miami taxpayers to hire lobbyists like Burger? What message is Higgins sending? Can Emilio Gonzalez request a Recall?
Higgins hired Gepsie Metellus? Why?
Higgins new hires are getting a F rating.
Failing. Higgins wants lobbyists, unprepared dupes and corrupt Haitian poverty pimps? WTF
Will Higgins fire or promote Art Noriega? Noreiga and Francis Suarez were quarterbacks for the corruption the last 8-9 years.
This is terrifying people. How can your framing be so off from what literally everyone is gasping about? Some of them are nice people on the surface. But with the skyscrapers planned, the double density, the fire sale of property, the weaponization of government- the massive failures at the County. And the unbelievable and unsustainable density increase city wide with no impact studies whatsoever- this team is woefully unprepared. There is not a real city planner, data scientist, environmental scientist or true subject matter expert in sight. Many career bureaucrats though. Miami Beach is sinking under the weight of their development, And Miami is too. Miami Dade County is overtaxing and over budget riddled with scandal, waste and inefficiency. With new service rollouts mired in inefficiencies. And the answer to that is: Build, build, build. Ok – but this is the team to do it? People wanted an audit, they wanted to end overdevelopment, they wanted an end to corruption,they wanted impact studies, accountability – scientists, city planners etc they wanted a city that worked. This does not instill confidence- people are even more scared. It’s basically nicer bureaucrats. If in the Kingdom of the blind – the man with one eye is king – we just put a monocle on the one eyed man. Oh and where’s the outrage over the DeSantis/ Trump/ Gimenez guy as government relations?
Voters said loud and clear they wanted less crime, lower taxes and more affordable housing. Higgins just failed big time with this group of scammers she wants to hire. Will the Legal Dept do background checks? Why is Higgins ripping off taxpayers so fast? Hiring lobbyists? Didn’t Higgins learn anything from seeing Francis Suarez fail?
“There are only 50 Haitian registered voters in Miami.”
I know in Miami Haitians and Nicaraguans vote at a fraction of what they can vote at but that low ?
Nicaraguans are second biggest group behind Cubans as far as eligible to vote / citizens yet invisible as vast majority do not vote , do not bother even registering .
I’m giving Mayor Higgins the benefit of the doubt. Things could not be worse than they have been.
Gepsie Metellus already has a gig in North Miami. N. Miami is known statewide for crime and disfunction. A former North Miami Haitian woman who was Mayor and who was best buddies with Gepsie is in prison for mortgage fraud. Gepsie steers tax money to herself and to her friends. Why did Higgins think it was a good idea to hire this creep? Will Gepsie keep her North Miami gig too?
Well, well, well… Is there any kool-aid left or did you drink it all, Elaine? With the exception of Maggie Fernandez, who is excellent at what she does and I know personally, the rest is highly questionable and a couple of them are outright shady, to say the least. Let’s not kid ourselves: Higgins is in the pocket of many big donors and when payback time rolls along, a lot of things you are writing now will become part of the overall joke. Do not forget: the internet is forever.
City of Miami taxes and fees are too high. The real estate market is causing the price of older condos to drop. That means less revenue to Miami. DeSantis and the State might eliminate Property Taxes. That means less money to Miami. Higgins needs to start firing employees. Hiring a bunch of lobbyists with inflated pay and benefit packages looks like a continuation of the Suarez crime spree.
Michele Berger of LSN partners? Just about as shady as you can get. They are involved with numerous shady clients in Miami Beach and state preemptions. Oh hell no!
Gepsie Metellus is 100% for Haitians. No other group interests her. Why did Higgins hire Metellus? There are only 50 Haitian registered voters in Miami. Higgins needs to hire staffers who do not have a history of stealing from taxpayers.
Carlos Migoya. Isn’t Migoya about 80? When he was at the City of Miami he had an affair with a staffer. He is too old for that to happen now. Migoya and Higgins need to reduce the number of employees. And pay and benefit packages are definitely too high. Current City Manager Art Noriega was stealing money to buy overpriced furniture from his wife AND he gave himself a $500,000+ pay and benefit package. Noriega and ex-Mayor Francis Suarez were running an Ongoing Criminal Enterprise.
Gepsie Metellus is a corrupt stooge. She does not live or work in Miami and she has a 25 year history of scamming money from United States taxpayers to pay for her house in Miami Shores. If Higgins hired her then Higgins just hired a thief. She is a professional thief.