Report: Miami City Manager Resigns Following Accusations of Fraud

Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez resigned today, just a few weeks after dodging a city commission bid to fire him. Commissioner Joe Carollo has accused Gonzalez of submitting a fraudulent permit application to renovate a deck in his backyard.

The Miami Herald reported this afternoon that Gonzalez has tendered his resignation.

The controversy began at a December 12 commission meeting when Carollo introduced a motion to fire the city manager. 

"The big deal isn’t that he put a 24'-by-24' deck in his backyard," Carollo said at the time, according to the Herald. "The issue is that as the city manager, he tried to hide it."

Carollo's motion narrowly failed, with three commissioners voting to fire Gonzalez and two against. (City code requires at least four votes to remove the city manager.) But the commission unanimously voted to allow the city's auditor general to investigate the matter.

Gonzalez wasn't present at the meeting and has not publicly responded to Carollo's accusations. He did not respond to an email from New Times today.

The business of the City is stopped because of an accusation that the City Manager submitted fraudulent surveys for the deck behind his home. So Yes, we now have a political deck measuring contest.

https://t.co/ysuCBz8qOO

— Ken Russell Miami (@kenrussellmiami) January 9, 2020

Gonzalez has served as city manager since 2018, having been nominated by newly elected Mayor Francis Suarez in late 2017. Carollo opposed the nomination at the time, saying the city should launch a national search.

Gonzalez was previously CEO of Miami International Airport and director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the George W. Bush presidential administration.

Staff writer Jerry Iannelli contributed to this report.