Who Are the Highest-Paid Miami-Dade County Employees?

Here's a list of the 25 highest-paid Miami-Dade County employees as of July 2025.

September 8, 2025

Image: Miami-Dade County mayor Daniella Levine Cava speaks at the 2021 State of the County.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava delivers the 2021 State of the County. She doesn't even get a whiff of this list. Photo by Miami-Dade County

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Who earns the biggest piece of the public salary pie in Miami-Dade County?

In many other municipalities, it might be the mayor or perhaps the top cop, or at least that's what one might suspect. But that's not the case here. Instead, county data on employee pay shows that the majority of the county's most well-compensated employees are lawyers working in the County Attorney's Office — including the county's top-paid employee, who rakes in a staggering $205,000 more than Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. (The mayor, notably, cut her pay in 2020 from $250,000 to $200,000, and still wouldn’t come close to sniffing the top 25 either way.)

From attorneys to doctors to (spoiler!) more attorneys, here’s a quick rundown of the 25 highest-paid Miami-Dade County employees as of July 2025, ranked from the most massive paycheck to the slightly less gargantuan salary.

1. Geraldine Bonzon-Keenan, county attorney: $417,163
2. Jess McCarty, executive assistant county attorney: $405,984
3. Gerald Sanchez, first assistant county attorney: $405,984
4. Ralph Cutié, director of Miami-Dade Aviation Department: $392,765
5. Steve Bass, assistant county attorney: $381,866
6. Ken Pyatt, deputy director of Miami-Dade Aviation Department: $378,064
7. Jimmy Morales, chief operations officer for Miami-Dade County: $378,037
8. Roy Coley, director of Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department: $373,152
9. Eduardo Gonzalez, assistant county attorney: $369,483
10. Hydi Webb, CEO of PortMiami: $369,263
11. Debra Herman, assistant county attorney: $366,429
12. Kenneth Hutchins, chief medical examiner: $365,486
13. Bruce Libhaber, assistant county attorney: $364,348
14. David Murray, assistant county attorney: $363,951
15. Jorge Martinez-Esteve, assistant county attorney: $360,255
16. James Reyes, chief of public safety: $360,122
17. Bernardo Pastor, assistant county attorney: $358,409
18. Terrence Smith, assistant county attorney: $356,830
19. Lynda Slade Bendavid, assistant county attorney: $356,478
20. Marlon Moffett, assistant county attorney: $356,205
21. Namita Uppal, director of the Miami-Dade County Strategic Procurement Department: $353,628
22. Aileen Bouclé, executive director of Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization: $352,968
23. Junious Benjamin Mathis Jr., associate medical examiner: $350,524
24. Eric Rodriguez, assistant county attorney: $349,460
25. David Stephen Hope, assistant county attorney: $349,408

If you're curious about how much every city hall in Miami-Dade is shelling out in salaries, we’ve put together that list, too.

Alex DeLuca is a Miami New Times staff writer who focuses on news, crime, and public safety, education, and cannabis. Prior to joining New Times in June 2020, Alex worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel and freelanced for The Appeal. She holds a bachelor's degree from the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida.

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