Beach manager Jimmy Morales gets 4-year contract, more money

Beach manager Jimmy Morales gets 4-year contract, more money
  • Sumo

Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales will likely get a four-year contract extension at Wednesday’s meeting and a salary increase to $305,736.

In a move that is largely a rubber stamp vote, Morales — who was hired in 2013 for $255,000 a year — will also get an increase in retirement contribution, from $7,000 to what the IRS allows, an increase in car allowance to $800 a month.

But he may also have to deliver on several beach projects since, for the first time, there seem to be goals and objectives attached.

Read related: Jimmy Morales contract extended at ‘secret’ meeting, raise coming

It’s a rubber stamp move because the city commission already discussed this in secret at a committee of the whole meeting last month. The only commissioner to dissent then was Michael Gongora, who did not like the secretive way the contract extension was pushed.

Why this had to be discussed first at a meeting that has no real public notice and no real public participation, at a meeting in the manager’s conference room rather than the public commission chambers, is beyond anyone’s comprehension. As is why this was added to the agenda at the last minute.

Ricky Arriola, who chairs the finance committee and was charged with negotiating the terms, sponsors the resolution, which was added to the agenda late Tuesday in what seems like yet another attempt to get this passed with as little public input as possible.

The contract comes with a goals and objectives that basically amount to a list of deadlines: the Beach Walk, Lincoln Road renovations and the convention center hotel within three years, city automation and electronic filing of permits within two years, and significant progress on Bay Walk and the North Beach Town Center, among other projects.

Some of the deadlines are in four years — which is at the end of the contract.