Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez resigned Thursday, trying to take the high road, rather than face a commission hell bent on having him fired and/or investigated in what looks like a vindictive smear job and power play, starring 
Commissioner Joe Carollo, who has been trying to fire him for months.
Is Ladra the only one having a déjà vu?
Twenty-two years ago, in 1998, then-City Manager Jose Garcia-Pedrosa was fired by then-Mayor Joe Carollo three times. The then city commission — including then Commissioner Tomas Regalado — supported Garcia-Pedrosa and overturned the decision twice. But the manager did not fight it the third time and asked the commission to let it go so the city could move on.
Fast forward to Thursday, when Gonzalez — who was denied a chance to defend himself from serious and “tawdry” accusations made while he was away at his wife’s bedside — submitted his resignation the day before his job and future were to be discussed at a special emergency meeting called after the last meeting ended abruptly, in a political cat fight, before it really started.
Read related: We get Joe Carollo in Miami — and all the drama, interest that comes with
In his resignation letter, Gonzalez said that he wanted to spend more time 
with his wife of 41 years, who is very ill. He cited achievements he was proud of — low tax and crime rates, high bond ratings — but he also made clear that he doesn’t have to put up with the political drama.
“Quite sadly, this city has entered a new era. Our city commission meetings have devolved into a circus,” Gonzalez wrote. “Policy discussions have given way to politics of personal destruction. As the city manager and more importantly a resident, I think it is best for our city if I remove myself from this spectacle.”
Mayor Francis Suarez — who brought Gonzalez with him when he was elected in 2017 precisely because the manager’s experience balanced with his youth — announced the resignation around the end of the day at a press conference in front of the city’s administrative building.
There was no effective date for Emilio’s exit and that open-ended part did not sit well with Carollo, who voted against Gonzalez when Suarez first hired him and has been trying to fire him almost every since. But the urge heated up after the word got out that Joe never really served in the military, though he let folks believe he did. He blames Gonzalez for tipping off the media on that and embarrassing him.
Carollo thought he got the support he needed to oust Gonzalez after his 
ally, former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, was elected commissioner in District 1 in November. Twelve days after ADLP was sworn in — while Gonzalez was on family leave tending to his sick wife — Carollo made a move to fire him on Dec. 12, saying that the manager had faked a permit to build a deck at his home. Manolo Reyes was already drinking the Kool Aid, and besides, he’s miffed that the manager doesn’t return his calls or give him the respect he wants. But Carollo needed four out of five votes and Commissioners Keon Hardemon and Ken Russell said they wanted to give the manager a chance to respond to the allegations that Gonzalez tried to cover up an unpermitted structure.
Read related: Recall effort vs Joe Carollo picks up after meeting meltdown
As a compromise — because Carollo is like a pitbull with his fetishes — they did vote to pass the allegations along to the inspector general to investigate.
Suarez, in another boneheaded move pointing to a one-term career, tried to 
block that investigation. And nobody even knows at this point if there is one. There certainly should be. Because nobody should be above the law. And if Gonzalez didn’t do it, he should be the first to welcome the scrutiny.
However, Carollo could very well be lying for political gain. It’s not like he’s new at it. Remember Doral? For Carollo, the end justifies the means. And isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that Crazy Joe got five code enforcement violations in May for work without permits at his Coconut Grove house? You know, the one he doesn’t live in (wink, wink)? Except Ladra does not believe in coincidences.
Last week, while Hardemon was away from the dais, Carollo and his two votes changed the order of the agenda. When Hardemon returned, he wanted, as customary, to hear presentations by Rodney Barreto, about the Super Bowl, and Gonzalez, about the allegations brought up in his absence on Dec. 12. It never happened. Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla would not let him even speak — the Dean even saying that Hardemon was “out of order” — and then DLP abruptly moved to adjourn, which Carollo seconded. Reyes, por supuesto, was the third vote.
Dean DLP immediately called an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the manager’s job and future as well as the keys to the city — and Ladra thinks they want to take it away from Pitbull, the artist, because he likes some Cuban 
musicians. Another déjà vu.
Carollo told TV cameras Thursday night that he wants Gonzalez gone immediately. He is not buying the “smooth transition” the manager and Suarez want. That, and the terms of the manager’s exit, may become the subject of the meeting Friday, though Gonzalez said he is not going to attend.
Read related: Doral: Joe Carollo fired amid shots at heated meeting
Gonzalez — who already has pensions from Miami-Dade, where he was 
director of the Miami International Airport, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he was director during the George W. Bush administration — will likely get a golden parachute in Miami. He makes $277,000-a-year and, as is custom, is expected to have his unused sick and vacation time (all 31 days a year) paid in a lump sum. But how many weeks will he get for severance? How much of the city’s $53,000 annual contribution to his retirement will he get for this year?
Ladra will bet, however, that he does not get the same deal that Larry Spring got when he was fired as manager from the city of North Miami Wednesday — getting 32 weeks pay, a 2020 GMC Yukon worth $45,000 and an iPad.
In Miami, Carollo will probably do an inventory of Emilio’s office. That is, if the locks haven’t been changed already.
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