Dear Mayor Eileen Higgins,
Welcome to the City of Miami — where the skyline keeps climbing, but our fire trucks and patrol cars struggle to keep up. If anyone tells you the city’s public safety system is “just fine,” you might want to double-check. They’re not lying, exactly — they’re just reading from old talking points and omitting some embarrassing facts.
Let’s start with the fire rescue department, with more issues than you can shake a firehouse at.
Between 2014 and 2016, 240 firefighters retired — nearly a quarter of a department already stretched thin — and the city has been trying to catch up since. There are 55 vacancies right now, and the administration is quick to point out that the bulk of those — 44 of them — are new positions that were added to the department in the last budget in October. But they were added because the are necessary to keep up with growth. In addition to a population boom, the number of office workers who come to the city each day has grown significantly in the last 10 years.
That’s why the city commission approved two new units in this budget cycle. One already in place in Liberty City and another to start in March at Melreese, now Miami Freedom Park.
As the fire department struggled to keep up and the alarms kept ringing, the city approved more high-rises, SAPs, and density 
incentives like confetti at Art Basel, without making sure anyone could actually respond when the sprinklers went off.
Then there’s Brickell Fire Station 4, which was famously cleared out to make way for th 64-story Mercedes tower. The decision, approved under City Manager Art Noriega, wasn’t just about brick and mortar — it was about risk, judgment, and public trust. Especially since the developer had ties to real estate developer Alain Lantigua, who said he did the “zoning legwork” on the property, and later sold a home in Southwest Dade to Noriega and his wife. Coincidence? Okay.
Meanwhile, temporary fire stations are being treated as permanent. These are trailers and hangar structures for equipment on parking lots that are responding to emergencies. It’s like putting a band-aid on a broken leg and calling it a miracle.
Instagram-worthy? Absolutely. Life-saving? Debatable.
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These includes the temporary station 4, which will be included in the new Mercedes development once it is finished. There’s another 
station being built at the bottom of another high-rise, the one that’s in a trailer on another developer’s property — waiting for something to be done — since February of last year.
Las malas lenguas told Ladra that Higgins met with Hevia — who makes $290,000 a year — days before she was even sworn in, and the facilities were a main part of the conversation. This is good news.
At the police department, there are major building problems and a lingering rumor that this neglect is intentional so the city can sell the property to a developer. But what we know for sure is that staffing is top-heavy and bottom-light. Under Chief Manuel Morales, the department has sprouted more executive roles than a reality show reunion special: Executive Officer to the Chief, two Senior Sergeant at Arms, four assistant chiefs, 14 police commanders, 13 majors — and probably a Chief of Paperwork — all earning $200k+ each, according to a great story about top earners at the city in the Coconut Grove Spotlight this month.
Read related: Miami Police commander says Chief Manuel Morales is corrupt, unethical
Meanwhile, patrol officers and specialized units are running ragged, trying to cover streets, known drug areas 
and nightlife hotspots. It would be good for the new mayor to ask for the overtime figures.
Frontline readiness? Sacrificed. Administrative ego? Inflated. And Miami still calls this efficiency.
Then there are the promises that are quickly deferred (read: broken). Every SAP and rezoning came with gifts for the people called “public benefits”: new fire stations, substations, staffing, emergency-response upgrades. But most of these gifts? Santa apparently forgot to deliver. Delayed. Downsized. Relocated. Disappeared. Whatever means not gonna happen.
There is a vast lack of accountability. Case in point: For nearly week after he was termed out as mayor, and gave you the keys, Alcaldesa Higgins, there was still 24-hour police protection at his home on Battersea Road in Coconut Grove. The chief calls it “an oversight.” But there is no scenario where Morales — who became the chief as former Commissioner Joe Carollo played the theme from The Godfather — did not know this was happening.
This is the same guy accused of manipulating internal affairs investigations and retaliating against cops who don’t toe the line, according to a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2013.
Additionally, as Billy Corben pointed out in an Instagram video, there are six other supervisors between the chief — who makes $350,000 a year — and the three officers a day on patrol at the ex mayor’s house: A sergeant, a lieutenant, the commander of the district, the major, the assistant chief of uniformed personnel and the first assistant chief. That’s seven levels of accountability, including the chief — for a total of $1.5 million a year — that allegedly didn’t know three officers a day were still watching the Suarez home, as they have been for about five years.
Read related: Out-of-office Francis Suarez thought the Miami ‘protection’ cops were his to keep
If it’s really an oversight, then Morales doesn’t know what’s going on in his agency and needs to be shown the door. Somebody is going to get fired. And that’s where the proverbial buck stops.
Then there’s the political theater disguised as public safety. Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago — former Mayor Francis Suarez’s unofficial hype man — recently claimed he rode along with the Miami Police chief and/or assistant chief on “more than a dozen overnight raids,” involving hotels, drugs, and human trafficking (more on that later). Did he bring reports? Arrest data? Evidence? Of course not. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good selfie?
Human trafficking is not a social media prop. Drugs are not a punchline. Public safety is not a cameo role in a mayoral vanity project. Yet here we are.
Mayor Higgins, here’s your starter pack for cleaning up the circus:
- Audit every SAP and rezoning approval. Make sure fire stations and police substations weren’t just holiday decorations for
developers. - Check executive and administrative staffing. Are they chiefs of staff or chiefs of selfies? Ask the hard questions.
- Prioritize frontline readiness. Firehouses, patrol cars, ladder trucks — real stuff, not props. Temporary fixes are cute for Instagram, useless when the siren wails.
- Ban political ride-alongs used for narrative spins. Public safety is a service, not a campaign reel.
- Reassert oversight and transparency. No more backroom deals. No blurred lines between developers, city leaders, and critical safety infrastructure.
Alcaldesa, the glittering skyline may impress tourists, but without a capable police and fire force, Miami is just a pretty postcard with sirens in the background. Aligning development with the ability to protect life and property isn’t optional. It’s the most basic job of city leadership.
So trust your first responders, the people who actually answer the calls while everyone else tweets about them. Fund them. Staff them. Respect them.
And maybe, just maybe, stop letting political theater take the place of public safety.
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Miami’s public safety circus: A sardonic welcome to new Mayor Eileen Higgins added by Ladra on
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In the end, the most revealing detail wasn’t the hypocrisy—it was the speed.
Within days of taking office, before the rhetoric of reform had even cooled, the new mayor dispensed with process, transparency, and the very idea of merit. No national search. No public vetting. No pause to consider whether Miami might deserve better than a recycled political favor from the adjoining county’s prison system. . The decision was instant, instinctive, and unmistakably familiar.
This wasn’t a failure of judgment so much as a confession of allegiance.
The appointment confirmed what longtime observers of Miami politics have learned to recognize: campaigns change, slogans change, and candidates change—but the personnel rarely do. Power circulates within a closed ecosystem, where failure is not disqualifying and loyalty is endlessly rewarded.
That the story features two historic firsts—two women, mayors, elected on promises to break a male-dominated political culture—only sharpens the lesson. Miami’s good-old-boy system does not depend on men. It does not depend on ideology. It does not even depend on success. It survives by reproducing itself, office to office, election to election, indifferent to reformist language and immune to public embarrassment.
In that sense, the episode wasn’t an aberration. It was the machine working exactly as designed.
The only change is the pronouns.
Francis Suarez made so much as the No Show Mayor that he is upgrading his family home. He is leaving Miami. (Thank god). Moving into another city. Baby Mayor is leaving Miami and moving to South Miami into a $7.4 MILLION palace. Wow… please explain what steps Suarez took to increase his income and his Net Worth enough to qualify for a $7.4 Million house. His new property taxes will be $125,000 per year! His insurance will be $60,000+ per year. His personal trainer costs $36.000 per year. And the dude has a wife and kids…
Ladra,
There are plenty folks who need to looked at by Mayor Higgins and new City Manager Reyes.
Start off with the IT Director, who is not remotely qualified, the Treasurer, who comes in at 10am and then leaves at 4pm, the Procurement Director, who constantly is on vacation, and many more.
Reyes better surround himself with experienced individuals who know the City inside out.
”Taxpayers are being robbed. Police and Fire employees are overpaid”
Being a cop is not easy and damned if you do damned if you don’t HOWEVER countless not patrolling , BSing most if not all their shift is a grotesque amount of money thrown away .
I work at night till am and holidays since have no life , lol thus married men can celebrate with family and others with their GF and you clearly see drunk drivers a mile away especially Holidays to the point Jan 1 I leave work few hours after 3 am or it is suicide .
Police hanging out behind structures and not patrolling is standard here , they might have GPS on their cars but with no one in the hierarchy giving a damn that does not mean a thing.
Fire 60 percent of them give the other 40 percent a bonus .
As a current Officer, I will send the new City manager an email outlining all the crap the current chief is doing. Morale has never been so low. He has appointed people who should not even be cops, like both of his office do, boys. The deal with his current wife, who’s not even a city employee, is out of control. We are watching Manny.
Taxpayers are being robbed. Police and Fire employees are overpaid. Now Higgins appoints one of her campaign managers clients to replace corrupt Art Noriega. Higgins pick does not live in Miami. He never lived in Miami. He comes in with a terrible reputation. By the way, is the Police Chief still wasting 3-4 cops per day driving Suarez around?
Many City of Miami firefighters leave whenever the County opens up their hiring. MDFR is where all firefighters want to work, they have the best pension and highest pay across the board with paramedics with a HS degree after a decade can easily make $140K and even more when they work an extra day of over time each month. Then you have Lieutenants which make $170K, Captains and Chiefs get up over $200K. I think in Florida, only Miami Beach is the higher paying Fire department. So the City of Miami will be constantly losing fire fighters ever since they put in place their salary caps back when they need to balance the budget. Once a new City FF gets hired, they get their paramedic degree … they wait until the County opens up their hiring, because they get more test points when they have their Fire certification and their Paramedic license.
[…] Read related: Miami’s public safety circus: A sardonic welcome to new Mayor Eileen Higgins […]
Jamie Reyes is a corrupt stooge. He is another client of Christian Ulvert, the lobbyist. Incredibly unqualified. Voters just rejected him.
We at Miami Florida Need a CORRUPTION Investigation By DOGE . The MH has Made Better investigations than The Police, The Sheriff or The SAO But No Enforcement Power. What Ever Happened To The MIA Protocol Investigation By COE Investigators over one Year and The Funds Tread By Rebeca Sosa ?
Thank you, Ladra, for drawing attention to the firehouse situation.
Brickell Station #4 which was demolished to accommodate the construction of Mercedes Tower will not be back online for some years, maybe as many as 5. An update on the completion date from the developer would be nice.
The other Brickell fire station not mentioned is the unbuilt new station promised by Swire at Brickell City Center . It would be nice to know where that obligation lies as Swire exists the market.
Is Francis Suarez still getting 24/7 police security at his house? Who pays for the gas and a/c for the 3 police cars / Suburbans Suarez uses for 24/7 chauffeurs for him and his family? Is Suarez still stealing from taxpayers? Is Higgins approving this crime? Who pays for Suarez’s 5 day a week private trainer who shows up at Suarez’s house?
Brickell Fire Station #4? Let’s call that “permanently temporary.” Construction on Mercedes-Benz Places stalled out over a year ago. Minimal work was completed after the foundation pour and work stopped in March 2025. They got called out on Instagram, and then poured a bucket or two of concrete a week through the summer. They were also gifted a “temporary” takeover of Southside Park, one of the few open spaces in Brickell. When will we get that back?
Dear Mayor:
Please prohibit elected officials from outside the city—particularly mayors—from participating in department ride-alongs. Mayor Vinny L’ego’s recent appearance at your commission meeting to comment on the Southwest 8th Street hotels was not constructive; it was simply the latest stop on a personal revenge tour.
Mayor L’ego has more than enough issues to address in the City Beautiful: dirty sidewalks in need of pressure cleaning, excessive leaf blower noise, ice cream trucks blaring music, and other quality-of-life concerns that his own residents repeatedly raise. He has failed twice at annexation, and now, emboldened by a commission majority, he appears to be pursuing a personal agenda beyond his city limits.
His comments invoking human trafficking and the phrase “I am a father to two girls” ring hollow. They serve as rhetorical cover for what is really being advocated—high-rise development in that area. If he is genuinely concerned about women, he should begin by setting an example for his daughters on how women should be treated: with respect, professionalism, and integrity.
That work should start at home—within his own commission—before he attempts to lecture or influence policy across city lines.
The Alcaldesa Higgins must look into the staff of the fire chief. Fire response is more important than a bloated staff. This chief (with a lower case”c”) wants to surround himself with yes men.
Ask Manny Morales how they are deviating funds for more cops to buy more Tahoes and Suburbans for his overinflated staff. He needs to be fired.
You want embarrassment. The Chief’s wife works for a vendor and uses the Chief’s office to do business. She goes everywhere looking totally unprofessional. She even attends top-secret meetings with the staff. I am an active police officer, and we are sick of this administration. Please help new mayor.
The new Mayor should take a look at the automatic aid agreement between the City of Miami Fire and Key Biscayne Fire, the price for supporting services paid by the Village of KB has increased almost nothing compared to the cost of what Miami provides. Each community should stand on its own and not rely on their neighbors.
Let me give you a little gem of a story. The Executive Assistant to Chief Morales, whom they call the look-alike but just in a smaller size, was once arrested and fired. The union got him out of the hole. Ask for his file.
Good to see that Ladra is not a mindless cheerleader for Mayor Higgins. The new Miami City Mayor must be held accountable not only for police and fire protection, but also for the costs of public housing and public transport, and her other progressive policies.
[…] December 28, 2025 0 5 min read […]