After crash, top staffer out at Miami-Dade commission
A top staffer in the Miami-Dade Commission lost his job recently in the wake of a daytime car crash in Miami.
Alex Annunziato, legislative director to commission Chairman Esteban “Steve” Bovo, left his $88,000-a-year job for the District 13 commissioner Monday. Miami police had found him “passed out” at the wheel of a black Yukon SUV at 10:30 a.m. on Friday in a parking lot off Biscayne Boulevard, after Annunziato apparently collided with two unoccupied vehicles. He told police he didn’t remember what happened.
Faced with an unconscious Annunziato and a locked car, an officer smashed a window to get to him. A city dispatch record identified Annunziato’s SUV as a county vehicle.
On the first full workday after the incident, Bovo issued a curt directive ending Annunziato’s employment. In a memo to the personnel office, Bovo wrote that “effective immediately” Annunziato “will no longer be a part of District 13 staff.” Bovo declined to comment, beyond saying: “It’s a personal situation. And that’s it.” Annunziato did not respond to a request for comment.
The circumstances of the crash aren’t clear, and the Miami Police Department produced a redacted incident report Thursday. A police spokeswoman said the information was redacted on the grounds of medical privacy. Annunziato, 37, was cited for careless driving, according to the report, and taken to North Shore Hospital after the incident.
The news comes just weeks after Annunziato, a longtime Bovo staffer, saw his profile rise considerably with Bovo’s election as chairman of the 13-member board. Annuziato’s role was to manage legislation under Bovo, who was elected to the two-year chairmanship in late 2016.
Annunziato, a lawyer and former state trooper, helped write the Bovo-sponsored ordinance that legalized Uber last year. He also was active in the private legal discussions surrounding Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s recent change in county policy toward immigration detention requests, which will be reviewed by the commission Friday at a special meeting called by Bovo.
Miami Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 5:40 PM with the headline "After crash, top staffer out at Miami-Dade commission."