Miami airport gets a new boss —and he’s a familiar face in County Hall

Miami-Dade commissioners on Wednesday endorsed Mayor Carlos Gimenez's new slate of department heads — including a replacement for Aviation Director Emilio González, now Miami's city manager.

Gimenez turned to Lester Sola to run the Aviation Department, which is dominated by Miami International Airport but includes the county's executive airports, too. This is Sola's fourth tour as a department head, having run Elections, Internal Services and, most recently, Water and Sewer.

To replace Sola, Gimenez promoted Deputy Ports director Kevin Lynskey to be the new Water and Sewer chief. Lynskey is a veteran of county government as well, including posts within the Water and Sewer department. Gimenez said from the start he would not look nationally for a new Aviation director, and the mayor rarely performs national searches to fill vacancies.

Wednesday also was the formal approval of Daniel Junior as the director of the county's Corrections Department. Junior had been serving as interim director in 2016. Gimenez promoted him to be the permanent director, despite a 2004 arrest on domestic-violence charges against a woman who is now his ex-wife. Junior entered a diversion program and was not prosecuted. The incident first received media attention in 2016. Junior has worked in Corrections for the past 17 years.

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 5:54 AM with the headline "Miami airport gets a new boss —and he’s a familiar face in County Hall."