Miami city manager orders embattled chief to submit reform plan, warns ‘follow my counsel’
Late in the day of Friday’s second day of attacks on the police chief, Miami City Manager Art Noriega tried to calm the assault by commissioners when he mentioned he’d met with the chief and ordered him to submit a policing plan by the end of work on Monday.
But the memo tied to that meeting reads more like a threat and shows how Noriega, who hired chief Art Acevedo and is his boss, has concerns more immediate than just keeping the city’s five commissioners and the police chief in order.
In the memo, Noriega questions department morale and how the community perceived the circus-like atmosphere in City Hall last week. He also worries about the chief’s ability to navigate Miami’s tricky political landscape.
“I believe you lack certain sensitivity training and cultural awareness with regard to this community and its residents. While in the past you have not always been receptive to my advice, I believe now is the time to follow my counsel,” Noriega wrote.
Noriega has ordered Acevedo to submit a plan showing any type of planned reform to police administration and tactical units by the end of work on Monday. He also asked for the chief’s vision of a new management structure, plans to increase morale among his troops and plans on how Acevedo and staff plan on working with the media.
And finally, the city manager wants to know how Acevedo intends to “repair” his relationship with elected officials and told the chief he wanted updates once a month through the new year.
“Given recent events I am concerned about the operational readiness of the Miami Police Department. These events have given the public cause to question the MPD’s effectiveness and its operations and necessary community relationships,” Noriega wrote. “The very public personal attacks and insensitive comments which permeate national media have decreased officer morale, and continues to threaten the public’s confidence in the ability of the MPD to carry out directives related to public safety.”
Acevedo, a surprising rapid-fire hiring six months ago after a stint running Houston’s much larger police department, didn’t speak during the two commission meetings last week. And he has not responded to any requests for interviews during the past several weeks.
In a one-sided two-day onslaught, several of Miami’s commissioners pounced on a series of controversial hirings, firings and demotions by the chief and a series of questionable actions, including taking a photo with a notorious Proud Boy member and saying the city’s police department was run by the “Cuban Mafia.”
The “Cuban Mafia” statement and a memo issued by the chief two weeks ago that accused some commissioners of interfering with internal police investigations and compared them to the Cuba’s Communist state, were of particular concern to the city’s three Cuban American commissioners. In his memo, Acevedo claimed to have contacted the U.S. Department of Justice, though commissioners were skeptical.
The attack on Acevedo was led by Commissioner Joe Carollo, who practically hijacked last Monday and Friday’s hearings, droning on for hours about Acevedo’s past, including how the chief was responsible for Houston’s high homicide rate and allegations of sexual misconduct in a lawsuit filed against him while he worked for the California Highway Patrol.
At one point during a hearing on Monday, Carollo showed videos of Acevedo dancing during fundraisers in Texas. In one of the videos, when the chief was wearing a tight, white one-piece outfit with rhinestones while imitating Elvis Presley, Carollo ordered the video stopped with the outline of the chief’s crotch clearly visible.
Then he asked the city manager if that’s how he wanted his chief of police to conduct business. Most of the crowd jeered. Noriega leaned back in his seat, clearly uncomfortable.
Also during last week’s hearings, commissioners invoked a charter provision which allows them to become an investigative panel with subpoena power. They then ordered City Attorney Victoria Mendez to hire an outside investigator to look at Acevedo’s claims of commissioner interference and any other possible misdoings in the city.
Mendez said she had put together a list and would name the investigator early this week.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 11:52 AM.
