Miami-Dade hires former Alonzo Mourning charity director to run Black prosperity office

Miami-Dade County commissioners hired William Diggs, a veteran nonprofit executive who once ran Alonzo Mourning’s foundation, to take over the county agency charged with promoting prosperity among Black residents and businesses.

Diggs takes over the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust after the summer retirement of longtime director John Dixon. The Diggs appointment by a unanimous commission vote Tuesday places a well-known fundraiser in Miami-Dade’s Black philanthropic circles in charge of a county agency sometimes criticized as underutilized in promoting Black prosperity.

A former director of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, an association of Black-owned businesses, Diggs also ran the Mourning Family Foundation, raising $12 million for the former Miami Heat star’s community charity. Diggs most recently served as head of the Broward Health Foundation — the fundraising arm of Broward’s public hospitals.

“I have done this work all my life,” Diggs told commissioners before the vote.

Known as MDEAT, the county agency has a $13 million budget and a payroll of 24 positions. It was created following the riots in Black Miami neighborhoods in 1980 after the acquittal of county police officers who beat to death insurance agent Arthur McDuffie during a traffic stop. Launched as the Metro Miami Action Plan, the effort to focus on economic growth in Black neighborhoods evolved into MDEAT.

While its mission is to expand homeownership among Black residents, MDEAT’s race-neutral program for providing down-payment assistance mostly benefits Hispanic residents in a county where Hispanic residents are the majority. MDEAT also runs Teen Court, an alternative program for young offenders, and is charged with promoting economic development in underserved areas with majority Black populations, including Liberty City, Little Haiti and Goulds.

One MDEAT function that went dormant for lack of funding in recent years is the tracking of racial disparities in county procurement. Diggs will take over as the agency prepares to revive that role. The administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava expects to sign a contract this week for a consultant to produce the first MDEAT “disparity” study since 2015.

After the vote, Diggs said he’s also planning to activate the philanthropic arm of MDEAT and supplement the tax dollars that the agency relies on for economic development and other efforts. “I will be fundraising,” he said.

This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 2:12 PM.