Three Surfside officials including city manager and police chief resign within days
Three Surfside town officials resigned within two days of each other this week, including the town manager and the police chief.
Town manager Andrew Hyatt resigned just before Tuesday’s commission meeting, citing “family issues,” Mayor Shlomo Danzinger said at the meeting.
Hyatt’s departure was effective Tuesday after the board voted 4-1 to accept his resignation and severance package, which included 20 weeks of pay and health insurance.
“During this conversation with all he’s done for this town, and pulling this whole town through Champlain Towers South, we felt it was only due to compensate them for that,” Danzinger said during the meeting, referring to the collapse of the condo building in 2021.
Commissioner Nelly Velasquez was the dissenting vote, saying while she thought Hyatt was a “good addition” to the town, she was surprised by his sudden leave.
Velasquez also said that since Hyatt did not submit a two-week notice, he was not entitled to the severance outlined in his resignation letter. “In that case it would be breach of contract,” she said, adding there needs to be a transition period between appointing a town manager.
Hyatt was appointed town manager in 2020, leading the town through the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of Champlain Towers South in June 2021 that killed 98 people. The council unanimously voted to appoint Public Works Director Hector Gomez as acting town manager.
On Wednesday, the town announced it received the resignations of assistant town manager Jason Greene and police chief Rogelio Torres, who had been in his role since January. It was not immediately known if their resignations were connected to Hyatt’s. Surfside police Captain John Healy was named acting police chief.
Their resignations are effective Friday.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 4:59 PM.
