How much does Miami owe Díaz de la Portilla now that criminal charges are dropped?
Following an announcement from Broward prosecutors last month that they are dropping a flurry of criminal corruption charges against Alex Díaz de la Portilla, the former Miami city commissioner is now entitled to a payday from his former employer.
That’s because Díaz de la Portilla lost out on two months’ pay after being suspended from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis the day after his Sept. 14, 2023, arrest. The suspension meant that he was removed from his City Hall job and that his paychecks were also halted.
But under Florida law, if an elected official is cleared of the criminal charges that led to their suspension, the official “shall be entitled to and be paid full back pay,” including salary and other benefits.
So now, the city of Miami is on the hook to pay him back. The period for which he is owed spans from the time he was suspended up until when his term ended and his replacement, now-District 1 Commissioner Miguel Gabela, was sworn in last December. Gabela defeated Díaz de la Portilla in a runoff last November, beating him 54% to 46%.
In response to questions from the Miami Herald, the city of Miami provided numbers showing that with his salary, expense allowance, car allowance and cell phone allowance, Díaz de la Portilla is owed more than $17,700.
The commissioner earned about $100,000 a year for the part-time job, including his $58,200 salary.
Díaz de la Portilla had already been paid his monthly compensation at the time of his mid-September arrest, according to a city spokeswoman, meaning he’s owed money only from October and November of that year. He’s also owed one day’s worth of pay in December. The next day, Dec. 2, Gabela was sworn in as the next District 1 commissioner, the spokeswoman said.
Benedict Kuehne, an attorney for Díaz de la Portilla, said in an interview this week that “now that the case is resolved,” the law calls for the suspension to be revoked. A spokesman for the governor’s office did not respond to questions about if or when DeSantis would formally revoke the suspension, which was initially handed down via executive order.
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