What’s next for Miami-Dade’s government watchdog? A fight over hiring rules

A hearing on Monday centered on a touchy subject for the Miami-Dade County Commission: Who gets to investigate commissioners?

Legislation to broaden who the commission can hire as inspector general advanced through a committee hearing, meaning it will be up for a vote before the full board of 13 county commissioners later this year. But the debate got heated, with commissioners arguing over whether they should be rewriting the hiring rules for a position that recently launched an investigation that has a former commissioner facing prison time and is currently investigating a charity tied to a sitting commissioner.

“We all talk about how we’re anti-corruption and we’re anti-fraud,” Commissioner Raquel Regalado said in opposing most of the proposed changes to the county’s current law on how to select the inspector general. “This is an opportunity to vote that way.”

Other commissioners called the objections not rooted in reality, given that the proposed change would expand hiring criteria for an inspector general to allow people with broader government experience to apply for the job.

The current inspector general, Felix Jimenez, is a former homicide detective, but supporters of the changes note that much of his office’s work focuses on the nuts-and-bolts of government spending, including contracts and purchases. Current county law requires a legal or law enforcement background for an inspector general, and the proposed changes would add government administrator, accountant and auditor to the list of hiring criteria — provided an applicant also has experience supervising investigations.

“I do not understand the pushback,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said at the hearing before the commission’s Policy Council, a committee headed by Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez. “I don’t see how there is a narrative regarding lowering the standards for who can potentially serve as our inspector general. I see it as the opposite.”

Cohen Higgins said she thought Jimenez is doing a “phenomenal job” and that she hoped to see him continuing “to do that work.”

The Office of the Inspector General is the investigative arm of county government, with the agency sometimes helping local prosecutors in criminal probes when the allegations stray into potential criminal territory.

Jimenez’s office launched the investigation that resulted in criminal charges against then-Commissioner Joe Martinez in 2022. His office also recently confirmed it had started an investigation into the A3 Foundation, a charity used by Rodriguez’s office as a clearinghouse for county funds budgeted for a rodeo he hosts each year in his district.

The details of the investigation aren’t known, but the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said last year it could not release records related to the A3 Foundation because they were part of an investigation.

In the post since 2020, Jimenez’s first four-year contract expired in 2024, and a reappointment vote is being held up by the sponsor of the hiring-rules legislation, Commissioner Oliver Gilbert. Before considering another four years for Jimenez, Gilbert said he wanted commissioners to reach consensus on hiring rules and procedures for the post.

At Monday’s hearing, Gilbert called Jimenez to the microphone to defend a statement he released to the Miami Herald criticizing the proposed changes. Jimenez, in part, criticized Gilbert’s proposal to put a commissioner on the panel that recommends an inspector general candidate for the commission to either accept or reject.

While Jimenez suggested the change would pose a conflict, given the inspector general sometimes conducts investigations of commissioners, Gilbert noted that county law already gives commissioners significant power over Jimenez’s office.

“So what I’m meant to believe is that the board that has the ability to hire you, we fund you, and we fire you if we choose — that having one member on a selection committee was more interference than the threat of termination?” Gilbert said.

The commissioner did agree to drop his proposal to put a commissioner on the selection panel. But he declined to alter his proposed expansion of the hiring criteria for a county inspector general, saying Miami-Dade’s current rules are much narrower than what most governments in Florida require for their inspectors general.

“It’s not that I don’t want law enforcement experience,” Gilbert said. “I don’t think it should outweigh everything else.”

In his brief questioning by Gilbert, Jimenez did not get the chance to explain his opposition to the proposal. When Jimenez tried to expand on an answer while the commissioner was moving on to another topic, Gilbert cut him off and said: “That’s not how this works.”

In his statement to the Herald, Jimenez said the current hiring rules for an inspector general — or “IG” — give the county a watchdog with extensive legal experience.

“The current ordinance guarantees the IG’s independence and ensures a qualified candidate who has demonstrated the ability to work with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the judiciary,” he said.