North Miami Beach manager resigns, keeps city car and an 8-month consulting job
North Miami Beach City Manager Esmond Scott has resigned amid pressure from a divided city commission, which voted Monday night to grant him a severance package that includes a city-owned car and an eight-month consulting deal with the city at his current salary.
Scott, the city manager since 2018 and a city employee since 1997, said his last day on the job would be Tuesday. The announcement comes about a month after one city commissioner moved to fire Scott, and on the heels of months of rumors about his job status during a hectic period for the city.
Assistant City Manager Horace McHugh will take over as the city’s interim manager as the city searches for a full-time administrator.
“It’s the end of an era,” Commissioner Barbara Kramer said at a ceremony Tuesday to celebrate Scott’s tenure. “I’m sure your phone is gonna be ringing off the hook because you’re such an amazing man, you’re such an amazing employee, and you’re such an amazing leader.”
Scott resigned about one month after Commissioner Paule Villard tried unsuccessfully to fire him during a late January commission meeting. During that same meeting, commissioners also voted to fire the law firm contracted to represent the city and hire a new contract city attorney.
But Scott won’t be going far. On Monday, he finalized a severance agreement with the city that will keep him on board as a consultant “as needed” until Oct. 31 at his current pay rate, which is over $200,000 per year. Scott will also keep his city-issued car that, according to Commissioner Fortuna Smukler, is worth about $32,000.
Smukler said she had concerns about the car aspect of the deal but still voted to support it. The agreement, which passed unanimously, is similar to one negotiated last year by former North Miami City Manager Larry Spring, who got eight months’ pay and a car worth $45,000 after he was fired.
Scott has overseen the city’s operations during a series of substantial changes, including the transition of Miami-Dade’s second-largest water utility back to city control. Also in recent months, the city has navigated controversies over contracts for its trolley system and for garbage collection.
Meanwhile, residents of the city’s Eastern Shores neighborhood are challenging the city in court over approval of a billion-dollar redevelopment of the Intracoastal Mall.
Scott’s resignation Monday resurfaced tensions about turnover at the top of city hall.
In late January, when the city commission voted 4-3 to fire its contract law firm, Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, and hire an interim firm, Ottinot Law P.A., Mayor Anthony DeFillipo and other commissioners called for a vetting process and accused their colleagues of possible Sunshine Law violations.
On Monday, after Scott resigned, Commissioner Michael Joseph proposed that the city bring in Arthur “Duke” Sorey, the deputy city manager in neighboring North Miami, as interim city manager. That set off the same commissioners who had opposed the city attorney switch.
“I’ll be damned if you think you’re gonna pull this again,” Kramer said.
Kramer accused her colleagues of trying to “ram” Sorey’s hiring as interim manager “up our a--es ... like you did with the city attorney.”
“It is disgraceful and it is disgusting and I really hope that the authorities are watching this game,” she said.
Commissioner McKenzie Fleurimond, who had initially seconded Joseph’s motion to hire Sorey, later withdrew his support.
“In my heart of hearts, I think that we should have a minimal process, at least,” he said.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 2:04 PM.
