Ex-chief, current commissioner call on Miami Mayor Suarez to quit amid Herald investigation
.jpeg "Referring to the ‘stench that’s been coming out of Miami City Hall,’ former Miami Chief Art Acevedo said that if Mayor Suarez ‘had any honor’ he would quit.")
A former Miami police chief and a just-elected Miami Commissioner are calling on Mayor Francis Suarez to resign after the Miami Herald published an investigation revealing the mayor’s cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia’s ruling regime.
The mayor’s office brushed off any suggestion that he should quit.
Hours after the Herald published an article examining Suarez’s role in the Saudi kingdom’s efforts to repair a reputation for human rights abuses, Damian Pardo, one of five commissioners, said in an exclusive interview that the mayor should immediately step down.
“It’s the only way confidence in elected officials and in our city government will be restored,” said Pardo, who was elected in November. “It’s unclear which interests are being served — outside, moneyed interests versus residents’ interests.”
Former Chief Art Acevedo, who served under Suarez, expressed a similar sentiment and a second ex-chief, Jorge Colina, was harshly critical of the mayor. Another newly elected commissioner, Miguel Gabela, said the mayor needs to publicly address the details of the reporting.
Read more: The kingdom and I: How Miami’s mayor helped Saudi Arabia rehab its bloody reputation
The Herald investigated Suarez’s role in planning a March 2023 trade summit put on by the Saudi kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. A review of city emails and the summit’s promotional materials show Suarez and a handful of city staffers helped make the event, at an exhibition hall in Miami Beach, happen.
The mayor’s participation raised questions about whether Suarez should have registered as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice, a requirement for anyone involved in political advocacy or public relations work in the United States on behalf of a foreign government, with a few narrow exceptions.
Five experts on the federal law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, told the Herald the kind of work Suarez and his staff performed to plan and promote the event could be a problem because none of them were registered under FARA.
Read more: Absentee mayor: Miami’s Francis Suarez blurs line between public duty, pursuit of wealth
Late Monday, Suarez spokeswoman Stephanie Severino issued the first public statement from the mayor’s office on the Herald’s investigation while responding to Pardo.
“Like the Herald’s articles, Commissioner Pardo’s statement is comical,” Severino said. “The city’s success during the Mayor’s tenure speaks for itself.”
Pardo, who ran on a platform of reforming scandal-plagued City Hall and combating corruption, said Suarez and any other city officials “found aiding and abetting in unethical practices” should immediately resign.
“The allegations against Mayor Suarez continue to raise serious questions about the culture of corruption that has gone unchecked in Miami’s City Hall for too long,” he said.
Pardo also said it’s time to review the city charter to “put some guardrails around outside income” for Miami elected officials. Holding the office of mayor or commissioner is considered a part-time job at the city.
The commissioner said he had not contacted the mayor following the Herald’s reporting.
Shortly after Pardo’s call for a resignation, Acevedo, who was once hailed by Suarez as the “Michael Jordan of police chiefs” issued a scathing statement criticizing the mayor.
“He is part of the stench that’s been coming out of Miami City Hall for many years,” Acevedo, who served six tumultuous months at Miami’s police chief in 2021. He’s currently the interim police chief in Aurora, Colorado.
“If Suarez had any honor, he would immediately resign,” Acevedo said.
Gabela, the other new commissioner who pledged to clean up City Hall on the campaign trail, said he wants Suarez to address the investigation’s findings.
“I am inclined to call for a resignation but I want to know a little bit more,” Gabela said. “He owes us an explanation. I want to hear his side.”
Suarez, an elected official since 2009, is halfway through his second term as mayor. He briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination amid a swirl of controversy following the revelation in the Herald that he was quietly on the payroll of a real estate developer who received help from the mayor’s office in overcoming a permitting issue on a project in the city. The FBI is investigating the matter.
Colina, the police chief named under Suarez’s tenure, said he understood Pardo’s statement but stopped short of saying Suarez should leave office.
“I find it concerning, this relationship with Saudi Aarabia, a country with a horrific human rights record,” Colina said. “That by itself is concerning.”
The former chief said there’s been a “dark cloud” over the city with controversies involving other commissioners and Suarez, and the new questions surrounding Suarez make it unsurprising that people want to see him out of City Hall.
“His interests lie elsewhere. His interests are in making a lot of money,” Colina said. “I just think sometimes you need to decide.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2023 at 8:49 PM.
