MIAMI — Emilio González, who served as Miami’s city manager from 2018 to 2020 and lives near Coconut Grove, is among the 13 candidates running for Miami mayor on Nov. 4.
Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed González, a retired U.S. Army Colonel and fellow Republican who served as the director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush.
González, who also served as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service director from 2006 to 2008 and as the Miami-Dade Aviation Department director from 2013 to 2017, said getting rid of public corruption at Miami City Hall is his top priority.
“Our residents have pretty much lost respect for our municipal leaders,” González said. “They don’t believe anything they say, and that’s key, because no matter what you want to do in this city, if you can’t trust the person in charge, nothing gets done.”
González said this is what motivated him to file a lawsuit to keep the city election in odd years, per the city’s charter, and to put a stop to the commissioners who wanted to “gift themselves another year in office.”
González, who headed the Office of Special Assistants for the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Southern Command, said he wants to do an audit to track the $400 million Miami Forever Bond, including $100 million for affordable housing and $300 million for resiliency projects.
“When I left the city, our budget was $1.5 million. Today is $3 billion. We have grown 100% in five years. We had the $400 million bond. We got $140 million from the feds,” González said said referring to the American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. “Where is it?”
González said that as the city manager, he commissioned the Florida International University Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center to conduct a study that resulted in the City of Miami Affordable Housing Master Plan.
“They presented it to the city commission, and they were laughed out of the room,” said González, who earned degrees from the University of South Florida, the University of Miami, Tulane University, and the United States Naval War College.
González, who also taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said the study was “excellent,” and although it was outdated, it could still serve as a blueprint. He also said his next priority would be to do away with real estate property taxes.
“Ad valorem real estate taxes make up less than 10% of the city budget,” González said. “If working families, when they have to tighten their belts, you go, ‘Honey, you know what? You’ve got to cut back 10%.’ You can do it. We can do it as a city.”
González said the city will be able to afford to implement much-needed technological updates to the city’s permitting system.
“Miami is poised to be an AI capital,” González said.
Related link: Campaign page
Related document: Affidavit of candidate (.PDF)
OTHER MAYORAL CANDIDATES
The other candidates in the nonpartisan race are Alex Díaz de la Portilla, Alyssa Crocker, Christian E. Cevallos, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, Elijah John Bowdre, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, June Savage, Kenneth DeSantis, Ken Russell, Laura Anderson, Michael A. Hepburn, and Xavier L. Suarez.
Name recognition: Suarez, who served as Miami mayor from 1985 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1998, is the father of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Legal trouble: De La Portilla is a former Miami commissioner who served from 2020 to 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him over a corruption case that prosecutors later dropped.
Carollo, who served as Miami mayor from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2001, also has an arrest record. In 2001, police officers arrested him for domestic violence, and he agreed to attend anger management classes.
Later in 2023, a federal jury in civil court sided with two businessmen who won $63.5 million in damages against Carollo for “weaponizing” code enforcement to violate their rights after they supported one of his political opponents.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
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