Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez removed amid City Hall controversy

Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez was removed from her position Thursday, a demotion that comes amid controversy and criticism over her performance near the end of her 20-year career at City Hall.

In a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Joe Carollo voting no, the City Commission voted to relegate Méndez to a transitional role immediately and name her chief deputy, John A. Greco, as the interim city attorney while a selection committee continues a search for City Hall’s next top legal officer. Greco is out of the country on vacation until April 22, so until then, Deputy City Attorney George Wysong will serve as acting city attorney.

Commissioner Damian Pardo spearheaded Méndez’s demotion Thursday.

“For the last couple of commission meetings, the city attorney has been at times insubordinate and at times disrespectful,” Pardo said at the meeting. “I don’t believe that’s the conduct becoming of that position.”

Prior to Thursday’s vote, Méndez was expected to remain city attorney until June. After she faced calls for her resignation or removal, commissioners in January voted to give Méndez five more months in office.

Thursday’s vote allows Méndez to remain on staff in the city’s legal department, with an instruction to help with the transition for the next city attorney.

“I want to thank God, my family, the city of Miami, my interdepartmental colleagues and especially my city attorney family for the 20-plus years that have been allowed to me to serve this wonderful city where I was born in Allapattah, raised in Flagami and lived in Flagami for 44 years,” she said in an emotional farewell speech after the vote.

Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela took aim at Méndez over a legal battle between himself and the city over residency requirements. In September, the city appealed a court ruling that allowed Gabela to run as a qualified candidate in the District 1 election last fall.

Méndez said Thursday that she was following the city’s charter.

“I was only doing my job, whether you were a candidate or not, I was doing my job, and that’s why you’re upset at me,” Méndez said.

Gabelsa responded by saying that his issue with Méndez goes beyond that particular court case.

“Every time we ask you a question, I don’t trust you,” he said.

Commissioners instructed the city’s human relations department to propose a candidate by April 19 so that the commission can select a new permanent city attorney at the April 25 meeting.

Carollo, who was the only commissioner to vote against Méndez’s termination, challenged the timeline for hiring a new city attorney, questioning whether there were enough qualified applicants.

In her farewell speech, Méndez touted her office’s accomplishments, “from taking on FPL, to making sure water quality is safe for the residents and throughout Florida, to saving millions of dollars in potential catastrophic litigation.”

She went on to criticize Gabela and Pardo, who were elected last year on anti-corruption platforms, and made an apparent reference to lawsuits against Carollo and herself.

“As the longest-serving full-time city attorney, the longest-serving female city attorney, the longest-serving Hispanic city attorney for the city of Miami, nothing of what the two new commissioners and their serial litigant backers have done to me and my family today and since March of 2023 with the media and bogus litigation will ever take that away from me,” Méndez said.

Méndez becomes eligible to retire and receive her pension later this month, with a projected benefit capped at $8,333.33 per month, or $99,999.96 per year, according to the city’s pension administrator. It was not immediately clear if Thursday’s vote affects her pension in any way.

Méndez was stripped of her power at a time when she faces mounting scrutiny over allegations that she used her position to coordinate a house-flipping scheme with her husband. She is being sued over the allegations in circuit court, and the Florida Bar has also opened an inquiry.

Her decision making has also been questioned. Based on legal advice from Méndez, according to City Manager Art Noriega, the commission passed a tax rate in late September with only four sitting members on the board. Weeks earlier, former commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla was removed from office after he was arrested on corruption charges.

State regulators had warned the city that its vote on the tax rate with only four commissioners would be invalid. The commission later had to hold an emergency meeting in December to vote on the tax rate.