Citing Previous High Turnover Rate, Surfside Mayor Downplays Resignations of 3 Top Officials

SURFSIDE (VINnews/SandyEller) – The resignation of three town officials in Surfside, Florida may have made national headlines, but the Orthodox Jewish mayor of the oceanside community where 98 people lost their lives in a 2021 horrific building collapse described the turnover as a relatively common occurrence.

The Associated Press (https://bit.ly/3V6aGN0) reported that Surfside Town Manager Andrew Hyatt, Police Chief Rogelio Torres and Assistant Town Manager Jason Greene all resigned from their posts this week.

According to South Florida’s NBC 6 (https://bit.ly/3FW1kPz), all three resignations were tendered within a 24 hour period, with former mayor Charles Burkett and former commissioner Eliana Salzhauer saying that Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger forced the men out of their jobs.

Danzinger beat out the incumbent Burkett in the March 2022 mayoral election, attributing his win in a post-election interview with WSVN (https://bit.ly/3hpXPYt) to Surfside voters’ frustration with constant infighting between Burkett and members of the town commission.

In a conversation with VIN News, Danzinger categorized the resignations as the natural outcome of a situation where a town’s administration and its democratically elected public official have different goals and priorities.

“The job of the Administration is to carry out the objectives of Elected Officials who represent the voters,” said Danzinger in an email issued on Thursday night. “When there is a conflict of interests, often the administrators may choose to move on.”

Danzinger also pointed to Surfside’s long history of administrative changes, with 12 administrators resigning or being removed from the period of March 2020 to March 2022 under the town’s previous administration. Surfside has also had nine different town managers over the past 15 years.

Looking ahead to the future, Surfside has already named a new town manager and Danzinger’s team has been concentrating on restoring order to a town where post-collapse board meetings often include loud altercations, with police officers are often present to ensure order.

Danzinger said that he will not be responding to accusations he described as frivolous, whether they come from the media, residents or previous town officials.

“We are trying to be considerate and respectful of our town’s employees, both current and former, and maintain civility in order to protect the dignity of our town,” said Danzinger.