Inside City Hall: Higgins Spends Big on Revamped Office Staff

After moving out nearly all of former Mayor Francis Suarez’s office staff, Miami’s new mayor has assembled a more top-heavy team of higher-paid senior advisers with total salaries (excluding her own) exceeding $2 million.

Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins’ campaign pledge to investigate runaway spending in a city whose budget has doubled in five years might well begin with her own office.

Since her December swearing-in as Miami’s chief elected official, Higgins has increased salaries within the Office of the Mayor, which she controls, to more than $2 million annually — a roughly 30% increase over her predecessor’s payroll.

Records obtained by the Spotlight through a public records request show that Higgins has replaced all but one member of the mayor’s 19-person staff from former Mayor Francis Suarez’s team — and has done so at a notable premium.

While the comparison reflects only a snapshot in time — Higgins’ staff today versus Suarez’s staff last fall — the size of the office has remained unchanged. The structure and function, however, is notably different: Higgins’ team is far more heavily weighted toward more highly-paid senior positions.

Under Suarez, the chief of staff, typically the highest-paid position in the mayor’s office, earned $180,000. The next tier of senior staff — including communications and constituent affairs directors — ranged from roughly $117,000 to $171,000. He also employed six part-time workers, four of whom earned just $30,160.

Like Miami’s elected commissioners, the mayor has broad authority to create or fill positions, hire and fire staff, and set their pay — with little external oversight. In the current fiscal year — which overlaps portions of both Suarez’s and Higgins’ terms — the City Commission approved a maximum of $2.055 million for mayoral staff salaries, a 5% increase from a year earlier.

Under Higgins, the top of the salary scale has shifted sharply upward.

Her chief of staff, Maggie Fernandez, is paid $250,000 — roughly 39% more than Suarez’s top aide. 

She is joined by a cluster of senior advisers: Maca Casado Chopite at $200,000, and Ron Fitzgerald Bilbao, Edward Kring and Marta Viciedo at $180,000 each. 

Higgins and her staff did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article. 

In total, Higgins has five staff members earning $180,000 or more — compared to one in the Suarez administration.

Those salary jumps are in keeping with a broader trend among City of Miami employees. As the Spotlight reported in December, the number of workers earning more than $200,000 a year has doubled over the past five years.

Read more: Inside City Hall: Miami’s Growing $200K Club

The rise in top-end pay is not the only difference between the Suarez and Higgins mayoral staffs.

While both offices are led by a chief of staff, Suarez’s office was built around communications, constituent services and community-facing roles. It included two communications directors, a deputy communications director, and a layered constituent affairs team, along with several part-time positions focused on media and outreach.

Higgins’ office, by contrast, is structured around a more senior-heavy leadership model. Alongside a higher-paid chief of staff, the team includes several senior advisers and counsel, supported by a smaller group of assistants and aides responsible for day-to-day operations — a configuration that places greater emphasis on advisory roles than in the prior administration.

Below that top tier, the differences continue.

Suarez’s mid-level staff largely fell between $90,000 and $130,000, with a relatively even distribution across communications and constituent services. Higgins’ mid-tier is smaller and more compressed, with assistant-to-the-mayor roles generally ranging from $95,000 to $115,000, followed by aides and support staff clustered between $60,000 and $70,000.

The result is a more top-heavy pay structure, with a larger share of total payroll concentrated among senior positions.

Under Miami’s “weak mayor” form of government, the mayor is the public face of the city but is somewhat limited in authority. 

She can propose legislation and veto commission actions but does not oversee day-to-day administrative functions — a responsibility that instead falls to the city manager, who oversees departments, hires and supervises staff, and carries out policies and budgets approved by elected officials.

Higgins and her staff are among the city officials who have rebuffed the Spotlight’s efforts to obtain records reflecting how much city employees are actually paid, including overtime and other bonus pay.

Read more: Inside City Hall: Miami’s Salary Secret

Of the 19 employees in Higgins’ office, only one — Allison Adams Acevedo — remains from the Suarez administration. Her role has shifted from receptionist to special aide, with a salary bump from $49,608 to $60,000, or roughly 21%.

Overall, the listed payroll for Suarez’s office last fall totaled $1.56 million, while today Higgins’ office totals just over $2.01 million — an increase of about $450,000, or roughly 29%.

One thing that has not changed is the mayor’s own pay — a relatively modest $97,000 for what is officially considered, despite the demands of the role, a part-time position. Unlike her staff’s salaries, which Higgins controls, her compensation is set by the City Commission.

Mayor Eileen Higgins’ Office Staff Salaries 

Name	Job Title Annual	Salary
Maggie Fernandez	Chief of Staff-Mayor	$250,000
Maca Casado Chopite	Senior Advisor & Counsel to the Mayor	$200,000
Ron Fitzgerald Bilbao	Senior Advisor & Counsel to the Mayor	$180,000
Edward Kring	Senior Advisor & Counsel to the Mayor	$180,000
Marta Viciedo	Senior Advisor & Counsel to the Mayor	$180,000
Ana Montes Monto	Assistant to Mayor	$115,000
Jonathan Fernandez	Assistant to Mayor	$100,000
Daniel Reyes	Assistant to Mayor	$100,000
Melissa Ortiz Santana	Assistant to Mayor	$95,000
Luis Basualdo	Assistant to Mayor	$80,250
Daniela Chacin	Communications Coordinator	$70,000
Taylor Majher	Aide to the Mayor	$70,000
Nathanael Mayette	Aide to the Mayor	$70,000
Helena Noriega	Aide to the Mayor	$70,000
Yaimar Aguilar	Executive Assistant	$65,000
Jasmine Boulin	Aide to the Mayor	$65,000
Allison Adams	Acevedo Special Aide	$60,000
Mateo Jolivert	Aide to the Mayor	$60,000

TOTAL $2,010,250