2004 business leader of the year: a man and his city

South Florida CEO, Dec, 2004 by William Plasencia

MAYOR MANUEL A. DIAZ LED MIAMI OUT OF TROUBLED ECONOMIC WATERS AND INTO A PERIOD OF RAPID GROWTH. AN EXAMPLE OF THE NEW BREED OF "CORPORATE" MAYORS COMING INTO POWER NATIONWIDE, DIAZ APPLIED A PRIVATE SECTOR MANAGEMENT STYLE TO CITY GOVERNMENT, PAVING THE WAY FOR THE REBIRTH OF ONE OF SOUTH FLORIDA'S MOST IMPORTANT MUNICIPALITIES.

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It's early one autumn evening and Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz is preoccupied. He's catching a flight to Madrid the following morning to help lead a delegation of area business, civic and academic leaders on a mission to strengthen economic and cultural ties between the Spanish capital and a city that was little more than a mangrove swamp when the Old World colonial power held dominion over Florida.

Diaz, clad in his signature dark suit, sits down at the round table in the mayor's office at Miami City Hall, on the bay in Coconut Grove. The double doors, wide open behind him, allow the sea breeze and the sounds of the city to drift into the chamber. He fixes his gaze on the reporter for the last in a series of interviews with SouthFloridaCEO magazine. "Should we dive into the questions?"

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Spend any significant amount of time with Manny Diaz, and a few things become clear: He does not like to waste time, his work ethic can be summed up in the phrase, "Work until the job is done, and then work some more," and he is proud, both of his stewardship of Miami-Dade County's flagship city and of the personal accomplishments he has made since his family left Cuba in 1961 to settle in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Since that time, Diaz, like so many others who emigrated here from the island nation during that period, has made good on the American dream, and now is helping to create the same opportunities here for new generations. It has not been an easy job.

HIS START

When Diaz took office in 2001, Miami still teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. His predecessor, former Mayor Joe Carollo had, by most accounts, stabilized the city's financial situation, under the imposed oversight of state supervisors. But Miami's ability to borrow was hampered by its junk bond rating and the generally dim view, of the city's future prospects. After all, not much had changed in the preceding decades. City services still suffered, the crime rate was high, there was no new real estate development on the horizon, and new businesses bypassed the city while existing ones moved out.

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An indication of how different the times were prior to Diaz's election could be gleaned from a meeting then candidate Diaz had with real estate developer Jorge Perez, CEO of The Related Group of Florida. "We spoke during the campaign and he said to me, 'I wouldn't build a duplex in the city of Miami if I got the land for free.' And now he's probably our largest developer," Diaz says. "It's made a difference, to people in the development world, that we now have political stability. That you can shake the hand of an elected official, or administrative person, on something and it will get done."

Perez, who did not support Diaz' candidacy, confirms the exchange, and adds, "It was impossible before. You had to go through such suffering and deal with such bureaucracy and it was something that most companies didn't want to do. What happened was that Miami became the realm of secondary [business] players who were politically connected.

"Manny's streamlined city processes, hired non-political professional managers and worked with commissioners so that decisions are made quickly and brought to planning. He makes it a pleasure working with the city, with all the difficulties that entails. I can say he's the best mayor that the city of Miami has ever had."

Diaz says when he arrived in office, "the city had made a lot of inroads. There were a lot of improvements from the old days, but far short of where I thought the city needed to be. That's what we've been working on the last three years."

Upon assuming office, he ordered a top down review of the city's administration and management structure. He recruited John F. Timoney, the New York City Police's former first deputy commissioner, to head the Miami Police Department, which, much like the city itself, had struggled with allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Diaz used as his model the private sector approaches he honed as the partner in several successful business ventures and law firms.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a close friend and confidant of Diaz, said in a recent telephone interview, "Manny is all about recognizing market forces, and that capitalism is good and that we want business in our cities."

One of his first recruits, Miami businessman Joe Arriola, was lured out of retirement to serve as city manager--Miami's CEO. Arriola had recently sold his printing company and was enjoying the windfall when Diaz asked him to join his administration. He accepted the job, along with the negotiated $10 a year salary the millionaire would receive for his troubles. Arriola, observers say, is Diaz's strongman, though the city manager is technically independent of the mayor. He persuades, cajoles, intimidates, and gets results at city commission meetings, for the common agenda that Diaz primarily sets. Few on the commission argue that the relationship between the mayor and the city manager has not brought a sense of order to the commission agenda. Though at times it is rancorous and certainly strained, it is a departure from the old ways at city hall.