LTC 625-2019 Departure of Assistant City Manager Susy TorrienteMIAMIB -ACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 625-2019 TO COMMISSION
TO : Mayor Dan Gelber and Members
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manage
DATE: December 2 , 2019
SUBJECT: Departure of Assistant City Manager Susy T orriente
As you all know, Assistant City Manager (ACM) and Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) Susy Torriente has
accepted a position in the private sector and will be relocating to Orlando, Florida. This is a big move for
Susy after more than 29 years of local government experience in Miami Dade County, and the cities of
Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach.
As the city's first CRO (and the first municipal CRO in Florida), Susy worked with 100 Resilient Cities,
pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, to produce Resilient305 with our local partners, the City of
Miami and Miami Dade County. At the same time, she led the effort to update the City's Strategic Plan
through the Lens of Resilience. Through 100 RC she also secured the services
of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) for the Stormwater Management & Climate Adaption Review, as well
at the West Avenue Resilience Accelerator workshop, led by Columbia University.
This year Susy spearheaded several innovative procurements which will be before the City Commission
in early 2020 including: the business case analysis of the stormwater program, the development of
design guidelines for historic properties in the face of climate change and the Palm View 20-year master
plan -a model for neighborhood scale planning.
Under her watch the Building Department achieved ISO 9001 certification-a global standard of quality
management with a customer focus. Environment & Sustainability and Code Compliance Departments
are in the process of receiving certification, after successful audits in September 2019. In addition,
the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System Score improved from a 6 to a
5, increasing savings to a total of $8.4 million annually, thanks to her leadership and the work of the
Building Department and her deputy CRO.
As CRO, Susy has championed collaboration and has left her mark in integrating resilience thinking in
the city's recently approved comprehensive plan amendment, many land use amendments, the North
Beach town center overlay and even with the recent credit agency review. By coordinating responses
to the agency questions , Miami Beach was able to articulate not only its climate change vulnerabilities,
not only its climate change vulnerabilities, but also highlight the policies and practices in place to
address this issue. To quote S&P Ratings Agency : " ... in our view, the city maintains among the most
robust plans attempting to address these risks that we 've reviewed for U.S. local governments."
Susy 's last day with the City of Miami Beach is December 12, 2019. Please join me in wishing Susy
much success in this new chapter of her career. I am in the process of filling her positions and will be
advising the Mayor and Commission shortly.