Pieter Bockweg asked Miami commissioners Thursday to let him continue to serve as the city’s $150,000 director of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, or at least conduct an open search for his replacement.
They would do neither.
Commissioners voted Thursday to fire Bockweg and replace him with Jason Walker, the village manager of El Portal. Bockweg, an at-will employee of the small but high-profile agency, received a severance package worth about $30,000 in exchange for a promise not to sue the city or the tax-funded CRA.
His ouster was pushed by new Omni CRA Chairman Ken Russell, who believes the Omni CRA, tasked with using property taxes to eliminate slum and blight, has done too little to improve living conditions for the poor. Russell’s recommendation to appoint Walker the new head of the CRA was supported unanimously by the city’s other four commissioners, despite Bockweg’s protests.