Just a day after City Manager David Chiverton stunned elected leaders by resigning his office in the course of a federal criminal investigation, Opa-Locka, Fla., officials announced they were close to broke and would not be able to pay their workers come September, the Miami Herald reported yesterday. With just $350,000 left in the general fund, Opa-Locka may have to consider bankruptcy. The impoverished city has been under the oversight of a state financial emergency board since June. Florida Inspector General Melinda Miguel said that she was riled by the city’s failure to meet critical deadlines in filing a budget and recovery plan by Aug. 1 in what was once a firm deadline. Miguel blasted the city’s elected leaders, saying that they were not doing enough to keep costs down or tackling the critical problems that threaten the entire operation of the city. The revelations about the city’s grim financial picture provided even more drama that began with news that Chiverton had stepped down. A target of an ongoing FBI probe into corruption in Opa-locka, Chiverton took a leave of absence this spring after it was revealed that he paid himself tens of thousands in unused sick and vacation pay to which he was not entitled. Local business owners working as informants for the FBI paid Chiverton and other city officials thousands of dollars in bribes to get operating licenses and water connections.
