City manager says Miami is ending relationship with wife’s furniture company
Miami City Manager Art Noriega told the Miami Herald on Friday that the city is ending its relationship with Pradere Manufacturing, a furniture company that employs his wife and is owned by her parents.
During Thursday’s commission meeting, Noriega announced that his own office would stop purchasing from Pradere. It was a presentation that came almost three months after he said he would be refuting accusations about a conflict of interest regarding the purchases from Pradere made by his office and other city departments.
When discussing the manager’s presentation, Commissioner Manolo Reyes said the entire city government should stop doing business with Pradere as long as Noriega is city manager.
On Friday, Noriega told the Herald that the city will not purchase from Pradere as long as he is city manager. The city manager is the top administrative officer overseeing a municipal workforce of more than 4,000 employees.
Asked if there was a memo officially documenting the policy change, Noriega said the purchasing department, which buys goods on behalf of the city government, is aware of the move.
“It was referenced in the meeting by Commissioner Reyes, and I acknowledged it,” Noriega said. “Not only does staff know, Pradere will not respond to inquiries until I’m no longer City Manager.”
Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela told the Herald that the city manager confirmed the same change to him Friday morning in a phone call.
Noriega came under public scrutiny in January after Miami Herald news partner WLRN reported that since Noriega became manager in 2020, the city had spent over $440,000 with Pradere Manufacturing.
When he started the job, Noriega did not seek an ethics opinion from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public
Trust. Instead, he wrote a memo sent to the mayor and commissioners in April 2020 disclosing that his wife was the chief operating officer at Pradere, “a company that has done business with the city since 2008.”
The matter is under preliminary investigation by the Ethics Commission, a source previously confirmed to the Herald.
ART NORIEGA CAME UNDER PUBLIC SCRUTINY IN JANUARY AFTER WLRN REPORTED THAT SINCE NORIEGA BECAME CITY MANAGER IN 2020, THE CITY HAD SPENT OVER $440,000 WITH PRADERE MANUFACTURING.