Former Hollywood city manager in hot water in new job due to Margaritaville deal

Managing her public image is a game of constant Whac-a-Mole for the controversial city manager of Coral Gables, Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark. Skeletons continue to crawl out of her closet: a Hollywood sweetheart deal, a citizen’s complaint to the ethics commission that she obstructed due process and lied, and violations of numerous ordinances with regard to spending large sums of public funds, to name a few.

But so far, Swanson-Rivenbark’s career in public service has survived. And for several years, she’s used taxpayer dollars to get help reframing the bad press. In 2015 and then again in 2017, Swanson-Rivenbark used city funds to hire a private public relations consultant, Stan Adkins, who is best known in South Florida political circles for one particular skill set— crisis management through media campaigns.

“Why does the manager need a private entitay to represent her?” asked Commissioner Vince Lago at the June commission meeting, shortly after he learned about the contract. Lago said he found it odd that he and the other commissioners didn’t have access to the consultant but that the manager could use him for her own career problems. He then faced Swanson-Rivenbark on the dais and said: ““You need to stop looking for excuses in in reference to errors you make.”

Read more in the Miami Herald.

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