OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – Opa-locka Mayor Myra Taylor spoke to Local 10 News Wednesday, a day after Commissioner Terence Pinder apparently committed suicide by driving his city-issued Chevrolet Tahoe into a tree.
"We will miss him and the energy that he had," Taylor said.
Taylor and Commissioner Luis Santiago posed with a wreath Wednesday honoring Pinder, who took his own life a day before he was supposed to surrender to the state attorney's office on bribery charges.
Pinder's death caused the cancelation of an emergency meeting Tuesday night to discuss the city's financial crisis.
"After the next payroll, the city will not be able to pay its bills," the finance director said.
"We know that we will recover and we will come through this," Taylor said.
"Do you need the state to intervene? Do you need an oversight board appointed by the governor?" Local 10 News senior political reporter Michael Putney said.
"Well, right now we are working with the state," she said.
Opa-locka has given the state inspector general a recovery plan, but it's already dated and the city's financial situation has gotten worse.
"We're working it out together and I know that we're going to be out of this situation," Santiago said.
But how they'll rescue the city is unclear, except perhaps by faith.
"As Martin Luther King said, 'We shall overcome,'" Taylor said.
The mayor refused to speak about the FBI corruption probe with Local10 News, which involves her, her husband and multiple commissioners.