SURFSIDE, Fla. – Surfside’s police chief, manager, and assistant manager abruptly resigned this week as the town is still waiting for the results of a federal investigation into the building collapse that killed 98 people last year.
The town announced on Thursday that Police Capt. John Healy will temporarily replace Chief Rogelio Torres, Jr., and Hector Gomez, the town’s public works director will take over Town Manager Andrew Hyatt’s position in the interim.
Torres, who was with the Sunrise Police Department for more than three decades, had just become the police chief in February. He served as Sunrise’s deputy chief of police from 2018 until he retired in 2019.
Assistant Town Manager Jason Greene’s replacement has yet to be determined. Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger announced Hyatt’s resignation on Tuesday. Town officials announced the resignations of Torres and Greene on Wednesday.
Hyatt, of Cleveland, Tennessee, joined the town in 2020 with decades of experience. He had been the town’s manager for about seven months when the 12-story Champlain Towers South building collapsed at about 1:25 a.m., on June 24, 2021.
Danzinger, Surfside’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, was sworn into office in March. The 42-year-old father of five with tech industry experience replaced former Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett, who was in office when the building collapsed.
Danzinger, who grew up in Canada and moved from Brooklyn to Surfside in 2012, told residents during his campaign that he had implemented apps available at correctional institutions. His Behance portfolio includes advertising and design work.
Commissioner Nelly Velazquez, a Burkett supporter whose term ends in 2024, explained the town’s leadership crisis by saying “people” were just “not getting along with each other.”
It’s unclear if the alleged conflict had anything at all to do with the building collapse. Danzinger did not respond to Local 10 News requests for comment.