A hiring panel’s choice for Miami’s next city attorney is 30-year veteran of the local government’s legal team, with a career that included years as the top legal adviser for the Miami Police Department during a time that it was monitored by federal authorities following a string of deadly police shootings of Black suspects.
A selection committee appointed by commissioners has recommended Deputy City Attorney George Wysong to succeed Victoria Méndez, who was removed from her position on April 11. Facing controversy over allegations of misusing her office and criticism from some commissioners, Méndez was demoted to assistant city attorney for the remainder of her contract, which expires in June. Méndez has denied wrongdoing and defended her record over her 20 years at the city.
City commissioners will consider naming Wysong as Miami’s next city attorney at a public meeting on Thursday.
Wysong, one of Méndez’s top deputies, has spent his three-decade legal career at Miami City Hall. After graduating from the St. Thomas University College of Law in 1993, Wysong was hired as an assistant city attorney and municipal prosecutor in 1994. Five years later, he became the police department’s legal adviser. In that role, Wysong advised the police chief and the chief’s executive staff, served as a member of the city’s Police Review Committee, and responded to the scenes of officer-involved shootings.
During that time, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated the police department following 33 instances where officers shot people between 2008 and 2011 — including the fatal shooting of seven Black men in eight months. The 2013 federal review found that Miami police had violated the U.S. Constitution by engaging in “excessive use of deadly force,” and the department was placed under federal oversight.
In 2013, Wysong was promoted to division chief of the city’s general government and land use division while continuing to serve as a police legal adviser as the department implemented reforms under federal oversight. In 2021, the DOJ formally ended its monitoring of the police department.
In May, Wysong was promoted to deputy city attorney, overseeing land use, transactional and general government matters. After Méndez was demoted earlier this month, Wysong briefly served as acting city attorney until Chief Deputy City Attorney John Greco returned from vacation on Monday.
Wysong was one of two candidates who interviewed with the selection committee on Friday. The selection committee included Rafael E. Andrade, a Miami Beach-based attorney and lobbyist; Jose A. Villalobos, who is of counsel at law firm Akerman; Neisen Kasdin, co-office managing partner at Akerman; Yolanda Cash Jackson, a governmental law attorney at law firm Becker; and Jay Solowsky, who is of counsel at Krinzman Huss Lubetsky Feldman & Hotte.