Outgoing City of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell stormed out of Thursday's commission meeting and threatened to immediately resign as the commission started discussing canceling what happens to be his last meeting in December.
Russell is set to leave his position in January, making the Dec. 8 commission meeting his very last to work on unfinished business in his district, which covers Coconut Grove. Fellow commissioners mentioned moving the meeting to spend time with family for the holidays.
"Simple cordiality to this body to each other to respect each other's ability to get the work done for our residents is being thrown in the garage right now," Russell said in the meeting.
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"So you can expect my resignation to be rewritten this afternoon and counted for today because I'm done," he said. "This is an absolute farce."
Russell then stormed out of the chamber. He later took to Twitter, saying he's willing to return to the dais.
"If two other commissioners are willing to show up on Dec. 8 to do our work, I am too," he tweeted. "Otherwise over $300k in anti-poverty funds and several affordable housing zoning initiatives for west Grove get thrown out. It's my last (meeting). Help me finish the job right."
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"I'm taking a deep breath," Russell told NBC 6 Thursday night. "I'm not putting in my resignation tonight. I'm appealing to my commissioners to get together and do their job."
He didn't have regrets over how he handled the meeting.
"Oftentimes I regret not saying more because this commission is getting out of hand, and the voters deserve better," Russell said. "They put us in office to do a simple job: show up and do your votes."
Requests for comment from Mayor Francis Suarez and other commissioners went unanswered Thursday night.
