A former employee of the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust (MDEAT) has filed a lawsuit against the county organization for two counts of unlawful retaliation.
The amended complaint, filed Aug. 20, states that Vincent Burnett “was subjected to a continuous pattern of retaliation following his filing of an Employment Discrimination Complaint against his immediate supervisor, Edwin Miller, MDEAT’s Housing Administrator, with the Human Rights and Fair Employment Practices Division (“HRFEP”) of Miami-Dade County’s Human Resources Department.”
In June 2023, The Miami Times published a lengthy cover story, headlined “,” detailing several accusations made against MDEAT, including Burnett’s allegations of fund mismanagement, harassment and retaliation.
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Burnett was terminated April 14, 2023, after he allegedly spoke up about Miller and filed a complaint against MDEAT Executive Director William “Bill” Diggs.
The lawsuit further states that Burnett was “retaliated against by receiving an increased workload; having his performance metrics increased to an unattainable level; and being denied requested administrative leave time” before he was fired.
When asked last week if he was aware that the allegations of retaliation had recently been formalized into a lawsuit, Diggs said he was not. He said he had no comment on the accusations made against his organization, yielding instead to the county attorney’s office to handle the legal matter. When asked last year, Diggs had repeatedly maintained that MDEAT reserves the right to fire probationary employees, as Burnett was during the time of his termination.
The Miami-Dade County attorney’s office did not respond to an email request for comment.
A letter from the HRFEP upon the completion of its investigation into Burnett’s complaint, provided to this publication by the former employee and dated Oct. 17, 2023, stated that “although [the department] found no evidence that [Burnett] was subjected to unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation with regards to [his] employment, there was evidence uncovered in the investigation that Mr. Miller did violate the county’s policy on Unlawful Discrimination, Harassment, and/or Retaliation.”
“I think it’s telling that they made a specific finding on [Miller], who’s a leader and a manager in an agency that’s supposed to help people of color and uplift African Americans in various ways, and yet [MDEAT] continue[s] to employ a guy that denigrates their constituency … apparently without consequence,” said Ephraim Hess of Hess Law Firm, who serves as counsel for Burnett.
A case management order submitted by Circuit Court Judge Spencer Eig in June sets a trial ready deadline of June 29, 2025, for the case.
In the meantime, The Miami Times asked Diggs for an update on the long-awaited disparity study, which was released suddenly on the organization’s website in April 2024 after seven months of delay. The plan then was to formally roll out the study through three community events throughout Miami-Dade County, projected to take place in May or June. Now nearing the end of August, those events have yet to take place.
Diggs said they are working on organizing the community events and that they should be coming up as the county budget season comes to a close.
This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at .
