Higgins said in her closing statement that she is running for mayor "because I'd like to restore trust in City Hall."

"I bring a track record from my eight years at the county commission focusing on the things that matter to you: affordable housing, better transportation, small business support and protection of the environment," she said. "Those are the things I will bring to the city. But most importantly, I will also bring a new way of working. One that does not involve yelling. Does not involve screaming. It just involves showing up at City Hall every day and working for the people."

Gonzalez, in his closing statement, said, "My goal is simple: I want to return Miami to greatness."

"I have led at the small unit level. I have led a bureaucracy of 19,000 employees," he said. "This, for me, is an opportunity to return, to give back to my city and to take Miami where it needs to be."

"We need to concentrate on accountability and affordability so that people can afford to live here," Gonzalez added. "And we need to work on a family-first agenda. We need to make sure our families are taken care of, our children are taken care of, our elders are taken care of, and Miami will grow together."

Gonzalez said Miami needs to be better at mitigation efforts to prevent street flooding. He also suggested the city should look into whether its parks can be used as reservoirs.

Higgins said certain regulations need to be changed in order to permit for things like permeable pavement and faster park building to help with flooding.

Gonzalez was critical of the term affordable housing, saying the buildings it's applied to aren't affordable for people like police officers and teachers. He said the root issue of bringing the actual costs of housing down needs to be addressed.

Higgins said she would tackle housing costs for the city the same way she did as county commissioner: by looking at city-owned land and seeing where affordable housing could be built.

Gonzalez said he doesn't support efforts to expand the number of city commissioners from five, saying instead that the city needs "better commissioners."

Higgins, however, said she supports expanding the number to nine, noting that Miami has one of the smallest city commissions for a city of comparable size both throughout the state and country.

Both Higgins and Gonzalez said they would not keep Arthur Noriega on as city manager. 

Neither candidate said they had a specific person in mind to fill the role.

Gonzalez also pledged to reform the city's permitting system, agreeing that the process currently takes too long.

"People laugh at us," he said, lamenting the city's reputation as being corrupt because of its procurement process.

Higgins also said the city's budget has grown too large without a corresponding increase in actual services, saying a deep dive into the budget "has to happen." 

She also again brought up the city's permitting system, saying it costs Miami too much money, and pledged to reform that system so the process doesn't take as long and brings costs down.

When asked if he supports Gov. Ron DeSantis' push to get rid of property taxes on primary homes in the state, Gonzalez predicted it would pass overwhelmingly as a ballot measure. He said instead, his concern was people being "overtaxed and underserved."

He said the city could make up the shortfall in lost property tax revenue by cutting some of its "bloated" budget.  

"I think there are opportunities here for efficiencies, and nothing has to suffer," Gonzalez said.

When asked if he planned to continue his outside work if elected over any possible concerns of conflicts of interest, Gonzalez said he doesn't see any current conflicts that would arise from his work, saying the company he works for, Ducenta, does "no business" with Miami or Florida.

Still, he said, if any conflicts of interest were to arise, he would drop that work.

Higgins vowed not to have any outside employment whatsoever.

"Miami deserves a full-time mayor," she said.

Gonzalez called Mayor Suarez a "great chief marketing officer" and said the mayor has done a great job putting Miami "on the map for certain industries."

"But I do think he could have taken a more dramatic stand on some of the things that happened in our commission, when they tried to redistrict as a way of punishing somebody, or somebody was removed from office," he said. "There are a lot of things that I think he could have been more vocal, as the mayor, but I do think he did yeoman's work in putting the city on the map for technology, for sports, for everything else."

Higgins gave current Miami Mayor Francis Suarez's tenure a mixed review, saying he "did some things well and did some things not so well."

She applauded his ability to make Miami a top destination for business and tourism, but said he "left people behind in that."

She said his policies made the housing affordability crisis worse and "increased the gap between the haves and the have-nots."

Both candidates have made permitting reform a large part of their campaigns, and when asked why he didn't do something about the issue when he served as city manager, Gonzalez said it wasn't as big a problem at the time.

He also laid blame on other members of the city's government, saying, "You could discover the cure for cancer, but if you don't have three people voting for it, it doesn't fly," calling it "a circus."

Higgins defended a TV ad her campaign is running that says Gonzalez has been "accused of fraud." 

While she acknowledged he has been exonerated, Higgins said, "The residents are frustrated with a city that is nothing but people yelling, suing each other, involved in lawsuits and disruption, so nothing is getting done for them."

In response to the ad, Gonzalzes said, "People call me, they laugh. They know. People know who I am. They know what I've done."

He said the reason he resigned from his former position as city manager was that his wife was "going through some very serious medical issues," saying he had to choose between going to city commission meetings and taking care of his wife. He said he chose the latter.

Former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins said she is "very concerned" about the way immigration enforcement is being handled in Miami. 

"First of all, they said they were gonna go after criminals, but guess what? They're going after everybody," she said. 

She called the Trump administration's enforcement "inhumane and cruel" and also said it was "bad for the economy." 

She noted that the cancellation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, which she said impacts about 100,000 people in the Miami area, forced one local business owner to fire several employees who had lost the legal right to work in the country.

Asked if Gonzalez should have rejected President Trump's endorsement, Higgins said: "He's the president. I'm very glad the president didn't endorse me."

Former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez has been endorsed by President Trump, but he says the endorsement came "by surprise" and that it was not something he actively sought.

"I do know that the president, because he's a resident of Florida and there's talk of putting a [presidential] library here in Miami, he follows events in Florida," Gonzalez said.

Asked if he supports Mr. Trump's immigration policies, Gonzalez said he supports "rounding up people who commit crimes."

"I cannot in good conscience fight the federal government and defend a rapist or a murderer, like happens in other cities," he said. Moderator Jim DeFede noted most of the people being arrested have not committed violent crimes, to which Gonzalez replied: "But this is a federal issue. …This is not an issue that has to do with the mayor of Miami."

Eileen Higgins served on the Miami-Dade County Commission, representing parts of central Miami-Dade. She has campaigned on increasing government transparency, expanding affordable housing options, and restoring trust in City Hall following years of political turmoil and corruption scandals. The mayoral race is officially nonpartisan, but the Florida Democratic Party congratulated Higgins on qualifying for the runoff and said it shows "Miami is on the path to getting the leadership it deserves."

Emilio Gonzalez, a retired Air Force colonel and former Miami city manager under Mayor Francis Suarez, is running on a platform centered on leadership experience and fiscal discipline. Gonzalez previously oversaw the city's administration and has emphasized management expertise and financial stewardship. He has touted being endorsed by leading Republicans including Sen. Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who praised his "commitment to our nation and Miami."

• What: City of Miami mayoral debate
• Date: Tuesday, Nov. 25
• Time: 7 p.m. ET
• Location: CBS Miami studios in Doral, Florida
• On TV: Watch live on WFOR-TV (CBS Miami)
• Online stream: Watch live on CBS Miami in the video player above or on your mobile or streaming device.