2 top Miami-Dade officials out after county failed to secure fuel depot for Port Miami

Two top Miami-Dade County officials are out after the county's failure to permanently secure the only fuel depot for Port Miami.

Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava announced that Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales and Port Miami Director Hydi Webb were retiring.

In his resignation letter, Morales said to the mayor, in part, "I acknowledge that you and I have a difference of opinion with respect to the purchase and sale transaction of the port fuel facility on Fisher Island".

The fuel depot is crucial to keeping Port Miami's massive economic engine running. The port has an economic impact of $61 billion and supports 340,000 jobs, according to the county.

It currently sits on a 10-acre site in Fisher Island. But the land's private owner sold it to a developer last year under the county's nose.

"There isn't a port in the United States that doesn't have a fuel depot," said former congressman Joe Garcia, who has been critical of the county's failure to buy the land first.

The current owner wants to turn the fuel depot into luxury condos. The county has struggled to come up with alternatives.

The Fisher Island Community Association does not want the fuel depot to stay, it says, partly for safety reasons. In a lawsuit, the association alleged the county had agreed to pay the developer a combined $400 million for the land, more than double what the developer paid.

"I'm talking about that the county failed, this yacht full of billionaire pirates literally are trying to hold up our city," Garcia said.

In his resignation letter, Morales alluded to a deal and said he was instructed to find a way to buy the land that Port Miami could afford and would not use taxpayer dollars.

No deal has apparently gone through, and the mayor's office did not provide an update on negotiations. CBS News Miami reached out to the developer but has not heard back.