Surfside Honors Billionaire GOP Megadonor Ken Griffin With Key to Town

Last month, the Surfside Town Commission voted to present billionaire and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin with an honorary key to the town.

Griffin has become an influential figure in Miami-Dade County thanks to his deep pockets, political donations, and charitable contributions. But the mogul has no direct ties to the small beachside town, so the symbolic gesture appeared to come out of left field.

Actually, it came out of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.

It turns out that the organization, which represents the interests of the county's 34 municipalities, requested that each and every one of its member cities issue honorary keys to Griffin. The group plans to present him with a plaque containing all the trinkets at the group's 12th-annual Best Practices Conference on December 16 at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, where Griffin will deliver the keynote address.

"Normally, I wouldn't put this on there for somebody who is not a resident or has really contributed to this community," Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul, who sponsored the agenda item, said at the November 12 meeting. "However, the request came from Miami-Dade County League of Cities. The president, Mayor Karyn Cunningham of Palmetto Bay, and all municipalities were asked to contribute a key to the city as a gesture of appreciation for the philanthropist Kenneth C. Griffin."

A Florida native, the hedge-fund executive has become a household name in Miami-Dade since announcing in 2022 that he was moving his multinational company to the Magic City from Chicago. He recently submitted plans to the county for Citadel's new, 54-story headquarters in Brickell, after paying a whopping $363 million for the parcel of land. Griffin also might be the mystery buyer behind a recent condo buyout in the Solaris building, next door to his new headquarters. And he has poured millions into local hospitals, Miami-Dade public schools, Miami-Dade College, and local projects to improve sports fields and infrastructure.

Most notably, Griffin is a major megadonor, particularly to Republican candidates and causes. During the 2024 election cycle, he was Florida's top political donor and the nation's fifth-most-generous donor, shelling out $182 million to recipients including the Senate Leadership Fund, Sentinel Action Fund, and Congressional Leadership Fund  — super PACs that support Republican candidates and leaders.

In the Sunshine State, Griffin pledged $12 million to help Gov. Ron DeSantis shoot down Amendment 3, the initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana. He gave $5 million to DeSantis' re-election campaign in 2022 and $1 million to a political committee tied to his pal, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, in 2023.

Griffin was also at the center of a Florida Ethics Commission investigation into Suarez after he gave the mayor VIP passes to the 2023 Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix. The investigation revealed that Suarez reimbursed Griffin $14,000 — two weeks after the event and a week after the Miami Herald started asking questions about the perk. The commission later dismissed the complaint.

Griffin was instrumental in helping Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, win re-election in August.

For these reasons, Surfside Commissioner Gerardo Vildostegui, although appreciative of Griffin's philanthropy, was not in favor of presenting him with the town's highest honor, especially given his lack of connection to the town.

"I also want to say Mr. Griffin — he is a philanthropist who has given a lot of money, but he's also well known as a political donor. A couple of years ago, in 2022, Politico.com called him, like, the single biggest donor to the Republican party. I don't know if that is true anymore. I'm suspicious of this request because it seems too tied to politics and too unconnected to Surfside," Vildostegui said from the dais.

"I just don't think we should be giving out keys to the city just like that. I would prefer a connection to our town. I do, you know, welcome him. I'm grateful for the gifts to Miami-Dade College and Miami-Dade public schools, but I don't know this honor is really warranted in this case."

Other Surfside officials did not attribute the honor to Griffin's rising political influence within the county.

Citing Griffin's backing of Levine Cava and his charitable contributions, Mayor Charles Burkett said, "It is important to recognize people that support good people."

Commissioner Nelly Velasquez said it would be disrespectful to make this honor a political issue. "I feel that we should look at this more as the person himself — the actions he has done, the charity that's given, the money he's given to our city as a whole versus trying to make this a political thing," she said.

Vildostegui pushed back, insisting he was not making an issue of Griffin's politics but of his political influence.

"I think his identity is so tied up right now with his political donation," he said. "I'm precisely trying not to make it political, and it's not because of the particular party that he gave to or didn't give to or the mayor's office. I just worry that this request is too tied up with electoral politics and with large donations to electoral politics. I think that is not a reason to be honoring him. I'm somewhat suspicious of this request."

The commission passed the item with Vildostegui casting the lone no vote.

"I agree — you know, normally I'd like to see the key of the city go to somebody who's really done a lot for Surfside, but we don't know, he may come back and do something for us," Paul, the vice mayor, said. "You don't know."

The Miami-Dade League of Cities did not return New Times' request for comment.