MIAMI -- Miami's embattled city manager said he is resigning before the end of the year.

Joe Arriola has come under a firestorm of criticism pertaining to the city's controversial $7 million Department of Fire-Rescue fee settlement that a judge last month ruled must be vacated.

Arriola was accused of brokering a deal with five plaintiffs who filed a class-action lawsuit against the city because of a $61 per year assessment fee that they felt was unconstitutional. In doing so, only the plaintiffs and two others were awarded the payout that other citizens were potentially eligible for but got stuck paying the fee instead. Arriola insists that the city's legal department brokered the settlement.

Though Arriola was not mentioned by name in the court ruling, the judge implied that Arriola was aware these were individual settlements he was negotiating and that when commissioners approved the settlement, Arriola may have misled them.

But Arriola told Local 10 his decision to step down has nothing to do with the fire-rescue fee fiasco.

"I never had any intention of staying," he said. "I've always said by the end of the year I'll be gone. That's the truth. By the end of the year, I will be gone."

Arriola has been city manager for three and a half years. Mayor Manny Diaz said he is planning a nationwide search for his replacement.