MANNY GARCIA Herald Staff Writer

He spent 11 years at helm of City Hall. At 2 p.m. today, former Miami City Manager Cesar Odio becomes a U.S. prison inmate.

After 17 years of public service, Odio checks in to a cell at Eglin Air Force Base to do time for what he insists was a one-time lapse in judgment.

He was caught on tape last year counting out $3,000 in cash -- part of his cut for building a $12,500 lobbyist fee into a city health contract, prosecutors say.

The charge that sent him to prison -- obstructing the FBI's Operation Greenpalm probe into city corruption -- resulted from a plea bargain. Prosecutors avoided trying the popular Miami figure, and Odio avoided serious hard time -- up to 10 years.

Odio spent his last days before prison saying goodbye to friends and family.

``Thank you all,'' Odio said Friday, as he kissed secretaries and shook hands at the office of his attorney, Donald Bierman. ``I'll call. Gosh, I don't even know how to call from there. I have a phone card. You know, someone told me that I should bring a lot of quarters.''

He planned to spend the weekend driving north with his wife Maria Antonieta.

``This has been an awful time for my family,'' Odio said.

Odio, 62, spent 11 years at the helm of City Hall, outlasting three mayors and weathering several crises, including the Mariel boat lift, which poured thousands of impoverished refugees into the city.

He was praised as the city manager who walked into riots, preached calm or developed the neighborhood centers that are so popular with residents.

Odio appeared worried about his legacy Friday as he prepared to depart for prison.

``I made a mistake,'' said Odio, who refused to go into details about his case. ``I am not backing down from that.''

Odio, however, refused to cooperate with prosecutors and FBI agents. They wanted him to help investigate city commissioners and others.

But it was the city's financial mess that was on Odio's mind last week as he prepared for the weekend drive to Pensacola, where he planned to relax with his family before surrendering at the prison gates.

``I don't know what to do,'' he said candidly. ``I'm not used to this.''

Last November, after the FBI's Operation Greenpalm sting swept Odio, longtime Commissioner Miller Dawkins and Finance Director Manohar Surana from their jobs, a blue ribbon task force of financial and government experts concluded the city was in financial trouble.

Former Metro-Dade Manager Merrett Stierheim, appointed to serve as interim city manager, and the panel of experts concluded the city faced an estimated $68 million budget shortfall if nothing was done. Newly elected Mayor Joe Carollo notified the governor's office, which appointed an oversight board to oversee Miami's finances. Bond rating agencies responded quickly, downgrading the city's bonds to junk.

``That really hurt,'' Odio said Friday. ``There was no reason for Carollo to go. Our budget was not a sham budget. The books were balanced.''

Odio said Miami only had a $21 million shortfall -- not a big obstacle when placed against Miami's annual budget of $275 million.

Odio said Carollo exaggerated the deficit for political gain -- the same theme being used by mayoral candidate Xavier Suarez.

``Carollo is a dangerous man,'' Odio said.

Odio pointed to a management letter issued by KPMG Peat Marwick, the independent auditor hired by Miami to help it correct any financial problems. Odio says the two-page letter clears him of any wrongdoing while he was city manager.

He focused on paragraph four. It reads:

``During the course of our audit, nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that the city of Miami, Florida: was in violation of laws, rules or regulations; made illegal or improper expenditures; had improper or inadequate accounting procedures except as addressed in this report; . . . had other inaccuracies, irregularities, shortages or defalcations.''

``I feel vindicated,'' Odio said. ``This was all done for political gain by Carollo. We had the books balanced.''

Odio's wife said her husband is the victim of a scam perpetrated by Carollo. She said he concocted the deficit and then went running to Tallahassee. She said there was no deficit big enough to warrant state intervention.

``When I took over the city, it was in the 19th Century,'' Odio said.

However, Carollo said Odio did more harm than good.

``Odio is the one who put us in this situation,'' Carollo said, during a break in his campaigning. ``If not for Odio and his corrupt friends, we would never have been in this bad of shape.''

And city managers said Odio is taking the Peat Marwick report out of context.

City Manager Ed Marquez and Assistant City Manager Robert Nachlinger have been on the defensive ever since -- especially when some city workers started wondering whether a deficit really existed.

Nachlinger, a man known for his even keel, lashed out.

``It is the biggest campaign of disinformation that I have ever seen in all my years in government,'' he said. ``It is bull. The audit is more of an indictment. About a 60-page indictment.''

Jose Rodriguez, a Peat Marwick partner who headed the auditing team, said Monday that company policy prohibited him from commenting.

However, his audit found more than 30 problems, including that Miami was months behind on bank reconciliations, short-staffed in critical accounting jobs, lacked proper financial controls, made purchases from vendors without authorizations, and routinely failed to investigate cash shortages.

``You tell me if that is a vindication,'' Nachlinger said.

Odio said Friday that he plans to write a book on politics during his prison stay. He said he has already chosen a ghost writer.

"I just want people to know that I love Miami,'' Odio said. ``I'm going away, but I will be back.''