MIAMI BEACH — City Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez is still shell shocked after being informed by the city manager last week that $3.6 million of taxpayer funds had been siphoned out of an online account at SunTrust Bank. She said that officials are not ruling out the possibility of legal action against the bank.

"I'm still reeling in disbelief because this is taxpayer money and it's too much money to go unnoticed so I'm very disappointed," she acknowledged to Patch in an interview on Tuesday. Two city employees — Treasury Manager Juan Rodriguez and Financial Analyst Brian S. Wagner — have resigned their jobs in the aftermath of the disclosure by City Manager Jimmy L. Morales and the city has already instituted more stringent accounting controls while asking the FBI and Miami Beach police to investigate.

Acknowledging the city's responsibility to monitor its own accounts, Rosen Gonzalez said she also believes that SunTrust should have done more to prevent such a large amount from being removed from the city's account over multiple transactions. "We might have to sue SunTrust Bank. I'm very disappointed in SunTrust for not flagging this larceny," she explained.

SunTrust spokesman Tom Crosson told Patch that the bank is working closely with city officials but declined to discuss the details of the case. "We are working diligently with the city of Miami‎ Beach to resolve this matter," he said. "Due to client confidentiality, I cannot comment on the specifics of their account."

Rosen Gonzalez believes the bank should have caught the suspicious activity related to the account, which is used to pay the city's water bill and other expenses.

"It was an account that had a lot of movement which is probably why they chose that account," the commissioner explained.

She said that the fraud will almost certainly be a topic of discussion at the next meeting of the commission in January. In a letter to commissioners on Dec. 21, Morales said he became aware of the fraud two days earlier and apologized.