Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez apologized profusely for the
“past miscalculations” that caused sudden, big increases in taxes for property owners in 234 special taxing districts that pay for extra street lights, security and other neighborhood amenities.
And then he admitted that some of the special taxing district property owners have been paying for services in other taxing districts.
Gimenez noted that services were never interrupted to the districts during the time they underpaid. “It means some other special taxing district was used to cover his cost,” he said, citing one specific example of a property owner whose rates had apparently been artificially lowered.
He also apparently admitted that some people were overpaying for their services. “I know one particular case where they were paying too much,” Gimenez said.
Ooooops, is what you almost heard.
So, then, why was the mayor asking the commission to approve the flat rate zero increase for 834 special taxing districts before we know if they are paying too much?
Read related story: Miami-Dade special taxing districts = free-for-all shell game?
While three items increasing rates for 234 special taxing districts were deferred until the Sept. 1 meeting because of public notice issues, the other 834 were presented for approval before an audit is completed on the department’s accounting practices, which are questionable at best and fraudulent, at worst. Fortunately, commissioners — led by Juan Zapata and Vice Chair Esteban Bovo — could see that there were still more questions than answers and voted to defer that, too.
“I cannot support establishing the rates when we don’t really know how we spent the money in the past,” Zapata said, telling the mayor he 
had “a lot of housecleaning to do” and that it was not a new problem. “I’m quite shocked there’s only been one person who has lost their job over this. It’s been a systemic problem for a long time.”
Zapata said he met back in November with Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak “about my deep concerns about the way special taxing districts are being administered.”
“The information has been painfully slow to get to my office. And that’s how I know there’s a problem,” he said.
In his District 12 alone, the county spent a total of $2.6 million on special taxing districts — of which $1.9 million was for personnel. “Special taxing districts are created to enhance a neighborhood, with lighting, security… with landscaping, yet almost all of it went to personnel costs,” he said.
“I don’t think the county has subsidized the special taxing districts but I think the special taxing districts have been subsidizing the county. I think there has been cross-subsidizing between the special taxing districts,” Zapata said, adding that 15% or more of the budget went to create new special taxing districts.
“Existing districts are subsidizing the creation of new districts,” he said. “Who has been benefitting from this? It hasn’t been the special taxing districts. It’s been the folks in the administration. Not you, Mr.. Mayor. Previous mayors, previous administrations.
“I’m very uncomfortable with this tone, ‘Hey there was a mistake. We have one person held accountable.’ This is not one person’s mishap,” he said, adding that he would not vote for any of the items.
“How do I now with 100% confidence that administrative fees we are charging are right? How do I know for sure that the expenses we are charging are accurate?”
Read related story: Taxes are up for 116,000+ taxing district properties
Bovo said that there were many concerns raised at a town hall meeting
in his District 13. “We had less answers than the questions folks had for us,” Bovo said, adding that some people want to dismantle their special taxing district or turn it over to private hands.
“We are trying to tackle issues like transportation and this is the stuff that comes in and bites us. This is the stuff commissioners get recalled on,” Bovo said.
He’s right. Many residents spoke about the lack of confidence they have in the county’s determination of their tax burden. One man said that they were being charged twice as much as the costs for a security guardhouse. Another said he asked how the cost of $422,668 for a “big item” was generated, but could not get an answer.
Commissioner Xavier Suarez wanted to make sure that the audit came back to commissioners by the Sept. 1 meeting.
But will that be a forensic audit of every account, tracking every dollar? Or just the run-of-the mill audit already in the works?
Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, who is running against Gimenez “the great administrator,” said that moving along without answering questions was “sweeping it under the rug,” and that a forensic audit was necessary “to determine year by year, district by district, what was overpaid.”
The mayor said he ordered a review and update of all the ordinances that govern special taxing districts. “Our goal is to move forward to make sure the districts continue to operate with the level they expect and deserve,” Gimenez said.
“And I really do apologize to all residents,” he said, and then referred to pretty widespread reports that there was a mandate from his administration to keep rates flat and used the pool funds, since nobody was looking anyway.
“This was not an attempt to keep taxes low. No action regarding special districts has any bearing on the overall county budget,” Gimenez said.
But how can we be sure? If taxing districts are, indeed,
being used to pay for staff that overlaps into other departments, for instance, that does have a bearing on the budget. And how come these deficits were not flagged sooner?
Chair Jean Monestime, who suggested a forensic audit of the entire special taxing district operation, hinted that this arroz con mango may be with us for a while until we get sufficient answers. He told Commissioner Sally Heyman — who said she wants to vote on the items but would not be at the meeting in September — not to worry.
“If we go by what we see here today, we may not be able to finish the four items on the first.”
If we go by what we see here today, Chairman, there should be a criminal investigation opened into the mismanagement of special taxing district funds.
Carlos Gimenez admits overtaxing special districts: ‘So sorry’ added by Ladra on
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Frieda the purpose of Political Cortadito over the past 4 years or so has been to take Gimenez down, and for the past year or so has been to campaign for Regalado. You are right there are other bigger problems like getting rid of MDX. But Ladra is determined to get back at Gimenez after the incident in Hialeah. According to Political Cortadito he has not done one thing right. She has been bashing hi ever since.
Hey, Carlos Jimenez has been doing a great job since he was elected. Over the objections of our Liberal Commissioners Like Sally Heymman, he has kept property taxes low, has had an honorable tenure, especially when compared to Carlos Alvarez and Manny Fernandez day, and is generally a well liked guy. Be careful what you ask for as that dingbat who is running against him is nothing more than a psycho who doesn’t have a clue about how to run a multi-billion dollar enterprise like Miami-Dade County.
Instead of doing a “beat-down” on Carlos Jimenez, people should be concentrating on getting the Florida Department of Transportation to take over the functions of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. Traffic and tolling are the number one issues in our county and getting rid of MDX should be our number one priority. We don’t need highly paid MDX directors, assistant directors, office managers, spokesbabes, or any of the myriad of other needless and worth less positions that do nothing to get us from point A to point B any faster. The only thing they do is cost us needless expenses.
I urge everyone to push to have a professional
administrator. This County has suffered since the strong mayor was implemented.
[…] Read related story: Carlos Gimenez admits overtaxing special districts — ‘so sorry’… […]
Gimenez admits that monies from Special Tax Districts have been pooled and commingled, but that “no action regarding special districts has had any bearing on the overall county budget”; liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
A forensic audit is necessary to uncover the widespread criminal activity of everyone involved no matter how high up the ladder this goes. The mayor has always served himself and his cronnies; just look at where they were and where they are now. Even Gimenez’s best “dog & pony show” of downsizing the county was at the expense of the rank & file employees, while the big bosses were moved around like 3 card monty never losing a dime, and frequently being rewarded with Directorships after deliverying some “special project” like Marlin’s Stadium…oops again!
And while we’re at it, let’s have a forensic audit for the 2.4 billion collected since 2002 for Public Transportation; we need a full accounting of where our money went that was approved by the public to expand MetroRail; if memory serves we were to get 88+ miles to include extension south from Dadeland South Station to Homestead, plus expansions running east to west. We got 2.3 miles with the Airport, nothing west past the airport, nothing to the south, nothing to the north and nothing to the beach. Now we’re told there is no money but we have a lovely fleet of well maintained buses that might occassionaly run over the county employed driver…another oops!
It is impossible to live and work in Miami Dade County without owning a vehicle, and commute times have gone from bad to worse, and lets not forget our ever expanding highway contruction projects and new tolls. Our mass transit is a disgrace but we do lead the nation in fraud, now there’s something to be proud of!
When we start punishing these elected and appointed criminals for their abuse of powers and misappropriation of funds, maybe we can actually become a vibrant world-class city with a functioning government.
This problem is rampant in government across the country because elected and appointed persons across party lines have forgotten what it actually means to be a public servant and to serve the public. How can a career politician do their job and serve the people when their focus is how to out maneuver everyone else for the next position or the next political race.
Besides campaign reform, maybe we should have our elected officials sign a “Non Compete or Campaign” for the duration of their elected position, so that they must focus on actually doing the job they were elected to and that we are paying them to do.
Yes, let the Strong??? Mayor take responsibility, for anybody to believe that a county employee will act on his/her own to do or not do something as important as this is ludicrous. The STD charge comes in the Tax Bill – and there were NO TAX INCREASES! therefore non were assessed. Now, how did the STD department passed the Budget Office meetings at budget time each year? Didn’t the budget office catch the fact that what the STD staff was presening didn’t add up? – This is never the case, budget staff sets the rules as to what the budget for each department is, and if they didn’t catch this then the problem is even bigger.
Yes, it’s time for Charter change and get back to having a professional administrator – the Strong guy just doesn’t work. Where do I sign?
A lie is a lie is a lie and Gimenez can tell it with the best of them:
For those who still care about ethical government and paying less taxes. Go to the Miami Dade webcasting page and watch the tape for today’s meeting between 5:17 pm through 5:21 pm. This is the part of the tape where Gimenez admits on tape that monies from Special Taxing Districts were pooled and commingled! Until now both Gimenez and his mouthpiece Mike Hernandez had denied that commingling of funds had occurred. If my memory serves me well, commingling of funds was prohibited in a county ordinance passed in 2000 or so by then Commissioner Miguel De La Portilla. Such action made it a crime to commingle funds.
Which brings us to this point. Who, when, where and under whose orders were those STD monies commingled or pooled? We already know this all happened under Gimenez’s watch so he is ultimately responsible! We need the Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation into this matter and bring in all those employees responsible, from Don Tok down, to provide sworn statements about the commingling/pooling and any orders received from Gimenez and/or his staff to keep the tax rates flat to look good for the voters in 2012.
It has been often said you can catch a liar faster than a man with a club foot. Well, today at the listed period of time, Gimenez admitted what occurred which proves he has lied all along. If I were Raquel Regalado I would go through hell and high water to ensure this matter was investigated and those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
Don’t miss a debate between Raquel Regalado and the Mayor’s Public Information Officer Mike Hernandez tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. on Mira Tv’s Prohibido Callarse, hosted by Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera (Channel 18 on Direct TV). Expect Herandez to pull his usual dog and pony show to cover up for the mayor (It’s getting old Mike!).
We should have mayor gimenez investigate mayor gimenez and in this way we can be happy-go-lucky
No more bafoons.
Kudos to Chairman Monestime for suggesting a criminal investigation BUT who will do it and more importantly WHICH prosecutor will be in charge. If we want a TRUE investigation everyone under the influence and control of Gimenez and Fernandez-Rundle cannot be involved.
If we had a real prosecutor, Gimenez would already be behind bars. Lastly, “mistake after mistake” under this strong Mayor form of government and the “strong Mayor” is NEVER responsible! The time has come to change our form of government or disband the entire county system. Bring us a professional admistrator, not anymore baboons.
“Oooops. We the voters made a mistake by lending you the keys to the mayor’s office. We’re going to want those keys back next year, so prepare to clean out your desk and LEAVE.”