A contract extension approved by the Miami-Dade Commission last month for one of the firm’s involved in the bridge collapse at Florida International University will get another look at the next commission meeting.
Commissioners last month approved an 18-month extension for Munilla Construction Management — which is five months into a bankruptcy filing 
after the March 2018 collapse of the pedestrian bridge over Eighth Street — for miscellaneous projects at Miami International Airport. MCM, which is now Magnum Construction Management, was one of the contractors involved in the construction of the bridge. This contract extension — the first time since the tragic accident that the politically-connected firm comes before the commission — was on the consent agenda, where minor or housekeeping items are placed for a mass approval vote, sans discussion, to save time.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — a friend of the owners of the company who travels with them often — didn’t think to bring the bankruptcy or the bridge collapse up in a memo to the commission. No word about the findings of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited MCM for safety violations for neglecting to protect workers when there were indications of a possible collapse.
Read related: MCM files Chapter 11, but Carlos Gimenez pals have other firms
He did, however, find it appropriate to applaud their performance, saying that in 21 evaluations since 2011, MCM rated 3.6 out of a possible 4. “Which is indicative of above average performance,” Gimenez wrote, adding that the change order “provides for the continuity of construction services throughout the county’s airport system until an award is approved by the board.”
But why wasn’t the process for a new contract begun much earlier? It seems that MCM just keeps getting breaks from the county.
Five days after the contract extension was approved July 23, Gimenez and 
Pedro Munilla — who is related to the mayor’s wife Lourdes and used to employ both sons, one as a lobbyist and another as a project manager — were in Chicago with their wives celebrating, as seen in this Instagram photo posted by a Univision executive friend of the Gimenez family and first discovered by the Miami Herald.
But the celebration may have been premature. Because Commissioner Xavier Suarez wants to revisit the item — which means it could be voted down.
Suarez said he didn’t even realize what he had voted to approve until vigilant political observer and twitter beast Billy Corben brought it to his attention.
“I didn’t even know we had a contract with MCM,” Suarez said, adding that he has some questions for the county attorney’s office.
“How can an entity that’s in bankruptcy and that has just been found to be 
negligent in management, how can that entity have any bonding capacity? They’re insurable? We need to check that,” Suarez said.
He also doesn’t understand why the county can’t just go out to bid again on the miscellaneous construction projects at MIA.
“I am preparing a motion to expedite that,” Suarez said. “How hard can it be? You are not inventing anything new.”
Read related: Miam-Dade Mayor’s pal gets $6 mil extension on contract
The 548-day extension, the fourth change order on MCM’s contract, did not 
come with an increase. But the reason MCM needs an extension, ladies and gentlemen, is because they haven’t yet billed the threshhold of their limit, which has increased twice and more than doubled from the original $50 million award in 2011 to $130 million today.
In fact, only $86 million has been completed, according to the county. This gives MCM 18 months to do another $55 million worth of work.
The first increase in the original four-year contract came in 2015 and was $30 million. In 2016, they got an additional year and $10 million more and in 2017 — even though the county at first considered going out to bid — they got a two year extension and a $40 million increase.
It’s good to be related to the mayor.
Extension of MCM’s $120 million airport contract to get another look added by Ladra on
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