Here we go again.
After almost a year, an award for construction supervision at Miami International Airport was stalled last week after the mayor’s office said it needed more time to review a bid protest from the company that was not chosen.
It had to be the airport, where bids go to be challenged.
And it had to be Munilla Construction Management, under a new name with the same initials, Magnum Construction Management.
MCM has had the contract since 2011, which is when their padrino, former Mayor Carlos Gimenez was elected. It started as a $50 million, four-year contract and turned into a $130 million, 10-year affair. Before the contract expired again last year, the county decided to put it out to bid. Applause! Well done! Wait for it…
Read related: Extension of MCM’s $120 million airport contract to get another look
MCM came in number two in the race for the $70 million job (over five years with two one-year options) after the first ranked choice, Suffolk/NV2A — who were also involved in the PortMiami tunnel project — got the recommendation from the selection committee in May. They were reportedly superior in every single category. Naturally, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava recommended Suffolk/NV2A when it went to the Airports and Economic Development Committee April 13.
But that’s where Pedro and Daniel Munilla — after a long, self-imposed exile since the FIU bridge collapse — came out themselves to complain that Suffolk did not meet the requirements when it came to local preference and minority business hires in past projects.
It didn’t matter. The committee voted it up, 3-2, bringing it to the full commission despite objections from committee chair Keon Hardemon — whose former chief of staff in Miami works for MCM now — and commission Vice Chair Oliver Gilbert. Let it sink in how significant that is.
Then, all of the sudden, la alcaldesa needs a couple of weeks to review the process. Seven days after making the recommendation? Was she not confident about it in the first place? Seven days after the Munillas moan about local preference and minority business quotas — as well as how great they’ve been doing since their epic failure of the FIU pedestrian bridge collapse — Levine Cava says she wants to think about it some more.
What on Earth changed in seven days?
Read related: Airport City is dead, but firm gets $65 million consolation prize
She could come back with the same recommendation. She could come back with a new recommendation. She could say let’s start all over again. Showing, once again, that politicians, lobbyists and campaign contributions is what governs the big budget decisions at the county, not professional recommendations from qualified staff.
The commission caved, voting 10-2 to defer the award for two weeks, until the May 4 meeting. Commissioners Rene Garcia and Joe Martinez voted no.
“If there’s new information, then that new information should be provided here, not behind closed doors,” Garcia said, adding that the delay would hold off businesses ready to move forward at MIA.
“Give all the commissioners a chance to be heard,” he said, referring to the committee members who got more opportunity to discuss the matter. “Do not silence us.”
Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz — who called the whole process “a mess that is disturbing” — said he didn’t want to spend two and a half hours discussing something that would be deferred anyway. Said Garcia: “That’s what we get paid to do.”
I mean, really. Diaz doesn’t want to hear from the public, taking every opportunity to limit constituent input, and now he doesn’t even want to hear from his colleagues? Isn’t that why he was elected?
Martinez had it spot on when he said that nothing will change in two weeks. The bid parameters will be the same. The first-ranked choice will still be Suffolk. The second ranked MCM will still be whining about it. The legal opinion will be the same. If it’s not, we have bigger problems.
The only thing different is that politicians paused a perfectly clean process because campaign contributors complained. Oh, wait, that’s not really different, is it? How can we have a different mayor and still hear the same old song?
Levine Cava has an opportunity here to put her foot down. She can say “Listen, we’re not doing business that way anymore.”
But noooooooo.
Read related: Pot calls the kettle black in Tri-Rail bid protest by MCM’s Munilla
Chief Operations Officer (and deputy mayor) Jimmy Morales said two weeks would give the administration time to answer some questions.
“This administration inherited three years of the process here and in the last week a lot of questions came up,” Morales told the commission.
Last week? The 15 letters from the two companies complaining and defending the award are dated as early as four days after the recommendation in May, 2020. How is that last week? In fact, the recommendation to the Airports and Economic Development Committee came with the caveat that the complaints were acknowledged and irrelevant or had been addressed.
A legal opinion found the information submitted by Suffolk in the bid process had been legally sufficient and the Small Business Division of Internal Services said the firm had made up any deficit in other projects and promised a 23% chunk of this project to the local small businesses. The Office of Inspector General investigated and rejected the accusations.
Eric Zichella, a lobbyist for MCM, said that the “make-up” plan for small business involvement must be submitted as part of the bid not afterwards. His pitch was pretty lame. Especially given the documentation that shows Suffolk was in compliance with everything.
Mike Llorente, a lobbyist for Suffolk, was much more convincing. He reminded the committee members that the “countless arguments and attacks against Suffolk, each one of these allegations was investigated and rejected,” since they won the recommendation in May of last year.
“One of our top priorities, obviously, is to make sure a good process was followed,” Morales said, adding that the administration also wanted to respond to the small businesses that should be getting the work they should be getting.
“We just want a little more time,” Morales, who is widely considered la Alcaldesa‘s number 2, said. “To make sure we get it right.”
Uh, oh. Too late.
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Tina Millan, the shill for Christian Ulvert, and the leader in the pack to be new MIAD chief just left WSP and still draws a lovely consulting fee from them through a cut out.
Come on. Chris Korge and Sergio Pino like that horse as well to keep them as master franchisers at MIA as it undergoes a $5bn renovation.
Newslink. Versailles. Baggage wrap? Eulen and MCM until very recently. Come on… when does it ever stop?
Ulvert is already getting a fee from those nasty anti-semites in Quatar (he has never been in the Middle East and as a married gay man would be denied entry regardless, and would be humiliated, stoned, and jailed just for the KY and pictures of little boys in his roll-on bag) as a dirty little back door move to get access to DLC for local lobbyists!
See the illegal and very late FARA filing hurriedly filed listing Ulvert as the Middle East expert door opener for DLC when the FBI had some questions. Never been there. Wouldn’t be let in! Paid anyway.
Doesn’t Quatar hate Israel?
Isn’t DLC Jewish and needs loyal north east Dade Jewish Democratic votes. The senile condo ballot brokers are failing. A faigeleh taking money from Quatar to sell access to DLC? And we thought Giminez was evil!
DLC was supposed to be clean? Who? What? Where? When? Now Millan stealing at the airport? Wasn’t Natasha’s insatiable greed enough? And Ulvert shilling Millan? Strange bedfellows. Well, he is an ambitious and very eager ankle biter.
When will things change? Now Key Biscayne? And Pepe Diaz feeding from the trough as well. Another insatiable pig.
” Different Mayor same old story.”
Bovo was better ?
She did not win because she was a woman nor a Dem which here does not mean a thing .
Politics here is truly the lesser of the evils .
She turned out to be WEAK and looks to be same ole , same ole but again Bovo was a sure same ole , same ole .
Spot on, Lladra!
D. Duncan,
BEAUTIFUL post .
A few years ago I read how they ALL get ” consultation ” fee’s from everyone they hire or have a part in hiring .
It is always about them while they give the illusion about it being about us .
Talk about a shady legal ( legal here ) but seriously unethical behavior .
It is a position which does not even exist in many places with the population we have here , in other words in other big cities and where it does exist it is an impotent position.
For starters ALL of them should be voted out and talk about the ultimate career politicos . These assorted flunkies are seen as Celebs .
The irony , the mystery of Miami is so many who came here with very little if anything , have done well yet vote for slime they would have fired in a week and would never interact with .
” Lions should never bow to jackals ”
Zulu
Each Miami Dade County Commissioner is influenced by the contributing contractors who keep them in office. Each commissioner’s Chief of Staff is the gatekeeper for the district kingdom. If law enforcement just concentrated on listening in to the meetings by chiefs of staff and the lobbyists and contractors bidding for contracts, every commissioner in the county would end up in prison.
As a long time law enforcement veteran, Felix Jimenez, the director of the Office of the Inspector General OIG, knows how to stop all of this corruption but as a good little tin soldier he looks the other way because his office and his high salary are funded by the same commission they are supposed to investigate.
Question, who is most corrupted, the contractor seeking to get ahead in a capitalist system, the elected commissioners or the director of OIG? Answer: the elected commissioners and the OIG director are more corrupt. They are put in place to stop corruption and they perpetuate it.
Yes. I am here to say, “I told you so”. I said voting for Daniella Levine Cava for the mere purpose of making history as our first female mayor was a “big mistake”.
Different Mayor same old story.
Ladra, you want a good story. How about you writing about the hiring of the current Chief Procurement Officer/Purchasing Director Namita Uppal. Review the resumes who applied for the position and you will wonder as to why Ed Marquez and Tara Smith selected Uppal. Also, remind me as to why Ed Marquez is still around. After all, he his Gimenez’s boy.
Gimenez-Marquez-Smith-Uppal-Procurement-Contracts-Friends and Family Plan!
QUESTION ? HOW MUCH Did The Companies , LOBBYIST and CONSULTANTS DONATED To Each of the Commissioners and MAYOR Campaign ? JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY ! At MIA if they pass an RFP They Fight ? And If Contracts are Awarded W/O RFP Nobody Complaint ? The Corruption is The Same And NO TRANSPARENCY ?
BRIBES AND LOBBYIST FOR CORRUPTION ?
And we used to complain about Mayor Alvarez and Carlitos 2.0… Nothing will change until the main players are replaced, especially at the directorship level, conspicuous members of the old George Burgess’ clique. The two departments involved have been in need of a total overhaul for some time now…
The definition of politics in the US: Money and Power. Power and Money. Common sense? Serving the people? Obeying the law? Nah.
It’s extremely disappointing to watch Mayor Levine make a full of herself. The continuous ambivalence on decision making is mind bugling. Her professional staff made a decision and gave a recommendation, she accepted it, but then a flunky meets with her with no proofs but she still decides that he may be right and changes her mind? This is a slap on the face to staff and a sell out to special interest. Wasn’t she supposed to be by the book? Squeaky clean? Smart? Strong? Transparent? What happened? This is not what I voted for.
Why mention that Mr. Morales abandoned a sinking ship? Look at how Ocean Drive was overrun by barbarian hordes, during what’s supposed to be college students’ Spring break, and the many shops and restaurants closing their doors on the Beach, clamorig for support and atention from old hands at the particulars of Beach commerce.
What “changed” is that new information surfaced that Suffolk/NV2A lied about its business tax receipts and in doing so basically defrauded the process and the County. There’s that. The Alcaldesa should take that very seriously and make an example out of them if she wants to dissuade future bidders from engaging in such tactics. She will otherwise send out a loud message that cheating is rewarded in County RFPs.