Just when you thought the dust had settled from Miami-Dade’s budget meltdown over nonprofit funding, the county commission is getting ready to cook up a permanent fix — and it’s one that could quietly take a bite out of every county contract. Ladra’s calling it the CBO skim. Thursday, the county’s appropriations committee will take […]
15-member committee has lobbyists, contractors Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Anthony “A-Rod” Rodriguez is now leading the charge to strip away inefficiencies in the county’s bloated and Byzantine procurement system. Yes, you read that right. The same Anthony Rodriguez who helped build the maze — and recently came under fire for awarding millions to a shady charity […]
Hires fired, former Doral manager as his number two It wasn’t public. And it wasn’t complete. City Manager Art Noriega produced a presentation of the history of his wife’s business with the city in a slide show sent to commissioners and that was short more than $200K from the figure reported by WLRN in January, […]
Decision Tuesday could cost taxpayers $335 million Here we go again. Horsepower Electric is back. And with new champions on the county commission. Miami-Dade may rescind the 2020 $167 million contract with Yunex Traffic for the synchronization of traffic lights — which started late because of COVID — and shift the rest of the work […]
Former Miami-Dade Transit Director Alice Bravo pleaded no contest on Wednesday to an accusation that she violated the county’s ethics code by lobbying two months after leaving her $250,000-a-year county job — rules require a minimum of two years — and she was basically slapped on the wrist by the Commission on Ethics and Public […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava backpedalled and ditched her old recommendation to reject all the bids for a $50 million airport contract — where a selection committee of staff had already ranked the top two firms — and start the process over. After Political Cortadito exposed what looks like illegal lobbying by former Transportation Director […]
County commissioners really want Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to put the contract for the synchronization of traffic lights — yeah, we all thought that had been done already — out for a new bid after a locally prominent serial campaign donor filed a bid protest and said his company did not get the same advantage as […]
Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has basically taken over the procurement process at Miami International Airport, just like that, in what amounts to a seizure of one of the county’s fattest cash cows. Who thinks that’s a good idea? Certainly not Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio Gonzalez, who suddenly resigned […]
From the timing-is-everything department. Water and Sewer Department Director Bill Johnson, who used to be director of the Port of Miami, has been tapped by Florida Gov. Rick Scott as head of Enterprise Florida, which recruits corporations to relocate to Florida and tries to retain companies that are thinking of moving. It’s a really soft […]
DEVELOPING STORY: After six years of back and forth and what can only be described as stonewalling and foot dragging by Miami-Dade County on the fate of the once-ballyhooed Airport City, Odebrecht USA could sue the county for reimbursement of all or part of $11 million they say they have spent on the project so […]