Miami Today: Week of Thursday, September 28, 2017

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MIAMI TODAY

TODAY’S NEWS

The Insider RESILIENCE COLLABORATION: A letter of agreement and a memorandum of understanding will cement the participation of Miami-Dade County in a collaborative effort among the county, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, and Miami Dade College, the University of Miami and Florida International University to address three resilience challenges. The challenges are yet to be spelled out. The agreement links them all to the MetroLab Network. All are geared to advance the goals of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Program.

County Mayor Carlos Giménez is seeking county James Murley commission approval to move ahead. James Murley, the county’s chief resilience officer, is to be responsible for monitoring the proposed agreement.

GETTING ON BOARD: Vince Lago, Coral Gables commissioner, has joined the governing board of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization, according to the transportation group’s weekly electronic newsletter.

Mr. Lago was first elected to the Gables commission in 2013 and was re-elected this year. He led the fight to reduce the speed limit on all streets in that city (except major thoroughfares) from 30 to 25 mph. City officials said 76% of residents were in favor on the reduction.

BUDGET ON TRACK: The second hearing to discuss Mayor Carlos Giménez’s proposed Miami-Dade County budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is today (9/28) at Government Center. After the first budget hearing Sept. 7 was rescheduled for Sept. 19, commissioners discussed when the second hearing would be held. When Chairman Esteban Bovo Jr. asked the committee if the 28th conflicted with their schedules, Commissioner Sally Heyman said it overlaps with the Florida’s Association of Counties’ agenda meeting. Mr. Bovo joked, “We could do it on Esteban Bovo Jr. the 28th, the 28th or el veintiocho.”

Vince Lago

HE’S ON BOARD: After Commissioner Sally Heyman recommended that Miami-Dade save hurricane preparation materials like new plywood that residents want to discard, Mayor Carlos Giménez agreed to find storage space in the county to help. “We will work with you on that,” he said. “It’s a good idea for the next hurricane for us to have them for folks who may not.”

WORK WITH US, CONTINUED: WeWork, the shared-office company, is offering free space and internet access in its Lincoln Road facility to anyone impacted by Sally Heyman Hurricane Irma. Anyone who is interested in reserving a spot should email hurricaneirma@wework.com.

MAKE IT CASH: While a smaller percentage of Miami-Dade residential real estate resales were in cash in July than in July 2016, the total of 39.9% all-cash sales is more than double the national 19% rate for the month, the Miami Association of Realtors reported. In July 2016, 42.7% of sales were all cash in Miami-Dade. As has been the pattern, the percentage of condo sales for cash, 56.4% in July, was far above the 23.2% of cash resales of single-family homes.

ONE-STOP FILM PERMITTING: North Bay Village is about to become the 17th municipality to contract to have the Miami-Dade Film and Entertainment Office process applications for film, television and still photography in its boundaries. The county would keep each $100 application fee. Using a single application for filming that might cross into several communities makes it easier for film production companies to operate in the county, which industry sources see as important to adding film shoots here. Commissioner Sally Heyman has offered a resolution that would seal the deal.

MISSING PIECE: Colliers International’s Urban Core Division has been tapped to market one of the last developable pieces of land downtown, the site of Metro Mall at 1 NE First St. in the Jewelry District. “The 33,750-squarefoot lot offers interested investors multiple options for development, with generous vertical T6-80 zoning under the Miami 21 zoning ordinance,” said a Colliers press release. The site is close to Miami Worldcenter and Miami Central, the new station-and-office complex that will accommodate Brightline train service.

INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY: Last year, Coral Gables announced a strategy to target new retailers. Now, the city wants to do the same for international office tenants. Leticia Perez, formerly of Baptist Health South Florida, began Monday as its international business development coordinator, working in the city’s economic development office.

FALL MUST BE COMING: The days are still steamy, but surely summer is waning: next week Coral Gables brings back its free downtown event series at 150 Miracle Mile, in a parcel lent to the city by the McBride family.

Mommy Boot Camp will kick off Mondays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m., Music on the Mile returns, featuring performances by students, graduates and faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Wellness Wednesdays, with yoga and Zumba, will again be held from 6 to 7 p.m., and Movies on the Mile will be shown the first Thursday of every month from 7 to 9 p.m. All events run through April. Details: www. coralgables.com/eventseries.

BRINGING IN NEW BLOOD: City National Bank has hired a team of mortgage veterans to help expand its residential lending division, the company said in a release. Howard Levine, new executive vice president and residential lending executive, will lead the residential division. Prior to heading Sabadell United Bank’s residential division for five years, he was senior vice president and managing director of mortgage banking at the Bank of Maine in Portland. Also from Sabadell is Anthony “Tony” Eelman, new managing senior vice president of residential lending. He held that title at Sabadell, and has occupied a number of sales and executive management positions with First Union, USBank, CitiMortgage, and FBC Mortgage in a 19-year career.

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

County might not learn for months who foots the bills for Irma labors

By Gabi Maspons

While Miami-Dade County officials are hard at work recovering from Hurricane Irma, the county still doesn’t know who is to foot the bill for the preparations and pickup, and it might not know before year’s end.

“We’re still figuring it out,” said Barbara Galvez, operating coordinator for the Office of Management and Budget.

For now, the money for storm preparations and recovery “comes from each department’s existing budget,” Ms. Galvez said.

“If they don’t have the funding at the end of the fiscal year, then we have to figure out how to provide it,” she said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a Sept. 10 statement that Miami-Dade qualifies for public assistance in categoriesAand B: debris removal and emergency protective measures.

FEMA only covers 75% of debris removal and the funding for emergency protective measures must be given within 30-days of the Sept. 4 emergency declaration.

Mayor Carlos Giménez sent two letters to President Donald Trump requesting that debris removal reimbursements be bumped from 75% to 100%.

“Early projections from our Department of Solid Waste Management indicate that we will collect approximately 400,000 tons of debris from Hurricane Irma, which is significantly higher than what we collect in bulky waste pickup and trash and recycling centers in an entire year,” Mr. Giménez wrote.

Mr. Giménez also requested an

‘If you think we’re bureaucratic, you haven’t seen anything. We need documentation for every single expense and we’re putting a team together to make sure we get every penny we’re entitled to.’

Carlos Giménez extension beyond 30 days “in order to address the need for federal assistance in the recovery process.”

The reimbursement process could extend past December, said Blanca Padron, deputy finance director.

“Hopefully they will move us along by December, but the number of storms this year may delay the reimbursement,” Ms. Padron said.

When addressing FEMA funding at the last budget hearing, Mr. Giménez said, “If you think we’re bureaucratic, you haven’t seen anything. We need documentation for every single expense and we’re putting a team together to make sure we get every penny we’re entitled to.”

Before FEMA representatives come to Miami-Dade, each department is filling out paperwork with hourly reports, equipment used, regular and overtime hours, where they are working and more, said Ed Marquez, deputy mayor for finance.

“It’s too early for us to tell you right now how much we’re seeking for reimbursement,” Mr. Marquez said. “It will be a couple of months before we know the estimate from FEMA.” To mitigate the costs FEMA won’t cover, the mayor’s office says it projects a $2 million bump in county sales tax revenues from residents preparing for and recovering from the storm.

Mr. Giménez asked the county commission to consider creating a recovery reserve “to cover costs of lost revenue, replace our tree canopy and work toward further hardening our infrastructure.”

“I will include the necessary budget adjustments in the change memo before the second budget hearing” today (9/28), Mr. Giménez said.

The $2 million still wouldn’t be enough to cover the full cost, said Budget Director Jennifer Moon.

“The additional money would have to come from reserves or reduced services,” Ms. Moon said.

Even if FEMA reimburses 100% of emergency measures, “there are certain things that it can’t cover,” said Mr. Marquez.

FEMA cannot pay for the 171 tons of ice the county distributed – though Mr. Marquez said the county will argue there is a medical need – or for trees replanted.

“It’s a process,” Mr. Giménez said. “It’s not going to be instantaneous.”

More park managers may go fulltime

By Gabi Maspons

After weeks of applauding the Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department for its first responders’ quick cleanup efforts in the days following Hurricane Irma, MiamiDade commissioners are speaking up for the department employees and advocating for an increase in full-time park managers, and they just might get them.

“We have a tremendous staff at parks; they’re some of the most dedicated people you can find,” said Commissioner Barbara Jordan.

After hearing the testimonies of part-time workers at the parks department, commissioners last week pushed for the budget department to find money for full-time opportunities.

“If we continue to add part-time workers, we will continue to add to the poverty list,” said Commissioner Audrey Edmonson.

“We should hire them full-time so they can maintain and support their families,” Ms. Edmonson said. “You should look in Overtown, Liberty City and Little Haiti and see how some of these people are living – and some of these people are our employees.”

It would cost the county $350,000 to create 14 full-time positions, said Commissioner Xavier Suarez. “That is what one of our high-paid bureaucrats

makes in our legal department,” he said.

Creating these positions directly invests in the county’s youth, commissioners argued.

“Youth crime rates, the opiate epidemic and shootings can all be prevented by better parks,” said Commissioner Javier Souto.

Ms. Jordan said the parks department provides critical after-school child care, and full-time employees can ensure that services aren’t cut.

“We need to get those after-school care programs for kids age 6 through 11 back up,” Ms. Jordan said. “That’s a critical age when we start losing our kids.”

Commissioner Jean Monestime said he received a call from a former parks employee who had worked for the department eight years and quit because he never saw an opportunity for a promotion or benefits.

“We’re driving away a future generation,” Mr. Monestime said.

Creating more full-time positions doesn’t just benefit the county employees, but also improves parks and services, Ms. Edmonson said.

“The city parks are clean and well-landscaped and there is a big difference with the county parks,” she said. “I have a problem when the park managers cannot get to a park every six months because they are part-time.”

Though Mr. Monestime argued that the issue of part-time parks

employees has been addressed at least three times in his six-year term as commissioner, the budget department said it is working on a solution.

“We’re putting together a program to move part-time employees into full-time positions,” said Budget Director Jennifer Moon. “We want to make that available to them as soon as we can.”

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Gabi Maspons gmaspons@miamitodaynews.com John Charles Robbins jrobbins@miamitodaynews.com Katya Maruri kmaruri@miamitodaynews.com People Column people@miamitodaynews.com Michael Lewis mlewis@miamitodaynews.com

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MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Miami Today is an independent voice of the community, published weekly at 2000 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 100, Miami, Florida 33133. Telephone (305) 358-2663

Bid for new Amazon headquarters a winner even if we lose Tri-county economic development chiefs, adhering to Amazon’s rule of just one bid from any region, are wise in jointly pitching the expanding giant on a headquarters site.

Multiple bids would doom all three counties. Even Michael Lewis united, it’s a hard battle with more than 100 bidders from across North American, some of whom will give away the store. We surely won’t.

In eight detailed pages, Amazon gave regions until Oct. 19 to pitch a second corporate home, with plans to pick a winner in 2018. But the prize will be costly.

While Amazon is dangling up to $5 billion investment for up to 8 million square feet of offices and up to 50,000 jobs averaging $100,000 a year, most construction would be after 2027, investment would flow over 15 to 17 years and jobs would grow “over multiple years.”

Meanwhile, Amazon is asking areas scrambling to win the jobs and investment for incentives ranging from free or low-cost land to a variety of tax credits. Wisconsin just gave Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group $3 billion in incentives to invest $10 billion in a Racine campus that could employ up to 13,000 over six years. What would 50,000 Amazon jobs yield in incentives from a hungry region?

Whatever it is, it’s far more than South Florida and the state together would offer. So our offsetting values need to be mammoth.

Amazon aims to dominate the globe in retailing, web hosting, streaming video content, consumer electronics and who knows what. It’ll be a bonanza for the winner of this headquarters – and a great exercise for our economic development leaders to jointly analyze our strengths.

Our hope is that, win or lose, they focus on repairing weaknesses. We need to be

L etters

to the

E ditor

Modernize historic sites for profit, genuine visits While the devil is always in the details, I’m heartened that Miami’s development community is beginning to reuse and adapt our city’s official and our unofficial historic places into new work and play spaces.

These adaptive reuses appeal to folks of all ages, especially Millennials. Historic sites can be authentically modernized, often without great expense.

Historic properties, when adapted and repurposed, can be profitable for their owners and a fun and genuine place for users to visit.

And they are an anodyne for the shiny bright, and often superficial, Miami.

Lynn Lewis

Who’s behind Fort Dallas project proposal to city?

Commissioner Ken Russell is right. Who is behind the development [sought for Fort Dallas Park]?

Don’t we have a right to see? The commissioners ought to follow the same procedure used to re-develop Bayside 35 years ago.

Tom Andersen

honest with ourselves and build on what we learn. What are our real strengths and how fast can we achieve the goals that Amazon set?

At the same time, we should be wary of whether actually winning would overwhelm us. The office space Amazon seeks, for example, would be more than one-seventh as much as Miami-Dade now has everywhere, including not just giant new towers but every tiny office. This would be the tail that wags our community’s dog.

The 50,000 jobs Amazon dangles total one for every 27 Miami-Dade workers.

Housing demand magnitude would be similar. In current headquarters Seattle, 40,000 Amazon workers skyrocketed housing costs. Miami is already severely short of workforce housing. What would vastly more housing competition do to that gap?

Miami has long endured the claim that we dropped the ball when Walt Disney sought a Florida theme park site across the nation from his Disneyland. Details of whether it was fair competition and who did what are tangled, but Central Florida did become synonymous with Walt Disney World and we didn’t.

Nobody wants us to make that error with Amazon, though this is not an either-or competition but a choice among many.

Even then, the fine print in the request notes that Amazon might pick not just one winner but several finalists, then let them raise their offers in a heated bidding war for the prize. Or, as the last phrase makes clear, “it may select no proposals and enter into no agreement” – all the work might end up in no prize at all.

Miami has plenty of attributes to spotlight.

Amazon wants a place where key executives might choose to live and work instead of in rainy, cold Seattle. And it wants to be certain that heating of its 8 million square feet would be affordable. If these were the only yardsticks it’s game over, we win.

It wants to be within 45 minutes of an international airport. We offer several.

It wants a friendly regulatory environment. If county commissioners can avoid creating barriers to squeeze a new corporate giant, we have a lock.

It wants favorable taxes. Lack of a personal income tax makes us a magnet for the nation’s well-to-do, and our business taxes are relatively low.

Amazon wants livability. We offer the normal amenities plus top-level culture, sports, outdoor recreation 12 months a year and more.

Amazon seeks “a diverse population.”

Is there a more internationally mixed city than Miami?

The company seeks sustainable and affordable energy. Our electricity prices are far below average, though Amazon will eye our long power outages after Hurricane Irma.

And solar panels on its new campus would be productive in this climate.

Amazon also seeks affordable wages, and ours far undercut what the company now pays as it has forced up wages in Seattle.

If Amazon’s headquarters choice is also to be far from Seattle to spread resources, we win – how much farther away could they get?

As for being able to build 8 million square feet, if there’s one thing Floridians know how to do, it’s build and build and build some more.

Some theorize that Amazon, as a disruptive force, wouldn’t mind breaking ground in areas new to high tech. If so, this is almost virgin territory.

Plus, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos graduated from Palmetto High 35 years ago and knows the territory. How he recollects his high school years might, in fact, tip the balance in whether he’d want to spend half his time back in Miami.

That’s a lot of pluses for a South Florida proposal. If they were the whole package we’d be in front.

But let’s be honest about what else Amazon might weigh.

The package highlights sustainability.

Amazon looks decades ahead. So how do we talk about rising sea levels and flooding, or do we ignore the knee-deep elephant in the room?

The proposal targets connectivity, asking cities to “demonstrate multiple cellular phone coverage to ensure optimal service.”

How many of us had no service from multiple carriers after Irma swept through? How many still lack internet? The nation heard about those outages. How do we show that this could never happen again?

Emphasized in Amazon’s package is fast, efficient and multi-modal transit, including mass transit directly to its future campus.

You can bet they don’t mean a Metrobus route stopping at the corner to drop off 50,000 people each morning.

The same with autonomous vehicles: Amazon wants us to be ready to handle them.

Frankly, we’re not even ready to handle rush hour. And one key elected leader says he doesn’t expect us to use autonomous vehicles until his small children are grown.

If transit is a focal point, we don’t stand a chance. We have yet to agree what transit modes we need or how we’re going to build or fund them. Amazon isn’t going to await a county commission or transit organization vote. We’re a decade late.

What should beAmazon’s most important concern isn’t transportation, however, but that 50,000-person workforce. We can easily find 50,000 willing workers at reasonable pay levels, but not necessarily the workers Amazon wants.

The proposal says “a highly educated labor pool is critical and a strong university system is required.” It notes the 50,000 jobs will be executive and management, engineering with a preference for software engineers, legal, accounting and administrative.

We can handle the legal and accounting and administrative areas, but software engineers are a problem – and they’ll be the bulk of jobs. Information industry jobs in all of Miami-Dade County now total just 19,200. The Brookings Institution ranks Miami near bottom in the nation in its technical worker pool. And there’s no big company Amazon can raid for top employees, unlike in Seattle, where Microsoft is only 25 minutes away.

As for our universities, whatever their strengths they aren’t pumping out qualified software engineers by the thousands each year.

Then we come to the thorny question of incentives we might cobble together to lure Amazon. Miami-Dade’s standard incentive for Qualified Targeted Industry jobs is $3,000 each. That could total $150 million for Amazon over perhaps a decade, which isn’t going to cut it when Wisconsin is shelling out billions rather than millions – about $77,000 per job.

Miami-Dade had set aside $75 million in voter-approved bond borrowing to lure a game-changing enterprise like Amazon.

Unfortunately, several years ago the county chopped up that fund among 11 projects

that are minuscule by comparison, with more small projects approved if any of the 11 drop out. That leaves exactly zero for an Amazon.

As for the state stepping up, it has cut Enterprise Florida, its economic development arm, to ribbons, with some trying to eliminate it and job incentives altogether.

Incoming House Speaker José Oliva says not a penny should go to incentives (see page 4). Without state aid, the county would lose 80% of even the incentive power it now has.

We are likely to be at the bottom in incentive firepower unless the county hands Amazon absolutely free hundreds of acres of former Homestead Air Force Base land it has near Homestead. But how would Amazon workers get to the airport in under 45 minutes without mass transit, which we don’t have?

Where, in fact, could 8 million square feet of offices be situated so that they connect easily on foot, as the proposal requires?

That’s a lot of low-cost space – Miami-Dade annually fills exactly one-tenth that much in added offices everywhere. And don’t forget, the space must link to mass transit. To put it into perspective, it’s 500,000 more square feet than every inch of offices in the whole Brickell area.

Nationally, everyone is handicapping the race for the second Amazon headquarters.

South Florida isn’t in anyone’s top tier.

But the only opinion that really counts is Amazon’s. We should want to be in the race for the headquarters of a cutting-edge firm, especially one with 380,000 jobs and $136 billion revenue last year.

We have nothing like that in Miami – another pitfall in the bid rules, which clearly state “we encourage testimonials from other large corporations.” Who, please?

Still, it’s important to run the race and assess ourselves candidly to fix weaknesses for the next opportunity – and, far more importantly, fix them for those who are already here and are already creating jobs.

If something here troubles Amazon, it probably poses problems for current South Florida businesses, too, and harms both our economy and our quality of life.

We won’t make those fixes until we admit problems exist.

Thankfully, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties joined to bid. Neither opportunities nor problems stop at the county line. Closer cooperation will help us all.

An Amazon bid, if nothing more, focuses us more tightly on vital issues and that vital cooperation.

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

TODAY’S NEWS

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Ransom Everglades expansion rests on talks with neighbors

By John Charles Robbins

Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove wants to expand in a big way, but concerned neighbors were successful in their plea to the city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board to put off a decision for at least two months.

The historic prep school has two locations in the Grove and plans to expand the Upper School of Ransom Everglades School at 3575 Main Highway.

The school last expanded the Upper School campus about three years ago. A master plan submitted then to the City of Miami called for removal of seven buildings and the construction of three new buildings.

The latest proposal is to expand the Upper School campus by nearly 7 acres, by adding adjacent property known as La Brisa, purchased in 2016.

School officials had hoped for a public hearing July 31 on their application to amend the Upper School Special Area Plan, or SAP, approved many years ago by the City of Miami.

The school wanted a recommendation of approval from the zoning board to the Miami City Commission, which will make the final decision.

Instead, after hearing from several neighboring homeowners, the zoning board voted to defer the matter until late October.

The proposal would amend the SAP by: Adding 302,527 square feet or 6.945 acres to the Upper School lot area, providing a total lot area of 801,319 square feet.

Increasing maximum enrollment by 67 for a total of 726 students.

Increasing staff from 140 to 160.

Increasing the surface parking lot by 31 spaces for a total of 241.

Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades is a coeducational, college preparatory school for grades 6-12. The Middle School at 2045 S Bayshore Drive is for grades 6 through 8. The Upper School is for grades 9 through 12.

Last summer, the school announced the purchase of the 6.9acre La Brisa property adjoining its Upper School campus. School officials said the purchase was made with the goal of improving educational spaces while respecting the land and extensive hammock.

The bayfront purchase, made possible through donations, reflects the school’s longstanding ties to Coconut Grove and its history, officials said.

The La Brisa land was originally deeded in 1886 to Kirk Munroe, a noted conservationist and founding member of the Florida Audubon Society.

The purchase will help the school to improve its facilities, add greenspace “and continue our long tradition of respecting, protecting and learning from the treasures of Old Florida and Miami’s precious coastal ecosystems,” school officials said then.

The price tag on the La Brisa property was just shy of $35 million.

In 2014, as the school was working to get approval for a reworked master plan, neighboring property owners voiced concerns about a

Ransom Everglades’ Upper School plans to expand at 3575 Main Highway in its historic site and is in talks with neighbors over conditions.

problem with traffic congestion on narrow and busy Main Highway, and expressed fears that changes at the school would make matters worse.

The latest expansion plan went before the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board at a meeting in April.

The board approved a special certificate of appropriateness to amend the existing SAP for the Upper School, a locally designated historic site.

The vote approving the certificate was 4 to 1, and included several conditions, including: Trees that are subject to be affected by developmental activity

fall under requirements of the Tree Protection Ordinance.

Due to location within a highprobability Archaeological Conservation Zone, the school needed a Certificate to Dig prior to receipt of building permits.

All design had to assure continued preservation of The Pagoda, the Paul Ransom Cottage, and the specimen trees.

The school had to apply for local designation as an historic resource of the original Kiehnal and Eliott house on the La Brisa property.

There could be no construction staging on the La Brisa property.

The school had to comply with an April city memorandum that detailed provisions with regard to trees and vegetation.

The school was to spend 60 days working closely with the members of the Camp Biscayne Homeowners Association to attempt to reach a compromise and resolution over homeowners’ associations concerns about light spillover, light pollution and noise pollution.

Several members of that homeowners association who attended the July 31 zoning appeals board meeting asked for a deferral while negotiations continued between

representatives for the school and neighbors.

An attorney representing the Camp Biscayne Homeowners Association asked the zoning board not to hear the matter, saying the association was told by city staff the case wouldn’t be heard at the July meeting.

Zoning board members quizzed the staff about this and it appears there was some miscommunication about whether the case would be heard.

Attorney Amy Huber, representing Ransom school, objected to the deferral, saying a delay would “severely prejudice” the school.

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TODAY’S NEWS

MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Charter review looks at county contract process, delays vote

By Susan Danseyar

Miami-Dade’s Charter Review Task Force on Monday voted to amend the commission auditor department title and requirements for its director, heard presentations on the procurement process and postponed voting on any changes in that process until the next meeting.

Task force member Eric Zichella proposed an amendment to the charter that would re-name the Office of CommissionAuditor as Office of Management and Research, along with eliminating the requirement that the department director be a CPA.Alfredo J. Gonzalez suggested the department be called the Office of Budget and Research, saying its personnel have less to do with management than budget matters.

Mr. Zichella accepted the change to his amendment, and the panel adopted it 6-2.

The 14-member panel is to spend the better part of a year examining the charter, the county’s equivalent of a constitution, to see what changes it will recommend to

MIAMI-DADE CONTRACT AWARD AUTHORITY • Value of contract awards under $1 million approved by the mayor

• 4% of total awarded dollars

• Value of contract awards over $1 million approved by county commission

• 96% of total awarded dollars Approved by mayor 4%

Approved by commission 96%

county commissioners. The com- decisions on charter changes. The mission, it turn, will decide which charter itself requires the review at recommendations are permitted to least every five years. go to voters, who make the final The panel next considered the county’s procurement process, beginning with an overview of its legal framework byAssistant CountyAttorney Oren Rosenthal. Observing that although procurement is largely governed by state law (and therefore outside the purview of charter review), Mr. Rosenthal suggested that in some areas the panel could recommend changes. While the county commission must keep the power to accept or reject contracts, that power can be delegated to the mayor. The panel, Mr. Rosenthal said, could restrain or augment that power of delegation by charter.

Chief Procurement Officer Namita Uppal provided an overview of the county’s procurement process, including delegation to the mayor of certain levels of contractual authority, various acquisition methods and active contracts for 2017 totaling nearly $5 billion.

Maurice Ferre offered an amendment, which the panel decided to postpone considering until the next meeting so all members will have an opportunity to digest it.

His amendment, geared to prevent corruption and increase efficiency, would create an independent procurement department with a director appointed by the mayor and subject to county commission approval. The independent department would make recommendations to award contracts over $1 million (currently 96% of all county contracts) subject to approval or rejection by a majority vote. Mr. Ferre’s amendment would only allow the county commission to take other actions or fire the director with a supermajority, two-thirds vote.

“We’re talking about $5 billion worth of contracts annually,” he said. “This is big. My experience is that corruption always comes in where the money is. The issue of money for contracts is very complicated.”

Mr. Ferre thanked Mr. Rosenthal and his team for following his request to “look at best practices and come up with alternative approaches.”

As for other agenda items, the panel decided against changing the county’s budget process as well as organization and function of the

‘We’re talking about $5 billion worth of contracts annually. This is big. My experience is that corruption always comes in where the money is. The issue of money for contracts is very complicated.’

Maurice Ferré Finance Department by not acting on these two items. Mr. Zichella nonetheless stated for the record his belief that the county commission should be responsible for preparing the budget instead of (or in addition to) the mayor.

The panel’s fifth meeting was dramatic for what didn’t happen as well. Within the first 10 minutes and as the clock ticked toward 6:30 p.m., Chair Robert Cuevas was worried he’d have to cancel it under the rules. The eighth member arrived around 6:45 p.m., achieving the required quorum.

Details: www.miamidade.gov/ charter/task-force-2017.asp

Charter team returns to manager, eyes elections during emergencies

By S usan D anseyar

Miami-Dade’s Charter Review Task Force got off to a shaky start Monday when it appeared the panel wasn’t going to have a quorum, so Chair Robert Cuevas began the evening with members of the public voicing concerns about the county’s form of government, public forum opportunities and voting suspension during emergencies.

Susan Windmiller, president of the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County, reiterated what she’s said at prior meetings: that her group supports a strong county manager form of government and the citizen review process needs reconsideration.

Referring to Article 3 of the charter, which she said she’s been reviewing since Hurricane Irma, Ms. Windmiller said nothing in the section deals with elections during emergencies.

“Elections should be delayed until a declared emergency is over,” she said.

Task Force member Maurice Ferre agreed the panel should discuss voting suspension during emergencies. “We’ve already voted against a strong manager,” he said. “I’ve recommended a middle-of-the-road approach – a mayor who’s elected appoints a manager.”

Mr. Ferre said this approach is

Team will look at term limits and commission pay: Robert Cuevas.

seriously after sponsoring legislation for the task force along with Commission Chair Esteban Bovo Jr. “I’m delighted my appointee Robert Cuevas has been elected chair,” she added.

Ms. Levine Cava, who attended the second meeting and has been observing the others, praised the League of Women Voters, whose members have been regular participants at all five meetings, and said she’s looking forward to the soonto-be-announced public forum opportunities. She asked if task force members would be open to reconsidering issues that come to their attention through public participation.

The panel will re-visit anything that arises later in the process, said member Alfredo J. Gonzalez.

Public outreach meetings are to be on the agenda for the next meeting Oct. 16. Mr. Cuevas said the panel will also be moving on to issues members have identified about the county commission, including terms limits and especially compensation.

The issue of raising the pay for commissioners, who since the 1950s have received $6,000 yearly, has failed on the ballot many times.

employed in the nation’s capital, Newark and Philadelphia.

“I respectfully disagree,” Ms. Windmiller said. “The commission is the policy-making body.

Right now, we’re all over the place. Who reports to whom?

Who creates the vision for this county isn’t clear right now.

Who sets it? Who funds it?”

Maribel Balbin, also of the League of Women Voters, reiterated her preference for a manager form of county government and said she hoped the panel would reconsider its decision to keep a strong mayor.

County Commissioner DaniDetails: www.miamidade. ella Levine Cava thanked memgov/charter/task-force-2017. bers for their service and said she takes her assignment quite asp

MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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Downtown & Brickell Finally – Flagler Street work downtown should end this year

By Catherine Lackner

Good news for downtown Flagler Street tenants, property owners and visitors: the remaining phases of the renovation from the Dade County Courthouse to Biscayne Boulevard should be completed by year’s end.

“The current contractor is wrapping up a few punch-list items required as part of the contract in order to complete the work,” said Patrice Gillespie Smith, senior manager of planning, design + transportation of Miami’s Downtown Development Authority, which spearheaded the project. “The city is currently

negotiating with Lanzo Construction, which should be finalized shortly. The goal is for it to be ready and implemented

by November.”

In July, authority directors voted unanimously to support Lanzo as contractor. The authority’s Flagler Street Task Force had recommended the company “and they’re looking to the DDA to bless that recommendation,” Alyce Robertson, authority executive director, said then.

Construction began in early 2016, but as of July, only one block had been completed. Authority members faulted Miami’s Capital Improvement Program,

which is running the project, for not supervising the contractor, F.H. Paschen, which the city ultimately fired.

There had been multiple problems at the jobsite, including a maze of underground utilities that did not conform to site maps and other unforeseen obstacles. In June, the authority voted to hire an owner’s representative to add a layer of supervision.

Lazlo offered to have three shifts of workers on site, if it was the will of downtown stakeholders, and the city had allocated an additional $3 million to the project, Ms. Smith said in July.

Though ground-penetrating radar has

made what’s underground a little less mysterious, “We started with the leastcomplicated section,” board member Gary Ressler, principal of the Tilia family of companies, said then. “There are many unknowns, and the quantity of change orders in not defined.”

“There a many different layers,” agreed board member Greg West, Sr., senior vice president of ZOM Living.

“Ground-penetrating radar is money well spent, but it’s not perfect.”

The authority arranged some concessions for business owners affected by the drawn-out project, including waivers of some fees and free parking on weekends.

Intermission for bid to re-do Olympia Theater and housing A City of Miami commissioner has called for an intermission in reaction to a developer’s plan to redevelop the iconic and historic Olympia Theater in downtown Miami.

An affiliate of mega-developer the Related Group is proposing to rehab the theater and redevelop the residential units above.

Ken Russell, vice chairman of the city commission, was quick to call for a deferral when commissioners met Sept. 19.

Mr. Russell said the proposal has spurred questions and concerns and the matter deserves more research before the commission votes on whether to proceed with such a deal.

The aging Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts hasn’t had a major facelift in more than 15 years.

The city owns the property at 174 E Flagler St., which is currently managed by Olympia Center Inc., a Florida not-for-profit.

The city’s Department of Real Interior of the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center as it appeared five years ago after past restoration.

Estate and Asset Management has received an unsolicited Urban Development Group) partnership to redevelop the make capital improvements to proposal from RUDG (Related LLC, to form a public-private site’s 80 residential units and the theater.

Related proposes to demolish and replicate the building, in accordance with the City of Miami Historic Preservation Office standards, into a mixed-income affordable and workforce housing development with 200 to 300 units, and to renovate the theater.

The theater was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The proposal came in a threepage letter May 9 from Alberto Milo Jr., senior vice president and principal of Related Urban Development Group, a Related entity formed in 2009 to develop and acquire affordable and workforce housing.

The letter offers some details and notes that the city has already allocated $3 million for capital improvements to the site.

The theater opened in 1926 as a silent movie palace and the city’s first air-conditioned building. Maurice Gusman bought the theater and adjacent Olympia office building in 1975 and donated them to the city.

For many years, the city’s Department of Off-Street Parking managed the property.

Bids soon for study of Biscayne Boulevard traffic squeeze

By Catherine Lackner

The long-discussed Biscayne Green project is on the move again. The initiative aims to reduce Biscayne Boulevard’s driving lanes from eight to four or six from Biscayne Boulevard Way to Northeast Eighth Street and replace them with grass, trees, street furniture and other features geared to link Biscayne Bay and Bayfront Park to downtown.

“Florida Department of Transportation has already allocated more than $400,000 in funding for a lane-elimination analysis, which is an important first step in realizing the vision of a re-imagined Biscayne Boulevard,” said Patrice Gillespie Smith, senior manager for planning, design + transportation of Miami’s Downtown Development Au-

thority, which created and has advocated for the project.

“The city will now be putting the study out for bid, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks,” she added.

Ken Russell, authority chair and Miami commissioner, has vowed to make Biscayne Green a permanent fixture “before I leave office. I’m a convert,” he said earlier this year, when the authority staged a demonstration project as a sort of dry run.

From Jan. 6-26, the repurposed area on Biscayne Boulevard between Southeast Second and Northeast First streets received 16,939 visits as tracked by sensors. The project transformed surface parking lots into colorfully decorated spaces with picnic benches, a playground, a dog park and other amenities.

Events – 35 in 20 days – included art displays, live music performances, movies, happy hours, yoga, soccer, bike rides and play dates.

It was created by the authority with a $146,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, said Fabian De La Espriella, a member of the authority’s planning, design and transportation team, earlier this year. The authority won a Knight Arts Challenge that launched the project, he said.

Keeping the project going has been a long process. The authority has hired local and Tallahassee lobbyists to cut through the state agency’s red tape and get the project going.

“Our role at the DDA is to be the squeaky wheel,” said authority Vice Chair Neisen Kasdin, who is office-

managing shareholder of Akerman LLP, in April. “We need to get in the agency’s face. It takes pursuit, follow-up, and documentation. Staff needs to push the boulder uphill.”

Mr. Kasdin, who cochairs the authority’s Flagler Street Task Force along with Brian Alonso, said the longawaited project finally broke ground this year because the committee demanded updates Neisen Kasdin from the City of Miami every other week. Mr. Alonso is a principal of his family’s real estate business.

“This is primarily a staff function,” Mr. Kasdin said then. “But if we’re paying a lobbyist, use them.”

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

DOWNTOWN & BRICKELL

MIAMI TODAY

15

No-fee Swire lease cements Miami police office in Brickell

By John Charles Robbins

Miami police will have an office in Brickell City Centre now that city commissioners have approved a lease with the management company of the vast development.

Swire Properties is developing the multi-block project and last year opened phase one, which includes residential towers, offices, hotel rooms and a 500,000-square-foot shopping center.

The resolution approved Sept.

19 authorizes the city manager to sign the lease with BCC Facilities Manager LLC. The company will provide about 195 ground floor square feet in the Brickell City Centre East loading dock building at 701 S Miami Ave. for “police operations” in a five-year lease at no cost to the city, according to the resolution.

This arrangement will enable the police to provide safety benefits at the company’s expense, including general office and dispatch of the Miami Police Department Brickell Avenue Patrol, the detainment of suspects, and security of surrounding areas with police presence.

Photo by John Charles Robbins

Multi-block Brickell City Centre, whose first phase is now finished, will open its doors to a police hub.

The company will also grant a license for four unassigned parking spaces at 700 Brickell Ave., where the project’s future centerpiece tower is to rise.

Brickell City Centre is a $1.05 billion project south of the river along South Miami Avenue, between Eighth and Fifth streets.

The overall complex is to have more than 5 million gross square feet, including underground

parking and 2.9 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, retail and entertainment space.

Brickell City Centre will also have a fire-rescue presence.

In June 2016, commissioners approved an agreement with Brickell City Centre Project LLC, a Swire subsidiary, promising to build a 6,500-squarefoot fire station in the project and lease it to the city at $2

per square foot per year, rising 1.5% yearly in a 50-year lease.

That would total $13,000 the first year.

The deal says the developer will provide, as part of the fire station, four reserved, assigned and dedicated parking spaces and four unreserved parking spaces.

City leaders said construction of City Centre as well as the surrounding development in the

area has increased the need for fire-rescue services.

A Swire representative indicated the fire station will be constructed as part of a future phase of Brickell City Centre, on property between Southeast Fifth and Sixth streets close to the Miami River.

City officials point to the agreement as a good example of how a public-private partnership can work to benefit both parties, and Swire says it hopes it is setting an example for other developers to provide public benefits as part of a private project.

As part of the city’s Miami 21 zoning code, the public benefits program allows bonus building capacity in exchange for a developer’s contribution to programs that benefit the public, including affordable housing, parks and recreation, civil and civic support and more.

Swire will construct the fire station at its cost, and the city will pay for for interior finishes and build-out.

A background memo on the fire-rescue station notes that furniture, fixtures and equipment costs estimated at $500,000 would be brought to the commission later.

Drive for Fort Dallas Park development parked for now Discussion of a private developer’s pitch to redevelop a City of Miami riverfront park has been put off indefinitely.

It involves a plan for improvements to Fort Dallas Park, on the Miami River downtown, which would include a new restaurant and restoration of a historic cottage on the city-owned site.

The park is in District Two, and Commissioner Ken Russell has been pushing for a new master plan to redevelop that entire stretch of the river, which also includes a Hyatt Regency hotel and the James L. Knight Convention Center on city-owned property.

But Mr. Russell was not eager to discuss the proposal and moved to defer the item Sept. 19, and commissioners agreed to do so.

Mr. Russell said he wants more time to study the offer.

The plan for improvements to the park at 60-64 SE Fourth St. is included in an unsolicited proposal to the city from Sanctus Spiritus LLC, which is proposing a public-private partnership with the city.

Photo by John Charles Robbins

A former restaurant, Bijan’s, and The Flagler Worker’s House are the centerpieces of Fort Dallas Park.

Two buildings occupy the site on the north bank of the river, sandwiched between a hotel on private land and the county’s Riverwalk Metromover station.

They include a gutted and dilapidated former restaurant and The Flagler Worker’s House, also

OMNI REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY PLEASE ALL TAKE NOTICE that a Board of Commissioners Meeting of the Omni Redevelopment District Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, 137 N.E. 19th Street, Miami, FL 33136.

All interested persons are invited to attend. For more information please contact the OMNI CRA office at (305) 679-6868. #29046

Jason Walker Executive Director Omni Redevelopment District Community Redevelopment Agency

known as Palm Cottage, the last known building in Miami directly associated with railroad magnate and developer Henry M. Flagler.

For many years, seafood restaurant Bijan’s operated from the commercial building under a lease with the city. Litigation and allega-

tions of unpaid rent ensued and the eatery eventually shut down. The legal battles have been settled, yet the park’s fate remains in limbo.

For the most part, the waterfront site has been blocked off and forgotten for several years.

Sanctus Spiritus is proposing

to demolish the remnants of Bijan’s, construct a new restaurant, and improve the Palm Cottage in accordance with the City of Miami Historic Preservation Office standards and requirements of the National Register of Historic Places.

If the commission likes the idea and approves moving forward, a vote of city residents might be required as well, because it’s city-owned waterfront property.

Built around 1897, the historic house was one of at least 30 rental houses that Mr. Flagler constructed as homes for workers building his Royal Palm Hotel.

The building was moved to Fort Dallas Park in 1980 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Fort Dallas Park was established in 1897 by the Florida East Coast Railway. It was designated a city park in 1983.

The Miami River Commission has for many years pushed the city to clean up and improve the park for public use.

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MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Final budget vote due, but commission has state extension

By Gabi Maspons

Miami-Dade commissioners are to meet today (9/28) in a second hearing to take a final vote on Mayor Carlos Giménez’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. If commissioners can’t agree on the budget today, they can thank Hurricane Irma for an extension to the deadline.

Gov. Rick Scott’s Sept. 4 Executive Order 17-235 gave state agencies permission

to waive “all statutes and rules affecting budgeting to the extent necessary to provide budget authority for state agencies to cope with this emergency.” The Department of Revenue issued an order the same day waiving timing compliance requirements.

“Florida’s Department of Revenue extended all of the compliance deadlines for every jurisdiction in the state until Nov. 3,” said Barbara Galvez, operating coordinator of Miami-Dade County’s Office of

Management and Budget.

The county requires two public budget hearings. The first was delayed more than a week and then ran from 5:01 p.m. to past midnight.

The extension may save commissioners some sleep tonight and give time for additional improvements to the budget.

“Our board already has the meeting scheduled, so we hope that they will complete it on time,” Ms. Galvez said. “I

couldn’t tell you what they propose to do, but normally they are good about” completing meetings on schedule.

The commission used the extension last week (9/19), when members delayed a vote on changed rates for special taxing districts until Oct. 17.

If commissioners choose to take the extension, Ms. Galvez said the current year’s budget would be assumed on Oct. 1 until the commission adopts a new budget.

Zoo tops last year, misses million

By Katya Maruri

With Zoo Miami’s fiscal year coming to an end Sept. 30, the zoo projects to end the year with about 932,000 visitors, according to Director Carol Kruse, after closing earlier this month due to Hurricane Irma, leaving the zoo 68,000 visitors shy of meeting its 1 million visitor mark.

“We hoped to meet our goal of 1 million visitors this year,” Ms. Kruse said, “but, due to Hurricane Irma, we have been closed and are in the process of recovering as quickly as possible.”

“However,” she said, “we were able to beat last year’s attendance of 903,687 visitors with approximately 919,858 visitors, which was recorded during the month of August.”

Moving forward, Ms. Kruse said, the zoo expects to announce its official opening date next week as crews continue to work throughout the zoo and clear out as much debris as possible.

“We are looking to re-open by mid-October,” Ms. Kruse told Miami Today, “and are looking forward to a strong holiday season with our annual Zoo Boo celebration and Zoo Lights,”

which allows families and kids 12 and under to trick-or-treat in costumes, participate in costume contests, watch special performances and more during October and allows guests to walk through the zoo and see animal-shaped light displays, twinkling palms and more during December.

Another way the zoo plans to grow its attendance is through an extension of its summer savings pass, which gives pass holders unlimited admission to the Miami Seaquarium, the Museum of Discovery and Science, Zoo Miami and Lion Country Safari, for another month after its official reopening date.

“Unfortunately due to Hurricane Irma, Miami attraction month, which is hosted by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau during the month of October has been cancelled, which really helps boost attendance,” said Cindy Castelblanco, a spokesperson for Zoo Miami. “We also had to reschedule our Mercantil photography contest for next February due to the hurricane.”

However, Ms. Kruse said, “We are excited to re-open as soon as possible, welcome visitors to Photo by Marlene Quaroni the zoo and are looking forward to resuming all normal activities very soon.”

Director Carol Kruse expects Zoo Miami to re-open by mid-October.

Executives review continuity plans after Hurricane Irma

By Catherine Lackner

As South Florida recovers from the chaos Hurricane Irma caused, executives are reviewing their companies’ business continuity plans to judge their effectiveness.

“Separate and apart from our regulatory requirements, we felt a responsibility to our customers and community to be properly prepared,” said Lyan Fernandez, TotalBank executive vice president and chief operating and risk officer. “We have a disaster recovery plan and annually test it, but it isn’t until you put it into action that you learn if it works.”

On the Tuesday after the storm (9/12), most of TotalBank’s 18 branches were up and running, on emergency generators if necessary. “We were one of the few banks to be open then, and it was born out of the desire of our folks to be there for our customers and our community. It’s a source of pride for us.

“I think the key is having offsite processing,” Ms. Fernandez said.

The bank has one facility that can withstand a category 4 hurricane, and also was processing some transactions outside of Florida, she explained. The executive offices in the downtown Miami Tower were up and running without a loss of power shortly after the storm, she said.

A part of the plan that turned out to be especially on target was the last-minute decision to acquire 30 satellite phones.

“We started thinking, ‘What if all the cell towers come down?’

And, ironically, I had to use the sat phone, because my cell got

Lyan Fernandez: Learns if it works. Alan Missen: Third season of plan. Sherrie Porter: First use of plan.

wiped out.”

As part of recovery efforts, and in preparation for the next event, Totalbank is offering its employees interest-free loans to harden their homes with impact shutters, windows and doors, new roofs or the like. They can also get loan assistance for roof or air conditioner damage not covered by insurance.

“Insurance doesn’t cover everything, and many people have high deductibles, so they might not recover much from their insurance policies,” Ms. Fernandez said.

Redundancy and reciprocity were the keys for FirstService Residential, North America’s largest residential property manager, with headquarters in Dania Beach and in Las Vegas.

“This is the third season we’ve had a plan in place,” said Alan Missen, FirstService chief information officer. “Matthew was helpful for us last year, but this was obviously a much more substantial storm.”

Because all of the computer systems are fully redundant, shifting operations to Nevada took only a matter of hours once it was decided to temporarily shut down the Florida operation, he said. The Dania Beach center was closed from Sept. 7 to 13.

Staff members in Las Vegas were also able to seamlessly take over for the Dania Beach crew, he added. Some higher-up employees who had started their careers in the call center stepped in to help out, Mr. Missen said.

“They did a very good job of living our values, and were especially good at communicating with Florida residents,” including those dealing with Irma, he said.

“We kept residents and staffers up to date every two to three hours, to let them know when it was OK to go back,” he said.

“And, remember, these representatives are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Harvey on our clients in Texas.”

FirstService has about 8,000

condominium communities and homeowners’ associations under management, about one-third of the properties are high-rise buildings, he explained. While each community has on-site management, the central offices provide back-office support and other functions.

Because so much of its business model is online, Florida employees who fled the state were able to work offsite, Mr. Missen said. “Technology, including all the redundancy, is a big part of the theme.”

“We probably put our disaster preparedness plan together 10 years ago and update it every year, but thankfully we haven’t had to act upon it until now,” said Sherrie Porter senior vice president and general sales manager at EWM Realty International.

“Hurricane Matthew last year gave us a practice run.”

EWM collected emergency contact information for all 900 agents and staff, and instituted a company-wide hotline that em-

ployees could call to hear about office closings and other details.

“We never lost our phone hotline and were able to send companywide emails, text messages and social media posts,” Ms. Porter said. “We used as many means of communication as possible.”

Because of technological advances, agents could work remotely, including executing mobile transactions and getting electronic signatures, using the company portal, she said.

“Probably the hardest decision we made was when to close,” she said. “We generally follow the schools.” It was decided to close the offices on Thursday prior to the storm, as schools were closed then.

The following Wednesday, when offices reopened, there was only minor damage to some of the offices, and all but four had electricity. “We were stunned,” Ms. Porter said. “We fared pretty well compared to some companies, and none of our employees was displaced.

Lack of power was the biggest inconvenience.”

About half of employees had power to their homes, and those who didn’t were welcome to work in offices that had electricity.

“Everyone rises to the occasion and helps each other out.”

Communication – whether through electronic or social media, or the old-fashioned telephone tree –“is how this works,” Ms. Porter said. “We got into the routine of updating our hotline late in the day and tweaking our social media. It really helped to have a plan.”

WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

MIAMI TODAY

TODAY’S NEWS

17

Outboard club cruises towards 45-year city lease extension

By John Charles Robbins

The Miami Outboard Club wants to keep its home on city-owned Watson Island for many more years. The non-profit is seeking a lease extension from the City of Miami, while promising added rent and substantial improvements to the property.

The move could yield more than $50,000 in added revenue to the city each year.

A resolution authorizing the lease amendment with Miami Outboard Club Inc. is on the city commission’s agenda for today (9/28).

The city owns the property and improvements at 1099 MacArthur Causeway, on the southeast corner of the barrier island.

On Nov. 2, 1993, voters amended the city charter to establish a procedure for waiving competitive bidding and referendum requirements when entering into or extending a lease “with a non-profit, noncommercial, waterdependent organization which provides or seeks to provide marine-recreation services

and/or activities to the community at any cityowned waterfront property,” a background memo on the resolution states.

The charter provides that the city commission may waive competitive bidding and referendum requirements when entering into a lease or extending an existing lease with a “non-profit, noncommercial, water-dependent organization” that provides marine-recreation, provided conditions are met on public access, public use, waterfront setback and viewcorridor requirements, fair return to the city and more.

The commission did just that on Dec. 7, 1995, when it agreed to a lease for the Miami Outboard Club for the provision of marinerecreation services. The city leased part of Watson Island to the club for 20 years from April 1, 1996, to March 31, 2016, with the option to renew for two added five-year periods.

The parties amended the lease on Dec. 5, 2000; June 6, 2005; May 24, 2011; and June 4, 2013.

“The city and lessee wish to enter into this fifth amendment modifying certain provisions and extending their current lease which will enable them to finance substantial improvements to the lease property and bring the base monthly rent to fair market value in accordance with the... charter of the City of Miami,” the latest resolution says.

The proposal calls for: Extending the lease 25 years with two added 10-year options to renew, for a possible total extension of 45 years.

Increasing the lease extension term base monthly rent to fair market value, as determined by two independent appraisals, by $10,000, increased annually by 3% and with the continued provision of community service credits.

Modifying the percentage rent payment to include revenues collected for membership dues and boat storage.

Providing for significant capital improvements to the property at the club’s expense of

at least $2 million within six years.

Under the new deal, the city reserves all air rights for future city buildings, rights to submerged lands for future city boat slips and marinas, and all rights of access to the property.

The Miami Outboard Club was founded in April 1938.

Since 1946, the club has been on Watson Island and has been an active participant in the welfare of the community, instrumental in marine conservation and in artificial reef programs, according to the city’s website.

The all-volunteer, non-profit organization has about 365 members and a fleet of 280 powerboats.

Miami Outboard Club includes: 24-hour security, a banquet hall, restaurant and bar, wet slips and dry space boat storage, a ramp for Jet Skis and small vessels, a hoist for vessels 6,000 to 10,000 pounds, a fish cleaning station, fresh water and power on all docks, internet café and temporary wet and dry dock space.

53,151 Southern Command jobs add billions to gross product

By Katya Maruri

The US Southern Command, which moved its headquarters to Doral from Panama 20 years ago this month, has amassed a combined economic impact in Miami-Dade of 53,151 jobs, $5.4 billion in sales, $5.1 billion in gross regional product and 4% of total gross product since 2011, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The command is one of nine unified combatant commands in the Department of Defense. Its economic impact is combined with that of the National Guard, Coast Guard and other combined direct defense expenditures.

A descendent of US military units dispatched to Panama in the early 20th Century, the US Southern Command’s history as a unified military headquarters began during World War II, when US planners established the US Caribbean Defense Command, according to its website.

During the 1950s, the command’s responsibility shifted from US military missions in the Caribbean basin to operations focused primarily in Central and South America. Then, in September 1997, US Southern Command moved here with re-

Photo by Cristina Sullivan

Raymond Sarracino cites the Southern Command’s salaries and living expenses as economic spurs.

vised priorities, objectives and capabilities, such as providing contingency planning, operations and security cooperation in its area of responsibility, which now includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean except for US commonwealths, territories and possessions.

As a result of its revised priori-

ties and objectives, the Southern Command was awarded $237 million by the Senate Appropriations Committee to construct its current 709,000-square-foot headquarters at 9301 NW 33rd St., Doral, after an ongoing search for a permanent headquarters in the early 2000s.

Now, seven years after moving

into its permanent headquarters, the Southern Command is responsible for employing more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel representing all branches of the US military and numerous federal agencies. It has played a major role in shaping all military employment in MiamiDade since 2012.

As a result, earnings are a proxy economic impact measure, which are inclusive of more than simply income, according to spokesperson Raymond Sarracino.

“For example, if you look at the basic pay of a captain with over eight years of experience they earn approximately $5,940.90 [monthly]. If you multiply that by 12, that captain makes approximately $71,290.80 per year,” Mr. Sarracino said. “In addition to salary, he or she will also receive $3,000 a month tax free for living expenses, which definitely plays a role in the economic impact of the community.”

As a result, the county’s combined direct defense expenditures totaled over $1.2 billion in 2011 through procurement, which accounted for $486 million, or 39.1% of the $1.2 billion total, along with salaries, which accounted for 34.5%, and transfers, which accounted for 26.5%.

“At the end of the day,” Mr. Sarracino said, “taxpayers’ dollars allow us to do what we do, and because of that we do everything possible to honor that by fostering security, ensuring stability and promoting prosperity throughout Central and South America, the Caribbean and the global community.”

Convention bureau launches multiple post-Irma campaigns

By Catherine Lackner

In the wake of Hurricane Irma, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched regional, national and international campaigns to let the world that Miami is ready to welcome visitors. #MiamiNow, a regional promotion launched Sept. 19, extends popular local programs (Miami Spice, Miami Spa, Miami Hotel, Miami Attractions, Miami Museums and Shop Miami Month) until Oct. 31. The programs were designed to lure patrons during the summer, when business is usually slow, by offering special deals and discounts.

“Savvy travelers and local residents have taken advantage of the destination’s monthly Miami Temptations special offers for years, and now the GMCVB is bringing back many of the program’s best offers to support and celebrate local businesses. There has never been a better

time to visit, or better destination-wide savings,” said a bureau release.

The idea is to bring all of the valueadded programs under one umbrella, said Rolando Aedo, bureau executive vice president and chief marketing officer, on Monday. “It’s the most elegant way of saying we’re open for business. While 60% to 70% of the appeal is regional, these programs have national play, and do get play on social media.”

Knowing that tourists generally regard Florida and the Caribbean as one monolithic area, the bureau strived to reinforce the idea that Miami, for the most part, is up and running again. “We are very sympathetic to our brothers and sisters in Key West, Florida’s West Coast and the Caribbean who are struggling to rebuild, but we needed to show that Miami is relatively unscathed. People remember stark images,” while perhaps

not taking into account where the film was shot. “This allows the consumer to differentiate,” he said.

A web broadcast (accessible at SeeMiamiLive.com) offers real-time views of the beaches, Ocean Drive, Coconut Grove and other tourist hubs. “We have a network of webcams that we quickly brought on line. You can see for yourself that the beaches are beautiful and ready to welcome you.”

During the storm, the bureau paused its $500,000 advertising campaign – which is mostly digital – to advise tourists who were in Irma’s path, but soon after the storm, messages were playing online and in social media.

In addition, the bureau has contacted meeting planners, tour leaders, travel agents and others in the industry to spread the word. “Over the next six weeks, we’ll be traveling to our tradi-

tional markets – New York, Canada, Argentina, Scotland – speaking to people in the travel industry about all the new things that are happening here.

We also have 50 representatives in all of our feeder markets to amplify the message,” he said.

“The bulk of our hotels are open and offering great experiences,” Mr. Aedo said. Some are completing remodeling projects that have been long-planned, but most are accepting guests.

“The great news is that the Loews, the Fontainebleau and the Hyatt are all hosting important meetings,” he said. “We got on the phone days after the storm to let guests know that we’re eager to have you back, and we’re getting testimonials from the people who attended. We want to let meeting planners know that you can have your meeting here, quite successfully.”

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

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