Miami Today: Week of Thursday, January 18, 2018

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

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GLOBAL CONTEST TO END MIAMI’S TRANSIT WOES HAS ITS WINNER: EVERYONE SHOULD CARPOOL, PG. 3 POWERFUL TAX CUT: Florida Power & Light said Tuesday that savings from the federal tax overhaul will allow it to avoid billing customers for the $1.3 billion cost of restoring electricity after Hurricane Irma. FPL had initially planned to start billing customers in March for the restoration costs but put those plans on hold after Congress and President Donald Trump last month approved the overhaul, which cut corporate tax rates and made numerous other changes in the federal tax code. FPL said a 2016 agreement that set the utility’s base electric rates allowed it to “leverage” the tax savings to deal with Irma’s costs.

The Achiever

By Gabi Maspons

LET AUTHORITY DO IT: Miami-Dade County wants to hand the MiamiDade Expressway Authority temporary control of Southwest 137th Avenue between Southwest Eighth and 26th streets so that the authority can widen 137th from four lanes to six, aligning it with the avenue’s configurations both north and south of that stretch. The expressway authority has agreed to procure workers and materials, finance the widening, and design and construct the segment, which is a county priority in its 2040 long-range transportation plan that the county has not funded. The project, the county says, “will also correct an operational deficiency at the intersection of Southwest 137th Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street, which causes severe traffic congestion for southbound traffic during peak hours.” The county’s Transportation and Public Workd Committee is to consider the issue this week.

CENTRALIZED GROVE VALET: Parking customers now can use a centralized valet program at one of five locations in the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District that opened this week. Parking is $5 daytimes, $8 after 6 p.m. Special event rates will be flexible. Hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. or until the last car leaves Thursday-Saturday. The valet stands are at 3176 Commodore Plaza, 3067 Grand Ave., 2820 McFarlane Road, 1958 Main Highway and 2901 Florida Ave. The Miami Parking Authority “has established the centralized valet parking program in Coconut Grove to support customers, merchants and visitors,” said Authority CEO Art Noriega. Details: (305) 373-6789, Ext. 289, or www.miamiparking.com.

RED LIGHT TO GO: The Miami City Commission may have voted to end the red light camera program back on Dec. 14, but the program will remain in effect until at least Feb. 26, according to city officials, and will function as normal. Those who receive a ticket can pay through American Traffic Solutions or appeal through the Hearing Boards process. Details: the Red Light Camera Violation Hearings, (305) 416-1400.

Jack Stephens

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

Dreams of Tri-Rail service to Homestead and Aventura The profile is on Page 4

City talks of monetizing its Watson Island land

By John Charles Robbins

A request by the Miami Children’s Museum for more city-owned land on Watson Island so it can expand has met with some skepticism and opposition.

The museum is asking for 26,599 more square feet on its southwest side to expand program space and provide a new entrance.

The city commission would have to approve the land transfer, and the matter might end up on a ballot for residents to decide.

This revisiting of the museum’s agreement with the city has led some commissioners to reexamine uses that prior city leaders allowed to gain a foothold on what is arguably the city’s most valuable real estate – and what different uses might bring the city fresh revenue.

Newly-elected Joe Carollo suggested a new restaurant could succeed on the island. “We need to start looking for revenue streams,” he said.

Newly-elected Manolo Reyes agreed with Mr. Carollo and said the city isn’t getting as much revenue as it should from the barrier island, which it owns. Portions fall under control of the Miami Sports and Exhibition

Bonds save water/sewer $101million

Authority (MSEA), which is appointed by and answers to the city commission.

When the matter first came up in September, commissioners considered a resolution urging the city manager to take all steps necessary to amend the agreement between the city and the authority and the sublease agreement between the authority and the museum in order to transfer the 26,599 square feet to the museum.

That resolution was deferred and amended to direct the city manager to review the agreement between the city and the authority and the sublease agreement between MSEA and the non-profit museum in order to consider whether the city should transfer the requested land.

If approved, the resolution would have required the city manager to return to the commission with an action plan for the property transfer.

In the end, no vote was taken but commissioners did direct manager Emilio González to examine the museum lease and all related matters, and a separate request from the museum to clean up an adjacent trashed lawn area and maintain it as a park.

Regarding the museum’s request for more

land, Mr. Carollo said, “We’re not doing ourselves any good by giving away a half-acre … for free.”

Later he returned to that theme, saying the city has enormous financial responsibilities and “we can no longer give prime property away.”

Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon agreed the island is ripe for other moneymaking ventures, saying, “We have to create some revenue.”

Later, Mr. Hardemon said, “I want to look at other ways to monetize that space.”

Complicating a view of the island’s future are several ‘what if’ clouds looming, including planned improvements to Jungle Island that include a hotel, and redevelopment of a seaplane and heliport business.

The biggest unknown with potentially the largest impact is the final result of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that Flagstone Island Gardens LLC filed against the city after the commission found the developer in default of a ground lease of island property, determining little to none of the upland portion of a planned mixed-use mega resort had been built. A deep harbor marina was completed in 2016.

Miami-Dade sold almost $1 billion in water and sewer bonds last month, saving $101 million in debt payment as the department begins its sixth year of a $13.5 billion full system revamp.

Issued were $381.4 million in bonds to pay off outstanding taxexempt water and sewer system commercial paper notes and make a deposit to reserves, Fitch Ratings said before the bonds were issued, and $548 million in bonds to pay off part of the outstanding 2010 bonds.

After county commissioners authorized the bonds in November, Wells Fargo priced them Dec. 6 and closed the deal Dec. 19.

Though the bonds were to be offered a day earlier to retail investors than to institutional investors, they were sold the same day, a mayoral report says, to take advantage of a strong market.

The refunding saved $101 million in debt payments over the years, the memo says, valued today at $74 million, or 13%.

Fitch rated the new bonds A+ before they were issued, citing the county system’s stable customer base of 2.6 million, strong regulatory compliance and financial performance.

The water and sewer department is five years into a 15-year $13.5 billion infrastructure program to comply with a consent decree with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the US Environmental Protection Agency to upgrade pump stations and sewers and comply with state law to stop flowing wastewater into the ocean by 2025.

“The investments we’re making today have longevity because we take care of our assets,” the department told Miami Today last month. “We have pipes in the system today that are in excess of 80 years old, and these projects could take us into the 22nd century.”

Fitch confirms the department’s care of its assets: “The system has been able to defer construction… by reducing water loss and utilizing existing supplies, building new assets only as demand warrants.”

CURRENCY EXCHANGES ALSO COLLECT BIG FOR CHARITY ...

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WARNINGS ON TRANSIT TAX INCREMENT FINANCING PLAN ...

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MANAGER GIVEN 60 DAYS TO CHART HOUSING AUTHORITY ...

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COUNTY ASKED TO LOOK TOWARD CENTER FOR GENETICS ...

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VIEWPOINT: NEW ROUTE FOR BUS DRIVERS: JUST SHOW UP...

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SMALL BUSINESS LENDING, AND INTEREST RATES, ON RISE ...

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FUEL HUB FOR FIRST COUNTY CNG BUS DUE IN FEBRUARY ...

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BID TO FILL BAYWALK GAPS SHELVED FOR BIGGER NEEDS ...

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MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

TODAY’S NEWS

The Insider FULL DISCLOSURE: All buyers of real estate within a special taxing district would have to be alerted by sellers that they would face the taxing district’s costs under a measure due for consideration today (1/18) in a Miami-Dade County committee. The county already requires developers to alert their homebuyers of the taxing district’s impact, but the law today doesn’t apply to resales, so the buyer of a used home need not be told. The resolution that Jose “Pepe” Diaz is bringing to the Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee for consideration would broaden the Jose “Pepe” Diaz requirement to any sale of the property. The measure would also require the administration to alert the real estate industry to the change. It passed on first county commission consideration in November. If the committee approves, the measure would return to the full commission for final action.

A IN GRADUATIONS, F IN MATH: Miami-Dade Public Schools announced last week that its high school graduation rate had risen again to 80.7%, up from 58.7% in 2006-07, a 22% increase. Actually, as any math teacher could have told them, that’s a 37.5% or 22 percentage point increase – far better than the announcement indicated.

“This is remarkable news for our school district, and is a testament to the work and dedication of the M-DCPS family,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who had pledged to the Greater Miami Chamber of ComAlberto Carvalho merce in May 2012 that the graduation rate would hit 90% by 2014.

FREE ETHICS TRAINING: Legislation before Miami-Dade County commissioners would exempt principals of not-for-profit corporations from paying a $100 ethics course fee required of all those who lobby before county commissioners. The heads of those nonprofits are exempt from the county’s $490 lobbying registration fee if they appear before county commissioners but still pay the $100 ethics course fee that lobbyists must pay to review conflict of interest and code of ethics legislation, the state’s Sunshine Law and public records law. A measure before the Public Safety and Health Committee today (1/18) would exempt lobbying nonprofit principals from the ethics course fee, though they still would have to take the course. Commissioners were told the exemption would cut a $12,000 hole in the budget of the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which provides the ethics courses.

POTTY NEUTRALITY: If you were wondering, there are 1,030 singleoccupancy restrooms in Miami-Dade County-owned, -operated or -leased facilities and 155 more in Public Health Trust facilities. All of them must have gender-neutral signage and a recent survey found that the majority of them don’t now comply with that, a memo to commissioners from Mayor Carlos Giménez noted last week. It’s going to cost the county $60 apiece to label them all gender neutral, which county policy now requires – a total of at least $36,000. Future county leases, the mayor wrote, will require tenants “to afford access to single occupancy restrooms to all persons regardless of their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, material status, status as a victim of domestic violence, dating violence or stalking, familial status, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.” Neutral enough?

DEALS ALL WET: Anytime the Miami-Dade County and the Florida Department of Transportation work together to improve roadways the agreement would have to include irrigation systems in medians or swales containing vegetation under a proposal by county Commissioner Barbara Jordan.

The matter goes before the county’s Transportation and Public Works Committee this week.

CLEAN HANDS CLEANUP: Terrabost Media will continue to sell advertising on all hand sanitizers at all 23 Metrorail stations and all 21 Metromover stations Barbara Jordan and pocket the revenues for another year in return for keeping the machines clean, operating and filled with sanitizer under an agreement coming before a Miami-Dade County committee this week. It would take a two-thirds full commission vote to extend the deal, which has been in effect two years. The county says it eventually intends to advertise for competition but for now will just deal with Terrabost in a contract that already began in mid-October.

FIVE YEARS TO BARNEYS: Barneys New York is slated to open a 53,000-square-foot store in Bal Harbour Shops in 2023 in conjunction with a 350,000-square-foot expansion of the mall, developers announced last week – formalizing what had been widely discussed since 2014 as a cornerstone of the $400 million expansion. “We are proud and humbled to welcome Barneys New York into the Bal Harbour Shops family,” said Matthew Whitman Lazenby, third generation leader of the ship and president and CEO of Whitman Family Development.

M. W. Lazenby The long-term lease includes Freds at Barneys New York Restaurant.

CRISIS INDEX: The Miami Urban Future Initiative, a joint venture of FIU’s College of Communication, Architecture + the Arts and the Creative Class Group, ranks Miami sixth among US metropolitan areas in terms a new Urban Crisis Index. Among elements of the index, the initiative ranked Miami second among the nation’s 52 largest metro areas in income inequality, sixth in wealth segregation of households with incomes of $200,000 or more, 16th in a combination of wage and economic segregation, and among the 20 least affordable metropolitan areas.

CORRECTION: The e-mail address in the article about transit alternatives for the Kendall corridor was misspelled. Community outreach representative Jeannette Lazo, who represents the Florida Department of Transportation for this project, can be reached at Jeannette@iscprgroup.com.

CORRECTION: Last week, in the people section, the name of the company that promoted Iryna Ivashchuk to partner was incorrect. Ms. Ivashchuk was promoted to partner by Berger Singerman.

Declining currency exchanges still fill role collecting cash for charity

By Gabi Maspons

Though the Foreign Currency Exchange industry is in decline, Miami-Dade County is on track to approve a new lease and concession agreement to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor that has been providing services to the county for the past 26 years, keeping all currency exchange locations at the airport.

A request for proposals was issued “under full and open competition,” the legislation approved at the county commission’s Economic Development and Tourism meeting last week said, but of the six firms that purchased the document, only one submitted a proposal.

LenLyn, Ltd., the Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] Foreign Currency Exchange provider is to pay Miami-Dade’s Aviation Department a minimum annual guarantee of $608,000, which includes the rent for the location, or a percentage fee of 6.3%, whichever is greater. ICE will also pay the aviation department 25% of pre-paid phone cards gross revenues; 15% of all other service gross revenues; 15% of travelers checks, money wires and credit card fees; and 3% of online sales/bookings. The threeyear contract has three one-year options to extend.

At the meeting last week, Commissioner Rebeca Sosa said she was concerned about the wording of the legislation, saying it might be misleading. In the background, the legislation says the responses to the RFP for the contract were expected to be low “due to the declining nature of this industry.”

“My research conducted me to a different view,” Ms. Sosa said.

“The numbers that I have in front of me don’t show a declining market.”

Ms. Sosa suggested reworking the item before bringing it to the full commission, saying other commissioners might not find the contract useful if the legislation says the market is declining.

Commissioner Sally Heyman told the airport to have a thorough explanation differentiating between a declining industry and healthy airport operations. “When

‘It has made a difference for a lot of money for both parks and animal services.’

Sally Heyman you come back, explain why many vendors didn’t respond versus the money made in this area,” Ms. Heyman said.

Ms. Heyman’s primary concern was maintaining a provision in the previous contract whereby international passengers could donate foreign currency to the county in receptacles throughout the airport.

“When we initiated receptacles at the airport for charity, [the contractor] agreed to do it without a charge, so people leaving the country or coming back that had currency could leave the extra in receptacles for animal services, the pet trust and the park foundation,” Ms. Heyman said. “It has brought thousands of dollars and it was a nice working relationship.”

Ms. Heyman said the vendor previously agreed to not charge the county for the currency exchange and would accept change from airport passengers, which is “not their policy on either item.”

The current contract extends the provisions, continuing the county’s free currency exchange on donations and accepting change from passengers.

“It has made a difference of a lot of money for both parks and animal services,” Ms. Heyman said.

Commissioner Javier Souto was on board with the legislation, but thought the county could provide even more locations for donations throughout the airport.

“The airport is a huge place and

we need to have more of them all over the place,” Mr. Souto told commissioners.

The airport said there are 12 exchange locations but only four donation receptacles.

“We could quadruple the number of coins if we had receptacles all over the place,” Mr. Souto said. “People who come through the airport from another country maybe have 20 or 30 Euros on them that is taking up space in their pockets. We could have good use for that money.”

Ms. Sosa said there are enough currency exchange locations and the department is “covering all the corners” making sure to have spots spread throughout the airport, both before and after customs. “When people have time they can exchange before going in, and when they don’t have time and have to rush, they have the post to go,” she said. “It’s very good the way it was designed.”

Ms. Heyman agreed with Mr. Souto and said she would be looking into “ways to improve our county.”

The item passed the Economic Development and Tourism Committee unanimously, moving the contract forward to the full county commission to vote.

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

Phone: (305) 358-2663 Staff Writers:

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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TODAY’S NEWS

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

MIAMI TODAY

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Global prize to end our transit woes has its winner: carpool

By G abi M aspons

After launching a 16-week competition to find a comprehensive solution to all of Miami’s transportation problems, the Fastrack Institute on Tuesday announced Team Citi.moov as the winner of its Miami mobility Fastrack. The technologybased solution wouldn’t create new physical infrastructure, but would incentivize residents to share rides, bike or use public transit in place of driving alone.

The Fastrack Institute is a private nonprofit committed to mindfully integrating accelerated technologies into cities.

The mobility Fastrack in Miami was launched to solve transit problems in the county.

To launch the mobility Fastrack in Miami, the Knight Foundation and MDX each provided $200,000 and Armando Codina of Codina Partners contributed the remaining $100,000.

Using the $500,000 investment, Fastrack offered monetary prizes to the teams throughout the program as they competed for the best solutions.

Two five-member teams, SynchroniCity and Citi.moov presented their final solutions last month at Miami Dade College in front of Miami-Dade County commissioners, Mayor Carlos Giménez and his staff and private stakeholders.

“How we move people and how we set up for future generations is important and this work helps us reach our goal,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo Jr. at the final presentation.

“Hopefully, as a board, we can implement some of the solutions you offer,” Mr. Bovo said.

Though the Fastrack Institute chose its winner, the winning team is now looking for additional support to finance the solution and policy changes to help move the program forward.

“They’re not trying to compete with any of the [county’s]

“There will be a follow-up on how to put together the acceleration pilots”: Fastrack’s Rodrigo Arboleda.

current efforts,” former City of Miami mayor Maurice Ferré told Miami Today before the competition started.

The $500,000 contributed to the program only went toward finding the solution, and the winning team says it is looking to find an additional $500,000 to launch its app in Miami.

The team has already secured about $20,000 from Google and could use extra money, said Mike Lingle, member of winning team Citi.Moov and team presenter.

“We can do it with what we have, but we can always use a bit more money,” Mr. Lingle said.

The winning team hopes to roll out an app in Miami that will incentivize residents to stop driving alone.

“Miami is a driving culture,” Mr. Lingle said, adding that about 80% of Miamians are

alone in their cars when they drive, and the app will reward residents for using ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber, riding bikes, carpooling and using public transit.

“The app works with any existing ride-sharing system,” Mr. Lingle said. “We aren’t coordinating new ride shares; we are just ensuring that people aren’t riding alone.”

The more residents who use the app, the smarter the app will get.

The app will offer incentives like cash prizes, potential toll reimbursements and donations to charity, Mr. Lingle said.

“We want there to be a lot of prizes, so you have either won yourself or know somebody who has won,” he said.

All of the prizes are to be aggregated on a leadership board where users can actively see

people winning prizes and stay engaged.

The app is activated when a user invites a friend who is riding with them.

“You request the person you are riding with and the servers can tell that you are moving in close proximity and at the same speed,” Mr. Lingle said.

For every added user on a ride, the app will double the amount of points toward the reward, even for people on public transportation.

The app also has a feature in which users can report problems on the road and make suggestions. The team at Citi.moov will then forward the suggestions to the proper authorities.

Rokk3r Labs, a Miami-based platform to launch exponential companies, is to co-build the program with Citi.moov and help assemble the rest of the

team, Mr. Lingle said.

As the app picks up more users, Mr. Lingle said, more partnerships will develop and it will become a smarter system.

The app will be able to predict specific riding patterns of users and can feed riders to Lyft and Uber for monetary compensation or free rides to later offer winning users.

The team also partnered with Brisk Synergies, a software company that uses video analytics for road safety diagnoses.

The computer program uses traffic cameras to compile information about which intersections have the greatest number of collisions and can even monitor close collisions to identify dangerous or accidentprone locations.

“There is already a network of cameras, so the investment is minimal,” Mr. Lingle said.

Though Mr. Lingle said his estimate is conservative, he predicts the app can reasonably take about 40,000 cars off the road in the next two years.

“There will be a follow-up on how to put together the acceleration pilots,” Fastrack cofounder Rodrigo Arboleda told Miami Today the day before the Final Presentation.

“We’ve always made sure that they are not shelved out and forgotten in a file cabinet, but deployed in the cities,” Mr. Arboleda said.

The Codina Group has already committed to helping accelerate the pilot, Mr. Arboleda said, and conversations with other stakeholders have begun to take shape.

Once the app picks up and the residents see that the mobility Fastrack was effective, other partners may reach out to Fastrack for additional programs, Mr. Arboleda said. “We look forward to that kind of advancement.”

Some chronic problems Miami could begin to solve, he said, include sea-level rise and affordable housing.

New Miami manager gets 60 days to map housing authority

By J ohn C harles Robbins

The critical lack of affordable housing in the City of Miami was the common thread stitched through various other issues during a day-long meeting of the city commission Jan. 11.

The fact that a growing number of Miami residents can no longer afford to live here is arguably the top challenge facing the elected leaders, including the city’s new mayor and his hand-picked city manager.

City commissioners agreed to work hard and fast to see real affordable housing built, available for the extremely low-income families up to so-called workforce housing tenants.

Newly-elected Commissioners Joe Carollo and Manolo Reyes have teamed up on a proposal to create a housing authority or housing department. The move is a first step toward the city building its own affordable housing.

“We want to provide real affordable housing and home ownership,” Mr. Reyes said.

The commission approved the Carollo-Reyes resolution, directing City

Manager Emilio González to complete a study of the process to create a housing authority/department within 60 days.

This will be one of the first major duties for Mr. González, whose appointment by Mayor Francis Suarez was confirmed at the meeting.

The study could be the foundation of a requested workshop. Commissioners want to tackle affordable housing in a special meeting devoted to that topic alone.

Mayor Suarez said he is looking forward to working with the five commissioners to “organize and synthesize” the methods, tools and financing mechanisms to be real solutions to the housing woes.

Mr. Carollo lobbied for a housing authority in December and again last week.

The commission needs to provide genuine affordable housing to all of the city’s neighborhoods, said Mr. Carollo, including the West Grove, Little Havana, Allapattah, Little Haiti, Liberty City, Overtown and more.

“That’s the No. 1 overall problem our city has,” he said.

Mr. Carollo said the world sees Miami

as “South Beach” with a “party atmosphere” and beautiful Brickell and the Grove with their wealth.

“That’s not the real Miami,” said Mr. Carollo. “Miami is a poor, humble city, and a place where affordable housing is not found any longer.”

He continued, “Our kids are having to move out. The American Dream of owning a home is not available to the vast majority of people.”

Mr. Carollo said developers will tell you a thousand reasons why they can’t afford to build affordable housing.

“We can do it at cost,” he said, again pushing for the authority.

Mr. Reyes said he supports the idea voiced by Mr. Carollo in December; to have developers pay the city fees for more density and leverage that money to build affordable housing rentals and single-family homes.

State law says a city may create a housing authority by declaring a need if there is a shortage of safe, clean dwellings available at low rents.

According to the Jan. 11 resolution: Unsanitary or unsafe dwellings exist

in the city along with a shortage of safe and sanitary dwellings available at rents that low-income persons can afford.

Such persons are often forced to occupy overcrowded dwellings.

These conditions require excessive public spending for crime prevention and punishment, public health, welfare and safety, fire and accident protection, and other services.

Blighted areas can’t be revitalized nor can the shortage of safe and sanitary dwellings for low-income persons be relieved solely by private enterprise.

The resolution concludes: “[The] clearance, re-planning, and reconstruction of the areas in which unsanitary or unsafe housing conditions exist and the possibility of providing safe and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income, including the acquisition by a housing authority of property to be used for or in connection with housing projects … are exclusively public uses and purposes for which public money may be spent and private property acquired are governmental functions of public concern.”

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MIAMI TODAY

VIEWPOINT

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

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

Bus drivers need a new way of working – like showing up

As Miami-Dade tries to fund more mass transit, what we already have is bleeding riders because of poor service and faltering equipment.

County officials blame fund shortages, but they’re spending tens of millions a year that could make a vital difference in transit operations starting today. Massive waste is a sure recipe for long-term failure – and not just in transit.

I learned about big-time waste decades ago as a New York Post editor on a visit to the paper’s rubber room, where 60 printers were paid union wages to play rubbers of bridge all day because they were extras who had no duties except bridge, chess and reading.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But MiamiDade Transit pays 434 extra union bus drivers every day – 31% of all bus drivers – to sit in three bus terminals waiting in case some of the 1,056 drivers who actually have routes for the day call in sick.

The difference from the rubber room is that so many county bus drivers call in sick that some days the 434 extras aren’t enough to meet the need – so the county calls in drivers from home and pays them 100% overtime to fill in. From last May 1 to June 17, for example, an average of 53 bus workers were called in from home and paid overtime every day because 434 extras weren’t enough.

The newspaper industry also had dead horse, a union requirement that ads created by agencies had to be re-created exactly at the newspaper, corrected to perfection and then thrown away like a dead horse

because the agency work was being used.

We did that when I was at Gannett but never had time to re-create all the ads, so at the end of the year the publisher simply paid the printers extra not to re-create the year’s unneeded ads.

Again, it sounds crazy. But many of the county’s bus drivers have overtime hours built into their routes. When they’re out sick or on vacation the overtime hours not only aren’t counted as sick or vacation time, but the drivers still get paid overtime or even higher holiday rates for not driving those overtime hours.

In my teens I commuted to Chicago on the nation’s last coal-powered railway, where a fireman controlled the coal flow.

Other railroads had long since gone to diesel fuel – but by union rules they still had to pay a fireman to sit in the cab of every engine and not throw in the coal that didn’t exist.

Paying people not to work sounds crazy, but the county pays 16 transit workers every day to work for the Transportation Workers Union. Four of those 16 are paid to counsel union workers – who are off the job more than 22.2% of the time, including being sick 14.2% of the time – on the virtues of showing up for work.

By department figures, just the time transit workers call in sick each year costs the county $20 million of its $540 million transit budget to replace them on the job to keep transit rolling, money that could have been spent improving service and equipment or adding routes.

In fact, the county had to cut Metrorail hours last year to save about $5 million to make budget, costs that could have been financed by just a quarter of the transit sick pay.

While all the instances I’ve cited sound crazy, they have two common denominators.

One is that in every case the craziness was part of rules that unions demanded but that employers caved in and agreed to.

L etters County’s ridership report seems highly inaccurate

Miami-Dade County publishes a ridership report monthly. The September report showed and incredible decline of about 20%, the October report is much higher than September.

The September decline was for all platforms, including some Metromover stations that should have significant increasers (Museum Park, and the Brickell City Centre Station at Eighth Street).

Those two stations serve new venues with significant demand.

The September report is grossly inaccurate. Many other facets of the report are also incorrect.

I usually park at the South Miami Metrorail station. That station is nearly full by 11 a.m. The report, however, shows an average occupancy of around 80%.

It is very difficult for me to believe any number on that report.

Oscar Lopez

There would have been no rubber room or dead horse or needless firemen if the newspaper and rail industries, which were both raking in big money, hadn’t agreed.

Call it collusion or what you like.

The Transportation Workers Union also isn’t acting alone – it has a contract that allows all that abusive waste of taxpayers’ money, and county officials signed off on that contract. Nobody is blameless.

When I asked transit chief Alice Bravo, who wasn’t with the county when the last contract was signed, what the union says when it’s asked about the abuses, she says the reply is “That’s the policy that’s in place.” True, but still wrong. The policy in place must be replaced.

Mayor Carlos Giménez told me, “That’s the way it is, and we don’t like it any more than you do.”

The other common denominator is that the fat days of newspapers and railways and urban transit are over, and contracts that allowed these abuses were part of the problem.

But the county now is in position to fix things. It has been without a current transit workers contract for about three years and is at impasse with the union. In February or March the issue is likely to come before county commissioners.

If commissioners vote in the administration’s favor, Ms. Bravo said, the county will research how transit departments elsewhere handle similar issues, negotiate with the union and add changes to the next contract.

Those changes could include giving supervisors a sporting chance to discipline workers who continually call in sick.

Every transit worker, Ms. Bravo said, can call in sick eight times a year before a supervisor can say a word about absenteeism. And that’s not eight sick days – it’s eight illnesses. Calling in sick for a month, she said, counts as just one of those eight.

It takes 14 illnesses in a year to rise high

to the

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have seen improvements with new buses and more regular service.

It is sad that the ridership has gone down, but that is due to the free trolleys running in the same areas.

Compare the buses with the trolley system. Does the bus driver take a break every few blocks or so to have coffee, use the bathroom at a fast food restaurant? I have seen trolley drivers do this regularly, shutting down the bus even on a hot summer day while they take a tenminute break.

There is no printed schedule for the trolleys, so you have no idea when one is coming. The buses have a schedule you can plan your trip with.

Randy Koper

enough to lose a job, and that has happened only once in Ms. Bravo’s tenure, because at the end of the year the slate gets wiped clean and transit workers can start accumulating up to 14 more illnesses with impunity.

It’s not just drivers who are frequent absentees in the 3,366-person department. Of the 11 persons assigned to clean Metrorail cars each night, Ms. Bravo said, often eight call in sick. Two weeks ago, she said, all 11 were sick the same night.

Any wonder that some folks say Metrorail cars are filthy?

Ms. Bravo practically pleads for a normal discipline process for excess absenteeism. Her hope is that in a climate where everyone is pushing for more and better transit as ridership falls and revenues drop, “taxpayers who hear about this would get incensed.”

Regardless of what happens in the county commission, she promises what she calls a “new lineup” on March 11 with new shifts for workers to reduce overtime across the board.

But that’s a Band-aid. As long as the county is saddled with a contract that makes 22.2% average daily transit absenteeism normal, any routes added in a vaunted new Smart plan to cover the whole county will never be sustainable.

The county will spend its time not adding service but cutting running time in order to pay sick time and overtime and doublepay vacation days.

We join the mayor and transit director in hopes that commissioners will put transit service for 2.7 million residents ahead of the votes of 3,366 transportation union members when looking at the craziness of the transit contract.

Whoever sat on the county’s side of the table in agreeing to massive giveaways is probably long gone. Like transit workers who get to start their illness record over again each year, it’s time for a clean slate.

E ditor

call “the shoulder” the emergency lane for broken cars, emergency responders (police, fire trucks, ambulance) clearing accidents. Where will these vehicles go if you make it a bus lane?

Thomas Bailey

Grove Playhouse advice: Look to theater consultant

Get the League of Historical Theatres as a consultant. This same project was part of my work 30 years ago, when I was managing director of the Olympia Theatre ... The Gusman Center.

Darrell Calvin

‘I Am Frankie’ county aid is a good film investment

Money well spent. The target audience will fall in love with Miami and will want to come here when they’re adults. Maybe even become citizens who will make our community the better for it.

DC Copeland

Buses better than trolleys and they run on schedule Dolphin Station is great, Team up with Broward I strongly disagree with negative view what about emergencies? for regional water taxis

Great first step to connect public transof the Miami-Dade Transit bus system. I Water taxis already operate in Broward have used the buses for a long time and portation further west. But, isn’t what they County. Why not team up and create

a multi-jurisdictional plan for mutual benefit of the public and private sector.

Extension of the services from the Sea Isle Marina to Coconut Grove and even further south to Matheson Hammock might add to ridership. In addition, having incentives for private business to contribute to expenses in exchange for designated stops might prove cost effective.

Sharon Hummerhielm

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13

Small Business County looks to study Center for Genetics of the Americas Miami-Dade County might soon launch a study of how government could create a Center for Genetics of the Americas.

The aim would be to develop a hub for the growth of both human and animal genetics here.

A resolution to order Mayor Carlos Giménez to initiate the study comes today (1/18) before the county’s Parks and Cultural Affairs Committee. The sponsor is Commissioner Javier Souto. The study would have to be completed in four months.

The barebones outline of the study’s aims targets assessing the desirability of Javier Souto bringing those industries here and their possible economic impact on the county, what economic development tools the county has to encourage the development of those industries, the extent to which we already have pieces of the genetics industry, and how we could leverage our universi-

ties in the push for a genetics hub.

While a Center for Genetics of the Americas is named in the resolution, there is no detail about what that hub might encompass, whether it

would be a physical presence or an industry focus, and potential costs or locations.

The genetics industry in the nation as a whole is expanding. A

2013 study put the national level of genetics enterprises at just under $1 trillion, a number that surely has already been exceeded.

While human genetics are a part

of the county resolution, it is animal genetics that gets the bulk of focus.

Mr. Souto, a long-time livestock proponent, points to the more than 20,000 residents of the county active in the agriculture industry and its $2.7 billion annual economic impact here.

“In order to respond to the industry’s new challenges and make preparations to remain competitive in the future,” he says in his resolution, the commission “desires to study the feasibility of developing a robust agricultural genetics industry in Miami-Dade County.”

But he also points out that a local human genetics institute already established at the private University of Miami “in 2008 received significant funding support from the State of Florida – an $80 million grant – in recognition of, not only the substantive importance of the field, which studies cures for serious diseases (e.g.,Alzheimer’s), but also of the field’s potential for the development of high-paying jobs in Miami-Dade-County.”

If the committee passes the resolution, it will go to the full county commission for action.

Universities focusing business schools on entrepreneurs

By Katya Maruri

In anticipation of preparing their students to become wellrounded entrepreneurs, local universities have taken the initiative to streamline their programs and classes within their business schools to help nurture and develop small business operators.

“By virtue of being in Miami we are a small business community,” said Patricia Abril, vice dean of the Miami Business School, formerly known as the University of Miami School of Business Administration. “As a result, our programs at the very core are geared toward innovation and the get-to-it-ness that entrepreneurs need to be successful.”

Currently, she said, “around 40% of the university’s business school graduate students pursuing an MBA come from small business and family business backgrounds.”

As a result of this growing trend, she said, the university has created a student entrepreneurship consulting program for its undergraduate students enrolled in its entrepreneurship programs.

“The student entrepreneurship consulting program, which is the capstone experience for the school’s undergraduate entrepreneurship majors,” she said, “lets students gain real-world experience by working on consulting projects for real clients, which include CEOs, small businesses, non-profits and high-growth companies.”

One of the main benefits of this capstone experience, she said, is

St. Thomas University is about to break ground on a new business school complex which will have a center of entrepreneurship, said Dr. Somnath Bhattacharya, dean of the Machado School of Business.

that “students get to apply what they learn in class, while seeing what it’s like firsthand to run a company or small business through the eyes of an entrepreneur.”

As a result of the university’s entrepreneurship programs and capstone experience, she said, many students have gone on to graduate and start small businesses of their own.

One student in particular who graduated from the business school’s undergraduate program,

she said, has gone on to create The Salty Donut, an artisanal donut shop and coffee bar focused on chef-made, small-batch craft doughnuts made with high-quality ingredients.

At the end of the day, she said, “seeing our students succeed by providing them with the skills that they need to become successful entrepreneurs is what it’s all about.”

Another local business school that has streamlined its programs

In addition, he said, the university hosts a business competition whereby students can partner with local entrepreneurs as a way to receive mentorship and gain hands-on entrepreneurial experience.

Looking forward, Mr. Bhattacharya said, “in two weeks we plan to break ground on the Gus Machado School of Business’s new business school complex, which will have state-of-the-art classrooms and a center of entrepreneurship.”

Once the center is up and running, he said, “We hope to work with the Small Business Administration to provide workshops for local businesses and companies.”

Other programs that local business schools have developed to nurture small business operators include Florida SBDC at Florida International University, which aims to bring local companies a team of experienced business experts who offer confidential, nocost consulting to entrepreneurs and business owners looking to grow, and Barry University’s Institute for Community Economic Development, which focuses on supporting and developing small businesses, non-profit organizations and communitybased business-to-businesses by providing need-based information, need assessments and skill development programs.

to nurture and develop small business operators is St. Thomas University’s Gus Machado School of Business.

“We recently received a Strada grant to establish Bobcat Analytics,” said Somnath Bhattacharya, the dean of the business school.

“Through this program, students will be able to parse data from local businesses and companies Details: https://www.barry. that either don’t have the time or edu/biced/ and https://business. the knowledge to sift through all fiu.edu/centers/sbdc/. the information themselves.”

14

MIAMI TODAY

SMALL BUSINESS

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

More small businesses pick expanding co-working spaces

By Rebecca San Juan

Founders of Miami-Dade coworking spaces are looking to expand as membership increases and more professionals utilize shared workspaces as launch pads to success.

Adolfo Taylhardat founded TamboWorks three years ago alongside two friends when they shared the same dream.

“We got tired from working at home,” he said. “We were looking for an option where we could have a more productive space, where we would be connecting with people.”

He and his TamboWorks co-founders found what they needed in the 3,000-square-foot workspace at 5790 Sunset Drive that spreads across the second floor of a two-story building that includes a patio.

The space provides a variety of amenities. All members can utilize ’round-the-clock access, conference rooms and phone booths. The organization offers three packages: the chance to move freely around to any open space, a designated desk, and a private office. Mr. Taylhardat chooses to work from a designated desk to be easily accessible to his 28 members.

Nathalie Ponak, the managing director for Acadomia Florida, a tutoring service, finds that the TamboWorks workspace is ideal for her type of business.

“It’s a seasonal business,” she said. “This allows us to have a lower rent during the summer as opposed to having our own building, where we would have to pay for everything all the time.”

Ms. Ponak and a colleague serve students primarily from the nearby international schools. The team uses another co-workspace in North Miami to assist students in the Biscayne North community.

If Acadomia continues to expand, Ms. Ponak sees the benefit in renting another shared workspace.

“People are everywhere,” she said. “People in Downtown don’t want to come here. The driving is so long. It’s better to have multiple offices than one big one.”

Kristopher Roth, an analytics and benefits consultant for Lumity, finds he can be more productive at places like TamboWorks.

Mr. Roth admits that as a father of four he could rarely focus at home. In the past two years, he finds that drifting from one workspace to another alongside other professionals helps him concentrate better. “It allows me to have a little more of a routine and a schedule.”

With friends, Adolfo Taylhardat found an option in TamboWorks.

Kristopher Roth finds he can be more productive as a consultant for Lumity in a place like TamboWorks.

Philippe Houdard, Pipeline co-founder, is on his way with his partner to adding a sixth location in Orlando.

German Pinzon, another TamboWorks member, encountered the same problem while launching his new marketing firm Kview.

“My kids thought that I had time on my hands,” Mr. Pinzon said. “They thought at a drop of a hat I could take them to school, pick them up, drop them off to meet friends. It’s as if they thought I was on vacation.”

For two months Mr. Pinzon tried to work from his home office and ultimately decided to work from TamboWorks. As a former attorney, he cut his two hour-long commutes to and from work out

of his schedule. He can easily walk or bike to the office.

He feels more productive in the past three months since working from a designated desk. “Everything that I said I would be able to do at home, I’m achieving it here in co-working. It’s a huge difference,” he said.

Dvdendo app CEO and cofounder Gabriel Montoya said he can efficiently help his company grow every month from his private office on the third floor of Pipeline Coral Gables at 95 Merrick Way. His company, helping the everyday user make savvy

investments, went from 50 app customers in 2016 to 15,000 in recent months.

“You don’t have to worry about paying bills or applying to an Internet connection or having to work about maintenance,” Mr. Montoya said. “Here, you don’t need to worry about any of that.

Your clients don’t care if you have coffee yet you need it for employees. Here, you don’t have to worry about that. You only worry about your business. In the early stages especially, not having to deal with any of those issues is very important.”

In September, Alana Matos came here to access aid to Puerto Rico. Pipeline members can choose from four plans. Members can meet in any of Pipeline’s other locations.

Pipeline offers amenities similar to TamboWorks. Members choose from four plans, varying from the most basic package with access to conference spaces and a professional address to private suites. The company offers members existing locations in South Florida and an office in Philadelphia. Members can utilize conference rooms and meeting spaces in any of the locations.

Pipeline co-founder Philippe Houdard said, “Demand continues to be very high for our space, and so we continue to expand.

Shortly we’ll be opening up Pipeline Orlando, and we have more spaces following. As we expand into new markets, it makes the Pipeline network stronger, with more companies joining our community.”

Brendan Fitzgerald emphasizes that every minute counts when launching a new business and shared workspaces help professionals make better use of their time. As the managing director of Pomodoro Stories, Mr. Fitgerald manages the acquisition, representation and sale of scripts from overseas for viewers in Europe and the Americas.

“Everybody in order to survive is becoming more entrepreneurial,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “Part of being an entrepreneur is figuring out what you are good at and how to spend as little time as possible on whatever is not drawing you to your bottom line.”

Since moving to Pipeline, Mr. Fitzgerald has expanded his team of two to include a third member.

He credits the flexibility of collaborating from a shared workspace as the key to Pomodoro’s growth.

Needslist Community Director for Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico Alana Matos went from zero partners to 12 within a month of moving to Pipeline.

Her ability to focus increased dramatically with the designated phone booths and access every day, every hour.

A native of Puerto Rico, Ms. Matos left home in September and secured 15 non-profit partners to help the island get back on its feet thanks to having a place from which to work.

Partners in the co-workspace sector look to expand as they see demand grow. While Mr. Houdard and his partner at Pipeline add their sixth location in Orlando, Mr. Taylhardat also hopes to expand TamboWorks with a second location in an area like Pinecrest or Kendall with double the space in the future.

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

TODAY’S NEWS

MIAMI TODAY

17

Hotel construction falls with 20 sites now rising due to add 2,982 rooms The number of hotel rooms under construction in Miami dropped sharply in December from the total of December 2016, mirroring a national decline.

According to information from STR, a research firm that monitors the hotel industry across the nation, 20 hotels were in construction in Miami-Dade in December, totaling 2,982 rooms.

The number of htoels under construction is down 20% from the prior year’s 25, and the number of rooms under construction is down 17% from 3,579 last year.

Hotel rooms under construction nationally have been down for three consecutive months, STR said, and that decline in new competition should help existing hotels maintain higher their rates and prices.

Overall nationally, 179,979 rooms were in construction across 1,400 hotels in December. The number was down 3.7% from December 2016, STR reported. That decline followed a flat November, up 0.6%, and October, down 0.1, and was the largest year-overyear room construction decrease in the US since September 2011.

“We’ve seen three months in a row where construction numbers either decreased or remained flat, and we feel we can now call that a trend,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “A construction decline obviously bodes well for the current industry cycle. It appears that financing is becoming harder to obtain, and if demand growth holds, occupancy will not deteriorate as quickly or as much as anticipated.”

STR defines in construction at a hotel property as meaning the owner has either broken ground or is finalizing bids on the prime, or general, contractor.

While hotels that far advanced declined markedly, in MiamiDade the STR figures for hotels not so far through the pipeline showed the reverse trend.

Hotels in final planning, meaning the project will go out for bids or construction will start within four months, increased markedly in the county.

In December, STR listed 31 Miami-Dade hotel projects in final planning totaling 5,567 rooms. In December 2016, 26 projects, 19% fewer, had reached the final planning stage and 11% fewer rooms, 5,026, were contemplated in those projected hotels.

In an earlier stage, at the point where an architect or engineer had been chosen and initial government approvals usually have been granted, December 2017 was also slightly ahead of December 2016. There were 27 projects listed versus 26 the prior year, representing 5,904 rooms in 2017 versus 4,801 in 2016.

STR also reported that the US hotel industry showed positive year-over-year results in its three key performance metrics the week of Dec. 31 through Jan. 6.

In comparison with the week of Jan. 1-6, 2017, the industry showed an occupancy gain of

3.6% to 48.7%. an average daily rate gain of 5.8% to $124.33, and a revenue per available room gain of 9.6% to $60.59.

Performance growth was boosted by a comparison with a week that did not include New Year’s Eve in 2016.

The top revenue per available room increases were reported in Orlando, up 36.7% to $116.34, and New Orleans, up 35.0% to $110.50.

New York posted the largest lift in average daily rate, up 23.8% to $222.68. San Diego enjoyed the highest rise in occupancy, up 19.4% to 62.9%.

Tampa/St. Petersburg reported the largest drop in average daily rate, down 6.1% to $124.60, and the only decline in revenue per available room, down 5.5% to $78.28.

Mandala Holdings plans to build a 43-story, 270-room hotel with four floors of offices at 511 NE 15th St.

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