Today there was an article in the Miami Herald stating the County
Commission was seeking to refurnish:Chairs, sofas bill: $131M.
The $131 million for Miami-Dade County furniture would not bother me so much if it weren’t for the $217,000,000 cost overruns at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) and the $1 Billion dollar budget increase for the Miami-Dade airport requested by Burgess at recent county meetings. And, then there is the couple of million that was stolen for cellphones at Miami-Dade Water and Sewer.
Of course, we still have the shortfall of unfunded County infrastructure in the neighborhood of 5 billion dollars. At least 1 billion 119 million is unfunded for parks and Water and Sewer has a backlog of $2 billion 500 million.
It is the cumulative effect of more and more being wasted that is angering citizen. Look at just some of the lapses at County Government uncovered in 2006. These lapses hurt us in our pocketbook or in our safety:
MIAMI HERALD - January 8, 2006 By David Ovalle
Jail eased 'high-risk' suspect's restrictions
Reynaldo E. Rapalo, the rape suspect who made a bold escape from a West Miami-Dade jail, started out his jail time under heavy security. When he escaped last month, Rapalo had been moved to another county jail, Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He was tagged a ''low risk'' inmate. And he was allowed to roam in a less restrictive wing where he could mingle with other prisoners.
MIAMI HERALD: OPA-LOCKA AIRPORT - Jun. 05, 2006 by Steve Harrison
Air controllers are on shaky ground in 'tower'
Miami-Dade County and the FAA negotiated for years over how to replace Opa-locka Airport's control tower. Now controllers are working in a trailer while a new tower is built.
'This is not a tower that meets any code whatsoever,' says building official Charles Danger. For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.
MIAMI HERALD WATCHDOG - Jun. 18, 2006
Fire alarm: Dade can't get a handle on its payroll
With a chaotic record-keeping system, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department can't tell when firefighters are paid twice for the same work.
MIAMI HERALD: HOUSE OF LIES series – July 2006 by Debbie Cenziper
This series uncovered inept management and millions of wasted funds in the County Housing Agency.
So it isn’t JUST about the furniture. It is about a culture of inept governing.
P.S.
Readers: does it seem right that some County Staff have outside
businesses? This irks me. Maybe there is not enough focus on the "Bread and Butter" job because of outside interests. Or, maybe the second business has conflicting goals. What is your opinion?
4 comments:
I think it is the wrong time to buy furniture. Was it in the budget or are they just looking for a new way to spend our money? If they are not getting a discount by buying in volume from the same vendor...why not buy as needed: one chair at a time. They probably double the price when they see the county coming.
They discussed buying at the corner store.
However, the commission was told that placing an order allows them to get discounts from a vendor while allowing the county to make sure that all the panel systems are interchangable.
Why can't they build simple walls and break them down if they need to? Retailers and office parks do it all the time.... 2 X 4 frames with sheet rock and simple wiring has to be cheaper and certainly easier to maintain than fabric. Of course, GSA is not known for cost effective estimates.
This is a big big joke. Lets do a reality show and ask someone to bid on the same furniture they are going to buy and if someone else wins, we fire the entire commission...sound funny? So is our commission.
$131 mil for office furniture? I work downtown and have been watching while almost the entire contents of a 14-story County building (former DERM HQ) have gone into Dumpsters. Cabinets, chairs, cubicle partitions, everything. Don't even get me started on the vast amount of office supplies, recyclable paper, and other perfectly useable / re-useable stuff that was sent to the landfill by the County's enviro-cops. Maybe there is a story here, but it seems that DERM hasn't heard its own message to reduce-reuse-recycle.
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