Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Paying Peter to rob Paul? by gimleteye

How do you feel about Miami Dade County spending $27 million of your tax dollars for a building owned by four developers who are "targets in unrelated public corruption criminal charges"?

The question pops up on the New Times blog by Francisco Alvarado, in relation to a no-bid (surprise!) contract awarded nine years ago for an office building used by the county adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail Station.

On face value (read for yourself) this seems another one of those deals that nominally support minority builders but where the bottom line is the Cuban American political elite cutting in compliant African Americans, as part of the 'one hand washes the other hand' equal opportunity corruption of Miami.

So far, there is nothing overtly corrupt in the deal--aside from the typical no-bid provision that ensures lobbyists close to incumbent county commissioners get the bidness.

County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez has raised a red flag. Good for him!

According to New Times, "The commissioner questioned why the county didn’t build the office space itself since staff is now claiming the county will save $4 million by purchasing it outright. “I want to know the entire history of this project and how we got here,” he said."

Damn good idea, Commissioner Gimenez. Tell taxpayers the history and show us exactly how the rate of return in the $27 million reflects current reality.

Do taxpayers, for instance, get a corruption discount?

We suspect that there is enough money in the deal to keep the principals quiet about all the stuff that goes along with being a political-insider in America's jewel by the bay.

Masvidal et al Get Paid, Again
Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:57:00 AM
Nine years ago, Miami-Dade County awarded a no-bid contract to a group of politically connected businessmen to develop an office building on county-owned land at 2525 NW 62 Street, adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail Station.

The development team was headed by the BAC Funding Corporation, a Miami-based non-profit organization that assists black enterprises and which owns the building. At the time, BAC’s partners included four individuals who have subsequently become targets in unrelated public corruption criminal probes.

They are builder Raul Masvidal, who is accused of grand theft and fraud for allegedly using county money to buy himself a $150,000 sculpture; entrepreneur Antonio Junior, who is facing three felony fraud counts for helping a construction firm do overpriced and phantom work at Miami International Airport’s jet fuel depot; affordable housing developer Otis Pitts, who is Masvidal’s partner in a separate development deal that charged the county $3.2 million in excessive management fees and costs unrelated to construction; and lobbyist Alben Duffie, president of the Miami-based Black Business Association, a company that double-billed the county and was reimbursed for questionable expenses totaling more than $230,000.


The group recieved tax-free financing for the building’s construction, completed in 2004. Under a 30-year lease, Miami-Dade pays BAC, which owns the building, $3.3 million a year to rent space for the administrative offices of three county departments.

Now County Manager George Burgess is asking county commissioners to spend $27.3 million in taxpayer money to buy the Liberty City building. According to a memo Burgess sent the 13-member body, which will consider the purchase at its regular monthly meeting today, the county will supposedly save $4 million by taking over the property rather than paying BAC rent.

The proposed sale already has one skeptic: Commissioner Carlos Gimenez. “This is one of those deals that gives me a funny feeling in my belly,” Gimenez told New Times. “I have a lot of questions.”

Among Gimenez’s chief concerns: Who is getting the $27.3 million? In an e-mailed response to New Times, Assistant County Manager Roger Carlton, who negotiated the proposed buyout, says BAC is the only entity involved in the deal.

Carlton provided a July 17 letter from BAC chairman Ronald E. Frazier, a prominent architect who does business with the county, claiming Masvidal, Junior, Pitts and Duffie were paid off with construction funds and are not beneficiaries of the sale. “The total amount paid to the MLK joint venture for services rendered was $2,36,307.43,” Frazier wrote. “The last payment to the MLK joint venture was made on May 9, 2005.”

That may not be enough to sway Gimenez to vote yes to give BAC the $27.3 million for the building. The commissioner questioned why the county didn’t build the office space itself since staff is now claiming the county will save $4 million by purchasing it outright. “I want to know the entire history of this project and how we got here,” he said. “The developers are making a profit but taxpayers are paying the bill.” --Francisco Alvarado

(See post by Geniusofdespair below on same building purchase).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This proposed $27 Mil deal is disgusting. Nice piece in the Herald describing the scheme. What is wrong with George Burgess? Why is he always trying to give the taxpayers money to criminals?

Anonymous said...

I've given Burgess the benefit of the doubt, waiting to see how his performance adapted now that a "strong" mayor is running the county administration. We'll never get the the complete story from The Miami Herald, so there is no way to know but Alvarez should be reconsidering Burgess' performance... things just don't seem to be getting better.

Anonymous said...

It's messed up, but you have to consider the context of the time. When this building was constructed, the County was even more feeble and inept at steering building projects than it is now. The big idea was to have the "efficient" private sector build the offices so that they went up this century. The supposed savings would come from the county not having to pay inflated costs because they couldn't get a good deal on anything and took ten times longer than the private sector to get anything done.

Not that things have changed all that much, but there has been some progress and some reform from within.

This sort of lease arrangement never made sense. All that it did was replace the inept with the greedy.

Anonymous said...

How can anyone justify giving tax money to these criminals?

Anonymous said...

Burgess has got to go... He was charged with day to day operations of the County before the strong Mayor, and he is in essence continuing in that role to a large degree today. All of the scandals that have come to light in recent months were either hatched during, or right before the Burgess Administration took office... He continues to fight against the taxpayer, and for the entrenched County employee culture. That place needs to change, and fast... They need to clean house... We need to have more Commissioners like Gimenez who hold his feet to the fire... Thing is, I don't think anyone on that dais can see through the bs like Gimenez can because of his experience at the City as Manager there...

That being said, Burgess, you have no real position anymore, and $400,000 a year in compensation is way too much to pay a somewhat competent beaurocrat!!