Several people have wondered out loud whether Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s sudden 
change of heart on the budget, setting a flat tax rate, had anything to do with Norman Braman and a possible threat at a recall like the one that paved the way for his existence.
I mean, all electeds cower at the auto magnate’s political wrath and — since he owns several prime acres of real estate in Midtown — he hates property taxes.
But Braman – who single-handedly financed the ouster of former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez – told Ladra he had nothing to do with it.
Still, the motor mogul – who is concentrating his political muscle (read: money) this year on the campaign for Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado — thinks that what Gimenez has done is “shameful.”
His word, not mine. But I would use it, too.
“It is very sad to close libraries and lay off firemen. I don’t know where the Mayor’s priorities are,” Braman wrote to me in an email. “He was in favor of hundreds of millions for Steve Ross, a multi-billionaire, signed a labor agreement that allowed a large number of county employees to be paid substantial salaries for union work only, that amounts to a little over $2.5 million annually.
“With a little sacrifice spread through various departments and curtailing the type of three-week taxpayer-paid trip that the mayor along with staff, etc., took to Spain and doing away with the county commissioners’ slush funds, the libraries would remain open,” Braman continued.
“What did the trip to Spain cost and the other trips Commissioners and others went on, at taxpayers’ expense?”
Ladra is looking into that (read: more on that later). But Braman is only one of several people who think that there is enough fat in the budget already to help close the gap into which the mayor wants to throw 20-some libraries and 149 firefighters.
This is an open invitation for readers to tell me what else – besides the junkets to Spain – they think we can stand to lose instead.
Norman Braman did not talk taxes with Mayor Gimenez added by Ladra on
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That would be a “sustainable” savings…our Mayor wants any savings to keep libraries open to be “sustainable.” Since county employees who earn far less than the mayor (and the 290 executive mentioned above) have already made this financial sacrifice so that they continue to deliver excellence every day to their communities…it would seem self evident that a Mayor who wishes to lead by example, should take some furlough days himself and encourage his high salaried staff to do same.
What if the 290 took the same number of furlough days as has the rank and file for the last two years? That would result in another 300K in savings (another 6 library staff positions).
Gimenez has given up his “executive benefit” last spring..it amounted to about 10,000 per year. Now if he could get the other 290 recipients of this county executive perk to give theirs up (most receive between 7,500-10,000 per annum for this) it would amount to 2.1 million in savings (35-40 library staff positions).
Now, the Mayor has made a great deal of his leading by example and cutting his own salary to 150, 000 per annum…but if he really wanted to lead…why not forego his 126, 000 pension that he receives from the fire department? I mean, there should be a law against this kind of “double dipping,” especially when he positions himself as “leading by example.” If you are already receiving a benefit of 126,000…I guess reducing your salary to a mere 150.000, isn’t so hard.
If only his example might encourage some of his other executives to cut there salaries in kind:Genaro “Chip” Iglesias, Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff earns in excess of $225,000 as well as two deputy mayors who earn in excess of $250,000. each per annum.
By forfeiting his pension and asking his subordinates to reduce their salary as he has…would result in another 500K in savings…(another 10 library staff positions). So without even leaving the mayors inner circle…we save 10 jobs…and if he persuade the 290 other executive to walk his walk and forfeit their “executive benefits,” we’ve save 50 library jobs. I’m not an accountant or a financial person at all…but it seems to me if a lay person can do this kind of math…it seems a shame that our government officials can’t. Especially when they place a critical service to this community, libraries, on the chopping block.
August 4, 2013
To Our Residents of Miami-Dade County:
Two recent memos from the Miami-Dade County Mayor’s office describe the Miami-Dade library of the future without librarians. The buildings are to evolve into technology centers, homework centers, or anything without the name “library.”
What is needed is the reinstatement of the library special taxing district’s 2010-2011tax millage, which adequately funded the entire network spanning Homestead to Aventura, Key Biscayne to West Kendall.
In 2011, the Mayor and BCC directed the library to operate on 1/2 millage and 1/2 saved reserves for two years. The reserves were to be used for renovations of buildings such as Coral Reef, Miami Lakes, Homestead and Kendall Branches. The implied promise was that the millage would be restored in 2013 so that the library would not be essentially bankrupted. That almost happened until the Mayor reversed course.
Prior to this millage cut of 2011, the library was financially healthy. The rest of the “county family,” however, totaled $250 million in the red. To ease the debt, the Mayor and BCC approved the movement of $11.7 million from the library’s special taxing district (which doesn’t collect from Hialeah, N. Miami, NMB, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour Village, Bay Harbor and Surfside) to a general fund’s Dept. of Cultural Affairs. The money was not to be used for grants outside of the library’s taxing district.
According to the two memos, half of the trained staff and half of the network of libraries are removed or retooled for MDPLS to be “sustainable” for next three years with an annual budget of $28 million.
With seven Commissioners and the Mayor dead-ending conversations with “No tax increase” there have been no answers except for the radical disassembling of 40 years of work and neighborhood cooperative sharing.
Something is missing and it’s one group of stakeholders. The professional librarians were not asked how to fill in a $24 million gap left by this situation. So, we wish to offer this to everyone for an honest discussion. We wish to change the dialog from the destruction of resources to the downsizing and streamlining of county services within the allotted budget.
To raise immediate funds for the library, (which even considers the drop of carryover revenue over year two and three,) here are several suggestions:
1- Savings $2 million: Delay the opening of the Northeast Library located in Aventura from the 2nd quarter until October 1, 2014, to save $540,000 in salaries though it should be close to $2 million for operating expenses.
2- Savings $10.761 million: Take over 311 operations and the administrative support to the library to operate. The library is an information portal for the county. The trained library staff are positioned to answer any reference question. Promoting 311 along with library services encourages greater use. We will use the same computer software to help people who physically walk in. You can get 311 face to face. The public is able to meet the person doing the follow up and getting the answer. MDPLS already helps connect citizens with local, state, and federal government online thousands of times a day. Taxpayers save money because we do not need an expensive call center. Political campaigns and telemarketers have moved away from call centers for years. If campaigns and telemarketers use simple software so workers can field calls from home then library staff can do the same from any branch in the county. Why are we operating a huge call center when the same type of political campaigns county officials use to get elected are steadily discarding the call center model?
3- Savings approximately $5 million. Per affirmation from the two unions, furlough a majority of staff for the month of December, statistically the slowest in usage. Currently all staff take eight furlough days. Add 12 during the holidays to allow staff to be hired by retail establishments looking for temp workers. All staff get to spend the holidays with family and friends. Schedule major maintenance projects during this period. The message to the community is that staff are willing to pay this high price to work in an intact library system. Compiling furlough days to create a dark period has been implemented in other library systems.
4- Savings $5.1 million. Exit the county’s lease to MDPLS for the Main Library building and move administration and collections amongst Regional branches. The two other Cultural Center’s tenants, History Miami and MAM, were charged rent that was either returned via a grant from the Dept. of Cultural Affairs or not charged rent at all. Since this appears to be a shifting of dollars from a special taxing district to the general county fund, MDPLS benefits from vacating the premises located next to County Hall. This amount has been 20% of the current millage allotment to MDPLS.
5- Savings $500,000. Reduce GSA/ Internal Services Dept. fees accordingly to match the decreased amount of millage. Currently it is scaled to a larger millage amount from previous fiscal years.
6- Earnings $2.00 / transaction. Place ATM machines at branch locations.
7- In the name of fairness, return the $11.7 million taken from Library reserves for the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2010-11. We won’t even mention the lost interest on that amount.
http://www.miamidade.gov/budget/FY2010-11/Adopted/volume2/library.pdf
“What the County Government does in its critical moment for decision-making will send a strong signal – locally, nationally, and internationally, about what is important for the future of our community.”
The ideas presented are more viable than slicing 14, 16, or 22 branches out of an efficient, beloved county service, and are much less painful. The taxpayer’s 40+ years of investment in trained professional staff, the collections, the equipment, the neighborhoods, and the intra-local agreements are not jettisoned. Except in December, there will be continuity and enhancement of library services to patrons throughout the entire county.
These ideas allow the ones generated in the Mayor’s memo to become formulated prior to dismantling an existing system. Partnerships are welcomed, but not as a band-aide replacement to existing staff. While your taxes will be exactly the same from last year, your library services will be slashed by 2/3. This offers a compromise so that the 49-branch library system and 251 dedicated employees targeted for lay-off, can have a reprieve and meet forthcoming changes as a whole.
We thank you for your consideration of these ideas.
Sincerely,
Library Employee 251
Yeah. Or let’s change the way we deal with corrupt officials. Instead of wasting money by putting them in jail, let’s have them repay every single dime they cost taxpayers. Also, let’s have drug users pay fines instead of throwing them in jail. You save half of prison, police, and court money. And let’s end all subsidies to companies like we did to Banah Sugar.
Yup… It’s very easy to balance the budget. And even lower taxes. It’s just a question of being smart.
How about what Sandy Springs, GA did? Let’s privatize as much as possible. Airport, port, zoning, planning… There’s only 5 city employees and it’s pretty big city. They cut their spending by 50%
How about an across-the-board cut in salaries of top level staff? Get rid of cars paid for by the city for top-level staffers? Cut expense accounts? Implement a policy of no nepotism? Trim the staff of each commissioner and the mayor by one person for each elected official? Ask the libraries to close one additional day each week? Implement furloughs?
Two years ago libraries already closed an extra day each week. Plus those open on Sundays discontinued those hours too. Plus branches that were open 9:30am to 9pm cut those schedules to open either the day shift OR the night shift, not both. Plus staff already absorbs 8 unpaid furlough days per year. Nice try, Hates Waste.