The next big contract to watch at Miami-Dade could be the proposals the county is seeking to convert the heavy fleets 
of its departments — including Water and Sewer, Public Works, Transit and Waste Management — to clean energy or natural gas.
And, like always, the mayor’s friends and family want a piece of the pie.
Even before the county officially seeks proposals for conversion to clean energy and natural gas — the item was deferred from last week’s meeting — the well-connected Munilla brothers are gunning for the gig.
It looks like Munilla Construction Management, which from Ladra’s understanding has never built clean energy facilities before, is glomming on to a well-respected company that could, indeed, qualify for the work — no matter who they partner with — in order to get the potential hundreds of millions that this contract could facilitate.
Under a headline that read “MCM Construction and Clean Energy Team to Bring CNG to Miami-Dade County,” a press release went out on Business Wire — the day before the commission meeting last week where it was to be discussed — that announced Munilla Construction Management was joining forces with Clean Energy Fuels Corp to bring compressed natural gas fueling to Miami-Dade County and South Florida. They already have a website.
Talk about being optimistic!
“The collaboration, which combines a Miami-based builder known for quality and safety in the construction of large-scale infrastructure projects with the country’s largest provider of natural gas as a transportation fuel, will be responding to the Miami-Dade County Request for Qualifications for Compressed Natural Gas Fuel Savings Pool expected to be released shortly,” the release states, adding a link to a “dedicated website for the joint MCM Clean Energy Miami-Dade effort.”
The issue has been on the radar for years. The county established a committee to study the conversion to CNG and issued a Request For Information to gather information from the industry. The county posted draft versions of a Request For Proposal on the website for comment and input. A resolution authorizing the mayor to seek qualifications to “establish a pool of proposers,” was on the agenda last week, brought to the dais by Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa, but it was pulled. The idea would be for private/public partnerships, but we know that means tax or bond dollars.
The item was deferred to Feb. 19, but Ladra smells a done deal.
“The country is quickly switching to natural gas — cleaner, less expensive and domestic — to fuel fleet vehicles and Miami-Dade County should be no exception,” the press release quotes MCM VP (and Gimenez bud) Pedro Munilla. “When MCM decided to expand our decades of construction experience and knowledge of South Florida to this market, we knew we had to partner with the best fuel provider and we found that in Clean Energy.”
“Clean Energy and MCM are a powerhouse team which combines the 30-year heavy civil construction and local Miami expertise of MCM with the national leader in natural gas fueling, infrastructure and financing solutions—Clean Energy,” the release quotes Peter Grace, senior vice president, sales and finance, Clean Energy.
Keyword: Powerhouse. Or, said another way, palanca.
The rest of the press release is just chest-thumping about the two companies and their “unique” qualifications — watch for that term — to do the job when it comes to providing clean natural gas energy to our local government. And, no doubt, one is.
California-based Clean Energy Corp, it says, built and operates natural gas fueling stations for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York’s JFK Airport and Tampa International Airport already. The company has built more private and public fueling stations and supplied the most gallons of natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable natural gas fuel than any other company in the U.S. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Meanwhile, MCM crows about being ranked 7th largest Hispanic company in the country, according to Hispanic Business Magazine, and having “extensive heavy civil construction experience” throughout the state. They mean palanca again.
Much of that is in Miami-Dade, where the Munilla brothers have friends in high places. After all, they are somehow related to Lourdes Portela, Mayor Gimenez’s wife (her dad and their mom, I am told, and Gimenez people would not clarify it for me), and used to employ Julio Gimenez, the mayor’s less illustrious son, until recently. Ladra thinks he left shortly after the mayor sought an opinion from former Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Director Robert Meyers on his last day — a really strange document because of the timing — that he should “not participate in any official action directly or indirectly affecting” the Munilla business while his son worked there.
The Munilla family also generously contributes to many political campaigns, including the mayor’s and, most recently, Chairwoman Sosa, who is sponsoring the resolution.
They also helped Commissioner Juan Zapata, who thanked at his girlfriend Natacha Munilla at his swearing in after the 2012 election. He also thanked her family for throwing themselves into his campaign and recused himself in early votes on Munilla projects. Alas, the happy couple has since broken up and it may no longer be a conflict of interest for Zapata to vote on Munilla projects.
But Zap sure look like he cozied up to an important Clean Energy guy for the state (was just told he is Mike Riley, VP for Eastern Region) at the Maverick PAC reception in Coral Gables — which the company sponsored — a couple of weeks ago. 
Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chair Lynda Bell was also spotted.
So, how can we keep this contract from reeking of special interest? We are talking about a huge contract here in the millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. Look it up yourself on the county website under the procurement department. One contract for supply of natural gas through 2017 is for $46 million to Peninsula Energey Services in Winter Haven. That’s one contract in the Water and Sewer Department awarded last year for just over 8.3 million therms of natural gas to operate water treatment and wastewater treatment plants.
So you just know there will be other companies looking at and possibly vying for this chunk of kaching. At the very least Oderbrecht, which is used to competing with MCM on bids, may decide to partner with a different natural gas energy provider and submit something.
Ladra hopes that we get a bunch of proposals. It is hard to go against a clean energy initiative. That’s just good policy. And we must applaud it.
But Ladra can’t help but wonder if Clean Energy was sorta strong-armed into forming a joint venture with MCM to get the county contract. It’s not unheard of, this glomming onto something by politically connected partners. Some of you know how it works: You want something done at City Hall, County Hall, the Capitol… you have to hire so-and-so lobbyist to get in the door.
Isn’t MCM’s most important qualification really their political influence? I mean, who did Clean Energy work with in LA? In NY? In Tampa?
Those might be good questions for commissioners to ask when the item comes back to them next week — that is, if there are any that don’t need Munilla money for their next campaign.
Carlos Gimenez pals on track for millions in clean energy bid added by Ladra on
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