A $4 million damage repair job at the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center, done with county funds, was awarded to a 
Fort Lauderdale-based construction company without competitive bidding, without negotiations, without any public input — pretty much under the radar.
And it went to the company that employs Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s son. No, not the attorney lobbyist son. The other one: Julio Gimenez.
The county already subsidizes the PAC to the tune of $7.65 million a year, and it appears that the repair monies were to come out of that annual subsidy — or as much as possible out of that, to be made up from other sources if needed. But the repairs themselves were obviously necessary and that is not the problem. Who got to do them might be.
Mayor Gimenez got the commission in the summer of 2012 to approve up to $5 million in funding to meet the county’s insurance deductible for damage done by heavy rains that year to the Ziff Ballet Opera House. Somewhere around 2,500 patrons had to be evacuated after water came gushing through the roof during a May performance of The Lion King. Though the $5 million comes from county coffers, the independent Performing Arts Center Trust was charged with hiring the contractors to make the repairs.
Normally the PAC gets the county procurement department to request bids for its projects, but this was an emergency, county staffers told Ladra.
Ladra recently learned that the job finished last year — which ended up costing $3.8 million, after the county got half a million back in insurance claims — went to Facchina Construction of Florida, where the mayor’s younger son works as a “general superintendent.”
While Julio Gimenez is not involved in this PAC project, from what I’ve been able to gather, it might still kinda stink a little that his boss got this juicy no-bid contract. Julio Gimenez got the job at Facchina in August, about a month after the commission gave Mayor Gimenez the okay to give up to $5 million for the repairs. The Arsht Center selected Facchina in May of 2013.
Hmmmmmm.
Nobody is saying they aren’t the best choice for the scope of work. But it is public money. They could have gone through a competitive process, fair and square, and then get it if Facchina makes the best offer for us taxpayers. And nobody else, apparently, had a chance. Because the PAC trust does not have to adhere to a public, transparent and competitive bidding process, like the county does.
“Based on the operating agreement between the County and the PACT, the PACT has the responsibility for all the day to day operations, including the procurement of contractors for the maintenance and repair of the facility,” said Marie Denis, Construction Projects Manager at the county’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
“The Performing Arts Center Trust (PACT) selected Facchina. The principals on Facchina’s team have experience with this particular building type and its intricate requirements.”
Fernando Figueredo, a spokesman for Mayor Gimenez, told Ladra that it would “be a major stretch” to try to connect the award of the contract to Julio Gimenez’s employment. He told Ladra that the PACT waived the customary bidding process because this was an emergency.
“It was the PACT that made the decision on choosing Facchina,” he added. “No one at the county had a say or was involved in any way.”
How convenient.
No, he said. Chief of operations at the PAC, Ken Harris, “contacted several contractors and Facchina was immediately available to begin,” Figueredo told me. “Facchina also had the added positive element that their executive team had been involved in the construction of the Archt Center and were intimately familiar with the building. The Fachina team then presented a proposal that covered all the work that needed to be done and was within cost estimates developed by the County and the PACT.
“Given their familiarity with the project, their expertise as contractors, and the proposal being within the cost estimates, Ken decided to not wait any longer and go with Facchina. You should also know that there were several sub-contractors that had to be engaged to do work once the main portion was in progress, and those subcontractors were held to the same bidding process the County uses.”
Those subcontractors were. But Facchina was not. And is it possible that the Arsht Center builders — Odebrecht USA and its subcontractors, which a study last year found liable for the rain damages — have the same experience with this particular building and could have maybe done it for less. It’s hard to imagine nobody else would have raised their hand for this chunk of change.
Ladra is going to take a “major stretch” here and say maybe it went this way because they don’t employ Julio Gimenez.
This less illustrious son — who, you might remember, was arrested in 2008 on cocaine possession and other charges after police say they busted him during a street drug buy in Coconut Grove — used to work at MCM Construction with his dad’s pal and in-law, Pedro Munilla, as his boss. When he did, the mayor got an opinion from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust about county business with MCM. Then director Robert Meyers told Gimenez he should avoid having anything directly to do with any county business with either of his sons’ employers. Ladra would guess that this is still the best practice for our Not So Golden Boy after all mayor. And Ladra would also guess that this way — through the performing arts trust — is one way of going around that.
Ladra was unable to reach Julio Gimenez. I left a message at his office voice mail. Messages left at his wife Barby Rodriguez Gimenez’s work and cellphone were not returned. But I think it is safe to say they are not going to call back. His brother Carlos, the lobbyist, told me via a series of text messages when I contacted him that this was a non-story. He said his brother was working on the high-faluttin’ Bjarke Ingels-designed Grove at Grand Bay towers — “one of the most complex private developments in town” — and repeated again that he thinks Ladra has a vendetta against his dad.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ladra has no time for vendettas and can certainly find a better target than Gimenez if I did. You know who else used to say that? Former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina when he was running against Gimenez for the county mayoral seat. He was wrong and so is CJ. Ladra just can’t help but bark when something smells funny. Call it a Pavlov Reaction. And something smells funny here. I’ll let you readers decide if it’s a non-story.
Meanwhile, there are some legitimate questions to be asked (and, yes, I have asked).
Why did the commission just let this money go and be administered this way? It is our money, the citizens’ money. Why aren’t they on top of it?
And, as importantly, are there any other instances in which the county just doles out millions at the mayor’s request so a third party can award a job without going through an official, competitive procurement process?
Carlos Gimenez son’s firm got $4 million PAC repair job added by Ladra on
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