Commissioner Sally Heyman says that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is dragging his feet
intentionally on installing red light cameras on some of the county’s most dangerous intersections.
The county’s Municipal Services Committee voted Wednesday to reject all five of the bids received for the implementation of 150 cameras — in phases of 50 at a time — after a county attorney told them that too much time had elapsed and that state law had changed and affected the language on the request for proposals that the contractors bid on.
But Heyman doesn’t believe that. She says it’s just a ruse by the mayor to further delay something that the commission has directed the administration to take care of on three separate occasions.
“The court said it wasn’t an issue for Miami-Dade County,” said a frustrated Heyman, who first sponsored the resolution in 2011 with then Commission Chairman Joe Martinez.
“I got a ruling from Tallahassee that they didn’t have a problem with Miami-Dade County’s RFP,” Heyman said. “As a matter of fact, Tallahassee was looking to conform to our county [ordinance] because there was a problem with some cities that were doing it to get money.”
Read related story: Miami-Dade red light cameras coming at high speed now
The Third District Court of Appeals decision was about the city of Hollywood which delegated police power to a third party contractor who screened the photographs to determine if a traffic infraction had occurred. At the county, a police department employee would be the one doing that.
The county policy and ordinance does not abdicate authority to a third party firm for enforcement, which was the main issue in court. County cameras, she said, do not ticket for rolling stops or right turns on red, another controversial point.
“We actually worked it out to have law enforcement and FDOT 
pick the most dangerous intersections and we had validity,” Heyman said, adding that the process was taking unnecessary time.
First, the mayor “stepped back because his son was a lobbyist for one of them,” she said, referring to the mayor recusing himself from the process because, at the time, CJ Gimenez worked for the law firm that represented one of the red light camera companies.
Wednesday’s recommendation came from Deputy Mayor Russell Benford.
“Then it got stalled and got back to us again to go to RFP because it was at the direction of the commission. There were county roads where we didn’t want to abdicate our authority or rule and the cities wanted to step in,” Heyman said, and then seemed to direct her comments directly to the mayor.
The RFP went out in December of 2013.
“You didn’t want to do it in spite of this legislative body telling you to do it, in spite of Tallahassee telling us they had no problem with our language… and the fourth DCA saying the argument wasn’t an issue for our ordinance,” Heyman said at the meeting.
Read related story: Pinecrest to install red light cameras on U.S. 1
The mayor’s administration basically stalled, the commissioner said, until time elapsed and the recommendation would come that all the proposals be rejected with no prejudice to the proposers, which means they can propose again.
“That’s nice but for some of them that are nationwide and asked if they were willing to come back, one of them said no for the costs, the delay… It’s been three years that they got jerked around,” she said, adding that firms spent tens of thousands to produce the proposals.
“Either we make legislative decisions and you do it with the administration — 
and I am playing to his ear — or you don’t,” she said, referring to Gimenez. “If you don’t want to do it, then you don’t do it. But don’t say ‘Come to Dade County and do business with us.’
“Either we legislate or we don’t. But when we do something, you don’t mess around to the point where you get what you ultimately want instead of this democratic body,” she said. “It’s just how disrespectful this has been.”
Reached after the meeting, Heyman confirmed to Ladra that she was talking about the mayor.
“He made it clear he doesn’t like the cameras,” Heyman told me. “He is strong mayor, but we are legislators, so as a body, when we pass a resolution or direct him to do something, even if he doesn’t like it, he still has to do it.
“It’s like a parent-child relationship. He doesn’t have to like what we say. But he has to respect it.”
The mayor’s spokesman, Mike Hernandez, declined Ladra’s request for a response to the public spanking.
“We won’t be commenting,” Hernandez texted me, because I guess they don’t think they have to answer to anyone.
But Heyman said that if Gimenez never intended on following through, he should have said it sooner, she said.
“You don’t let a business go through all the costs only to say ‘nevermind.’ That’s not good policy. That’s not good practice.”
Heyman said she read the decision from the courts that affected the red light camera policies and ordinances in some cities.
“Don’t give me excuses that are not valid. I’m an attorney. I can read a decision. The issue was about local governments giving the company the responsibility without law enforcement being involved,” she said. “Those were never our issues. I wrote the ordinance the way I wrote it because I objected to how the state of Florida guidelines were generic and vague.”
For months, she’s been asking where the bids are. And for months, she’s been stalled, she said.
“It has dragged and dragged. Now they say it’s so old, we have to reject it.”
Hmmmm… how convenient.
Sally Heyman spanks Mayor Gimenez on red light cameras added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
i am no fan of Giminez, but the red light cameras have been exposed for what they really are- money makers for cities, not a tool to reduce car cashes. Want to reduce car crashes, Sally? Improve public transit and get people out of their cars! oh right, how many years have you been on the BCC and done NOTHING to improve public transit in NE dade? Time for Sally to go go go.
The camera flash on Coral Way around 67th Avenue keeps going off. There’s also the one on US1 and 22nd Ave. that does the same thing when there’s no vehicle in the intersection triggering it.
Who is responsible when the distracting strobe light causes an accident?
If you are asking me about red-light cameras, I am opposed to them, for various reasons.
For one thing, they are used by certain municipalities to balance their budgets, which is hardly a validation of this kind of law enforcement.
More importantly, red-light cameras do not reduce fatal accidents and might actually increase them.
Last but not least, the fines are outrageous and are very burdensome on the working and middle class.
Xavier Suarez
Ladra don’t like those pesky cameras, either, Commissioner Mayor Sir. I have, indeed, gotten red light tickets and I do NOT run red lights.
Maybe they are amber, but not red.
That said, the story is more about the fact that Heyman believes the mayor ignores commission directives when he doesn’t agree with them — or when they might hurt his reelection chances. I think it’s arguable. There have been other times when the commission has softly accused the administration of dragging its feet or not really “following orders” from the legislative body.
In fact, Ladra can’t put her paw on the specific items, but it strikes me that you yourself and Commissioner Zapata have had these same frustrations. Maybe Commissioner Jordan, too?
No?
Love, Ladra
I am not sure who is worst, Sally Heyman or mentally challenged Jose “Pepe El Tolete” Diaz.
This is a Sally Heyman speech, “ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. She sounds land looks like Wayne Newton.
I wonder if that was really what Sally said, she uses verbs, nouns, pronouns etc in no specific order. So the fact is no one understands her and frankly she is just an extra baggage in the commission. But she likes it so she can travel to every rin kin a dink meeting that the league of County has. Cha Ching on tax payers $.:(
1) Because there is no similar court ruling in other DCAs, the 4th’s ruling is binding on rest of state.
2) The ship has sailed on red light cameras. Last year at this time, there were five municipalities in Palm Beach County that had them, including the county, and now there are none. Nobody cares for them anymore.
3) Gimenez’s son doesn’t lobby for those pricks anymore, so that is a moot point. But yeah, Gimenez sucks anyway.
4) Sally Heyman is a whack job. Let’s all hope she’s voted out in 2018.
Nobody has ever accused Sally of being the sharpest tool in the shed but what is her obsession with cameras?
Sally, you do know you real cops can also do enforcement?
On the other hand I understand in her district the Aventure cops tend to shoot a lot of motorist which I guess is a whole other level of enforcement.
Dear Ladra, the appellate decision regarding Hollywood was rendered by the 4 th district court of appeals, not the 3rd. The 4th’s decisions are binding on the 17th curcuit (broward), similarly the 3rd’s are binging on the 11th (Miami dade). That’s why the decision affects the operation of red light cameras in broward and not Dade.
Timing.
Bring major projects to the BCC at the last minute so they have little
time to vet the issues.
Stall major projects until they rot on the vine.
Take the $6 billion annual budget and deliver it a day or two before the millage
vote that affects 2.6 million peoples’ lives.
Yeah, that’s our County Mayor, Carlos Gimenez, and his slap-in-the-face-of-honesty PAC called “Resident’s First.”
“At the county, a police department employee would be the one doing that.”
If that would require a new hire, than the Mayor’s office keeps that from happening. Departments across the board are at skeleton staffs. It’s like working under emergency situations every single day. When a crisis occurs, like a major hurricane, the lack of experienced staff will be a press nightmare for the Gimenez empire.
You have hit the nail on the head. The whole downsizing of departments by Gimenez was just a sham to get elected. The comingling of functions in the current 26 departments has created chaos that will take years to untangle. Dozens of professional employees retire early every month rather than continue working under the current regime. Our kids and grandkids will pay in the future for the mistakes made by this mayor and his administration.
Does anyone think Gimenez is going to approve red light cameras just prior to the 2016 election? Of course not, he does not want to lose votes from those caught driving through red lights. Wait to the election is over and see how fast those cameras go up, not only or roadways but alleyways, back roads and even trails. The involvement of his son as a lobbyist in matters involving county contracts should be taken up by federal law enforcement. What do you think Gimenez, Jr. and their court of lobbyists, consultants and jesters discuss at family barbecues?