(Continued from previous page)
taxing districts in Miami Beach. And they’re going to be entitled to a refund.
Just as importantly, why wouldn’t someone notice the problem after Year 1? After Year 2? Year 3?
“Because there is no control, that’s why,” said Commissioner Juan Zapata, who has formally 
asked the Inspector General to investigate the funds.
“It’s a scam perpetrated on the people.”
Zapata wants to know why so much of the $33 million in special taxing monies –somewhere around 40 percent, he said — goes to administrative fees. “They are subsidizing positions using the special district monies,” he told Ladra. “Almost half of the money going to special taxing districts is going to salaries.”
He has gotten very little in terms of an explanation from county employees.
“When you ask for accountability and transparency, they try to confuse you. I have people asking me ‘How do we know they’re not screwing us? How do we know we’re not paying for their mismanagement?’
Commissioners will discuss this mess at the meeting Tuesday, even though there won’t be a vote on it because of the failure to notice it properly in the newspaper and the providing of the wrong rate to more than 1,000 property owners (the mistakes keep on coming). Gimenez has requested that the commission continue the public hearing until September, which gives the county time to properly notice everybody.
Chairman Jean Monestime reportedly wants to wait until after an audit of all the special taxing districts is completed before the commission sets any new rates.
Smart. They might want to wait for the IG report also.
The mayor is asking for the commission to also approve the flat rate for the 834 
districts without increased assessments. But, again, how do we know they aren’t paying too much?
The mayor, in his memo, said he talked to the county attorney about possibly “phasing in” the increases that are to pay for past years’ arrears. But he was told that was not allowed. Furthermore, he said staff warned him that residents may end up owing more (huh?).
Some county employees and the mayor’s memo say that the problem stemmed from “past management and budgeting/accounting practices that have been and continue to be addressed. The people responsible have been replaced and the process has already been changed. The finance mechanism of the special taxing districts, for instance, have been moved to the finance department.
But does that really fix the general issue if the county was using a taxing district catch-all account to pay for who knows what else? And several employees, including some who were involved, told Ladra that this is a result of a definite “no new taxes” mandate handed down from the Gimenez administration that refuses to take responsibility for this arroz con mango.
Ladra hears they all the commissioners are upset. Zapata and Commissioners Barbara Jordan and Esteban Bovo had town hall meetings in their county districts to answer (barely) constituent questions.
Commissioner Xavier Suarez met with some of the affected constituents and 
says he left with more questions than answers.
“How someone didn’t notice that funds were not sufficient for the expenses is beyond comprehension,” said Suarez, who may be running against Gimenez in 2016 (we won’t know til October at the earliest).
“I’m enormously surprised that people didn’t notice the discrepancies earlier. It can’t be more complicated than condo management,” Suarez said, referring to monthly association fees collected from unit owners in condo and townhouse communities. “In fact, it’s less complicated because it’s purely operation. Condo associations have to have reserves. This is just money in and money out.
“I’m totally befuddled.
“The county must have been acting as a sort of global escrow agent, but not looking at the balancing on each account. But why? And how did that happen?”
Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado , who is definitely running against Gimenez in ’16,has also been talking to people about it. She expects to make comments at Tuesday’s meeting.
Read related story: Raquel Regalado’s message: ‘I can be a better mayor’
“The key thing is that this is yet another example of mismanagement
and a lack of transparency,” Regalado said, digging at the Gimenez campaign staple of his experience as a manager.
“Once again, we’re asking serious questions about the lack of management. Even attempts that were made to give explanation to the public have fallen short,” she said.
“The process didn’t work. The staff was incompetent. And the mayor didn’t know what was going on,” Regalado said. “How many times does it have to happen before it’s an indictment of not just the staff but of the administration?”
Maybe, depending on how much we find out about the co-mingled districts funds, this will be the last time.
Pages: 1 2
Miami-Dade special taxing districts = free-for-all shell game? added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
[…] Read related story: Miami-Dade special taxing districts = free-for-all shell game? […]
For those who still care about ethical government and paying less taxes. Go to the Miami Dade webcasting page and watch the tape for today’s meeting between 5:17 pm through 5:21 pm. This is the part of the tape where Gimenez admits on tape that monies from Special Taxing Districts were pooled and commingled! Until now both Gimenez and his mouthpiece Mike Hernandez had denied that commingling of funds had occurred. If my memory serves me well, commingling of funds was prohibited in a county ordinance passed in 2000 or so by then Commissioner Miguel De La Portilla. Such action made it a crime to commingle funds. Which brings us to this point. Who, when, where and under whose orders were those STD monies commingled? We already know this all happened under Gimenez’s watch so he is ultimately responsible!
We need the Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation into this matter and bring in all those employees responsible, from Don Tok down, to provide sworn statements about the commingling and any orders received from Gimenez and/or his staff to keep the tax rates flat to look good for the voters in 2012.
It has been often said you can catch a liar faster than a man with a club foot. Well, today at the listed period of time, Gimenez admitted what occurred which proves he has lied all along. If I were Raquel Regalado I would go through hell and high water to ensure this matter was investigated and those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
joe matinez para alcarde 2016
SO WE HAVE A MAYOR (EMPEROR) WHO REJECTS TAXES AND NOW WHAT HAPPEN HE IS CAUGHT IN HIS OWN WEB OF DECEIT, BECAUSE REALLY HE GIVES A FLYING WALLENDA ABOUT TAXES AND HE HAS CREATED AN IMAGE OF HIMSELF THAT IS SO FLAWED AND DISTORTED THAT YOU WANDER WHAT ROCK DID HE JUST CRAWLED OUT. AND IF WE WANT TOO SINCE WE NOW KNOW THE REAL CREEP, YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE FOR A BETTER CANDIDATE. PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP THAT RIGHT. USE IT AND USE EFFECTIVELY. SAY NO TO THE EMPEROR with out clothes.
When the county’s 49 branch library system was suddenly a target by Mayor Gimenez in 2011-2013, I knew it was an inept leader who willingly destroys newly renovated and constructed infrastructure for short-term gain. Now this. He is a total facade of what a Mayor should be.
Excellent write up. The STD that I am part of has been overpaying for almost 20 years. We had a surplus of over 100K. The County is now telling us that we have been underpaying since 2011 and, not only are they taking the surplus, they are raising our rates! Questions about how the audit was done and what it showed are met with cryptic responses that are not answers.
If you thought Esther Calas was a professional you’re more cooked than the STD books are!?!?
By professional I meant someone with an engineering degree, something that had been a requirement for the position of Public Works director since the inception of Dade County. Of course Kathleen Woods-Richardson is not an engineer and should have never headed a department responsible for roadways, causeways, traffic signals and signs and of course special taxing districts. Woods-Richardson was placed at Public Works as director by Gimenez for political reasons and without ever going through an interview process and the mess the Public Works Department is in right now is totally the responsibility of Woods-Richardson and the pro Gimenez lackeys she promoted. So in answer to your question, yes Esther Calas was ten fold more professional than Woods-Richardson. Ask any of the dozens of Public Works employees who departed that department after the hostile takeover by Waste Management personnel whose qualifications were picking up waste and recycling material. A far cry from running a Special Taxing District.
Every citizen in Miami Dade County should be aware of the financial scheme played by Miami Dade County Finance Department Director Jennifer Glazer Moon. Her $215k plus benefits depends on barrowing from Peter to pay Paul in order to meet the county budget every October 1st. Special Taxing District funds are controlled by Public Works and Waste Management Department.
A special taxing district is a mechanism used by communities, wherein property owners elect to pay special assessments levied on their properties in order to receive public services and/or improvements, which could not otherwise conveniently or equitably be provided.
In Miami-Dade County some of these services include, but are not limited to:
Street lighting, Security guard services, Guard houses, Lake maintenance.”
The Public Works and Waste Management department controls Special Taxing District funds. The section was headed by Don Tok for many years. The rates of each district were reviewed every year according to cost and growth and commingling of funds was strictly prohibited.
In 2011 when Mayor Carlos Gimenez merged the Public Works and Solid Waste Departments he sacked a professional engineer and director named Esther Calas and he promoted a group of Solid Waste employees that included Director Kathleen Woods-Richardson (now Miramar City Manager), Assistant Director Chris Rose and Chief Aneisha Daniel. The listed individuals were put in place by Gimenez for political reasons and many think were not qualified to oversee the finances of the newly created department.
At the behest of Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Assistant Director Chris Rose chose to maintain low, commingle or cut rates on the Special Taxing Districts without permission from the County Attorney’s Office to make Gimenez look as a mayor intent on cutting taxes. The result is that after 3 years of low rates there is a multi million dollar deficit of Special Taxing District funds and an ongoing analysis has uncovered the comingling of funds from different Special Taxing districts- something strictly prohibited by county ordinance. As a result, Special Taxing District Chief Don Tok was recently forced to resign even though he warned Rose in 2012 that a deficit would be created in the budget and he has all of the emails to prove it. Rose has already left the county for City of Miami and he is not acknowledging responsibility for the deficit of funds.
Since this scandal first aired, Director Alina Hudak has been scrambling to plug holes on the dike in order to save her job and protect Gimenez from further embarrassment. The only reason we are hearing about this now is due to the fact that the County Attorney’s Office ordered disclosure and compliance by forwarding letters to every citizen whose taxes will be raised come October 1st.
The county has ways to investigate this cover up. It can have the Office of the Inspector General conduct an independent audit to determine what happened and summon key individuals who are well aware of the illegalities involved or the Miami Dade Commission Chairman Monestine can issue subpoenas to current and former county employees so they can tell the public what happened. Wouldn’t you want to hear Don Tok’s version of events and see his email copies?
According to department employees, the Section has been running on “cooked” numbers for the last three years. Just a glimpse into the crooked world created by our strong Mayor Carlos Gimenez.