It’s very nice that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is putting $5 million more into our public 
parks and $2 million more into animal services and $1 million aside for a summer jobs program for needy youth.
What Gimenez didn’t say at his big reveal of the 2015-16 budget Tuesday is that he also wants to spend $14 million more in the Information Technology Department, where the budget is proposed to go up to $153 million.
That’s more than the parks department gets, more than the public housing department gets and more than the county allocates for the department of community action and human services. It’s almost twice the $80 million budget for PortMiami. It’s more than the budgets for juvenile services, libraries, cultural affair and county court services combined.
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez saves us — from himself
And for what? How can the IT department possibly cost $153.2 million to operate? 
If you divide that by the 26,000 county employees — even though certainly some use more IT than others — the cost is almost $6,000 per worker, per year. On IT.
So what exactly are we paying for at a tune of $153.2 million a year To put that in context, the parks department gets $144 million. Public housing gets $133 million. Juvenile services gets a paltry $11.5 million.
Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who thought the department was already over budget, is going to have an issue with this.
“It’s a department that didn’t need to exist 30 years ago,” Suarez said, again, this week. “And our systems and the way we deliver services have not really changed that much since then.”
Sure, there’s a website we didn’t have 30 years ago and you need to be constantly feeding it content. But that’s why you have communications people. And one, okay, maybe two webmasters. There are emails to organize and sort and route, but that shouldn’t take 656 employees to take care of that.
And that was for 2015. Next year, the staff increases by 81 people to 737 and salaries increase from $66.8 million to $74.7 million, about half of the department’s budget. Fringe benefits go up from $16.7 to $20.3 million. So salaries and benefits go up almost $12 million but operating costs only go up by $2 million or so.
Um, commissioners? This looks like the next place to have an audit.
Miami-Dade spends more on IT than parks or courts added by Ladra on
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The whole IT phenomenon grew exponentially under County Manager George Burgess. In his zest to “computerize” the county he created new departments and positions in the IT field with fancy names and little substance.
Today, any kid with a laptop and a two year degree can sell himself to the county IT and grab a job that pays $80k without any experience, getting his/her hands dirty or ever producing any true service such as employees in waste disposal, water and sewer work, police, library, etc. While the county entry level of a fireman starts at about $40k and the job calls for life and death decisions, that kid with the laptop and the $80k salary will sit in an office dreaming the next great county step in his virtual world.
The county is in dire need of salary and job description restructuring as a whole. The county IT department in over compensated, over staffed and with a bloated budget. Sensible government calls for better management, cuts in the budget and the salaries of employees that work in that department.
@Ladra Let me elaborate on my previous comment for a bit. I don’t want to come off as being rude and just trolling the comments section. The reason why you can’t compare a lawfirm to the county is that the county services citizens, not just their employees. So the comparison is misleading. The lawfirm may service 45 people within their organization, while the county services millions of external people… the citizens. And that’s why the dollar amount per employee is so different. Don’t get me wrong, I think the county has plenty of waste, but when it comes to quantifying IT resources you can’t compare it to a small business. As far as Jay Pons go, yes I’m well aware of what he was able to accomplish. But in the end he was ultimately caught, and so the system worked.
Mr. Garcia, did you not know about the Pons case? I think he was able to steal $6 million just like that. Whenever you can skim $6 million without being noticed right away, you may have a bloated budget.
I know lots of people who own businesses. I have a friend who is partners in a lawfirm. They spend nowhere NEAR $6,000 an employee for IT… and they do not have that many employees and they deal with sensitive information.
The amount seems high. The questions are legitimate. Let’s see if, as you predict, the answers are.
Love, Ladra
Wow how completely clueless do you have to be? Does the author of this article even own a computer? Xavier’s buddy owns an IT firm and he wants the millions for himself! I used to work at a grocery store and the amount of tech there just to run that place was impressive. No doubt government needs a lot more. There isn’t a story here, you’re just trying to make one up.
For a good reference as to the waste in county departments, please refer to the GSA/Internal Services Department case of 2013 where IT Manager Jesus Pons swindled MIAMI-Dade County out of six million dollars in contract overcharges. Pons, his wife and brother in law were involved in a scheme to defraud the county that extended from the mid ’90s until 2013. Pons was recently sentenced to five years in prison and his red Mercedes was just put up for auction by MDPD. What went under the radar in that scandal was that Pons and Gimenez were best of buddies with Pons installing all IT hardware in Gimenez’s office and providing campaign contributions in the name of his wife’s parents to Gimenez’ campaign account. The IT contracts in the county may be a waste of money to us but the consultants and contractors aligned with Gimenez who are getting those contracts are not complaining.