Miami-Dade Commissioners will get be told Tuesday that the issue discovered
earlier this year where special taxing districts were not paying what they should — either paying higher or lower than what they were assessed — has been taken care of. Everything has been reviewed and adjusted.
All good now. You can move on.
Nothing to see here.
Well, excuse me if I reach for a magnifying glass. Because something is missing.
Commissioners learned in June that more than 100,000 property owners were paying too little or too much in special assessments that paid for additional lighting, security or grounds maintenance in their neighborhoods. During a meeting where Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez admitted that some people had been overtaxed, the commissioners asked for an audit of all special taxing districts as well as a report of how that happened and how it would be rectified.
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez admits overtaxing special districts; ‘So sorry’
The memo from Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak, director of the ill-combined public works and waste management department, says that the review found two accounts that were actually untouched since 2003, with $920,000 and $1.4 million in them.
Again, money that this administration finds by opening a drawer. How is it possible the county lost track of $2.5 million of our tax dollars?
Those are in addition of other, multiple surplus funds found within special taxing district accounts. The surpluses total $1.7 million, of which a little more than $500K, or about a third, is in a Hammock Lakes security guard district.
And, of course, there are negative balances (though the surpluses are way bigger). Most of those, or about 40 percent, are lighting districts (for a total of about $110,000). They are followed by maintenance districts, of which 32% have a negative balance and security districts, of which 24% have a negative balance. A special taxing district in Miami Lakes accounts for more than half of the lighting negative balances.
So, since services were never interrupted, are we to assume that homeowners in Hammock Lakes paid for the street lights in Miami Lakes?
“That’s what I want to know,” said Commissioner Juan Zapata, who doesn’t think
that the report does enough to address how the county will repay the monies that have been overcharged to some STD homeowners.
“I’m not buying the story,” Zapata said of the Hudak memo and the 97-page final audit report that was made available to commissioners late Monday. “They wait til the last minute, and when we are about to discuss the budget.”
“For two years I’ve been asking questions about this stuff and they’ve been telling me everything was fine,” said Zapata, whose district includes the overpaying Hammock Lakes district.
Read related story: Miami-Dade special taxing districts = free for all shell game?
The memo from Hudak states that there is no evidence to suggest monies were transferred to or from the general fund. But that was never the question. Not really. The real concern was that the monies from the different and independent, individual special taxing districts had been comingled and was being mostly spent on staff.
And the memo doesn’t address that at all.
“This memo, this report doesn’t say how we’re giving a bunch of people reimbursements for whatever money
they were overcharged and it doesn’t say where that money is coming from,” Zapata said. “If the county overcharged, then the county should be putting money back into the special taxing districts to reimburse them.”
The memo does talk about “reconciling and distributing” the $920,000 security guard surplus funds in the first quarter of 2016. But it doesn’t say how it will do that or where that money will come from. Is it sitting in another drawer somewhere?
“The report doesn’t tell you who got screwed and who was overpaying,” Zapata said. “I’ve asked who was held accountable for this. ‘Oh a bunch of people,’ I’m told ‘Oh don’t worry. People are getting their money back so let’s move forward.'”
And what really worries him is that this may not be an isolated incident.
“I refuse to believe that this same lack of oversight doesn’t exist in other parts of the county,” Zapata said.
In other words, how many other drawers are there?
The report doesn’t say that either.
Miami-Dade Commission to get story on taxing districts added by Ladra on
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Teresita don’t be naive with this guy, his soul purpose in politics is to set him self up with the biggest deal’s and monetary return he could never achieve in the real world job market. If not for his sneaky ways and his slithering path into pliticos life’s and pocket bookers he would probably be back in columbia pick pocketing tourist, if not deported hence his past career path. This guy has no career experience what so ever, hasn’t worked an honest day in his life, a bunch of bull, a political puppet who now was trying to spread his wings under the black clouds he’s set up. Just look at his noumerous failed and spawning companies, from medicine to food distribution, from political advising to banking institution. You name it he’s had a company for every deal he tired or gotten thru. He’s even in the credit card machine business now, funny after he pushed that agenda thru the BCC on the Taxie comunity! Working all the angles, incorporation has been his agenda for quiet sometime but that seems to have been haulted by all those carving and challenging residents who created “Stop Incorporation” out in west Kendall and other working behind the scenes to curb corruption in Miami Dade County! So asking this guy to work is asking the devil for bread, he give it but he will take it somehow!
keep in mind special taxing districts were once for something special, Like a guard house..
Now it is simply an accounting tool around the millage rate caps…a way the county gets people to pay extra for stuff they have already paid for with their UMSA taxes, like street lights and the grass mowed. This is SOP public works stuff in any urban/ suburban community. Ever been in liberty City at night? It’s so bright at night you can read a newspaper anywhere on NW 62 st and there are no “special taxes” there!
For proof of what is possible under a REAL administration with public oversight go to virtually any UMSA area incorporated since Key Biscayne in 1991…lots of street lights, fancy road signs, manicured medians, beautiful parks and tons of police…. and no special taxes and in most cases a lower millage rate.
and that’s the real shell game at county hall… to keep the millage rate artificially low so they look good on that list of millage rates of the 35 Dade cities. The county battle is to hide the fact with all the waste and mismanagement there is no economy of scale, smaller is actually more cost effective.. The power elite need to keep the remaining UMSA areas from figuring it out and bolting for the door leaving the Mayor and the BCC with no money and no power..
Are you for real? “Go to any UMSA area incorporated since Key Biscayne in 1991…lots of street lights, etc.” The reason they have lots of street lights etc. is BECAUSE those areas INCORPORATED into a CITy AND THE RESIDENTS OF THOSE AREAS ARE PAYING THREE TO FIVE TIMES THE MILLAGE RATE OF UMSA. There are only two cities out of the 35 you mentioned with property tax millage rates as low as the County. I prefer the Special Taxing Districts because it allows residnets of the area where they live to vote to pay for extras they want for their area, such as a guard gate or street ligting. Nothing is free in life and creating more municipalitices with all the new chances for corruption, nepotism, and outright theft of taxpayer funds to me is not the answer. Some municipalites do the job well, while there are many others who don’t. Opa Locka, North Miami, Homestead, and Miami are a few that come to mind.
How can anybody even think that they have the right to use $30,000 to pay for his education at Harvard ( by the way I am sure this was only for 1 semester ) So if it had not being disclosed to the media we will have to continue to pay and pay.The commissioner knows perfectly well that the question from one of his staff was at best generic. So take your panty hose off, put on your big boy pants, do what you seem to have already done, return the $, stop blaming the rest of the world for your faux pas and move on. Your are a smart guy and if you set your mind for what you were elected, YOU MIGHT MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
This financial debacle could have been untangled prior to today if investigators from Miami Dade Inspector General’s Office would have handed out subpoenas for statements to the current and former employees who managed and continue to manage the Special Taxing District funds. They know where the bodies are buried.
Of course that would have required the blessing of Director Mary Cagle and that is not happening. Those employees would have pointed their finger towards Gimenez and his staff. Those employees would have admitted that the rates were held low to avoid raising taxes and to make a bad administrator like Gimenez seem like a “golden boy”.
In olden days, investigators assigned to watch over our public monies would taken it upon themselves to open investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by public officials. Today, sadly enough, the level of corruption in this county stems from the internal strings held by our State Attorney. Those strings are attached to the Inspector General and the Ethics Commission- headed by former YES employees who owe their jobs to the State Attorney.
It is not in the best personal interest of the State Attorney to investigate powerful individuals in this county. She owes political favors to all of the powerful individuals who contribute and keep her in office.
Our corrupt mayor runs this county just like “Boss” Tweed did at Tammany Hall. Not since the days of Al Capone has one individual controlled so much money and power in a specific area of our country and be allowed to operate with impunity.
Comingling of funds at the Special Taxing Districts is a drop in the bucket. The list of financial crimes committed by Gimenez and his staff of minions is far worse than any everyday citizen can imagine. The only hope left is for the U.S. Department of Justice to walk in, order the FBI and our U.S. Attorney to get off their arse and force them to do their job. The odds of that are stacked against us, the hard working citizens who pay taxes to improve our community and are swindled by an Armani suited mayor.
Can taxpayers request the Feds come in and audit? Who would request an audit of the Mayor and commissioners please? Would that be the State’s Attorney. Who can taxpayers contact, if anyone, to actually REQUEST the audit???
This all happens under a mayor who says he is “a great administrator, but not a magician.” Well, money keeps disappearing and reappearing like magic with Gimenez. But how do you expect him to find time to actually manage government when he is busy finding millions for Ross to fix his stadium, golfing with Trump to plot giving away the Crandon Golf Course, and manipulating contracts to make sure his daughter-in-law has a private-sector job at WASD?
All this shows is how your Golden Boy and his hand picked staff have manipulated the budget since first getting elected. A county administration that time after time held off on providing service, rolling back police and fire. People dying because of such actions and now 2, 3 years later finding all these funds that had been mysteriously overlooked. That’s enough with this ahe game, it’s time the Fed’s went in and audited this administration. With that threat last time we saw how suddenly your Golden Boy was able to balance and produce funds to avoid having his office raided and dissected. But enough is enough, the mayor and all these commissioners need to be audited and investigated. The special interest and self interest has destroyed this county and if these items aren’t fixed and dealt with swiftly we will pay for this corruption dearly. MR Zapata should thought more about his action to defund the county out of 30k for his own personal gain, maybe he should of conducted this audit out of his office then maybe his barks and rants could be taken more seriously. What he needs to do is get to work, real work and leave his personal education agenda for after his term or own time, you can’t be an effective elected employee if your spending days out of the week in another city. All these commissioners need to get to work and push harder to get answers and results, don’t expect the Golden Boy to do it, that be a big joke!