The head of the Beacon Council resigned last month. But it’s likely he would have been fired anyway when his 
contract expired in October.
That’s because it looks like Larry Williams has exaggerated his accomplishments.
Williams, president and CEO of the Beacon for the past three years, announced in late August that he was taking a job with Technology Association of Georgia. But maybe someone ought to send them a copy of the memo by Miami-Dade Commissioner “Mayor Sir” Xavier Suarez that shows Williams may have greatly inflated his or the Beacon Council’s achievements.
When the Beacon Council claimed in its third quarter “Key Performance Indicators” report to have brought or helped 10 companies in Miami-Dade with research and marketing, networking and the like, Suarez decided to check on it. He sent eight members of his staff to the companies with the addresses listed in the Beacon Council report. They all came back with reports of their own. And guess what? Not one single company volunteered any information about the Beacon Council helping them or recruiting them.
Not one.
In fact, most gave perfectly organic reasons. Like being close to family, in one case. The attractive diversity of the Miami market, in another.
Alpha Trade doesn’t even exist. Another company occupies its space in Doral and the company is not even listed in 
the lobby directory. The Suarez staffer who visited the office was told that they could arrange a meeting with someone from Alpha Trade. Like it’s some cloak and dagger illegal thing. Which it might be since the company has been inactive in the Division of Corporations since 2012.
The New York Code and Design Company was a locked office inside Strayer University. Suarez’s office has not been able to contact anyone there.
On a visit to Florida Minerals, an import export predicted to create seven jobs over the next three years according to the Beacon report, the commissioner’s staffer found a residence and someone with no knowledge of the company. George Tsotkas, the CEO of Florida Minerals — which is located in Boca Raton — had moved to Boca Raton.
Suarez was flabbergasted. “I told them I was going to bring it up in committee. I wanted answers,” Suarez told Ladra Friday. “And then the guy resigns. And I guess that’s the answer.”
Yep. Williams, whose contract was coming up next month anyway, figured he’d been caught. He’s not going to get his contract renewed if Suarez starts bringing up the lies he’s been telling. In his memo, Suarez questions whether or not the $3.5 million or so the county gives the Beacon Council every year is money well spent.
There’s more. Please press this “continue reading” button to “turn the page.”
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