The top name on that “clean house” list that people are passing around — hoping that new Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has one, too — is Alice Bravo, the director of the Miami-Dade public works and transit departments.
“We do want to see some change,” says Jeffrey Mitchell, president of the Transit Workers Union Local 291. “Transit needs a transit director, not a political hack to come in and find ways to give lavish contracts to their friends.”
He says former Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley, a mayoral candidate in the 2011 recall primary, is advising Levine Cava — who apparently believes in recycling people — on how to move forward.
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Hired in 2015, Bravo has long been a thorn in the side of workers and anyone who relies on public transportation. Brought in from the city of Miami by former Mayor Carlos Gimenez, she rubber-stamped his friends and family deals and championed the misuse of the half-penny funds. She campaigned for Gimenez and couldn’t do his bidding fast enough.
This includes the Chinese-funded, Genting-connected monorail rammed through the commission this year that is going to make Gimenez pals Ralph Garcia-Toledo and Jesse Manzano very wealthy men. She covered for Gimenez when he cooked the deal up on a China trip using burner phones.
She had already basically decimated an already-struggling transit system, privatizing it piece by piece, when the coronavirus started to spread.
And as the bus drivers, train operators and mechanics continued to work as essential workers, they were forced to bring or buy their own protective gear for months. In May, they were still getting one Clorox wipe and one pair of gloves a day.
The county couldn’t and wouldn’t enforce social distancing or mask rules, forcing drivers to keep taking passengers past the halfway capacity mark.
Five Miami-Dade transit workers have died from COVID-19, Mitchell says. At least 152 have tested positive and more than 350 had to quarantine, he added. The 200,000-square-foot William Lehman Center depot facility has been nicknamed “Little Wuhan.”
Read related: Three Miami-Dade Transit workers test positive for COVID19; union wants gear
And while mechanics and drivers were dying and getting sick, Bravo was shopping around for another job and touting her success in increasing ridership. In a news conference with other American transit executives in July, Bravo expressed little or no concern about COVID impact on the county’s transit workforce. Instead, the $248,000-a-year botella boasted about transit ridership that rose from 74,000 trips per weekday in April to about 110,000 in June.
The union filed a lawsuit in April charging that the 2,800 transit employees across Metrobus, Metrorail and MetroMover were put at increased risk for COVID by a county that was not providing proper personal protective gear and not enforcing CDC protocols such as social distancing.
The lawsuit was withdrawn once DLC was elected so they could try to work with the new administration, Mitchell says. So they’re giving la Alcaldesa some time to get things right. “It’s not officially dropped, but the agency is bending over backwards to provide PPE.”
Of course they are. Not because of the lawsuit. It’s because now they have federal CARES money to funnel through. Ka’ching!
But things got so bad during the spring spike that the TWU started a virtual campaign called the “Ride NOT Die Challenge,” and got people to tweet the director, daring her to ride the bus under the same conditions the workers endured, which included standing room only buses with unmasked passengers piled on top of each other.
They also had mobile sign trucks follow certain high traffic buses with a message: “Are these buses COVID-19 sanitized? Enter at your own risk.”
Bravo’s COVID inaction is inexcusable in and of itself. How many of the 216,097 positive COVID cases reported in Miami-Dade as of Monday — almost a million statewide — got it on a Miami-Dade bus? How many of the 3,789 who had died as of the latest numbers on the Florida Department of Health COVID dashboard — might not have died if transit had been safer?
But Mitchell has a whole laundry list of non-COVID grievances against Bravo. Like the radius on a new rail curve at “Little Wuhan” that has been determined to be too tight. “The train will go off the rails,” Mitchell explains. “We knew it would be too tight. But nobody listened.”
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The company with the contract for the job, he says: Munilla Construction Management, the firm owned by one of former Mayor Gimenez’s in-laws. “We paid them to give them a product we can’t use,” Mitchell says. The price: $1.8 million. After several years, it’s still unusable. Wasted space.
The city had to turn to a group of activists to get the Better Bus Project, an improved public transportation network that actually makes sense. Because it may very well be a fantastic idea and the first advocacy-led and community-drive bus redesign, but Bravo couldn’t do it in house.
Mitchell also says they have complained about a waste of funds by renting vehicles — the wrong vehicles — for traveling mechanics to use. “Not maintenance equipment industry stuff, but literally rental cars for our mechanics to go out and service our fleet,” Mitchell says, adding that the department is paying up to $600 a week for vehicles that they would pay less for if they purchased.
“We don’t need an F150 Lariat with leather and a sunroof and satellite radio,” he tells Ladra. “It’s going to get messed up. We need vans and utility vehicles. We’re hauling stuff and parts.”
For four or five years, Mitchell says, nobody at the agency has been looking at grants that would pay for the vehicles. Bravo doesn’t care about the saving on costs the same way she doesn’t care about the workers, he says.
“She says, ‘Bill the county.’ That’s her motto.”
“We’ve been pretty much starving on the vine for the past seven or eight years,” he says.
It’s time to let them eat cake, Alcaldesa.
Miami-Dade transit workers: Director Alice Bravo has to go, be replaced added by Ladra on
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I Totally Agree with Mitchell TWU PRESIDENT!! This been going on to years, and there No Accountability for the funds that have been allocated to Transit and not being release to Transit Workers, Mechanic etc. The director of Transit bravo and the former mayor of day county Gimenez Has broken all kind of ethics policies and should have been reprimanded or JAILED, Now it makes sense while they haven’t been prosecuted because they’re in the bed but all these political people and that’s HOW Gimenez as Want his seat in the Senate they all are in bed together!!!
The hiring of Jimmy Morales is not surprising. Most people forget that Jimmy has always been a politician at heart first and foremost. He was never a practicing lawyer when he became a municipal attorney for the City of Doral. He got the job simply because of his political connections the same he managed to get the City Manager’s job over at the Beach. In both positions he was incompetent. This hiring by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (DLC) and her decision to keep Ed Marquez is already raising eyebrows.
Ed Marquez is responsible for managing the Internal Services Department. The Director of Internal Services is Tara Smith. Both Ed Marquez and Tara Smith are Carlos Gimenez’s political hack. They both hired Namita Uppal to run the Procurement Department. Take a look at her resume. She had no procurement or any type of managerial experience before being hired. The sole reason for her hiring was to influence multi-million procurement as directed by Carlos Gimenez. All of this is already upsetting Mayor DLC’s voters.
If Mayor DLC fails to fire Alice Bravo, Tara Smith, Namita Uppal, Mike Fernandez, Mike Ruiz, Lester Solas and others, I can guarantee you that a recall effort will commence in the next 12 months.
Mayor DLC, your first moves is to fire Alice Bravo, Tara Smith, and Namita Uppal. They teamed up together to bid rig several procurements involving Transit projects. If you don’t know by now, Namita Uppal was over in the Transit Department when several procurements were mismanaged and Federal Government de-obligated federal funding. Mayor DLC you need to hire a well known and ethical procurement leader with County government experience.
That Mayor better not waste any more tone… She needs to clean house and bring in outside talent. Get someone who has worked for a successful transit system.
Let’s reverse the brain drain. Let’s revitalize Miami-Dade and bring the best and brightest to Our County!
Yes Gustavo 👍, It’s called influence peddling and you have taxpayer dollars being stolen by having to have to pay Salaries like close to $300,000 Dollars a year to Miami-Dade County Attorney Gerald Sanchez as well as a huge salary to numerous other non elected officials including Bravo.The inside Game is alive and well .Just ask Former County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
MDC Won’t Get Relief till a DOJ investigation and ALL those Involve W/ names Like Gutierrez , Bravo , Sanchez , May , Osterholt , Gimenez , Garcia , Barreiro , Santorine , and Others ? There is Evidence In PRR E mails ? & Please Don’t Forget The CITT for Covering & looking The Other Way on the PTP ?
Alice Bravo was a crook at FDOT, at the City of Miami and lately she gets to steal from the County $9 Billion budget. Jimmy Morales? Coming in with a massive pay package? Not a good sign. Cava needs to clean the swamp, NOT add hazardous waste.
Alice Bravo recently fired a Bus Operator who simply refused to undergo a medical examination that flagrantly violated federal Covid-19 “social distancing” regulations for transit workers. This elderly employee said “I would rather lose my job than lose my life.”
On appeal, a judge thoroughly excoriated Bravo and her staff and ordered the Bus Operator reinstated with full backpay and benefits, which taxpayers must pay. Bravo demonstrated for the world to see that she could not have cared less for the safety, health, and the life of this “essential worker.”
SHAME ON ALICE BRAVO!
Felix ,Yep ,you’re correct. Alice Bravo is a political hack who loves Lobbyists and Consultants .But so does Miami Beach city Manager Morales. They are all establishment swamp hacks who know how to manipulate/ Dumb/Down the Media .Consultants are another name for Lobbyists ,however, Lobbyists have to register while Consultants use the loophole not to have to register to stay under the Radar as to not be detected by meetings by elected as well as non elected . One of the biggest scams going on in Miami-Dade County is the Miami-Dade County Ethics and Public Trust Agency who is basically run by Miami-Dade County Attorney Gerald Sanchez who makes calls to the Ethics department to let things slip on by ,like Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his sons as well as Morales himself. A bunch of liars and thieves are in Government and we elected them like the Corrupt Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez who now is in the other swamp with Marco Rubio in Washington DC.
Welcome to MDC ! #FIREALICEBRAVO is an OLD CALL , but for the people that have been Saying It is for a reason . No RFP Transportation Contracts ? Dirty Discriminating Deals to obtain “The LAST MILE” ? Contractor allow to Use Total Loss Vehicles ? Poor Maintenance and Cleanliness of Vehicles? And to TOP it All A Conflict of Interest at The ETHICS Department (COE) on Husband ? This is as Transparent as * CHARCOAL * ?
Alice Bravo is part of the old Tallahassee gang who rode into the county fresh from the Jeb Bush train. She was brought in to Public Works by Mayor Gimenez to put the last nail on former Public Works Director Esther Calas’ coffin.
Bravo’s job depended on full loyalty to Gimenez- no different than the loyalty required from Marquez, Hudak, Moon, Sola, Juan Perez and a cast of cronies who robbed this county blind to satisfy Gimenez.
The question here is how come neither the MDPD nor State Attorney Public Corruption units ever did anything to stop the theft of millions in government contracts? Where are the FDLE and FBI agents whose job is to watch over public monies and instead go on for years without arresting or prosecuting any of these white collar criminals?
The answer is they are all together in the same cesspool. The US Attorney’s Office and the State Attorney are political puppets who dare not bring one single case against this band of thieves.
Bravo will go on to her next gig where she will make even more money and another crony such as Morales, Patterson, etc., will be recycled in to continue the raid.
Move along folks, nothing to see here. Only the county at work with a new mayor- same dog with a new collar.
We need to treat all of our county employees better.
This is quite embarrassing.
I hope the Mayor really is thoughtful in selecting leadership that knows right from wrong.