Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava backpedalled and ditched her old recommendation to reject all the bids for a $50 million airport contract — where a selection committee of staff had already ranked the top two firms — and start the process over.
After Political Cortadito exposed what looks like illegal lobbying by former Transportation Director Alice Bravo and political pressuring by Ralph Garcia-Toledo, Jesse Manzano and Alex Heckler — a major Democratic fundraiser with La Alcaldesa on speed dial — the mayor has backed off her shaky position and, instead, move forward with negotiations with two firms who were recommended in January by staff after a third selection process.
The third time’s the charm?
Levine Cava said in a memo Friday that she had communicated with both the top-ranked firms — Hill International and CBRE Heery, Inc. — and that they had made verbal commitments to strive for the the goals she laid out as the ridiculous reasons in her rejection memo.
Read related: More meddling in contracts makes Daniella Levine Cava cave to interests
“My administration is deeply committed to procurement reforms that ensures good government prevails throughout the process,” she wrote to the commission chair on Friday, adding that her initial recommendation intended to leverage the procurement process to “embrace a set core of values that truly our county’s commitment to workforce training, strong labor practices, diversity, small business involvement and resiliency.”
Those lame excuses again? These were the feelgood buzzwords that DLC used in her memo rejecting all the bids and recommending a new process. But she had to know then that these things could all be addressed in negotiations. Or was it something Ladra suggested?
“Through continued conversation and engagement with the top two ranked firms, they have provided written commitment to address the five points outlined in the memo during the contract negotiations,” La Alcaldesa wrote.
So, the mayor removed the item from Tuesday’s commission agenda. So what? Hope this doesn’t mean the commission won’t speak about it. Hope this doesn’t mean the OIG won’t investigate the possible illegal lobbying and other potential violations.
Las malas lenguas say there’s more to come. Esto se pica y se extiende.
Read related: Alice Bravo may have illegally lobbied Miami-Dade on $50M airport contract
Nevermind the fact that La Alcaldesa is reeling her recommendation back, isn’t there still something to be said that she wanted to throw out a perfectly valid process? The saga is still telling of an administration that was supposed to be different, that was ushered in on the promise of reform and transparency. Right?
And what about the other contracts? Remember when DLC (read: Chief of Operations Jimmy Morales) needed two weeks to review the protests from Munilla Construction Management for a $70 million airport construction supervision contract? Well, now she says she wants to bring those services in house. And while Ladra completely supports that idea — and the mayor should be looking to do more of that with consultants in the Water and Sewer Department — it doesn’t exactly build trust that this concept suddenly came to her. It seems more like an easy way out of a hard situation.
The mayor — through Jimmy, of course — is also going to ask the commission to approve the rejection of all proposals for yet another project, dockside container handling cranes at PortMiami. This time, the three bids that came in are too old.
“As the proposals are now over three years old, PortMiami is reviewing the specifications to ensure the county will receive the latest technology,” the mayor writes in a separate memo for that resolution.
So, that seems logical and reasonable. But do we know that there is new technology? And that can’t be addressed? I mean, technology is always going to be better. What if it changes in the next year while this process begins anew? There should be a way to include upgrades in any contract.
Read related: Miami-Dade airport contract stalls as politicians meddle in procurement
Maybe that will be addressed when the administration takes a holistic look at the whole of procurement, like the mayor promised in her Friday memo.
“My administration and senior leadership team will also be doing a deep review of the procurement process and proposing needed reforms to achieve the best outcome for our taxpayers.
“Moving forward, we expect al companies doing business with the county to respect these core values as we work to ensure we are leveraging the county’s resources to support equitable economic development and a stronger local workforce.”
Key words: Moving forward.
Perhaps the values should also include getting the best bang for our buck.
Nevermind! Daniella Levine Cava steps back from rejection of all airport bids added by Ladra on
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