Miami-Dade CITT to city of Miami: No more 1/2 cent transit funding for you!

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City threatens to suspend trolley services

Miami has been cut off.

The Miami-Dade Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, a 12-member board that oversees the spending of the half-penny sales tax, told city attorneys on Thursday that the county would no longer be sending them about $21 million annually — that’s $1.75 million a month — in surtax funds earmarked for transit projects. This is on the recommendation of a county auditor who has found that the city misspends the funds or sits on the monies, instead, year after year.

Currently, there is about $20 million unspent. Both the city and the county agree on that. Miami-Dade officials says another $20 to $30 million has been spent on paying off debt, which they claim is not an approved expense for People’s Transportation Plan funds, the hadelf-cent approved by voters in 2002. Those monies are supposed to be spent on transit projects and the county gives cities a certain amount based on population for their own municipal transit solutions, like local trolleys.

The city contends that paying debt for transit projects is an eligible expense.

The accounting issues have been a problem since 2011 and the city acknowledged its failures. That’s why there were some funds already “recaptured,” or taken back from Miami in 2019 and they now have to report quarterly to the CITT, said Assistant City Attorney Xavier Alban.

But he cast doubt on the figures. A disputed $870,000 that Alban said was resolved in 2016 still shows up on the audit as ineligible spending. “Once again, it makes me question the accuracy of some of these calculations,” Alban said, adding that the figures need to be reviewed for more errors.

“It’s premature to actually withhold funds from us until we make that determination. You are relying on numbers that are inaccurate,” he said, adding that the audit is outdated and the county should wait for a new one. Pulling out every argument, Alban also said the move could “jeopardize projects and would potentially jeopardize all it’s trolley service.”

Read related: Miami-Dade may cut off Miami transit funds for unspent and misspent millions

That’s been their threat all along, but — as CITT member Joseph Curbelo said — Miami is sitting on $20 million of unspent transit dollars. They can use that to continue the trolley service. They have no excuse.

Alban also said that it was too late to recapture or even question some of the missing funds or improper spending because of a “statute of limitations” or something. Say what? So, basically, because the county did nothing back then, they can’t do anything now?

Is this why the city wants the county to give them more time?

CITT Executive Director Javier Betancourt almost had to stifle a laugh.

“Some of the statements made by the city seem to suggest we should have done this years ago. Perhaps that’s true,” Betancourt said.

“It’s a matter of trying to be collaborative and give them ample opportunity to spend those funds down,” he said. “But we simply cannot continue on this path. Every month, every year, the number doesn’t seem to change to a large degree.

“Perhaps we’ve been too lenient and allowed that to go on for too long. Because we have not seen the type of progress and spending down of those funds, certainly in the years that I have been here, that we hoped to have seen,” Betancourt said.

Yes, they have been too lenient. The auditor has been recommending the city get cut off since 2011.

Betancourt said he was relying on the recommendation of both the county’s auditor and the county attorney’s office to withhold the funds. The auditor has also said that the debt payments are not eligible.

“I stand by our findings,” said auditor Cathy Jackson. “They are accurate and they are complete. The only thing that has fluctuated is the amount that is unspent… we have a lot of money here that’s unspent.”

Betancourt agreed with Curbelo that the city could use some of the unspent monies to continue the trolley service, which would, ironically, help them out of the situation by spending some of the banked funds.

“Many cities spend 100% if their surtax funding on transit. There is nothing precluding the city from spending the unspent funds to support its municipal transit system,” he said.

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Alban again tried to convince the CITT to keep sending the dough.

“We do work with the CITT and we just feel there are some inaccuracies, discrepancies that need to be addressed before funds are withheld.

“We have come up with a plan where we are significantly spending down and from the audit, the gap is decreasing, because of our spending and increased spending,” he said, noting that the unspent balance was $31 million in 2017.

CITT Member Ernie Thomas said the funds weren’t being used fast enough.

“The spending down for the last five years averages to about $2 million a year. And the city says it’s going to ramp up to $10 million a year, which seems optimistic,” Thomas said.

“I kind of look at this resolution as a way to accelerate that spendout. History has told us that $2 million a year isn’t going to cut it.”

Alban was one of five city employees attending the CITT meeting, according to a photograph tweeted by The Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks, who live tweeted the meeting. The city also paid for a court reporter to get a transcript — which means it will likely end up in court and county/city relations will deteriorate even more.

  CITT, transit