More than 116,000 Miami-Dade property owners got notices recently that show 
increases in their special taxing district assessments for the first time in at least four years — some as much as 22 percent.
These hikes come because, in part, they’ve not been paying their fair share since at least 2011.
But somebody has. Because their street lights didn’t suddenly go dark and the security guards didn’t stop coming to work.
And at least one commissioner has asked for an independent investigation and basically suggested that the special taxing districts are a cottage industry providing the county administration with injections of cash.
Miami-Dade employees have made what they call a “rate adjustment” to the taxes due from 234 of the 1068 special taxing districts countywide. These are neighborhoods where property owners have collectively voted to tax themselves and additional X amount for lighting, security or capital improvements (i.e. walls or roadwork or equipment on nearby parks). They costs for these special district services has increased but, apparently, the taxes paid for them have not, resulting in the adjustments.
Read related story: Taxes up for 116,000+ taxing district properties
But if each of these districts has an agreement or “compact” with the county so that the money put in for their particular lighting does not go to pay for someone else’s security, why does it appear that that is exactly what happened?
County employees at a town hall meeting at the West Dade Regional Library last week pretty much admitted to it while at the same time denying that any funds were illegally co-mingled.
Aneisha Daniels, an assistant director of administration, explained that there is a
“900 fund” where the money from taxing districts is “pooled” together. The total operating fund, she said, was somewhere around $33 million.
That’s total. For all the taxing districts combined.
Tony Cotarelo, deputy director of Public Works, and Michael Ruiz, assistant director of performance excellence (whatever that is) for Parks and Recreation tried to explain it as a difference between a balance sheet, which can be in the negative, and an account balance, which can be in the positive.
Say what?
“It’s an accounting question,” Ruiz did his best to explain. “You can have a cash deficit on one hand and enough pooled cash on the other.”
Como?
“If all the invoices came in at the same time,” said Cotarelo, “we’d have a problem.”
Well, me thinks you have a problem now. Because if some districts were operating at a deficit that probably means that other districts in that pool you are talking about are overpaying for their lighting or security or whatever. More than 800 taxing districts are not seeing increases — at least not yet. Does that mean they’ve been carrying the rest?
And isn’t that illegal?
People in Kendall are going to be angry if they find out they’ve been subsidizing
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For those who still care about ethical government and paying less taxes. Go to the Miami Dade webcasting page and watch the tape for today’s meeting between 5:17 pm through 5:21 pm. This is the part of the tape where Gimenez admits on tape that monies from Special Taxing Districts were pooled and commingled! Until now both Gimenez and his mouthpiece Mike Hernandez had denied that commingling of funds had occurred. If my memory serves me well, commingling of funds was prohibited in a county ordinance passed in 2000 or so by then Commissioner Miguel De La Portilla. Such action made it a crime to commingle funds. Which brings us to this point. Who, when, where and under whose orders were those STD monies commingled? We already know this all happened under Gimenez’s watch so he is ultimately responsible!
We need the Office of the Inspector General to open an investigation into this matter and bring in all those employees responsible, from Don Tok down, to provide sworn statements about the commingling and any orders received from Gimenez and/or his staff to keep the tax rates flat to look good for the voters in 2012.
It has been often said you can catch a liar faster than a man with a club foot. Well, today at the listed period of time, Gimenez admitted what occurred which proves he has lied all along. If I were Raquel Regalado I would go through hell and high water to ensure this matter was investigated and those responsible are held accountable for their actions.
joe matinez para alcarde 2016
SO WE HAVE A MAYOR (EMPEROR) WHO REJECTS TAXES AND NOW WHAT HAPPEN HE IS CAUGHT IN HIS OWN WEB OF DECEIT, BECAUSE REALLY HE GIVES A FLYING WALLENDA ABOUT TAXES AND HE HAS CREATED AN IMAGE OF HIMSELF THAT IS SO FLAWED AND DISTORTED THAT YOU WANDER WHAT ROCK DID HE JUST CRAWLED OUT. AND IF WE WANT TOO SINCE WE NOW KNOW THE REAL CREEP, YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE FOR A BETTER CANDIDATE. PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP THAT RIGHT. USE IT AND USE EFFECTIVELY. SAY NO TO THE EMPEROR with out clothes.
When the county’s 49 branch library system was suddenly a target by Mayor Gimenez in 2011-2013, I knew it was an inept leader who willingly destroys newly renovated and constructed infrastructure for short-term gain. Now this. He is a total facade of what a Mayor should be.
Excellent write up. The STD that I am part of has been overpaying for almost 20 years. We had a surplus of over 100K. The County is now telling us that we have been underpaying since 2011 and, not only are they taking the surplus, they are raising our rates! Questions about how the audit was done and what it showed are met with cryptic responses that are not answers.
If you thought Esther Calas was a professional you’re more cooked than the STD books are!?!?
By professional I meant someone with an engineering degree, something that had been a requirement for the position of Public Works director since the inception of Dade County. Of course Kathleen Woods-Richardson is not an engineer and should have never headed a department responsible for roadways, causeways, traffic signals and signs and of course special taxing districts. Woods-Richardson was placed at Public Works as director by Gimenez for political reasons and without ever going through an interview process and the mess the Public Works Department is in right now is totally the responsibility of Woods-Richardson and the pro Gimenez lackeys she promoted. So in answer to your question, yes Esther Calas was ten fold more professional than Woods-Richardson. Ask any of the dozens of Public Works employees who departed that department after the hostile takeover by Waste Management personnel whose qualifications were picking up waste and recycling material. A far cry from running a Special Taxing District.
Every citizen in Miami Dade County should be aware of the financial scheme played by Miami Dade County Finance Department Director Jennifer Glazer Moon. Her $215k plus benefits depends on barrowing from Peter to pay Paul in order to meet the county budget every October 1st. Special Taxing District funds are controlled by Public Works and Waste Management Department.
A special taxing district is a mechanism used by communities, wherein property owners elect to pay special assessments levied on their properties in order to receive public services and/or improvements, which could not otherwise conveniently or equitably be provided.
In Miami-Dade County some of these services include, but are not limited to:
Street lighting, Security guard services, Guard houses, Lake maintenance.”
The Public Works and Waste Management department controls Special Taxing District funds. The section was headed by Don Tok for many years. The rates of each district were reviewed every year according to cost and growth and commingling of funds was strictly prohibited.
In 2011 when Mayor Carlos Gimenez merged the Public Works and Solid Waste Departments he sacked a professional engineer and director named Esther Calas and he promoted a group of Solid Waste employees that included Director Kathleen Woods-Richardson (now Miramar City Manager), Assistant Director Chris Rose and Chief Aneisha Daniel. The listed individuals were put in place by Gimenez for political reasons and many think were not qualified to oversee the finances of the newly created department.
At the behest of Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Assistant Director Chris Rose chose to maintain low, commingle or cut rates on the Special Taxing Districts without permission from the County Attorney’s Office to make Gimenez look as a mayor intent on cutting taxes. The result is that after 3 years of low rates there is a multi million dollar deficit of Special Taxing District funds and an ongoing analysis has uncovered the comingling of funds from different Special Taxing districts- something strictly prohibited by county ordinance. As a result, Special Taxing District Chief Don Tok was recently forced to resign even though he warned Rose in 2012 that a deficit would be created in the budget and he has all of the emails to prove it. Rose has already left the county for City of Miami and he is not acknowledging responsibility for the deficit of funds.
Since this scandal first aired, Director Alina Hudak has been scrambling to plug holes on the dike in order to save her job and protect Gimenez from further embarrassment. The only reason we are hearing about this now is due to the fact that the County Attorney’s Office ordered disclosure and compliance by forwarding letters to every citizen whose taxes will be raised come October 1st.
The county has ways to investigate this cover up. It can have the Office of the Inspector General conduct an independent audit to determine what happened and summon key individuals who are well aware of the illegalities involved or the Miami Dade Commission Chairman Monestine can issue subpoenas to current and former county employees so they can tell the public what happened. Wouldn’t you want to hear Don Tok’s version of events and see his email copies?
According to department employees, the Section has been running on “cooked” numbers for the last three years. Just a glimpse into the crooked world created by our strong Mayor Carlos Gimenez.