Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Commissioner Esteban Bovo, Bruno Barreiro, Dennis Moss and Jean Monestime, plus at 
least seven other county officials, including Deputy Mayor Ed Marquez and the newly-appointed Transit Director Alice Bravo (more on her later), are heading to Denver next week for a three-day transportation field trip. They will meet with local political and business leaders, attend briefings on financing and delivery mechanisms for Denver’s ballyhooed FasTracks mass transit projects — with an emphasis on private public partnerships — and get tours of at least three of the projects that have made the Colorado city a model road map of sorts for urban transit development.
The purpose of the “fly-in,” according to an announcement from the Miami Downtown Development Authority, will be to “learn first-hand how the area has been successful in implementing their transportation vision — the Denver FastTracks Program. FastTracks include 122 miles of new commuter rail and light rail and 18 miles of bus rapid transit implemented through innovative joint development and public private partnerships.”
That’s what makes Denver’s example so special — because it happened through pioneer private-public partnerships that have traditionally been a difficult sell on mass transit projects. There were also multiple obscure federal and state grants that were dug out, targeted and cobbled together.
But those monies were leveraged and/or matched with public funds through a half-penny sales tax that raised $600 million over 10 years for light rail, rapid bus lines and transportation infrastructure — a high profile ballot tax referendum that passed in 2004 and that Denver is using for the projects it told voters it would fund, unlike Miami-Dade, which has squandered millions of our own half penny tax increase from 2002.
Now, Gimenez has not said the words transportation tax. And Ladra does not think he would do something as foolish as that. He is in a hotly contested re-election next year. The referendum would likely be on the same ballot as his job. Increased taxes were the least acceptable financing methods for transportation projects in a recent Bendixen Amandi voter poll for the Miami 
Herald. And Gimenez is running as the man who has brought down or, at least held the line on taxes. Even though some property owners pay more today than when he was elected, that is either because of increased property values or because someone screwed up the special taxing district numbers and the taxpayer had been underpaying for years. The point is that Gimenez is running practically exclusively on his no new taxes message and he’s not about to pull an about face on that, especially after announcing earlier this month that his staff has identified about $2 billion that the county will be able to apply to transportation projects over the next 30 years.
Read related story: Miami-Dade: Carlos Gimenez saves us — from himself
“Those dollars may be used to issue debt and leverage additional federal and state dollars,” Gimenez said, adding that it could balloon up to $5 or $6 billion.
A tax is not completely out of the question, however, if any Destination Denver delegates come back convinced that a dedicated public funding source must be part of the formula and someone other than Gimenez (read: any one of the lobbyists who stand to make millions off greasing those wheels) champions it, so the mayor can keep a distance. The problem with that is voter’s haven’t forgotten the broken promises from when we approved our own half penny sales tax increase for public transportation improvements in 2002.
Those funds were supposed to be dedicated to expansion of public transit, including new Metrorail lines to the western suburbs and another one North up 27th Avenue to the county line and new rapid lane busways or municipal circulators to feed those train stations. Monies were used, instead, to offset operating costs in the transit department and, 13 years later, only a 2 1/2-mile Metrorail extension to Miami International Airport has been completed.
In any case, the trip to Denver seems like another junket, just like the Paris adventure last month. Timed, by no coincidence, to escape the August heat of Miami. There is nothing that the mayor and Bovo and the others can learn in Denver that they couldn’t learn online and in telephone conference calls. They already have a relationship with Philip Washington, general manager of the Denver Regional Transportation District, who was invited to the county’s transportation summit in January. “At that summit Mr. Washington invited Mayor and BCC to visit Denver to see how they have done their transportation planning and building of new transit options over the last ten years,” said a statement from the mayor’s office.
But let’s say, for a moment, that it’s a good idea for the mayor and the very green transit director and, okay, even Bovo, as chairman of the Transportation and Mobility Committee, to see first hand and experience Denver’s system. Ladra can buy that — especially if they ride the bus and talk to mass transit users about what works and what doesn’t, which is not on their itinerary. Neither is a session on how to stop yourself from misspending transit tax dollars.
But do 40 people need to go? Absolutely not. In addition to the county electeds and staffers, there are real estate executives and representatives from Florida East Coast Industries and All Aboard Florida, which has been talking about building a station downtown, paying their own way on the field trip. The DDA is sending people, as is the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust (CITT).
Also attending: Miami City Commissioners Francis Suarez and Marc Sarnoff, who is termed out in three months, and Miami Beach Assistant City Manager Kathy Brooks. Those cities are not sending 12 people each.
Because is there really a reason for the mayor’s Chief of Staff Alex Ferro to be there? Most of the mayor’s staff will stay in Miami, won’t they? Monestime’s chief of staff is also on the list of delegates. Is he carrying the chairman’s coat and briefcase? And Ladra can’t fathom why Marquez and Bravo and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Joe Rasco and MPO Director Jesus Guerra and CITT Executive Director Charles Scurr would all have to go and bear witness to the same briefings and the same tours. Don’t they all report to the mayor? Doesn’t anybody have a camera?
And do lobbyists have to go? God, no. But Mitchel Bierman, Niesen Kasdin and Jose “El Chino” Fuentes are all on the journey. Sure, they may be paying their own way. But it’s a good investment. They smell blood in the water, er, I mean a project in the near future. And they want to be able to tell would-be bidders and contractors that they have an inside track to sweetheart deals through future transportation BIDs.
“I was just in Denver with the mayor,” they’ll say. There’s a value to that. It jacks up their retainer price, which, in turn, comes out of our pockets when its worked into the total cost of the proposal.
Read related story: Poll: Mayor Carlos Gimenez is too comfy close to lobbyists
But these lobbyists are smart. They must know this one thing: Within the year, the county is going to have a big press conference to announce a major transportation project.
They have to. It’s getting close to election time, in an electorate where the number two issue is transportation, according to a recent poll. Upon being named chair of the transportation committee, Bovo said that if he can’t get a project off the ground in two years, his entire term will be a failure. In his annual budget announcement, Gimenez also said he was making transportation solutions a priority.
“I am well aware that Miami-Dade has a traffic and a transit challenge,” Gimenez said at the public unveiling of the budget. “The time our residents spend in their vehicles commuting to their jobs is time they are not with their families and that is one of the main reasons why my administration is committed to improving our transit system.”
And they can get one. The climate for a major transit project has never been better. Perhaps every commissioner is behind the concept of ‘Let’s just do anything because we are desperate for something.’ 
Someone could propose a drone-operated, elevated or zip-line electric trolley system and it could possibly get serious consideration, even a sponsored ordinance for a study. I mean if they’re looking at reversible lanes that go in one direction half the day and another the other half — which is thousands of accidents waiting to happen — they will look at anything.
Nevermind that we need at least six projects in the county. Nevermind that the mayor’s office has been reportedly dragging its feet on conversations about the Bay Link connection to Miami Beach. Nevermind that the Northbound 27th rapid bus lines project, fully funded and ready to go, was sidelined and paired with an East/West and Southbound connectors that have not gotten off the ground.
Nevermind that part of the reason that Denver is so successful is that when they passed their bond referendum to dedicate pubic funds to transit solutions, that city actually dedicated the funds and didn’t steal the money for something else. They — get this — used the funds for what they were intended and promised. They went out and sought the partnerships needed to build the buildings and develop the connectors that Denver needed. And they did such a good job that now half of Miami is going to Denver to see how it was done.
The problem is we already had a dedicated tax and the money was diverted from transportation projects to other things in order to balance the budget while the political and business leaders in Denver didn’t do that.
Maybe they can squeeze in a session or briefing on that next week.
County Denver trip foreshadows big transportation project added by Ladra on
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THIS TRAIN (excuse the pundit) HAS TO BE STOPPED. THE SOUTH IS SO FULL OF OPTIONS, ALL THEY NEED NOW IS RICKSHAWS FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE. THE NORTH HAS NOTHING, THE METRO TAKES YOU FROM WERE YOU DON’T LIVE TO WERE YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO, THE BUS ROUTE ARE FEW AND IN BETWEEN ( ever heard of the Maxon Dixie line? ) that what Flagler is to us. WE CAN STOP THIS TRAIN, BUT IT IS GOING TO TAKE A LOT A WORK, A LOT OF ENERGy. WE MUST CALL A STOP TO THIS USELESS CLOWN WHO IS ONLY PLAYING WITH US AND OUR “MONEY” THERE ARE OPTIONS, LETS WORK WITH THOSE THAT WANT TO EXPLORE A NEW AVENUE. FOR SURE THIS IS NOT WORKING!!!!!!
Commissioner Suarez is right. We can only dream that we get someone with vision like him to take out Gimenez. Why are half these people going? A lot of folks will be screening their wives’ phone calls in Denver it seems cause I just don’t understand why else so many need to go. This entire county government is a ridiculously bad punchline at this point and the jokes on us!
The only folks in Miami Dade who will get self inflicted traffic
woes solved any time soon, are the wily developers of Fisher Island .
They have erected a massive new building, Palazzo del Sol and another one is going up right next to it. Do they have to build a parking garage on Fisher Island? Hell no!
With unparalleled chutzpah they have come to Miami Beach with a proposal to build a 93 foot parking garage on Terminal Island.
They do have a permit for a 40 foot structure .
In exchange for doubling the size, they will benevolently park some of the city dumpsters and excess coast guard vehicles on the lower floor. Well ,some of them , not all of them .
It would need just a change of use here , and the sign of one little ordinance there..
Miami Beach Commission “Just gets It Done!” we are told.
So, Magic away the clogged dangerous streets of Fisher island,.Disappear the long lines for the ferries .
No more misery for all those poor people.
Easy peasy, problem solved.
Denver is a spacious city. It’s Big SKY country with plenty of wide roads and space to accommodate all of those mass transit projects.
Miami by comparison is squeezed in at all corners. The city was not laid out by people who had a grand vision of Miami becoming a real metropolis. That’s a problem that all the money and all the plans can’t overcome.
For example, this latest scheme in Miami to allow developers to build multi-unit apartments and condos on small lot and wave parking requirements if the lots are supposedly within a half-mile or so of a Metrorail station or other traffic hub.
Just how many people do you really think will say, Hey, that’s for me. Let me sell my car and I’ll depend on a bus, a trolley or Metrorail to get around to work, the grocery store and all of the other places that all of you who read this go as a matter of course every day in your car.
And, just for good measure I’ll be happy to take that hike to and from those place in June, July, August, September and October when it’s hot enough to you know what, just so I can be a good citizen.
Here’s why this all all caca. Ask the public officials who are promoting this deal – a deal that strictly just one more give away to developers – when they are planning to sell their cars and show by example that this is the way to go.
Commissioner Suarez is spot on.
Another potential funding source could be a surcharge on all structured parking ..dedicated to funding mass transit that feeds the area where the structured parking exists..this could be particularly targeted to downtown and the Beach.. Portland Oregon when they were building their light rail system LIMITED the amount of structured parking allowed downtown in order to encourage commuters to utilize mass transit.. The high level of development especially downtown and at the beach absent adequate mass transit has in part been a major factor in the traffic mess we find ourselves in.
commissioner’s Bovo’s concept of special taxing districts also has merit and should be considered.
As our elected “leadership” sorts out why to do they nned to address what can be done NOW to lessen traffic woes..traffic signalization. coordination..dedicated bus stops so as not to impede traffic.. coordination of road construction by all levels of government so as to mitigate the nightmare of every road ..every normal computer route being under construction at the same time..fixing the frozen decision making at the MPO level… Holding new developments with structured parking adding more cars to already crowed roadways to become part of the solution for funding mass transit..
traffic today in Miami Dade is not only a inconvenience it has a very real negative economic impact ..on current employers/employees and their commuting nightmares. it impacts efficiency,productivity and costs..discourages new job producing investment as companies looking to relocate or expand take into consideration commuting times.
If we are to grow as a logistics center moving goods from point A to point B we can not have traffic hindering the ability to get goods to and from our ports and to market.
This has to be a sustainable and comprehensive effort not a knee jerk reaction in order to get re-elected. Interesting that the closer to election day the higher the interest and and rhetoric from the 29th floor. It will require very difficult decisions with the commitment and professional knowlwedge to implement them after election day.
At least for whatever reason they are now at least giving lip service to the issue. of course it will take 40 people to figure it out..interesting as I know the Mayor toured the light rail systems in Lyon and nice France on a previous FRANCE mission when he was just elected a county commissioner. i guess he needs a refresher course.
FRN
GET READY FOR ANOTHER MIAMI DADE DEPARTMENT MERGER
As if the 2011 merger of Miami Dade County’s Public Works and Solid Waste departments was not bad enough, get ready for the latest departmental merger between sections of the department now known as Public Works and Waste Management and the Transit Department.
We all remember the promises made by Mayor Carlos Gimenez in 2011 when he reduced county departments from 52 to 26. At the time he claimed the consolidation of departments would streamline service and cut costs. Move forward to 2015 and we come to find out that it costs more to run 26 departments today than it did to run 52 in 2011.
And what have county residents gained from the 2011 mergers you may ask? Not much more than departmental confusion, loss of departmental brain thrust caused by the departure or early retirement of professional county employees who are unwilling to accept Gimenez’s deranged county vision and of course, scandals in every department such as the commingling of funds in the Special Taxing District that has caused tax increases in over 100,000 county residences.
Move forward to 2015 and with the stroke of a pen Gimenez names Alice Bravo as head of Miami Dade’s Transit Department. Her selection as director was made without advertisement of the position, a search for other qualified candidates or a review of her credentials by a qualified county candidate assessment panel. The selection was a simple “dedazo” (appointment) similar to that made by caudillos in third world countries.
And what does the appointment of Ms. Bravo to Transit means? It means that an individual faithfully endowed to Mayor Carlos Gimenez will fill a puppet post waiting for orders from Gimenez before she takes any action. Chief amongst the orders given to Bravo by Gimenez is the upcoming transfer of several sections that are now part of the Public Works and Waste Management Department (such as Traffic Signals and Signs, Causeways, etc.), to Transit. And what does that mean for the rest of the cannibalized Public Works and Waste Management Department? It means that once valuable employees who have worked in some cases 30 years plus of their professional careers for the county will be transferred, reassign or given pink slips in the immediate future. Streamlining by decimation some call it.
Of course for Gimenez this is a great opportunity. Ruling by fear is his special gift. When employees fear losing their jobs they care little about county contracts going out the back door to lobbyists and contractors who are friendly to Gimenez.
This latest merger realignment between Public Works and Waste Management and the Transit department is nothing more than a smoke screen by Gimenez to rid himself of those employees who continuously expose his misdeeds and possibly an attempt to offer the waste management functions to the private sector.The local lobbyists are already salivating at the prospect of bagging millions in tax dollars by cornering future county transit contracts.
It is high time for the Office of the Inspector General to take an in depth look into the departmental mergers ordered by Gimenez and the selection of political puppets such as Alice Bravo to occupy high positions in the county without a proper hiring process. Unless these matters are addressed, we will be facing issues similar to the Special Taxing District tax debacle in the near future.
My rail convertibility plan, which includes the four most needed mass-transit branches (S Dade, NW 27th avenue extension, Baylink and East-West connector on the CSX line, the latter of which is featured in a Herald article today), has received a favorable Herald editorial.
My proposal picks up from the county’s 2004 rail convertibility study and proposes three sources of revenues, all from existing taxes:
1. Return of at least $81 million of People’s Transportation Tax funds (as per Ladra’s suggestion); this can be done by the Trust that manages the funds (CITT); and the Trust’s chairman, Paul Schwiep fully supports it.
2. At least $20 million a year from the $130 million generated by MDX tolls. Note that the agency’s debt service is slightly more than $60 million so there is plenty of money to spare for the county’s suffering commuters.
3 At least $60 million from the $167 million we Dade Countians pay in auto tag renewal fees, for which we get a little sticker that costs the state 5.88 cents to produce. (It took me two weeks of public records requests to get this figure from the state; I suspect there was some embarrassment in Tally when they calculated it….)
Instead of supporting my plan, Mayor Gimenez criticized it; the most laughable counter-argument was on no. 3 above, where he argued that if Miami-Dade County sought return of what its residents pay in auto tag renewal fees, other counties would do likewise….
Precisely, Mr. Mayor! And that is the best, single micro-model ever devised by anyone to show that we don’t get our “fair share” of taxes we send to Tally….
xavier