PBA back Mayor Carlos Alvarez in recall fight (no surprise here)

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/20/1882448/pba-backs-alvarez-in-recall-fight.html

This linked Herald article informs us that the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) (many would call it the "cop mafia") is backing our slimeball Mayor Alvarez in the recall fight.  If anyone was surprised by this action they deserve to be Baker Acted.  After all, under the Alvarez regime, the county gave MDPD officers a 13% pay increase for the 2011 budget year which is probably a substantial portion of the $100+ million the county is adding to their employee costs for the year.  

I wonder what the PBA gave up in exchange for the 13% pay increase?  Does anyone know?  Surely they gave up something to get such a huge increase when our nation's military retirees, federal retirees and Social Security recipients got 0% last year for the annual COLA and 0% this year for the annual COLA.  Oh, they didn't give up anything?  Why not?  After all, taxpayers in this county are losing their homes, their jobs and taking pay cuts so why shouldn't the county be cutting back too!  One sore point is that the majority of the cops making the big bucks don't get to pay our county's property taxes because they live in Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

It's funny that the article states: 

Under collective bargaining agreements hammered out by Alvarez's administration, Miami-Dade County police are in line for 13 percent pay increases in the period between Sept. 2010 and Sept. 2011.

If a 13% increase is what was "hammered out" then I suggest that the PBA got the county negotiators hammered out on booze and/or drugs while concluding their final negotiations.  We actually pay county negotiators to give away such an overwhelming pay increase to already overpaid cops during this time of home prices declining by 50% or more, lots of folks out of work and unable to find work, more folks suffering pay and benefit cuts at work, etc.?  It just doesn't seem right.

The 2008 (2 years old) data sleuth website shows the following names and salaries for the county's Employee Relations Department:

Name / TitleDepartment / Date Hired / Annual Salary / Gross YTD 

MAHER, ANGELA M
DR HRD   Employee Relations Department
02/04/2008    $205,920.00    $211,466.00 

FLYNN JR, JAMES E
DIV DR HRD   Employee Relations Department
08/03/1981   $148,244.00     $160,323.00  

ALLEN, DONALD S
DIV DR HRD   Employee Relations Department
06/12/1974    $148,244.00     $168,877.00  

RIZZO, MARY
DIV DR HRD     Employee Relations Department
11/23/1987    $148,244.00    $159,052.00 

BUTLER, CONSTANCE L
DIV DR HRD    Employee Relations Department
05/23/1988    $148,244.00    $159,195.00  

SANTISTEBAN, DAVID
EMPIND PSY    Employee Relations Department
05/14/1985    $125,455.00    $119,254.00  

CUELLAR, ARLEENE
ASTDR ASD    Employee Relations Department
02/04/1988    $124,352.00    $125,326.00  

WHITE, RAYMOND S
MG ESS    Employee Relations Department
09/02/1986    $124,352.00    $128,170.00 

FRAGUELA, JOSE D
SRLBRMGSP    Employee Relations Department
08/04/1975    $118,493.00    $120,615.00 

MC LEAN, MELANIE E
MG HRD SCT    Employee Relations Department
04/13/1987    $115,259.00    $116,358.00 

LEAHY, THERESE K
MG HRD SCT    Employee Relations Department
08/01/1970    $115,259.00    $117,357.00 

WEBER, LINDA H
MG HRD SCT    Employee Relations Department
05/31/1991    $115,259.00    $115,784.00  

EDWARDS, MICHAEL D
LBRMGSP    Employee Relations Department
04/02/1992    $106,952.00    $107,475.00 

TOLEDO, KAREN L
LBRMGSP   Employee Relations Department
01/20/1986    $101,921.00    $102,862.00 

DANIELS, GAIL G
LBRMGSP    Employee Relations Department
01/10/1977    $101,921.00    $93,102.00 

GOMEZ VALLAZZA, FLORSARA
HRD SCTSV    Employee Relations Department
05/23/1988    $99,270.30    $100,357.00 

KELLY-WEBB, DENA
HRD SCTSV    Employee Relations Department
06/14/1993    $98,745.40    $96,854.40  

MULLINGS, ANDREW G
MG HRD SCT    Employee Relations Department
03/23/1998    $97,785.70    $95,358.40  

SRYGLER, JANICE E
HRD SCTSV    Employee Relations Department
12/19/1983    $94,605.20    $95,943.20  

COLLINS, WILLIAM J
HRD PRG DV    Employee Relations Department
10/15/1997    $90,968.00    $89,341.00

Read more: http://www.miamifly.net/watchdog/datasleuth/db/employee/#ixzz12vaNPj6k

  
It should please all county taxpayers that the above county employees in the Employee Relations Department made a total of $2,483,069 annually in 2008 according to the online list.  Of course their 2010 wages are probably higher.  I suppose most readers didn't realize that these personnel-types make so much money for what they actually do but they must have done well over the years getting reclassifications upgrading their responsibilities and pay scales.  I seriously doubt if most private companies pay their equivalent personnel so much money in salaries in addition to great benefits (annual leave, sick leave, holiday leave, decent health insurance, retirement system, etc.).  


What is truly sick is that most of these people are responsible for negotiating contracts with the county's labor unions that ultimately result in your tax dollars being spent to pay the employees that the unions represent, such as the 13% pay increase given to the police officers.  

What?  They didn't make that decision?  Who did?  The mayor and commissioners?  Then why are the Employee Relations Department employees making so much money in taxpayer paid salaries if they're not making the ultimate decisions?  

Salaries in the $150K and $160K range for division directors?  That is absurd in my book for what these people actually do to make their money.  There are many division directors in other county departments responsible for a hell of a lot more that a small group of labor representatives and they make substantially less than the salaries these personnel-type clowns make.  You could easily replace these people for half the salaries the taxpayers are currently paying and never notice any difference in what gets done.


It is long past the time to substantially reduce some county employee salaries to reduce the burden on taxpayers and this is the first place I would start.  People need to start electing a mayor and county commissioners based on their pledges to get the county payroll expenses under control by substantially reducing them to bring them more in line with private companies in our county.

Cynthia Curry escapes prosecution charges

Link to this story:

Cynthia Curry not prosecuted for overbilling on airport contract

This article in today's Miami Herald really raised my dander, especially after someone at the Herald deleted all the readers' comments, including mine, under the online version of the story.  

Cynthia Curry was hired by the county in 1978 as a budget analyst and she quickly rose to the assistant county manager level.  She was in the running for the county manager position in the mid-90's but she didn't get the position and allegedly was forced out from the county by the new county manager whose name I can't remember.  Somehow she was given the Senior VP of business and finance position at Florida International University, which is in the political game now too, for a few years and in 1998 she started her own consulting firm, CWC & Associates.  She returned to county employment under county manager George Burgess as an assistant county manager, turning control of her company over to her husband. The company continued to do work at Miami International Airport under the contract with Corgan & Associates.

Earlier this year Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, friends with Curry for the past 20 years, hired her away from the county to be head of Miami Beach's Building Department and she started on the job this week.

The article from the Herald tells of her firm being hired by Corgan Associates, one of the major contractors on the North Terminal Project at Miami International Airport.  From what I've observed, major players winning county bids are forced to hire local minority firms in order to win the bidding process and Cynthia Curry's CWC & Associates was hired as a sub-contractor by Corgan to "oversee compliance with the county's disadvantaged business requirements and to conduct community outreach."  According to the Herald, CWC & Associates was paid approximately $7.1 MILLION from 2000 through 2008.  That is almost a million bucks a year and for what?

Under the terms of the contract, CWC & Associates was directed to bill Corgan twice the amount that they spent on employee wages.  The employee would receive half of the amount and CWC & Associates would get the other half after paying for benefits and the remainder would be profit.  Obviously the less you spend on benefits the more profit you make so I doubt if CWC had 13 paid holidays per year, excellent health care insurance and a matching 401-K plan for their employees.

CWC & Associates allegedly overbilled Corgan (who was reimbursed in full by Miami-Dade County) from March 2000 until October 2001 for three independent contractors who were not employees of CWC & Associates.  The contractors had an agreement with CWC that CWC had no obligation to pay benefits on top of the wages.  The article states that Ms. Curry "falsely certified 33 times that the individuals working for CWC were employees' when they clearly were not.  Ms. Curry and her husband kept and spent the $154,000 obtained through these false certifications" according to a state prosecutor's report.

The state attorney's closeout report states that state prosecutor Scruggs wrote "Curry told prosecutors she knew the contractors were not eligible for the double charge but signed the invoices anyway and 'kept all of the funds obtained from her 'mistake.' " 

However, and unfortunately, senior prosecutors at the State Attorney's Office were unable to agree that they could prove Curry's criminal intent and if they couldn't agree then there was doubt they could convince a jury of her criminal intent.  The investigation was closed out and the SAO will not be prosecuting Curry or CWC & Associates.

My thoughts on this issue:

1.  It is no great wonder that MIA's North Terminal Project is about a BILLION dollars over budget and delayed several years when contractors are forced to hire politically connected minority business firms who will earn great profits from doing little or nothing of value to the actual project.  MIA is deep in debt and bond payments from overpriced projects and it will be a high cost airport for travelers for decades to come.  Think about that the next time your ticket from MIA is $50 to $200 higher than flying out of Ft. Lauderdale's low cost airport.

 2.  "Overseeing the county's disadvantaged business requirements" is really a dubious title and obviously designed to sound important when it really isn't.  Please tell me that a clerk or admin assistant at Corgan couldn't do this job for $10 an hour instead of awarding it to a politically connected black woman and her "consulting firm" at great expense and profits.  

$7.1 MILLION was paid to CWC & Associates - what would a clerk or admin assistant make at $10 an hour for 7 years?  In addition, this contract possibly allowed Curry to suggest minority firms to be sub-contracted, and get kickbacks for the favor, in order for Corgan to be in compliance with the county's disadvantaged business requirements.

3.  "Conduct community outreach" is another dubious title for CWC & Associates' contgract responsibilities.  What community did they outreach to and why would they have to be "outreached" to?  

Maybe I am warped but I can just envision a meeting or two held at the Caleb Center where Curry and/or her husband met with people from that neighborhood to tell them how to form a "disadvantaged business" so they too can bilk the county and the airport by getting a sub-contract on the North Terminal Project.  Was that the "outreach" that was actually accomplished?  Has anyone seen a detailed report of all the "outreach" that CWC & Associates conducted?  If not, why not?  Inquiring minds want to know about all this "outreach!"

4.  Did Curry and CWC Associates reimburse the county for the $154,000 that was overbilled?  The article makes no mention of this issue.  If not, why not?  Is the county just giving money away these days?  Sign me up, I could use some easy money and I'm sure you could too!

5.  If anyone else falsely certifies a legal document 33 or more times and is facing possible prosecution by the state, they should remind the state's prosecutors of this case and suggest to them that it was only a "mistake" and that they could never prove criminal intent.  That should scare them off, har-har.  Obviously the reluctance by State Attorney Rundle to prosecute elected officials and well-known politically connected minority folks is another reason that we have the high level of corruption in this county.  

Since we can't expect much from our state attorney's office based on years of non-performance of their duties, perhaps the federales should look into this case since a lot of federal dollars are contributed to Miami International and any theft from the airport could involve money from federal grants?  I've read of federal prosecutors in other areas of the country filing federal charges against corrupt airport officials for theft, bribery, etc. so why not here? 

6.  And last, but not least, WHY did Mayor Alvarez and County Manager George Burgess (the county) hire Cynthia Curry as a high ranking Assistant County Manager if they knew she falsely claimed employees so that she would get overpaid by $154,000?  

Is this indicative of the level of corruption within the Miami-Dade government?  There are very few counties in this country that would hire someone, especially into a high ranking position, who had over-billed the same county either by mistake or intentionally.  What is the story here?

This whole matter is just one more reason, of many reasons, why the voters of Miami-Dade County should recall Mayor Carlos Alvarez and most of the county commissioners who condone these shenanigans within the county government.

Welcome

October 19, 2010 - welcome to Tird World Miami, a blog I have been thinking about starting for years because many of my friends and I are fed up with all the slimy politicians and corruption in Miami-Dade County.  The Miami Herald only touches the tip of the iceberg when exposing some of the corruption that continues to go on and it deletes readers' comments from online articles that somehow offend someone in power at the Herald.  The Herald even prohibits people from mentioning the last name of the county commissioner representing Northwest Dade County.  This is surely incredible that a major newspaper is afraid of freedom of speech by its subscribers and readers.

I have felt for a long time that a lot of the corruption and waste of taxpayer dollars in our county could have been avoided if we had a top notch local newspaper with high quality investigative reporters digging into county business, contracts and county employee activities.  Unfortunately we only have the Herald and the weekly New Times to protect us and they are just not up to the task based on many years of observations.  Thus I have decided to start the blog to stir things up and hopefully enough other people will like it to make it a success.