FYI Miami: July 7, 2022

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

ADDED SCHOOLS TAX: A vote on levying an additional property tax of $1 per $1,000 of taxable value in Miami-Dade for four years for the public schools is likely to appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Miami-Dade commissioners are to vote today (7/7) on placing the county school board’s measure on the general election ballot rather than holding a special election. The added taxes collected would be “for school operational purposes to continue improving compensation for teachers and instructional personnel and to improve school safety and security for public schools, including charter schools, with oversight by a citizen advisory committee beginning July 1. 2023, and ending June 30, 2027,” according to the ballot language. The school board is to pay the election costs. 

HOUSING SUMMIT: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Department of Public Housing and Community Development at the Building Blocks Housing Summit last week announced a new goal of at least 18,000 units of affordable and workforce housing in financial closing by the end of 2023, in addition to the 14,000 already in the pipeline, for a total of 32,000 units to be added to the housing supply. The mayor also announced a partnership with the Miami-Dade County School Board to develop workforce housing projects at three underused school properties that would generate hundreds of additional workforce housing units for teachers. Also, she announced a commitment of up to $100 million from the Healthy Housing Foundation to invest in affordable housing in Miami-Dade.

SPEEDING CONTRACTS: Miami-Dade could cut in half the time to procure goods and services by delegating more authority to the mayor to award larger contracts, says a report that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is to present today (7/7). She recommends increasing the threshold of competitive contracts under her purview from the present $1 million ceiling to $5 million for goods and from $500,000 for services to $5 million. That change would shorten awarding of such contracts from the 412-day average to 200 days, her report says. She also plans a new system. “Under my direction, efforts are on their way for implementation of a countywide software to track timeframes from procurement initiation to award.” Her report replies to a Jan. 19 commission resolution by René Garcia directing a written report on timelines of procurements that use selection committees and the extent they follow county code. Code requires that with 30 days of a committee’s recommendation the mayor’s office must act, but that deadline was missed in 27 of the 69 analyzed selections.