Reports would include data on no-bid contracts

Three days after he was sworn in earlier this month, new Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo sent a couple of memos to all the commissioners and several staffers telling them this is his show now and we’re doing things a little differently.

Not because he flagrantly doled out committee chairs to his pals. Everybody new chairman does that. Ah, tradition.

No, Bovo set the tone with what seem like some relevant changes that would better inform the commission and the public before decisions are made, increase transparency on no-bid contracts and waivers and reform the county auditor’s office — which is so clueless, it failed to catch and report the garage full of parked, unused hybrid county vehicles, the Frost Museum emergency, the special taxing district fiasco and the scam at the airport involving the light fixtures.

Read related story: Miami-Dade special taxing districts = free-for-all shell game?

In fact, no one can remember a single audit in more than a decade that has exposed any major errors (and there have been many) or led to any change in policy. Because they get all their information from the administatrion, the Office of Commission Auditor  just regurgitates whatever Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his top cronies say. The auditor’s reports mirror those from the Gimenez administration. This from a department that costs $2.5 million in taxpayer funds.

Bovo talked about making changes when he was sworn in Jan. 9, about wanting the auditor to have more teeth and provide the commission with more tools to do the job. Three days later, he sent a memo that indicates his desire to expand the office of the auditor’s analytical role and have them prepare legislative reports with historical data that would be due by 5 p.m. the day before any committee meeting — beginning next month.

These reports would include:

• An overview of legislative items assigned to each committee
• A detailed analysis of items that involved the expenditure of county funds or that have been identified by the mayor’s office as having a fiscal impact
• A detailed analysis of proposed county contract awards and requests to reject all bids
• A detailed analysis of mayoral requests for bid waivers and legacy contracts (which is another way to say bid waiver)
• A legislative history and relevant contextual information pertinent to legislative items appearing on a committee agenda
• Information requested by the committee

Pay particular attention to the third and fourth bullet. Because while Bovo and Gimenez are pals and allies, this could signal that Bovo is not necessarily going to rubberstamp all the mayor’s gifts to those on his friends and family plan. Asking for a detailed analysis, or list, of bid waivers and legacy (or no-bid) contracts and requests to reject all bids may also send a message to the mayor: Stop doing that.

Bovo should add “emergency purchase orders” to the list, like the $1 million “emergency purchase agreement” with Crystal Mover Services on Tuesday’s agenda, to extend their services, operating and maintaining the people mover at MIA’s north terminal, for 60 days.

In other words Bovo’s changes come late and Ladra, for one, can’t wait to see the first of these reports.

Read related story: New Miami-Dade committee structure — winners and losers

Not everyone is convinced, though. Former Commissioner Juan Zapata, who long railed against the lack of information from the auditor’s office, tweeted the day after Bovo’s swearing-in, to say that the idea was lofty.

“Moving audit staff to committees wont work. Info & systems controlled by admin. They love to play games. #lackoftransparency,” he tweeted on Jan. 10. When Ladra pressed for more details, Zap sent a text.

“Auditor’s office is not staffed to be able to deal with that task and the commission has no independent source of info,” he wrote. “All sources controlled by the administation,” he wrote. “I had legislation that would have eliminated the requirement that commission auditor be a CPA. It needs to be an analyst and the office should be about government performance, not chasing info that never gets acted upon.”

Others warned that the current employees in the office don’t have the skill set for legislative analysis. Basically they just add and subtract.

Bovo did not return calls and text messages. But his legislative aide, Alex Annunziato, whose own profile is considerably elevated now (and who should be chief of staff), told Ladra that all but two of the 20 positions in the auditor’s office are for accountants. But that could change. Vacancies could be filled by people with more of a legislative background.

“It ought to resemble more an auditor at the state level… An independent, investigative function,” Annunziato said.  “They should provide historical analysis and data so the commission doesn’t have to solely rely on the administration’s information.”

An auditor that is truly independent. Imagine that.

Another less dramatic change Bovo is making is to the commission staff briefings.

Aides used to meet on Fridays before a commission meeting with the preliminary agenda and go over their respective boss’ items one by one, but offered very little backup material. Basically they read the title of each item tomando cafe y hechandose fresco. Bovo moved the meetings to 1:30 p.m. Monday or the day before the commission meeting, which is when the agenda closes and there are no more changes. He will also require commission aides and/or departmental personnel to really work for the item if there is a cost associated with it.

“You have to come down and you have to be able to justify the expense,” Annunziato said.

“We want to sit down and rehearse the meeting, see what items we can dispense with first that will get as many people from the public, who have taken time out of their day to speak, back to work as soon as possible,” Annunziato told Ladra Friday.

Items that are more controversial or complex will be taken earlier, “when people are still fresh,” Annunziato added. “We’re going to have a script.”

That’s going to be welome news to the activists who are used to being made wait hours and hours, right Michael Rosenberg?