Miami-Dade commissioners overrule mayor, pick MCM for MIA construction contract

In the first procurement battle between Miami-Dade County’s new mayor and commissioners, MCM emerged as the winner.

The contractor on the fatal 2018 bridge collapse at Florida International University won a key vote Tuesday in retaining a $70 million small-jobs construction contract it has managed at Miami International Airport since 2011. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, elected in November, had recommended an MCM rival get the work once MCM’s contract expires this summer, setting off the first high-profile procurement fight in her administration.

On Tuesday, commissioners sided with MCM on a 9-4 vote, rejecting Levine Cava’s last-minute alternative plan to ditch the bidding process altogether and have airport managers oversee the small jobs themselves.

That option was proposed after county lawyers agreed with an MCM protest of rival Suffolk/NV2A’s bid scores, despite weeks of the Levine Cava administration calling the challenge groundless.

“The administration was convinced they were right,” said Commissioner Keon Hardemon, chairman of the board’s airport committee. “But they were wrong.”

MCM keeps MIA contract and on track for new one

The MCM resolution that passed Tuesday instructs Levine Cava’s staff to negotiate a final five-year contract with the South Miami company, with that deal subject to another round of hearings and commission votes.

Voting against the resolution were Commissioners René Garcia, Joe Martinez, Jean Monestime and Raquel Regalado. Kionne McGhee initially voted against the resolution, then switched his vote to a yes.

Commissioners also approved extending MCM’s time on its current MIA contract, which was set to expire this summer. The resolution allows MCM to continue the work at the airport until commissioners award the new contract.

The vote cemented MCM’s comeback in a county government where the firm has been a reliable donor and mainstay in contracting. Levine Cava didn’t cite the bridge calamity in her initial recommendation to award the contract to Suffolk/NV2A, and commissioners didn’t bring up the matter, either.

MCM executives addressed it briefly in county hearings before the vote, and on Tuesday the firm’s president said afterwards he thought the commission’s decision showed the company was moving beyond the catastrophe.

“It shows we’ve come a long way in terms of rebuilding trust with the community,” said Danny Munilla, president of the family-owned company that went through a bankruptcy reorganization after the bridge collapse.

The vote also brought harsh words from one of the commission’s top critics: Rep. Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs. “It’s absolutely disgraceful and infuriating,” he said in a statement. “The commissioners who voted for approval put their interests ahead of their residents’ public safety.”

A federal investigation of the FIU bridge collapse by the National Transportation Safety Board faulted MCM, Florida’s Transportation Department and FIU for not reacting properly when cracks formed in the bridge constructed over Eighth Street. The report largely faulted the engineering firm on the project, Figg Bridge Engineers, for a faulty design. Six people died in the collapse, and MCM agreed to a $103 million settlement.

The MIA contract uses a general contractor like MCM to farm out minor construction jobs to small businesses that register to be county vendors. Tuesday’s vote was the first day in the COVID-19 pandemic that the commission opened its chambers to public seating, and the front rows of the chambers were filled with MCM subcontractors, Munilla family members and lobbyists from both sides.

Lobbyist fight: ‘We have friends on both sides’

For its bidding fight, MCM lobbyists included Eric Zichella, a leading fund-raiser in commission races; James McQueen, who was chief of staff to Hardemon when he was a Miami commissioner; and Anthony Bustamante, Garcia’s 2020 campaign manager. Suffolk/NV2A’s team included Brian May, also a frequent donor; as well as Michael Llorente and other partners of LSN, one of several lobbying firms that held a March fundraiser for Levine Cava.

The MCM vote followed three hours of discussion, with several commissioners calling themselves exhausted from the multiple conversations with lobbyists leading up to the decision. “We have friends on both sides of this issue,” Garcia said before voting against MCM. “I get it. But it’s not about friends. It’s about process.”

Levine Cava wasn’t in the chambers for the MCM vote, leaving a top deputy, chief operating officer Jimmy Morales, to field questions from commissioners. He said the back-and-forth between the two bidders on who should be ranked first had muddied the waters in what the administration had hoped would be a simple contracting contest.

“Every day, this got murkier and murkier,” he said.

The MCM decision followed a morning session where the mayor saw another MIA contract recommendation rejected by the commission, marking her administration’s most bruising day yet on procurement matters.

The morning loss involved another MIA contract overseeing projects at the airport over 15 years, with the two winning firms set to split $33 million for the work. Levine Cava surprised commissioners in early April when she recommended tossing all of the bids in a process that’s been ensnared in past lobbyist battles after the first request for proposals went out in 2016.

Levine Cava’s April 12 memo said she wanted to start over using new bid criteria emphasizing workforce training, diversity and resiliency. Tossing the bids would also give a second chance at victory for bidders that received lower scores from a county selection panel in December, setting off a lobbying effort by those firms backing Levine Cava’s position.

Miami Dade County Commission versus Levine Cava at MIA

“I don’t think this board has time for subterfuge. That’s what this is,” said Regalado. “The item says one thing, and then behind the scenes we’re told a lot of other things.”

Facing a private and public battle — including newspaper ads touting small-business hiring by the two top-ranked bidders, Hill International and CBRE Heery — Levine Cava backed off, announcing the winning firms had agreed to rework their proposals to reflect her priorities.

A report from the commission’s research arm released Tuesday listed the various county rules already requiring bidders to address the issues Levine Cava cited in her memo, and noted the mayor’s criteria “could be met in various ways” and some could be “negotiated into contracts without having to re-solicit.”

The debate brought some of the tensest exchanges yet between Levine Cava and a commission where six of the 13 seats were filled with newcomers after the November elections.

“Future procurements will look different,” Levine Cava said after returning to the chambers in the middle of the discussion. “Change is not easy.”

Commissioners agreed to Levine Cava’s revised request, which was to have her administration negotiate contracts with Hill and CBRE, a loss for the lower-ranked firms. But the commissioner sponsoring the resolution, Sally Heyman, inserted language directing Levine Cava not to add the new criteria cited in the mayor’s April 12 memo.

“They’re good ideas. I look forward to seeing most of them — in the future,” Heyman said.

This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Miami-Dade commissioners overrule mayor, pick MCM for MIA construction contract."