‘Give this a chance’: Key Biscayne softens approach to Rickenbacker bid proposal
Key Biscayne council members frustrated over Miami-Dade County’s plan to let a for-profit company take over the one highway in and out of the island village have softened their tone, agreeing to meet with county officials in an effort to shape the plan as opposed to pushing for a total end to the process.
Many in the village of fewer than 13,000 have expressed concern in the weeks since the county accepted an unsolicited proposal to privatize the Rickenbacker and Venetian causeways, noting the bid triggered confidentiality rules that residents say shut them out of the process.
Some suggested “putting on the war paint and stopping the process,” or asking the village to take an official stance against privatization, income from which would be used to fix the aging Bear Cut Bridge and make other improvements.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration last month issued a formal request for proposals. The mayor can still make changes to the document before she recommends a winner to the Board of County Commissioners, which would vote to award the bid.
“The county is not the enemy in this,” Mayor Mike Davey told residents at a special council meeting held Wednesday night in the Village Council chambers. “But at the end of the day, the unsolicited bid process doesn’t work for this issue. We need an open process that allows for all the stakeholders to have a say.”
The council ultimately decided that it would ask County Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who was present Wednesday, to call a meeting at the Key Biscayne Community Center where county procurement staff could answer questions and hear comments from residents. After that meeting, village leaders would present suggested changes to the proposal to Levine Cava’s office.
“I think the process has just gotten ahead of itself,” Davey told the Miami Herald Thursday. “The RFP sort of forces people into very specific concepts and I think that’s the problem. We want solutions to the problem, and the number one problem is Bearcut Bridge ... and the conflict between vehicular and recreational traffic.”
The cone of silence
Davey added that he doesn’t want the village put “in the cone of silence” as a stakeholder in the process, and that village attorneys are working with the county attorneys to get clarity on how and whether leaders like Davey can meet with the bidders legally. Currently, language in the county solicitation for proposals bans bidders from lobbying “key stakeholders,” including the Village of Key Biscayne, until Levine Cava recommends a winner to the Board of County Commissioners.
The draft solicitation largely meshes with the plan long heralded by architect Bernard Zyscovich, with whom leaders like Davey have met for years. Zyscovich partnered with a private equity group to propose a version of the plan to the county in March. Miami-Dade considered the group’s proposal unsolicited, triggering “a cone of silence” and setting the stage for the county to launch a formal bidding process.
While the actual proposal remains confidential, the county’s request for proposals appears to be modeled after Zyscovich’s well-known “Plan Z” design to convert the Rickenbacker into a friendlier place for cyclists. The $510 million proposal also includes a plan to privatize the residential Venetian Causeway linking Miami and Miami Beach, rejecting objections from Miami Beach leaders to leave their bridges out of the process.
The county, which wouldn’t pay into the project, would turn over tolling revenue to winning bidder for the two causeways that currently generate about $15 million a year.
Not everyone agrees
While the council ultimately agreed to keep the conversation going, not every person on the seven-member body came to the Wednesday meeting with the same idea.
Councilman Ignacio Segurola argued that Key Biscayne is “the only natural guardian of the causeway” and therefore should be considered to be the next caretaker of the Rickenbacker.
Franklin Caplan, a councilman and two-time mayor, said the village has every reason to worry about how a for-profit company could “get this wrong.”
Residents who spoke Wednesday urged council members to “kill the plan” or “stop the process in any way we can.”
“In the RFP, they made Key Biscayne a stakeholder…. It muzzled us and takes away our opportunity to say anything,” said onetime council candidate and resident Louisa Conway. “It is a veiled process and in order for Key Biscayne to take charge, we need to kill this plan.”
Regalado, who appeared via Zoom, tried to pacify residents by explaining that even if the county enters into an interim agreement at the end of the bid process, the county can cancel the bid or let it lapse during the first 18 months. She also explained that the county commission has the ultimate say in what happens to the causeway.
“I understand the frustration. I know that the county has never been a good partner to Key Biscayne. I agree that this is not the best way to solve an infrastructure problem. Unsolicited proposals are not ideal,” she said. “I don’t think we should put on our war paint ... Please give this a chance. You have a partner in me at the county, and I will lobby the commissioners to understand that this is not only important to you, but crucial to your survival. “