Carlos Gimenez Has Family Connections to a County Contractor

A possible conflict has forced Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to sit out the awarding of a $50 million contract to a local construction company that employs his son Julio and uses his other son Carlos Jr. as its lobbyist. Munilla Construction Management submitted the lowest bid out of seven firms...

By Francisco Alvarado

September 23, 2011

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A possible conflict has forced

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to sit out the awarding of a $50

million contract to a local construction company that employs his son

Julio and uses his other son Carlos Jr. as its lobbyist. Munilla

Construction Management submitted the lowest bid out of seven

firms vying to be the general contractor on miscellaneous

construction projects at the county's airports. As Miami-Dade

government's chief executive, Gimenez is supposed to ultimately

decide if MCM gets the deal.

Instead, the mayor has relinquished his authority to preside over the contract to his deputy Jack Osterholt after receiving an ethics opinion on August 31 from Miami-Dade ethics commission Executive Director Robert Meyers:

"If such authority exists then you should delegate this power to another county employee to remove you from the decision-making chain." Meyers also advised Gimenez to have a commissioner recommend the contract's approval before the full county commission.

But MCM probably won't have a problem getting approved. The firm is a regular campaign donor to commissioners' re-election campaigns and regularly wins lucrative multi-million dollar contracts from local government despite engaging in some shifty behavior to pad the amount of money it makes.

mcmschoolboard

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Francisco Alvarado was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Miami, giving him unique insight into the Magic City and all its dark corners. An investigative reporter with a knack for uncovering corruption, Alvarado made his bones as a staff writer at Miami New Times and remains in dogged pursuit of the next juicy story.

Contact: Francisco Alvarado

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Twitter: @thefrankness