FYI Miami: October 27, 2016
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.
UPGRADING TECHNOLOGY: Mayor Carlos Gimenez is being asked to offer a strategy to modernize, retire or replace all Miami-Dade information technology systems that are no longer supported by the system’s intellectual property owner, no long meet the needs of county operations or are considered obsolete. County commissioners, on a resolution by Juan Zapata, voted 11-0 last week to request a report that looks at opportunities for modernization, improved services and better functionality of the county’s IT systems as well as the strategic report by the end of September 2017. Commission Chair Jean Monestime waived commission rules to allow the vote. Mr. Zapata, who did not run for reelection, is leaving the commission.
CASHLESS COUNTY: Noting that some charges by Miami-Dade County government are still cash-only in an era when $617 billion in cashless transactions will be made nationwide this year, county commissioners last week voted 11-0 to try to give the whole of county government cashless payment options for customers. The resolution asks the mayor to squeeze the cost of the effort into this year’s budget if possible and, if not, put it into next year’s budget.
JOB RECORD, BUT A DROP: Despite the Zika invasion, last month set an all-time high for September jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector in Miami-Dade, an analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. At the same time, the data show, those jobs have declined month by month since June, from 137,300 jobs in June to 136,800 in July, 134,900 in August and 133,700 in September – though still up from last September’s 132,900. The drop in jobs from June to July in the sector is annual, but August almost always registers a bounce-back that never took place this year.
MORE MEXICO AIR LINKS: Mexican low-cost airline Volaris says it will start serving Miami International Airport in February with four weekly flights linking Miami to Guadalajara and daily flight links with Mexico City. Mexico was Miami International’s second-busiest international market with 1.4 million total passengers in 2015, county aviation officials said. The Guadalajara link will be the airport’s sixth within Mexico.
ICELAND, MILAN TOO: Low-cost transatlantic airline WOW is to launch three weekly flight links between Miami International Airport and Iceland in April and Italian airline Meridiana plans to start two weekly flight links with Milan, airport officials announced, bringing to 113 the total airlines serving MIA, most of any US airport.
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