FYI Miami: November 8, 2018

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.

WAGES HERE RISE 3%: Total compensation for private industry workers in South Florida rose 2.7% in the year ended Sept 30 and wages and salaries alone rose 3%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week. Both increases lagged slightly behind the national average gains, the bureau said: total US private industry compensation costs rose 2.9% and wages and salaries rose 3.1%. In the largest metro areas, the highest gains in total compensation were 4.5% in Minneapolis and 4% in San Jose. The largest gains in wages and salaries were 4.7% in Minneapolis and 4.5% in San Jose. The lowest gains in total compensation were 0.7% in Seattle and 1.8% in Atlanta. The lowest gains in wages and salaries were in Boston and Houston, each at 2%.

$50 MILLION FOR TECH HELP: Less than a month after narrowly escaping a subcommittee by a 3-2 vote, an item to establish a new pre-approved pool of third-party information technology consultant companies is scheduled for a full vote by Miami-Dade commissioners today (11/8). If approved, the item would continue county policy of delegating some IT needs of departments to private vendors “when in-house resources are not available” for an additional five years. Xavier Suarez, who with Joe Martinez cast the two “no” votes at an Oct. 17 Infrastructure and Utilities Committee meeting, said departments with expensive recurring costs should allocate funds to such outsourcing rather than passing the expenses on to the county. Before voting to forward the item to a vote today, Jose “Pepe” Diaz amended it to require Chief Information Officer Angel Petisco or a designee to return yearly to commissioners with a report detailing which companies were paid, which departments outsourced IT services, what those services were, an itemization of how much everything cost, and why.

POLICING AUTISM: Miami-Dade police since early 2016 have worked to improve interactions with autistic residents as part of an ongoing initiative in line with a Dec. 1, 2015, resolution sponsored by Commissioner Rebecca Sosa to support the free Wallet Card tool identify teens and adults with autism spectrum disorder and other disabilities. According to an Oct. 31 report from Mayor Carlos Giménez, county police staff met with Coral Gables police, the Disability Independence Group (DIG) and representatives of the University of Miami-Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities for training purposes. Programs included a 15-minute video and brochure to track and disseminate training to new law enforcement agencies, as well as a 10-question quiz on which police needed to score at least 80%. Last month, county police also met with executives to discuss further collaboration on the project.