FYI Miami: March 28, 2024

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.

REVIVING LIVING WAGE: Although a state bill that would eliminate Miami-Dade’s living wage pay regulations hadn’t yet been acted upon by Gov. Ron DeSantis, county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is already looking for a work-around. “We’re not allowed now to continue with our living wage,” she told the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit on Virginia Key last week. “We’re going to be working on how we fix that.” She did not hint at how she plans to do that. The bill, which also chilled county plans for heat protections for outdoor workers, would block local governments from requiring that their contractors pay workers more than the state’s minimum wage starting in 2026, when the state’s minimum will be $15 per hour. The county’s living wage ordinance now applies to service contracts greater than $100,000 and all service contractors at Miami International Airport.  

CHARTER REVIEW COMING: A 15-member task force is to be appointed next year and begin work Jan. 7 on how Miami-Dade County’s charter should be revamped at a time when new elected constitutional officers by state mandate will split off shares of county government and will not report to either the mayor or county commission. Commissioners agreed last week 13-0 with no discussion of dates or appointment criteria for the charter commission, which is required to review county structure every five years – and it already has been seven years since that was done. Once the charter review task force makes recommendation for changes, the county commission will decide which to put on the ballot for voters to accept or reject.

WELL WIRED: Florida Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly came from Tallahassee last week to speak at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit and took a half day beforehand to dig into programming at Florida International University. He told the summit audience that he had arrived early, at 8:30 a.m., and went for coffee – a colada, new to him. “I’m not sharing with anybody,” he said, tossing away the small cups and drinking it all. A startled FIU President Kenneth Jessel, familiar with the impact of coladas, merely asked him “Are you going to be OK?”   

GETTING A MOVE ON: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the chamber’s economic summit that Miami International Airport is projecting 77 million passengers a year by 2040, up from 53 million last year. Alluding to the airport’s highly publicized issues with moving passengers internally, she reassured the audience “don’t worry, we’ll have the escalators and elevators fixed by then.”