Hail a two-pronged attack on Miami-Dade government waste

Miami-Dade officials finally seem serious about cutting waste in county government by operating more efficiently.

First, commissioners agreed to have an outside consultant deeply probe one or more departments for waste. 

Then last week, as the dust was settling from that momentous step, a new county committee began its work to look more broadly at county efficiency, four departments at a time.

Both moves generate hope that with the end of the bonanza of federal covid funding for the county, officials can reduce needless spending or provide the public more for its money, or both.

As we wrote when the county first considered paying a consultant a percentage of savings it generates, the trick will not be to find waste and inefficiency but to get government to eliminate it. 

Every commissioner has a pet program or project or – can we say it – employee that for years has been sacrosanct. And the chairman of the new Government Efficiency and Transparency Ad Hoc Committee, Juan Carlos Bermudez, told the first meeting last week that unanimity is needed to get the mayor’s administration to understand that the committee is not only is serious but probably has enough votes to force changes.

“Our goal is to make a difference in the way the county conducts its business,” he said, calling it a “golden opportunity.”

But all is not gold that glitters. It’s not going to be words but wise follow-through that can make a financial and performance dent.

The administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says it’s on board with the concept, although Commissioner Raquel Regalado has often pointed to programs directly under the mayor’s office as waste, calling them pretty programs that don’t accomplish anything and need to disappear.

Mr. Bermudez took a far more conciliatory stance.

The committee’s initials spell out GET, he noted, “But it’s not the gotcha committee.”

“It’s not a criticism of this administration,” Mr. Bermudez said. “It’s just what has been done for so many years.”  

It shouldn’t be just the administration, either. Thirteen commissioners have watched for years as waste and inefficiency were larded through government and they have never until now had the gumption to do something about it. 

We hope they have the courage to act – or else to issue a clean bill of health exonerating the administration after probing departments for inefficiency. Don’t bet on that clean bill.

It’s more than about time to act decisively. “Every day that goes by costs us more money,” Ms. Regalado said. Said Mr. Bermudez, “For a small business, a six-month delay [in county processes] could actually put them out of businesses.”

Mr. Bermudez targeted to begin with a deep dive into four departments that deal directly with the businesses rather than just serve government internally. They are the procurement department, which decides who gets contracts; the small business development operation; Regulatory and Economic Resources permitting; and the Department of Environmental Resources Management.  

Work is to come quickly. Mr. Bermudez told Carladenise Edwards, the county’s chief administrative officer, that he expects the next committee meeting to hear detailed reports from the mayor’s office on three of those departments, with presentations heavily laden with metrics. 

More requests of the administration are due, Mr. Bermudez said. “I think that we’re going to end up meeting probably more than expected.”

The administration’s reports can’t be sugarcoated but must lay out what the mayor’s office sees as needed in each department, Mr. Bermudez said. ‘It can’t be a regular presentation where you tell us everything is beautiful under the sun…. The presentation has to be ‘this is the areas where we have some issues.’”

We’ll take Ms. Edwards at her word when she said “One of the things that happens when you ask us for reports is you force us to look at things…. You can’t possibly know what’s going wrong if you’re not looking at it.”

Absolutely. And between a consultant diving into one department at a time and the efficiency and transparency committee looking at more, if everyone is serious about it we should expect rapid improvements and savings at county hall. A proper look at efficiency has no downside.