FYI Miami: May 29, 2025

FIU PRESIDENCY ON TAP: The Florida International University Board of Trustees is poised Monday to approve appointing former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez to be the university’s president. She was named interim president in February and was sole finalist this month after a presidential search. Documents posted online for Monday’s trustees meeting indicate she could receive a five-year contract with a $925,000 base salary and annual performance bonuses up to $400,000. If FIU trustees approve her appointment, it would then go to the university system’s Board of Governors for a final sign-off.

NOT POLICE JOBS?: Using public service aides instead of sworn officers at road work sites and possibly other work could net the county big savings and free law enforcement professionals for more vital roles, says a resolution headed to county commissioners June 3. The Government Efficiency and Transparency Committee forwarded Raquel Regalado’s idea without discussion. Public service aides “can be trained to handle tasks that do not require sworn law enforcement to be present,” the resolution notes. If it clears the commission, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava will be asked to pinpoint savings by using civilians instead of deputies at improvement projects, listing the current cost of using officers and potential savings. The mayor would also consider negotiating the fees with Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz for using her aides at such sites. 

FEWER UNSHELTERED HOMELESS: A one-night census found 858 people in Miami-Dade County who were homeless and without shelter for the night, down 17% from a year earlier, a memo from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to county commissioners details. That count by the Homeless Trust on Jan. 23 included 13% fewer unsheltered homeless within the City of Miami, 31% in Miami Beach, 43% fewer in South Dade south of Kendall Drive, and 8% from Kendall Drive north to the Broward County line. On the other hand, the number of homeless persons who were sheltered for the night rose 4% from a year earlier, with over 2,800 people living in temporary settings, the mayor’s memo says.

ARRESTS AREN’T THE REASON: While unsheltered homelessness is down, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote to county commissioners, neither the county nor most of its municipalities are “arresting their way out of homelessness.” According to statistics from the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, 165 arrests within the county were made from Jan. 11 to March 17 related to a new state law.

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