FYI Miami: June 25, 2026

NEW COUNTY BORROWING: Miami-Dade commissioners last week authorized in a preliminary vote $380 million in special obligation bond borrowing to acquire capital assets, the largest being almost $100 million for a new detention facility. It’s been two years since the county last issued bonds for special and limited obligations with the principal and interest paid solely from legally available revenues that do not include property taxes. Beyond the detention center, the next-largest expenditures would be $20,165,000 for helicopter replacement for the sheriff’s office and $20 million for radio replacement for the Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.

LOWER STORM FORECAST: Colorado State University researchers downgraded their projections for the hurricane season. Already anticipating a “somewhat below-normal” Atlantic hurricane season when the first forecast came out April 9, the research team now expects strong “El Niño” weather conditions that hamper storms. The school’s forecast now predicts 11 named storms, down from 13 in the April projections. Five storms are forecast to reach hurricane strength, with winds at or above 74 mph, instead of the six predicted earlier. The number of storms reaching major strength – category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater – remained at two. An average storm season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, has 14 to 15 named storms, with seven reaching hurricane strength.

LIMA SISTER CITY: Miami-Dade moved forward toward a sister city link to Lima, Peru, last week as the county commission directed its International Trade Consortium to negotiate the agreement and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to execute it. Sister city agreements are long-term cooperative relationships through which cultural, art, educational, business and technical exchanges can be developed. Fundamental components are business and trade exchanges. The county and individual cities in Miami-Dade have dozens of such agreements.

JURY SIZE TEST: The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Florida’s law on jury size is constitutional. The high court last week agreed to hear the case of a Jupiter-based chiropractor convicted by a six-person jury of five counts of practicing chiropractic medicine with a suspended license. He petitioned the court in January, asking if his Sixth Amendment rights were violated by not being provided a trial by a 12-person jury when charged with a serious felony. Six-person juries are used in criminal cases that don’t involve the death penalty.

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