Miami-Dade County Industry Forum for Doing Business with the County – Johnny Martinez, OCI Director, publicly recognizes ECA for inspiring him with the forum program.

ECA held a meeting with OCI and several county departments in January 2008 when Mr. Martinez was the “new kid on the block”. Johnny had literally been on the job for a matter of hours when he met with our committee. With his vast knowledge from FDOT, he immediately took hold of the reins and saw the need for vast changes within Miami Dade Capital Improvement departments.

Listed below is a summary of questions put forth at the forum by ECA members. ECA suggested that quarterly meetings be held with department directors and staff in order to keep the lines of communication open. Since Mr. Martinez is very familiar with quarterly meetings, he is much inclined to adopt our suggestion. He will get back to us after discussing this with the County Manager as well as the Mayor. (The Mayor and Manager attended the Forum.)

• The contracting process takes too long. The County should look for ways to speed up the process.

What Miami-Dade is doing to accelerate the process:

Ø As part of an economic stimulus program, County departments have identified $700 million in capital projects that could be accelerated if legislative and administrative changes/policies were adopted. The legislative items are expected to be considered by the County Commission this summer and the administrative changes are now under review.

Ø The Board of County Commissioners is considering a proposal to increase the ceiling of the Miscellaneous Construction Contracts (MCC) program from $1 million to $2.5 million. If approved, the MCC would apply to 85% of the construction contracts the County puts out to bid. The MCC allows departments to move forward projects without prior County Commission approval reducing the contracting process timeline. This process allows projects to be awarded by the County Manager administratively and later ratified by the County Commission.

Ø An initiative to change County policy and allow for unsolicited proposals is now under consideration by the County Commission.

Ø A simplified vendor registration process is one of 84 process improvement initiatives that the County’s Procurement Department has undertaken over the past 18 months.

• RFPs need to be simplified. They are too complex and often redundant making it difficult for many companies to respond.

What Miami-Dade is doing to simplify the process:

Ø As part of an economic stimulus package to be considered by the County Commission, the selection process will be streamlined and serve as a model for future procurement of A & E services.

• The payment process takes too long. It takes the County too long to process invoices. What Miami-Dade is doing to streamline the process:

Ø Florida Statutes, Section 218.74 calls for invoices processed within 45 days. To improve on this, departments meeting this goal are now being asked to work towards processing 85% of their invoices within 30 days.

• Contracts vary too much among the County’s capital departments.

What Miami-Dade is doing to standardize the process:

Ø The County has adopted a standardized construction contract and the Office of Capital Improvements is working with departments to implement it countywide. A standardized professional services and design/build contract are also being drafted.

For a complete summary on the Forum, please go to www.miami-dade.gov/CICC/post.

ECA intends to follow up with the County on other issues that have been previously discussed with the County but that were not addressed at the forum. Some of these issues include CSBE goals and the development of a Dispute Resolution Board similar to the make up of the FDOT DRB. (The latter will take the approval of the Board of County Commissioners.)