The politics of CARES Act relief in Miami: Which government gets to give it away?

Miami elected leaders are taking the fight over federal COVID-19 relief funds into the political arena by accusing Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez of using most of $474 million in CARES Act money to boost his profile with voters during his congressional campaign.

Miami commissioners argued that City Hall should be the steward of at least 90 million of those dollars, stoking the flames of a debate raging across Miami-Dade’s local governments: Who gets to give away hundreds of millions of dollars in federal relief in an economy ravaged by the coronavirus — and who gets to reap the political benefits?

“I want to know if this is a political grab bag so that Mayor Gimenez can direct funds to help people that he wants to help,” said Commissioner Joe Carollo, once a close enough ally to Gimenez that he was on the payroll for the county mayor’s 2016 reelection campaign.

Gimenez declined to comment Monday, but he has cast attacks by city leaders on the county’s CARES budget as an effort to siphon off federal dollars already heading for city residents. Miami-Dade commissioners have established a string of relief programs available for residents and businesses in cities and in the more than 40% of the population that lives in unincorporated areas across Miami-Dade.

That includes a $30 million program offering restaurants up to $25,000 for rent and expenses if they’ve been hurt by COVID or had to retrofit their facilities to comply with emergency rules governing social distancing, a recent ban on indoor dining and other changes since the COVID-19 crisis began in the spring. The county’s small business arm began accepting applications for the program Monday.

“Like everything in this country, the need is going to outpace the money,” said Gary Hartfield, director of the county’s Small Business Development Division. “We’re trying to insure they can last past COVID-19 and still be operational.”

The allocations are set to continue Tuesday, when the County Commission considers a $3 million relief fund for hotel workers to join the $10 million fund established for taxi drivers and the $5 million for restaurant workers. Commissioner Eileen Higgins, whose district includes Miami and Miami Beach, is sponsoring the hotel-worker item while running for reelection against Renier Diaz de la Portilla, brother of Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. Hotel unions are backing Higgins.

During a virtual meeting of Miami’s city commission on Monday, Alex Diaz de la Portilla said Gimenez’s plan for spending Miami-Dade’s $474 million share of federal CARES Act funds is fraught with “political slush funds” that will be used to score points with voters as he runs to represent Florida’s 26th Congressional District this fall.

The commissioner questioned the county’s approach to doling out the vast majority of the money, suggesting Gimenez has been obtuse in his dealings with Miami-Dade’s cities because he wants to own the spotlight at a time when federal aid is expected to keep businesses and households afloat. The stream of economic aid from Washington coincides with the Republican county mayor’s attempt to oust Democratic incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell from her seat in Congress.

“I think they want to allocate it to make headlines at a particular time in the political cycle,” Diaz de la Portilla said.

The former state senator took aim at a portion of the county proposal that directs $110 million to business assistance from a small business revolving loan program to restaurant grants and dollars for not-for-profits. The condemnation comes days after mayors from several Miami-Dade cities blasted the county government for proposing to send just $30 million to the county’s 34 municipalities.

Some Miami commissioners want legal action

Diaz de la Portilla’s comments were among the sharpest criticisms offered Monday, though all four commissioners on the video call agreed Miami and other cities were not getting their fair share of federal funds and that cities should be administering local relief programs.

“It’s allowing people’s personal politics to put people’s lives at risk,” said Commissioner Ken Russell, adding that the city’s access to relief funds shouldn’t depend on its relationship with the county or state governments.

Russell and Diaz de la Portilla joined commissioners Keon Hardemon and Carollo in authorizing the city attorney to pursue legal action against any state, federal or local government agencies preventing the city from getting a larger share of federal money. The commissioners also increased the city’s $75.7 million request from the county by $15 million to include more funding for rent and mortgage assistance, utility subsidies, meal distributions and emergency dollars for people facing eviction.

Diaz de la Portilla pushed for the larger allocations.

“Our community is in need right now, and the county mayor fails to realize that the allocated funds to the city of Miami wouldn’t begin to make a dent in the help that our city residents truly need,” Diaz de la Portilla said in a statement after Monday’s vote. “I believe the allocations for all these programs need to be significantly raised to help the people that really need it instead of directing that money to slush funds.”

The embittered debate redraws battle lines in Miami’s political landscape and resurfaces old ones.

Carollo asked City Attorney Victoria Méndez to make public records requests of the county to examine how much the county has spent and how allocations were made.

When Carollo was Miami’s mayor in 2000, he elevated Gimenez from fire chief to city manager. On Monday, the commissioner with a history of bragging about his deal-making skills said he had not witnessed the kind of “arrogance” he saw when Gimenez appeared on television over the weekend and said the county is responsible for properly distributing the money, not the cities.

Suarez vs. Gimenez

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has frequently sparred with Gimenez in recent years and over the course of the pandemic, and several other Miami-Dade mayors joined him last week to say the county mayor misled them about the portion of the CARES Act funds that would go to the cities. Suarez suggested Gimenez convened some unknown group of interests to redraw the county plan, which at one point directed more than $100 million toward the cities.

“They went in a room, secretly, and came up with this new redistribution of categories, which they did not share with the public” before county commissioners saw the plan July 27.

The Gimenez administration said it would use the CARES money to cover local costs for cities that aren’t reimbursed by Washington — a local share that typically amounts to 12%. But the administration is resisting allowing cities to create relief programs that overlap with the county’s aid efforts but limit the help to residents in one municipality.

The county’s initial plan to distribute $135 million of CARES money to cities based on population, a formula Suarez and other mayors are demanding, wouldn’t try to measure how much help the municipalities might need. Aventura, with a population of 38,000, was set to get $3.2 million. Florida City, with only 13,000 residents, would get $1.1 million. Even though Florida City’s poverty rate of 40% is far higher than the 10% in Aventura.

For all of the Miami commission’s bluster about boosting one’s profile with public dollars, political benefits can be reaped by any number of local elected officials who can take credit for delivering help to struggling residents. The string of aid coming out of City Hall since the pandemic has come branded with the faces of each of Miami’s elected officials, from food distribution bags to vouchers. Social media posts of commissioners and Suarez show them masked and gloved handing out supplies.