JOE MARTINEZ CARES ABOUT PEOPLE

Thousands of pounds of food given to needy residents at Commissioner Joe A. Martinez’s 6th Annual Easter Festival

More than 62,000 pounds of food was distributed to Miami-Dade residents during Commissioner Joe A. Martinez’s 6th Annual Easter Festival and Food Distribution on Saturday, April 4, 2009. Parents and their children joined the commissioner at Tamiami Lakes Park for the food distribution and a day of fun-filled activities.

The food was given out by non-profit organization Farm Share, which is dedicated to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in the U.S. by recovering fresh and nutritious foods and distributing it to those who need it most. In total, 681 families received food from the organization.

Numerous County departments were also on hand to provide information about their services. The Water and Sewer Department supplied 150 new and high-efficiency showerheads for free to residents who came to exchange their older models. Other departments who were at the event include Miami-Dade Police Department Hammocks Station, Park and Recreation, Solid Waste, Elections, 311, Animal Services, and Community Action Agency.

Additional event partners were The Children’s Trust, Read 2 Succeed, Hispanic Coalition, Borinquen Health Care Center (which provided glucose, blood pressure, and rapid 20 minute HIV tests), CASA, Piag Museum, and Common Ground Conservation. Children were also able to participate in an Easter egg hunt.

“I’m proud to work with Farm Share year after year to provide nutritious foods to families who may otherwise not be able to afford these items on a regular basis,” said Commissioner Martinez.

JOE MARTINEZ AGAINST THE INSANITY

Commissioners OK finance plan for Florida Marlins stadium

BY JACK DOLANjdolan@MiamiHerald.com

Miami-Dade commissioners on Tuesday gave the county manager approval to start borrowing $563 million to help build the Florida Marlins' new stadium in Little Havana.

But the 8-4 vote -- the last required before the county goes to the bond market -- came with tough questions about the financing's blueprint.

At the core of the debate was whether hotel bed taxes, paid mostly by tourists, can be counted on to cover all of the debt.

Some hotel tax revenues were down as much as 22 percent in February from the previous year, noted Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, a stadium financing critic.
If the ''bed taxes'' can't cover the payments, the bond agreements commit the county to pay for shortfalls with money from the general fund -- which also pays for county services like police.

''It's rolling the dice,'' Gimenez said.

County Manager George Burgess, who negotiated the stadium deal with the Marlins on behalf of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, said the general fund money is being offered only to reassure a potentially skittish bond market, and to get a lower interest rate.

Only the non-ad valorem portion of the general fund, like the sales tax revenue, could be tapped. Property tax revenues, which make up about three-quarters of the general fund, can't be used to fund the stadium without a public referendum.

The county has pledged sales tax money to back-up other bond issues -- but never had to dip into it to cover payments, Burgess said.

Supporters of the financing plan, like Commissioner Javier Souto, said they were relying on Burgess' judgment.

Commissioner Katy Sorenson was not persuaded. ''If someone asked me to co-sign a loan, even if they promised they had always paid their other loans back, I would still think twice,'' she said.

Voting for the measures were Commission Chair Dennis Moss, Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz, Natacha Seijas, Barbara Jordan, Dorrin Rolle, Audrey Edmonson, Rebecca Sosa and Souto.

Voting against were Gimenez, Sorenson, Joe Martinez and Sally Heyman.

The county has capped the interest rate it is willing to pay for the majority of the bonds at 7.5 percent.

Not all of the $563 million approved Tuesday would go directly to stadium costs. About $105 million would refinance existing loans for the tennis center on Key Biscayne, the Homestead race track and the old Miami Arena. Refinancing those loans helps free up collateral to borrow the baseball stadium money.

Burgess said if investors demand terms that require the county to tap the general fund, the county will not go through with the deal.

The county has until July 1 to back out of the deal if the terms don't look good.

After that, the county is committed to the proposed $634 million stadium, parking and public works project. The county and Miami are funding slightly more than 80 percent of the costs; the Marlins will contribute $120 million and repay a $35 million county loan.

Other large county construction projects, like the Performing Arts Center and the ongoing airport additions, have a history of overruns.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Martinez thought he saw a harbinger of things to come. A resolution that was supposed to offer $50 million from the county's Building Better Community bonds, actually read $55 million.

Martinez demanded an explanation. One million might be financing costs, offered Assisted County Attorney Gerald Heffernan. But the rest? ''I really don't have an answer for that,'' Heffernan conceded.

Martinez replied: ``Without the bonds even being issued, we already have a $4 million cost overrun.''

The good news for the county: the Marlins are on the hook for stadium overruns.

JOE MARTINEZ FIGHTS FOR THE PEOPLE

Critics, backers disagree on Port of Miami tunnel plans

BY ALFONSO CHARDY

Proponents of the ambitious $1 billion plan to build a tunnel connecting the Port of Miami to the MacArthur Causeway envision an engineering masterpiece that would loosen up the bottleneck of truck traffic plaguing downtown Miami.

Opponents say it's not a masterpiece but a morass in the making.

They cite what they believe are two major problems: the planned entrance and exit ramps are too steep for heavy trucks to negotiate and hazardous materials restrictions would further limit the number of trucks capable of using the tunnel.

Not so, says Gus Pego, the state transportation agency's chief in Miami. He said the inclines have been tested and that hazardous materials restrictions will only affect a small percentage of trucks.

The Miami Herald asked trucking and engineering experts to review tunnel design documents available on the project's website, http://portofmiamitunnel.com/.

Clayton W. Boyce, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, said, ``The 5 percent grade is not a problem. Federal regulations put the maximum slope on the interstate system at 7 percent so that trucks can handle climbing as well as starting on any percent slope below that.''

Matthew D. Ubben, a spokesman for the Florida Trucking Association, said his organization was not aware of any safety issue regarding the tunnel ramps -- and noted that he did not believe trucks would have a problem using the facility.

Moreover, Pego said, the existing Port Boulevard bridge -- which thousands of trucks use every day to reach the port -- has a 5 percent grade incline.

Still, critics say the incline is too steep.

''The short distance and height of the MacArthur Causeway would make the incline entering and exiting the tunnel very steep and therefore dangerous for tractor-trailer trucks with full loads,'' Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez wrote in a recent letter to state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos.

Prohibited hazardous materials, Martinez added, could further reduce the number of trucks using the tunnel. As a result, Martinez wondered: ``How many trucks will not be able to use the tunnel?''

Port officials said that up to 20 percent of the containers that go through the port fall under the broad federal designation of hazardous materials. But they added that the number of trucks that could be excluded from the tunnel would probably be lower than 20 percent because more precise safety guidelines will be prepared in advance of tunnel completion. Slightly more than 6,000 trucks travel to the port on an average daily basis, port officials said.

While the 2007 deal to build the project is now dead, the Florida Department of Transportation last week said it plans to invite new bids from private firms worldwide to build the tunnel. The original design with steep grades is still valid even with the delay and the new bidding process.

Though the tunnel will be open to all traffic, transportation officials are targeting large cargo trucks and tractor trailers, which now clog downtown streets as they move between the port and area expressways. Trucks headed to the port also frequently back up on the Port Boulevard bridge linking the port to Biscayne Boulevard and downtown streets.

Port officials believe the tunnel would provide improved access to the port because it would add the first direct highway connection between area expressways and the port.

Port tunnel critics have raised concerns before.

Last year, Terry Dale, president and chief executive officer of Cruise Lines International Association, wrote a letter to The Miami Herald saying that the cruise industry does not support the tunnel plan because it's too complex and not all questions about it have been answered.

''Does anyone have confidence that we can accomplish this incredible engineering feat despite our history with major construction?'' Dale wrote. ``It strains credibility to suggest that there will be no safety or cost problems.''

As currently envisaged, the tunnel would run under Government Cut's main shipping channel between Watson Island -- which the MacArthur Causeway crisscrosses -- and Dodge Island, where the port is located. It would also cut under the cruise ships' berthing area.

The distance the tunnel would cover is relatively short between the two islands -- less than a mile from portal to portal.

Plans actually call for two tunnels, one carrying traffic to the port and the other from the port -- along separate two-lane ramps. The twin tubes containing the tunnels then would connect to the causeway and Port Boulevard.

WHO IS JOE MARTINEZ?

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe A. Martinez was first elected to represent the residents of District 11 in October 2000 and was re-elected by a wide margin for his third term in August 2008. His commission district is mostly comprised of West Dade's unincorporated areas, which includes portions of Kendall.

Under the current leadership of Chairman Dennis C. Moss, Commissioner Martinez was appointed as Vice Chair of the Budget, Planning, and Sustainability Committee. This committee oversees the County's financial affairs, planning functions, and sustainability efforts, including smart growth and the proper utilization of our natural resources. He also serves as a member of other committees, including Government Operations, and Housing and Community Development.

During the tenure of the last Chairman, Bruno A. Barreiro, Commissioner Martinez was appointed to chair the Budget and Finance Committee and sat on the Governmental Operations and Environment, and the Airport and Tourism Committees.

In November 2004, Commissioner Joe A. Martinez held one of the most powerful positions in Miami-Dade County as chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. He became the first Hispanic elected by his peers to hold this position in the 60 years of Miami-Dade County's governance.

In November 2002, when Commissioner Barbara Carey-Schuler was elected as the chairperson of the Board of County Commissioners, she appointed Commissioner Martinez as the chair of the Public Safety Committee and as a member of the Transportation Committee and Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee.

Beginning June 2001 through September 2002, Miami Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas appointed him as the chair of the Health and Public Safety Committee and he also served as a member of the Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee and the Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee.

Commissioner Martinez began his public service career in 1984 as an officer with the Miami-Dade Police Department. He worked his way up through the ranks, serving as a detective with the General Investigations Unit from 1988 to 1992, and subsequently was promoted to Police Sergeant, Police Master Sergeant and Police Lieutenant.

Commissioner Martinez' 17-year career with the Miami-Dade Police Department was exemplary. He received more than 70 awards and commendations; including two prestigious Gold Medals of Valor, the Silver Medal of Valor, the Exceptional Service Award, and the Lifesaving Award. The Department also honored him with the Officer of the Year Award in 1992 and he was twice recognized as "Officer of the Year" by the Hispanic Police Officers Association.

Additionally, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners honored Martinez by proclaiming July 27, 1993, "Detective Jose Martinez Day" for his bravery during an incident where he put himself in the line of fire to shield a fellow police officer during a narcotics sting operation.

A native of Miami, Commissioner Martinez holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Studies in Public Administration from Barry University in Miami Shores. He is married to Ana Martinez and has 5 children.