County commissioners point out waste – so why not end it?

As Miami-Dade commissioners voted last week to let a company find costs to cut, opponents said that’s a waste because they already know all the money leaks and can plug them. 

So, why haven’t they?

Commissioners control policy and spending. If they know of waste and do nothing about it, isn’t that nonfeasance?

Commissioners can save money if “we take the time to just buckle down and figure out where we want to cut to meet our budgetary demands,” said Keon Hardemon in opposing a consultant to do it. “We haven’t even done the due diligence ourselves.”

“We can do this work,” said Raquel Regalado. “I have faith that we know exactly where the problems are in this government.”

So, who’s stopping them from ending waste? They have the power and they say they have the knowledge of waste and the ability. They didn’t cite barriers. Go ahead and save. They can look at $9 billion of county spending. What are they waiting for? 

The fact is that unless threatened by experts like McKinsey and Company, with which the mayor is to craft a deal, commissioners seem unwilling to trim spending.

“If we can do it we should have done it, and we haven’t done it,” said Kevin Marino Cabrera, who is soon to leave for a federal role. It’s a lot of talk but no action, he said. “Government doesn’t like to cut. Government likes to spend, and the more you give it the more it spends.”

Hence the impetus to seek a consultant in a crunch as new officers independent of the commission and mayor come seeking increases to a budget that was set before they took over. Commissioners hate spending cuts, but they also hate tax hikes. They’re facing either one or both of those menaces. 

So Danielle Cohen Higgins last month moved to seek bids for a firm to comb the county for savings and new revenues. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava asked her to alter course to make it a no-bid deal for McKinsey, which had saved $160 million for the county’s Jackson Health System without loss of a single job. 

Commissioners voted 8-5 to pay Mc-Kinsey via a still-undecided percentage of final savings.

It’s harder for the mayor to cut a good deal in a sole-source contract than in competition as was earlier sought. McKinsey is not the only consultant that can do the job, and perhaps not the best. But the task is not as easy as opponents say, either.

Before the vote, Mr. Hardemon scanned the commission chamber and said several of those watching the meeting could do the job well. Marleine Bastien said the work should go to local small business. Ms. Regalado said finding waste is the job of department heads – equivalent to asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

Ms. Regalado also said outside experts don’t function well at big organizations like the county, and that a committee she’s on could do it. Yet major national consulting firms for decades have made a living finding savings in places bigger than county hall.

One major misconception is that Mc-Kinsey will just make cuts from, as Ms. Regaldo said, a spreadsheet. 

If the firm doesn’t talk with those in a department, watch them in action and compare their work with metrics from across the nation, it won’t net the highest payout because commissioners will never OK a cut and McKinsey won’t share in savings.

Anti-consultant talk also said the firm might aim to drop work that commissioners like. McKinsey’s aim should be to cut spending and add efficiency to what the county wants to accomplish, not to eliminate vital services.

Opponents were right in one regard: no-bid deals are wrong. Good policy is competition, not choosing winners in advance. Other big firms should have competed – but not mom-and-pops that commissioners favor but that lack big-time experience. As Juan Carlos Bermudez said, the county needs a prepared company with what Mr. Cabrera called fresh eyes. 

Those seeking a quick pick rather than a proper process said they had to act fast in a budget crunch, shortcutting policy. But as Oliver Gilbert III pointed out, a budget crunch comes every year, just like Christmas, so why was it suddenly an emergency?

In a way, the selection actually is an emergency – never before have commissioners OK’d an expert to help cut costs, and the slim 8-5 majority could evaporate if they await a year-long process before starting. Mr. Cabrera will be gone then, and so might the majority. 

The process is wrong, but it comes at the right time.

McKinsey will provide no miracle. It will point to efficiencies for commissioners to decide which waste to end and which to protect for whatever reason. But it will never do all that Ms. Regalado rightly said the commission can all by itself.

To achieve savings, Ms. Regalado asked for “a rundown on all the things that are necessary in this county government. I don’t know what the innovations department does” and it still has yielded nothing. “I think that the office of new citizens is adorable. I don’t think it’s a priority…. I think that a lot of the offices that were created after the pandemic are no longer needed. I think that we have a lot of czars and a lot of people that have a lot of opinions and have fascinating social media presences, but I don’t think that we need them. The residents of Miami-Dade County are tightening their belts…”

If Ms. Regalado can get six other commissioners to agree, why aren’t they chopping waste right now? 

Little of what she points to is likely to be in the department that McKinsey probes. That leaves commissioners about 30 departments and offices to dig into and make trims today.

Using a consultant won’t end fiduciary responsibility to use taxes wisely. Those choices are up to commissioners, not McKinsey or anyone else.

Opponents said it would be a waste to pay for savings. But nothing other than lack of political will prevents commissioners from saving anywhere in government right now, before any consultant can get a penny. 

Commissioners talk a great savings game – so play it now or let a consultant probe every department and do it for them. Nobody is trying to cut vital aims, just achieve them better for less.

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