FL County Purchases Hundreds of New Cars…Then Abandons Them for Years in Parking Garage
- Posted on May 2, 2012 at 2:48pm by
Becket Adams
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Florida’s Miami-Dade County spent $4 million buying approximately 300 vehicles between 2006 and 2007 and then “abandoned” them in a county parking garage, according to a local investigative report.
Most of the forgotten fleet were “clean” energy Toyota Priuses.
Just a few of the vehicles in Miami-Dade that have been sitting idle for 5+ years. Photo: Roberto Koltun /El Nuevo Herald
The 293 “rusty” vehicles were discovered last October by the News America newscast Channel 41 in Miami. The station spent the next eight months investigating what they found.
“Once officials in Miami-Dade County discovered the station’s investigation, they rushed to put as many vehicles as possible into the active fleet. Since the end of last year, between 123 and 135 Priuses have entered county service,” Autominded reports.
But here’s the kicker: “Toyota introduced the third-generation of the Prius in 2009, so by the time these second-gen cars were hitting the Miami streets, even Toyota had moved on.”
Needless to say, the story has grown into bit of a political scandal. Joe Martinez, Miami-Dade County Commissioner, announced last week the creation of a committee to investigate possible mismanagement and corruption, Enrique Flor reports in El Nuevo Herald.
“It’s outrageous,” said Martinez. “These new vehicles were bought out of control package and were stationed in a building for years. This is not the first time it happens. So you have to investigate this case and determine exactly what happened so it does not happen again. ”
Lester Sola, the Director of Corporate Services, told the Herald that 135 Priuses were purchased to replace vehicles at various County departments that had “recorded more than 130,000 miles of travel.”
The county bought 135 new Priuses to replace cars with over 130,000 miles?
130K miles? Shouldn’t car last a little longer than that? The
above ‘91 Tercel pushed 195K.
“We are making every effort to use these vehicles as soon as possible and reduce costs to taxpayers,” Sola told the Herald. “We are in the process of assigning these vehicles are in the building departments require.”
Sola assures reporters that most of the unused vehicles are under warranty. But as far as the Priuses are concerned, Autominded doesn’t think that claim is entirely accurate.
“They all have sat out their entire factory-backed 3 year/36,000 mile basic warranty, and the 2006-2007 cars are coming to the end of their 5 year/60,000 mile drivetrain warranty,” the site explains.
“It is likely that five years of zero use and south Florida heat has had some negative effects on the hybrid battery drivetrain. Lucky for Miami-Dade, Toyota covers the hybrid components for 8 years/80,000 miles,” it adds.
And Chris Tutor of Autoblog makes this point: “We’re also not sure what that much time in Miami heat and humidity does to an unused hybrid powertrain, but it can’t be good.”
Simply put, the county may have seriously messed up on this one. How did this happen?
Some of the county’s patrols cars have been in a garage for 5+ years. Photo courtesy of Channel 41.
“The leading theory is that [the fleet purchase] might be part of Carlos Alvarez’s time as mayor. He was the mayor during the period the Toyotas were purchased, but a 2011 recall election successfully removed him from office,” Tutor writes.
Apparently, voters “felt, among other reasons, that he had been behind multiple acts of misappropriation of funds,” he adds.
But according to an official explanation from Miami-Dade County officials, “the vehicles were ordered right before a program was implemented to reduce the size and expand the usable time the Miami-Dade’s fleet,” Autominded reports.
“The result was as many as 1,200 vehicles stored in the garage at one time, including 203 new 2007 Toyota Priuses,” the report adds.
It continues:
151 Prius hybrids were left in storage in 2008. The number went down to 149 in 2009 and 131 in 2010. By the time Burgess gave his report in June 2010, almost half of the Priuses were in service with 103 remaining in storage.
These numbers were part of an official report that county commissioners specifically requested two years ago about the new cars that were stored and unused.
…
According to the investigation, the final tally today is 157 vehicles in storage. Of those, 57 are used to transport children for summer recreational programs, and 66 belong to the police. The number of unused Priuses is finally down to a handful.
“[P]ossibly as little as four or five are still waiting to see their first glimpse of the Miami sunshine,” Autominded adds.
For the taxpayers’ sake, let’s hope that new report is accurate.
Photo courtesy of Channel 41.
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Comments (123)
John 1776
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:19pm1/2 of 150 is 75.
So how are 1/2 of them in use if 103 are still in storage?
Oh yea… Government math!
Report Post »drphil69
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 6:33pm“almost” half…. heck they could have just said “almost” all of them…
yes, govt math… inflation is only 2% (so why is ground beef $6.99 lb?!)… unemployment is only 8.2% (why are 60 million unemployed?)… and the rich aren’t paying their fair share….
And lets not forget the “draconian cuts” in Paul Ryan’s budget (there are no cuts, spending goes up EVERY YEAR).
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 6:46pmThe problem is these county workers probably refused to drive a Pries. Only Q ueers and tree huggers will drive one of these. My sister – a tree hugger has a regular Pries and it is so underpowered that she has to turn the AC off on steep hills, and then she can make it to the top with the gas peddel to the floor.
Report Post »firstamend
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 9:33pmThere were 203 in storage in 2007, which dropped to 103 in storage by June 2010.. I know! Reading is hard!
Report Post »do_it_all_again
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 12:00amits all about agenda 21 and sustainability :
“City of Miami Climate Action Plan” see pgs 30 – 31 about vehicles:
http://www.miamigov.com/msi/pages/Climate%20Action/MiPlan%20Final%20062608.pdf
Miami – Dade “Sustainability – Related Legislation:
Report Post »http://www.miamidade.gov/greenprint/planning/library/resolutions.pdf
geminimoon
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 5:17amThe storey reads: “including 203 new 2007 Toyota Priuses,” the report adds.
It continues:
151 Prius hybrids were left in storage in 2008. The number went down to 149 in 2009 and 131 in 2010. By the time Burgess gave his report in June 2010, almost half of the Priuses were in service with 103 remaining in storage.
—————
So, if there were 203 to begin with and 103 remain in storage then 100 of them are in use, or roughly half…
Someone should have payed a little more attention in reading comphrension and math class…
Report Post »drbage
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:02amBesides the voodoo math to go along with the voodoo economics, think just how many cities and counties throughout the country probably has the same situation or worse. And then there is the federal government, where last week it was revealed that the DOE has almost one vehicle for every employee! Really, is that a new government “right” that we, the taxpayers will supply you with a car, pay for its gas and repair?
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:41am…and this was purchased with [NOT THEIR MONEY]….wonder if this was a fed-govt-grant, cause of all the hybrids?? Now [ALL] non-hybrid breakdowns on the hybrids will be paid by the taxpayer. AND ALL THE REPAIRS[no warrantee] on ALL the other vehicles WILL BE PAID BY THE TAXPAYERS!! Sounds like a progressive necessary plan…to me! One more O’BS plan to help crash Florida.
Report Post »mbean
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:17pmObama Biden clean energy at work, just leave them in the garage and voila no pollution.:)
“Possible Corruption” Ya Think!
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:48amAnd this is why Prius’ ar “selling” so well…THE GOVERNMENT IS BUYING THEM ALL…AND STORING THEM…THEN “FIND” THEM YEARS LATER AND HAVE TO CHARGE THE TAXPAYER EVEN MORE…FOR ALL THE REPAIRS(out of warrantee, necessarilly) ! How many hundreds of every-year-of-Prius’ are “stored” in every state of the USA??
Report Post »felix
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:01pmdemothug run county ??????
Report Post »Mister July
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:37pmI live in Miami. Carlos Alvarez was a RINO county mayor (formerly chief of police) who was successfully recalled thanks, in no small part, to the efforts of a fellow named Norman Braman. Kudos to him for helping county residents dodge the proverbial bullet that would have been the remainder of Carlos Alvarez’ term.
Report Post »pap pap
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:53pmLooks like this was only good for Toyota.
Report Post »mils
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:44pmprobably a “connected” brother in law or such…got the commission on the buy…
Report Post »colt1860
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:50pmMost likely the city bought the cars to make it look like Toyota was actually selling these cars. Thus, giving the illusion that Obama and the Left’s green initiative was doing well. This is corruption at the core. I see no other reason why they would buy that many.
Report Post »pavnvet
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 6:09pmI doubt there was a lot of commission paid. Government fleet sales are usually without a lot of profit to the dealer that sold them. (Toyota, like GM Ford and Chrysler fleet are sold through a dealership) Normally there is a bid put out and it is a dog eat dog competition with very slim margins to the winner of the bid. However, it would be worth investigating what the contract called for and who was the winning bidder.
Report Post »Chrison
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 2:37am@COLT1869: The cars were bought in 2006-2007, before Obama/Biden took office. So, I don’t see how the motive could be to make their green initiative look good.
This is probably just your garden-variety government wasteful spending, but they definitely should investigate whether any hanky-panky took place, such as kickbacks or bribes.
Report Post »VinnieSquawker
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 10:35amWell, this is the way it worked in the good, old USSR. So now we have the same here in the USSA. Just make sure the numbers hit the target.
Report Post »Larry E
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:46pmWhy should the county be careful with the taxpayer’s money, nobody else is? This is about the dumbest, most incompetent thing I’ve ever heard of a local government doing. The feds yes, but most local governments get caught much sooner than this and those responsible get to look for new jobs.
Disgusting.
Report Post »mils
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:52pmblame the previous gov/adm…
Report Post »there is a record of all these cars somewhere that someone knew about..the gov did not purchase these things himself and let them sit..there is a chain of command. there is paperwork sitting in some cabinet somewhere…that someone didn’t want to deal with..i
t’s not a “we didn‘t have anything to do with it’…“we inherited this mystery”…bs
how do you hide this many cars and no one pays attention!!!!??
Therightsofbilly
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:24pmHey JZS,
Raise my taxes……..Preeeuz
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 10:20pmAll Governments use misappropriation of funds it’s the new way of doing things it all goes to general funds.
Report Post »R4M0N
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:43pm5 years sitting in a building also voids the warranty because they were not taken out for regular scheduled maintenance. No scheduled maintenance = void warranty for the components that would have been serviced.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:35pmAnd people wonder why we b!tch about government hogs bleeding us dry,the only people not complaining about government waste are the other hogs feeding at the trough.
Report Post »psychokittis
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 10:50pmAmento that. You’re preaching to the choir. Evem liberals can’t spin this one without coming across as complete dolts.
Report Post »It makes one wonder how many more specific examples of this kind of taxpayer abuse can be found nation wide.
It also makes me doubt any statement of governments being broke and needing to raise taxes.
Individualism
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:29pmmaybe you can buy them for a good deal if they don’t want them.
Report Post »contkmi
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:22pmYes, but who wants a Prius? Especially a Prius that hasn’t been used or maintained?
Report Post »neidermeyer
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:46pmI’ll take a hemi Charger police car with 0 miles Please…
Report Post »TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:27pmThese darn state and federal governments rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic are about as embicile as they come, what gives?
Report Post »noleftturn
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:26pm…. it gave the UAW a lot of useless work to do at tax payer expense. It’s the Obama way!
Report Post »scuba13
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:34pmToyota is a non-union shop, so why are you blaming the UAW?
Report Post »noleftturn
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:29pm…. vans shown are Fords, Sheriff cars look like Cryslers.
Report Post »scuba13
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 6:22pmThe story doesn’t mention Fords or Chrysler.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 9:14pmfor someone who only reads books with pictures, scuba sure is going out of his way to ignore the pictures included in the story
Report Post »ROMANS 10-9
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:25pm.
No Excuses
for walking past them
for 5 years.
Fire the Accountant,
Fire the Department heads
who overlooked them on their reports
each month.
…and I promise there are one or two at home.
Report Post »Zoe
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:00pmThe will realize it after they return from English 101 …. Excuse me, even I had to pass i !
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 11:54amThese people must be fired…but theyshould payfor all un-done-maintainance and such for laas the “storred” vehicles…out of their own-private accounts…if they can’t afford it…sell their houses and their vehicles to pay for their negligence…they didn’t just “forget”.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:25pmSounds like somebody’s brother in law owns a car dealership. Obvious what happened here. Follow the money.
Report Post »GeorgieJo
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:57pmALOT of trucks were shipped to HAITI when they had their earthquake……MOST sat in shipping area because Haitian govt wouldn’t release them.
Report Post »and Slick Billy says he did so much for Haiti….LOSER!!!!
Pokerjoe
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 7:08pmHell yes go with the money,then you will find out who got the best deal.
Report Post »Razlord
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:21pmdam glad i quit paying taxes back in 2001…
2.1 trillion m issing 9/10.
your taxes go to the banks…everything else is borrowd.
Report Post »Cat
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 10:53pmRaz >
With ya on this one …
Report Post »Most government is becoming outright thievery.
We’re being manipulated into poverty by clever wordsmiths who believe all they have to do is say;
“It’s the law, obey the law, or pay the consequences.”
We need about 15 million more taxpayers to wake the hell up and force the jackasses out of our lives.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:21pmSo, instead of storing them, why don’t they rotate their inventory, pull some of the new ones out, store some of the old ones, yeah, store the excess inventory……..
Wait, if they have so many cars that they have to store 500 cars….why don’t they sell the older ones, and use the new ones. Then, only buy cars when you have to replace some. Duh, that makes sense. Or maybe they heard Becks pitch about food storage and they thought he meant “Car” storage. That’s it, they were just preparing for the Zombie Apocolypse, the problem is a Zombie can outrun a Prius.
Report Post »downhillmike
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 5:56pmIt’s been my experience that all government organizations can be fit into one or more of the following categories: incompetent, corrupt, or no accountability. If this were a company, it would have never have happened since they are accountable for the money they spend and the equipment they get, and even if it did happen, heads would roll! Since this is a government organization, there’s no surprise that nobody had accountablity, someone was incompetent, and several were corrupt! Follow the money and you’ll find the culprit(s). Good luck getting rid of them since the government workers all defend and protect each other, not the public and their funds!
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 6:33pmNot all Govt workers are like that, I work for the DoD and I do think of myself as a stewart of the publics money. That is why I get so mad at these stories. Who ever is responsible should be fired. End of story.
Report Post »Better Dead Than Red
Posted on May 3, 2012 at 9:41amDownHill, so which category does the military go into?
Report Post »DebbieA.
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:21pmI would like to purchase one of these Prius if they are not going to use them all.
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:18pmThis is from their web sight: “We live in one of America’s most unique and vulnerable communities. The County’s focus is to achieve aggressive climate change, water conservation, energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals…” I guess their real green goal is to spend Green Money wastefully.
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:29pmThink about how much money they saved by not running these cars. Major expense savings. Someone should get promoted. Good job.
I know now why I will never live in Florida.
Report Post »crypticguise
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:16pmNo one ever goes to jail for things like this? Is it possible that someone got a HUGE KICKBACK for purchasing hundreds of automobiles they didn’t need?
Report Post »BATluvs3
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:24pmThe Mayor was recalled but not for this reason.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:26pmPossible ??? Probable! And not just these … look into what has been purchased with fed money by Obama Administration .. I would call this tip of ice berg .. waste waste waste. Maybe they can sell some of the vans to homeless people to live in .. you know people who couldn’t afford their PROPERTY TAXES and insurance anymore. I am so sick of this garbage. Someone needs to go to JAIL!
Report Post »ICEDRAGONNITE
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:12pmAnd what do our outstanding bureaucratic’s do for and encore?
Report Post »BannedByHuffpo
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:12pmMiami-Dade?
I’d question Horatio and his crack team of CSIs about this except I usually see them driving Hummers. Horatio probably has a warehouse full of unused sunglasses though.
Report Post »hereandnow
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:10pmPrecisely why “Big Government” does not work!
Report Post »forthepeople
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:03pmName names ? Let’s start ( Donald ) Trump’ ing them ! You’re Fired !
Report Post »grudgywoof
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:02pmStupid ass government BS! I’m so sick of this crap!
Report Post »Living In NYC
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:02pmTypical government waste and miss-management! I recently read the DOE almost has one vehicle per employee in the agency! Don‘t forget Harry Ried hasn’t done a budget for three years…I bet we have plenty of waste sitting and rotting in government warehouses and garages!
Geez and thesw government fools wants to manage my healthcare,,..if I need an asprin it will cost the same as a heart transplant!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:01pmBush Progressives are just as Evil as Liberals & Radicals!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 2:54pmIt’s fun wasting money…when it’s not your money, right boys?
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 3:13pmThis government disrespects us and the constitution daily,there‘s a remedy for this problem and it’s found in the declaration of independence.
Report Post »Zoe
Posted on May 2, 2012 at 4:58pmI do business with all the counties in Florida
Miami-Dade has the highest fees.
That’s being nice ;)
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