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BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ AND MICHAEL SALLAH
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com
A week before they were scheduled to sell the bonds on Wall Street, Miami city leaders are postponing a planned bond sale designed to finance a new Florida Marlins stadium parking garage -- though City Manager Pete Hernandez says the city could have gone forward now.
Miami's financial accounting practices were recently harshly criticized by Auditor General Victor Igwe, and The Miami Herald reported last week that the local office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing City Hall.
Neither of those developments were the reason behind the bond sale being postponed, Hernandez said Tuesday. Instead, the city manager said, Miami will wait until February or March to issue the bonds because the city is switching to a different competitive-bidding process for the parking garage.
The city has capped the construction cost of the garage at $94 million, though supplemental costs will likely push the actual total higher.
Hernandez said the new competitive process, which will incorporate construction firms' price estimates as well as qualifications, could save taxpayers money. ``We're trying to get the best possible price,'' Hernandez said.
The manager contended that no cloud hangs over the city's finances at the moment, saying that Igwe's audit highlighted issues that have been previously explored.
Hernandez said he has not been contacted by the SEC. Yet, he said, he believes the agency is merely conducting a routine review of a financial-services firm that has done work for the city. Because of that, he said, Miami's records are also being included in the review.
``If the SEC felt that we had done something wrong, they would be stepping in and trying to stop us from doing additional business, and they haven't,'' Hernandez said.
SEC INQUIRY
However, The Herald reported that the SEC has been specifically examining the city's reporting of its financial condition during bond offerings. The agency has not released its findings.
Hernandez said Miami successfully went to the bond market two weeks ago -- issuing about $65 million in debt for street improvements -- and ``we did quite well.''
Miami's finance team was supportive of issuing the parking garage bonds next week, Hernandez said, but one of the reasons for the change in bidding strategy was the standstill in city government caused by the recent removal of two city commissioners on corruption charges.
FEW COMMISSIONERS
Those arrests left Miami for a time with too few commissioners to even conduct city business. That delay prevented the city from picking its construction manager for the parking garage project, Hernandez said.
With its initial timeline thrown off, Hernandez said Miami looked at other ways of bidding out the project, and ultimately, delayed the bond sale.
mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com
A week before they were scheduled to sell the bonds on Wall Street, Miami city leaders are postponing a planned bond sale designed to finance a new Florida Marlins stadium parking garage -- though City Manager Pete Hernandez says the city could have gone forward now.
Miami's financial accounting practices were recently harshly criticized by Auditor General Victor Igwe, and The Miami Herald reported last week that the local office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing City Hall.
Neither of those developments were the reason behind the bond sale being postponed, Hernandez said Tuesday. Instead, the city manager said, Miami will wait until February or March to issue the bonds because the city is switching to a different competitive-bidding process for the parking garage.
The city has capped the construction cost of the garage at $94 million, though supplemental costs will likely push the actual total higher.
Hernandez said the new competitive process, which will incorporate construction firms' price estimates as well as qualifications, could save taxpayers money. ``We're trying to get the best possible price,'' Hernandez said.
The manager contended that no cloud hangs over the city's finances at the moment, saying that Igwe's audit highlighted issues that have been previously explored.
Hernandez said he has not been contacted by the SEC. Yet, he said, he believes the agency is merely conducting a routine review of a financial-services firm that has done work for the city. Because of that, he said, Miami's records are also being included in the review.
``If the SEC felt that we had done something wrong, they would be stepping in and trying to stop us from doing additional business, and they haven't,'' Hernandez said.
SEC INQUIRY
However, The Herald reported that the SEC has been specifically examining the city's reporting of its financial condition during bond offerings. The agency has not released its findings.
Hernandez said Miami successfully went to the bond market two weeks ago -- issuing about $65 million in debt for street improvements -- and ``we did quite well.''
Miami's finance team was supportive of issuing the parking garage bonds next week, Hernandez said, but one of the reasons for the change in bidding strategy was the standstill in city government caused by the recent removal of two city commissioners on corruption charges.
FEW COMMISSIONERS
Those arrests left Miami for a time with too few commissioners to even conduct city business. That delay prevented the city from picking its construction manager for the parking garage project, Hernandez said.
With its initial timeline thrown off, Hernandez said Miami looked at other ways of bidding out the project, and ultimately, delayed the bond sale.