Miami-Dade leaders canceled D.C. trip, then attended Castro indictment. Cost: $32K

On the day the Trump administration announced the indictment of Raúl Castro to a packed house of local political leaders in Miami, Miami-Dade’s mayor and most county commissioners were scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., to lobby for transit funding and other county priorities.

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But the mayor and commissioners ended up attending the May 20 Freedom Tower event anyway, thanks to a last-minute cancellation of the two-night D.C. trip for about 30 people.

The county’s accounting staff said the abrupt change in travel plans came from the office of Anthony Rodriguez, chair of the Board of County Commissioners (BCC). It cost taxpayers about $32,000 in nonrefundable hotel stays, catering expenses and ground transportation costs for a trip that didn’t happen.

“I was just advised by the Office of the Chair that due to potential political unrest associated with an announcement about Cuba, the BCC has cancelled their scheduled trip to Washington, D.C.,” Barbara Galvez, chief administrative officer for the Clerk and Comptroller’s Office, wrote in a May 19 email to staff that was obtained by the Miami Herald through a request for public records. “The airfare will be credited however the rooms reserved through a hotel block will not be eligible for reimbursement.”

Why cancel a county D.C. trip? Worries about ‘civil unrest’ cited

There was no civil unrest tied to the next day’s announcement of a federal indictment for the 95-year-old Cuban leader, which had already made headlines days earlier in the Herald and other news outlets as the Trump administration began to roll out a criminal case with special appeal in the Cuban American stronghold of Miami.

Rodriguez oversees the county lobbying office that plans the annual county trip to Washington, where elected officials and staff meet with members of Congress and federal administrators about grants Miami-Dade hopes to secure from the White House and Capitol Hill.

A spokesperson for Rodriguez downplayed the chair’s role in canceling the trip, saying each elected official was free to continue with their travel plans even after Rodriguez opted to scratch the Washington schedule for himself and his staff.

“He made the decision for his office,” said Roberto Rodriguez, deputy director of the commission’s media office, who shares a last name with the commission chair but is not related to him. “Everyone from the mayor’s office to the commissioners made that decision on their own.”

Rodriguez, the County Commission spokesperson, said a major factor in canceling the trip was the belief that many South Florida congressional members would be in Miami for the Trump administration’s event, too. In the end, the three Republican members from the area, each Cuban American, stayed in D.C. and held their own press event on Capitol Hill. One of Florida’s two senators, Ashley Moody, did make the trip to Miami.

Miami-Dade commissioners, mayor were there for Castro indictment reveal

The scratched annual “DC Fly-In” trip allowed commissioners and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to take their seats at the invitation-only event in downtown Miami’s Freedom Tower, where Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the Castro indictment on murder charges tied to the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue planes. The audience included family members of the men killed in the aircraft attack by Cuban military jets.

On that day, Levine Cava and commissioners were scheduled to be at a working breakfast with county lobbyists at 8:30 a.m. after arriving in D.C. the night before, then five hours of meetings with House and Senate members and staff.

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The next morning, the schedule had two hours blocked off for meetings with representatives from the White House and federal agencies.

Miami-Dade’s plans to expand rail can only work with significant grants from Washington, making transportation a top priority for county lobbyists. for county efforts to prevent beach erosion, improve Miami International Airport, restore coral reefs, reduce flooding, and contribute toward other infrastructure and environmental needs.

To accommodate its delegation for the May lobbying trip, the commission’s Intergovernmental Affairs office in February booked about 30 rooms at the Royal Sonesta on Capitol Hill for May 19 and May 20. The rate was $485 a night, according to expense documentation provided to the Herald through the records request.

A booking list with almost $28,000 worth of rooms included in the expense reports showed nine commissioners with reservations that were canceled — Rodriguez, plus Commissioners Marleine Bastien, Danielle Cohen Higgins, Oliver Gilbert, Roberto Gonzalez, Vicki Lopez, Kionne McGhee, Natalie Milian Orbis and Raquel Regalado.

Also on the canceled rooms list were Levine Cava and two other elected officials: Elections Supervisor Alina Garcia and Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez. Representatives for Fernandez and Garcia said their offices were never charged for any D.C. rooms on the trip, so no refunds were requested.

Canceled county D.C. trip meant no refunds for hotels, catering, vans

Paperwork from a member of the Intergovernmental Affairs office showed the Sonesta charging $27,692 for the rooms in the days after the canceled trip. The Clerk’s Office said a $1,414 catering bill for coffees, sweets and sodas in a break room in the Capitol’s Cannon Building also was not refundable. About $3,000 in transportation costs for passenger vans and drivers had to be written off as well. That adds up to $32,000.

Expense reports filed by county employees for their nonrefundable trip expenses each cited the same statement justifying the incurred costs: “In light of recent news concerning Cuba and the potential for related political unrest, the planned trip to Washington, D.C. was canceled as a precautionary measure.”

Asked why she didn’t go to Washington herself to press the county’s case for federal help, Levine Cava said through a spokesperson there wasn’t much point once the County Commission scratched its trip.

“Once her meetings on Capitol Hill were canceled, there really wasn’t a reason to go,” spokesperson Carlos Suarez said. “The Mayor instead remained in Miami-Dade to be present for a historic moment for our Cuban-American community.”

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