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Miami-Dade County Business Briefs - July 2006
» Telecommunications contractor MasTec (NYSE-MTZ) has settled a series of class-action lawsuits by shareholders who claimed the Coral Gables-based company overstated financial results in 2003-04.
» A two-month labor dispute between the University of Miami and janitorial contract employees has ended with workers receiving raises of up to 25%, healthcare coverage and an agreement on a union election process.
HOMESTEAD --
» A federal judge in Washington has dismissed a longstanding lawsuit filed by developers whose plans to build a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base were rejected over environmental concerns. The action clears the way for Miami-Dade, which has taken ownership of the surplus property, to propose alternative developments.
MIAMI --
» SFBC International, a Princeton, N.J.-based drug-testing company already facing a congressional probe over allegations of unsafe practices, has announced its will shut down its Miami operation after the county's Unsafe Structures Board cited the company's testing facility for numerous safety violations. The company expects to lay off more than 240 locally.
MIAMI-DADE --
» Despite losing 25 plants in 2005, Miami remains the state's top manufacturing center, edging
out Tampa and Jacksonville, with 49,645 jobs, according to a survey by Illinois-based Manufacturers' News.
» Miami-Dade School District has been named one of five finalists for an annual award given by the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation to the most improved urban school district. Other finalists are Boston, New York City, Bridgeport, Conn., and Jersey City, N.J. Selection criteria include state standardized test scores, SAT scores, graduation rates and other data.
» Miami's drivers are the nation's least courteous, according to a survey sponsored by auto club AutoVantage. Rounding out the rude top five: Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles and Boston. The most courteous: Minneapolis, Minn., Nashville, Tenn., St. Louis, Seattle and Atlanta.
» Miami-Dade County voters will decide Sept. 5 whether the county's 13 commissioners' annual pay should jump from $6,000 to $89,000. The current salary was set in 1957. Similar proposals have been rejected more than half a dozen times, most recently in 2004. But proponents of the measure, including Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, say the stipend discourages qualified candidates and fosters an environment ripe for corruption. Critics say each commissioner's package of expense allowances and other perks -- which can reach upward of $60,000 -- is sufficient.
MONROE COUNTY --
» Legislative review of a proposal to lift the Area of Critical State Concern designation from the Florida Keys has been pushed back to 2009 -- a compromise between Monroe County officials, who are lobbying for more control over development issues, and environmental groups and civic activists, who favor the designation as a way to control growth.
