City of Miami discovers 300 vehicles it bought in 2006. And never used.

[Gus Polinski]

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/04/25/h...miami-that-we/

whoops

[TetsuoShima]

haha how the hell does that even happen

[ToucheTurtle]

Florida/10

[dubjager]

Wow.... but one of the main questions for me is how did the tires not go flat.. or how did no one at this parking garage notice these vehicles?

#firstworldproblem

[ThreadBomber]

haha how the hell does that even happen

My thoughts exactly.

How do you buy 300 cars, and then park them somewhere so out of the way you never see them again?

[Fritz27]

I doubt this was an accident. Someone that's friends with someone powerful probably made this deal happen and got a nice little commission for a job well done.

[FourPointOh]

They should send some of those Chargers up here to Boston, so the BPD can stop using 10 year old beat to shi*t crown vics

[8V Fury]

I bet I can get a good deal on one those.

[Jettavr666]

I wish I could say that city governments never have any issues like this, but the complete opposite is true. City governments are notorious for wasteful excessive spending, and then having to deal with it later. This is one of the things I studied in college, and the examples are endless.

[JimmyD]

FYI... it isn't the City of Miami this happened to, it's Miami-Dade County.

[alfafan]

They should send some of those Chargers up here to Boston, so the BPD can stop using 10 year old beat to shi*t crown vics

Why, they'd just be beat to **** after 3 months in Beantown.

[lucalucaluca]

I doubt this was an accident. Someone that's friends with someone powerful probably made this deal happen and got a nice little commission for a job well done.

It happen al lot here in Brazil, the buy a lot of stuff just to pocket some nice commission!!

[JimmyD]

I wish I could say that city governments never have any issues like this, but the complete opposite is true. City governments are notorious for wasteful excessive spending, and then having to deal with it later. This is one of the things I studied in college, and the examples are endless.

I wouldn't necessarily call this specific issue an example of "wasteful excessive spending" as much as it's an example of an incompetent County fleet maintenance tracking system and/or department.

[whitejeep1989]

There is a political movement underway that seeks to have a smaller federal government in exchange for more regional and state level control. This article highlights the fact that even regional level governments are just as prone to wasteful spending and most likely some underlying corruption.

[warren_s]

There is a political movement underway that seeks to have a smaller federal government in exchange for more regional and state level control. This article highlights the fact that even regional level governments are just as prone to wasteful spending and most likely some underlying corruption.

Sure, and you can also find endless examples of theft and corruption in private industry too.

Heck you can go to any big city in the world and find an independent cafe that has some hipster with 20/20 vision who wears glasses, stealing tip money so he can keep up with his PBR addiction.

It's just how people are. Welcome to planet Earth.

[whitejeep1989]

Sure, and you can also find endless examples of theft and corruption in private industry too.

Heck you can go to any big city in the world and find an independent cafe that has some hipster with 20/20 vision who wears glasses, stealing tip money so he can keep up with his PBR addiction.

It's just how people are. Welcome to planet Earth.

No doubt. I'm not surprised at all. I'm just saying that the people who are clamoring for more local and state powers need to realize that local govt. can be just as screwed up as the fed.

[Yo Teach]

Wow.... but one of the main questions for me is how did the tires not go flat.. or how did no one at this parking garage notice these vehicles?

#firstworldproblem

They probably had security people at the garage and perhaps maintenance people who made sure the cars did not decompose (i.e. they kept the tires inflated). I'm sure they were wondering why in the hell all these city cars go unused, but any questions to a supervisor were probably just brushed off with a "Heck if I know. Just keep guarding the garage" and if the question did go any further, it probably got lost in the city's bureaucracy. That's all conjecture on my part, though.

[still_a_G]

I wouldn't necessarily call this specific issue an example of "wasteful excessive spending" as much as it's an example of an incompetent County fleet maintenance tracking system and/or department.

What's your problem? Why don't you come out and just say it?

[Krazee]

I wish I could say that city governments never have any issues like this, but the complete opposite is true. City governments are notorious for wasteful excessive spending, and then having to deal with it later. This is one of the things I studied in college, and the examples are endless.

It's like when the the NY MTA reported a loss, only to open door number 5 and report a surplus, only to realize it was all funny money and report and even higher loss.

[bzcat]

There is a political movement underway that seeks to have a smaller federal government in exchange for more regional and state level control. This article highlights the fact that even regional level governments are just as prone to wasteful spending and most likely some underlying corruption.

Stop the hyperbole. There is no evidence that this is a "wasteful" spending. For all we know, Miami-Dade County could have really used these cars.

[DJMRDARK]

The real kick in the head is that those Prius (plural) likely all have dead battery packs from never getting a charge for 5-6 years. That's an expensive mistake to further compound this wasteful neglect.

Oh Florida...you voted a known criminal in as governor, you provide TCL with countless "point and laugh" situations, and tomorrow you'll surprise us yet again. Winning.

[8V Fury]

No wonder cities say they are going in debt and need to cut stuff. Lets go spend money on stuff, that we never use, make the taxpayers believe we need it and then just pretend we are using. Way to go, wonder why people are getting tired of the state and government saying stuff and spending.

[still_a_G]

Oh Florida...you voted a known criminal in as governor, you provide TCL with countless "point and laugh" situations, and tomorrow you'll surprise us yet again. Winning.

Exactly. Miami (Miami-Dade, whatever, could never tell the difference as a visitor) is still section of a ridiculous red US state.

[whitejeep1989]

Stop the hyperbole. There is no evidence that this is a "wasteful" spending. For all we know, Miami-Dade County could have really used these cars.

Not sure if serious?

If you were to buy ONE car with your own money and then not even care that you haven't used or seen that car since 2006, that was probably not an expenditure that you needed to make.

Spending money on something that you don't need and won't even use is wasteful.

[SHIPARCH]

Google Carlos Alvarez, he's the culprit. BTW, the City of Miami Beach has a few hundred more, they even have some high-tech machinery stored in one of the municipal parking garages.

[AZGolf]

There is a political movement underway that seeks to have a smaller federal government in exchange for more regional and state level control. This article highlights the fact that even regional level governments are just as prone to wasteful spending and most likely some underlying corruption.

The difference is that the federal government is one-size-fits-all (which is really one size fits none) and can print money whenever it wants, devaluing the currency for everyone. If you're in a poorly run city/county/state, you can always move to a different one, and you don't need to worry that they will borrow $5 trillion in 3 years and just print more money.

I agree it's probably just as likely, if not more likely for mid-size governments to make these kinds of mistakes. As in, large enough that no single person knows what's going on, but too small to be able to afford high end oversight like an even larger entity. Still - like I said, at least you can always move to a different city/county/state if you need to and none of those smaller municipalities can get in the same size debt hole as a nation's government, nor do state governments get in the business of printing money*.

*Except California, which calls them IOU's and pretends that makes it ok.

[Old school]

This is Florida, where most of the population can't find their reading glasses. Honest mistake, really.

[welderdood]

Hopefully they will be auctioned off and not crushed......then again its Florida

[bzcat]

Not sure if serious?

If you were to buy ONE car with your own money and then not even care that you haven't used or seen that car since 2006, that was probably not an expenditure that you needed to make.

Spending money on something that you don't need and won't even use is wasteful.

You are missing context just like the rest of us. You don't know if these cars were not needed. There is no evidence of that. Why were these cars purchased? Unless you can answer that, you can't say this was a "wasteful" spending.

The only thing you could say conclusively is that there is incompetence involved. Someone lost track of these cars. But you can't say there were corruption involved as you alluded to in your original post. For all we know, they really needed these cars and ordered them through normal procurement process.

[Volvo_D]

Hopefully they will be auctioned off and not crushed......then again its Florida

who cares? unless you are a ford econoline fan.

[AIRider]

Tax payers. Government's bitch.

[MikeSAABt]

I doubt this was an accident. Someone that's friends with someone powerful probably made this deal happen and got a nice little commission for a job well done.

bingo

CITY OF MIAMI

[vr6swap]

Government funding.

At the end of the fiscal year (or contract), if you haven't spent all the money you were allotted in the budget, you have to return any leftover funds.

So my guess is there was money allocated for the purchase of county-use vehicles. That money was not spent on vehicles within that year, and at the end of the fiscal year some purchasing / aquisitions schmoe was told to make that money disappear before the department had to give it back.

As to how a county gov't lost track of 300 vehicles, can't help you. I do know that management where I work has trouble keeping up with a few dozen.

[Crash6]

The difference is that the federal government is one-size-fits-all (which is really one size fits none) and can print money whenever it wants, devaluing the currency for everyone. If you're in a poorly run city/county/state, you can always move to a different one, and you don't need to worry that they will borrow $5 trillion in 3 years and just print more money.

I agree it's probably just as likely, if not more likely for mid-size governments to make these kinds of mistakes. As in, large enough that no single person knows what's going on, but too small to be able to afford high end oversight like an even larger entity. Still - like I said, at least you can always move to a different city/county/state if you need to and none of those smaller municipalities can get in the same size debt hole as a nation's government, nor do state governments get in the business of printing money*.

*Except California, which calls them IOU's and pretends that makes it ok.

This.

Its a simple matter of scale. No one is saying that local/city governments are better or somehow better managed. Look at Chicago; historically the most politically corrupt city in the country. But its still just Chicago. Chicago doesnt set policy and make money decisions affecting the other 310,000,000 in the U.S.

[pknopp]

I doubt this was an accident. Someone that's friends with someone powerful probably made this deal happen and got a nice little commission for a job well done.

Yep, someone got a nice kickback. They weren't used as they likely weren't needed.