Miami Herald - Related Group

Cropped page
The Miami Herald, 2016-05-04
TROPICAL LIFE
BUSINESS
Mother’s Day
recipes that are
easy and fun
for kids 1C
WEDNESDAY MAY 4 2016
$1
VOLUME 113, No. 233
STAY CONNECTED MIAMIHERALD.COM
Page: 1A
What Miami
cruise-goers did
to clear Cuban
security 7A
FACEBOOK.COM/MIAMIHERALD
TWITTER.COM/MIAMIHERALD
WINNER OF 20
PULITZER PRIZES
Passing storms
87°/ 74° See 12B
H1*
CAMPAIGN 2016
TRANSPORTATION
Trump
virtually
clinches
GOP’s
nod for
president
COUNTY VOTES
TO LEGALIZE UBER
After a three-year push,
Uber and Lyft have won
legalization of their
ride-hailing services in
Miami-Dade County. 4A
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ted Cruz’s exit from the
presidential race removed the
last major obstacle for Donald
Trump’s path to nomination
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bernie Sanders beat Hillary
Clinton in the Indiana
Democratic race, but that won’t
slow her momentum
SPORTS
SHULA TREATED
IN HOSPITAL
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BY JULIE PACE AND SCOTT BAUER
The Associated Press
THRILL TO THE END
FRANK GUNN AP
INDIANAPOLIS
In a stunning triumph for a
political outsider, Donald
Trump all but clinched the
Republican presidential nomination Tuesday with a resounding victory in Indiana that
knocked rival Ted Cruz out of
the race and
cleared Trump’s
path to a likely
November faceoff with Democratic frontrunner Hillary
Clinton.
Cruz
Trump still
needs about 200
delegates to
formally secure
the nomination,
but Cruz’s decision to end his
campaign removed his last
major obstacle.
Trump
“Ted Cruz — I
don’t know if he
likes me or he doesn’t like me
— but he is one hell of a competitor,” Trump said of his last
fierce competitor whom he had
dubbed “lyin’ Ted.” Trump, in
a victory speech that was much
lower-key than usual, promised
victory in November, vowing
anew to put “America first.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
eked out a victory over Clinton
in Indiana, but the outcome
will not slow the former secretary of state’s march to the
Democratic nomination. Heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.
Clinton and Trump now
plunge into a six-month battle
for the presidency, with the
future of America’s immigration laws, healthcare system
and military posture around the
world at stake. While Clinton
heads into the general election
with significant advantages
with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to
not underestimate Trump as
SEE CAMPAIGN, 2A
TOP STORIES
STAY CONNECTED
Legendary Dolphins coach
Don Shula has been
hospitalized because of
fluid retention and sleep
apnea, his wife says. 6B
The Heat's Dwyane Wade pushes past the Raptors’ Kyle Lowry during the first half of Game 1 of their
second-round playoff series on Tuesday night in Toronto. The Raptors were able to force the game
into overtime with a buzzer-beating three-pointer, leaving the score 90-90 at the end of regulation.
The Heat were able to hold on and eventually seal a 102-96 victory and will next face the Raptors in
Game 2 Thursday in Toronto. For full coverage, visit miamiherald.com.
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Report on teen death at Dade
lockup cites multiple lapses
. .................................................................
Police weren’t alerted to
beatdown until youth had died
. .................................................................
12 staffers have been fired or
disciplined; criminal probe
ongoing
. .................................................................
The Department of Juvenile
Justice says it is implementing
changes
. .................................................................
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]
It took a full day for the top
medical official on duty at Miami’s juvenile lockup to read the
“sick call” report on Elord Revolte, a 17-year-old who said he
had been “stomped in his
chest” during an Aug. 30 beatdown by more than a dozen
detainees.
By then, it was too late.
“No intervention was needed,” the nurse manager explained to investigators, “as the
youth had already passed
away.”
Elord, who wasn’t taken to
the hospital until just under 24
hours after the beating, became
the second child to die in the
custody of state juvenile justice
administrators last year. He was
the fourth to die since the Department of Juvenile Justice, in
the wake of a horrific 2003
death at the Miami detention
center,
pledged that
its officers
would “treat
every child as
if he were
[their] own.”
Late Monday, DJJ administrators
Elord Revolte
released to the
Miami Herald
a 66-page inspector general
report on Elord’s death. The
report concluded that a dozen
detention center employees —
from front-line officers to the
126-bed lockup’s assistant superintendent — violated agency
rules and procedures in the
hours leading up to Elord’s
death. Five employees have
resigned or been fired, and
another seven were later reprimanded.
“The Florida Department of
Juvenile Justice’s primary focus
is to ensure the safety and secu-
rity of all youths in our care,
and our entire staff was saddened by the very sudden and
tragic death of Elord Revolte,”
Secretary Christina Daly said in
a prepared statement.
Daly said she will hold everyone — DJJ staffers and those
with private providers — accountable when lapses in judgment or performance harm
juvenile detainees. “It is my
expectation of everyone who
works with every child in our
system that they treat that child
as they would want their child
treated.”
Agency records do not suggest that Elord might have lived
had he received more prompt
medical attention, and Daly
said she does not yet know the
official cause of Elord’s death.
But concerns over the quality
and timeliness of medical care
within the state’s juvenile detention centers have lingered
since at least the summer of
2003, when 17-year-old Omar
Paisley of Opa-locka died a
slow, agonizing death from a
burst appendix while at the
Miami-Dade Juvenile Detention
IN DEPTH
SOCIAL WELFARE
THE AMERICAS
Lawyer from poor Mexican state
is a condo king in Miami
Hundreds of homeless face loss of
beds with cuts in federal aid
Panama’s president defends his
country’s financial institutions
PAGE 3A
PAGE 6A
PAGE 16A
Copyright 2016 Olive Software
SEE LAPSES, 2A
HOTEL INDUSTRY
SPIKE IN LOCAL
HOTEL LAYOFFS
More than 500 hotel
workers — managers to
housekeepers — face
layoffs before June’s end at
four S. Florida hotels. 8B
WAR ON TERROR
SEAL KILLED IN
IRAQ FIGHTING IS
Islamic State fighters killed
a U.S. Navy SEAL on
Tuesday after they broke
through Kurdish defenses
in northern Iraq. 10A
Americas 16A Lottery
10A
Business 6-9A Local news 3-6
Classified 9-11B People
5C
Comics
6C Puzzles 2C, 7C
Deaths 12-13A Television
5C
2016-05-04 07:06:43
he Miami Herald, 2016-05-04
6A
Cropped page
Page: 6A
Local & State
WEDNESDAY MAY 4 2016
MIAMIHERALD.COM
H1
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
missioner Audrey Edmonson, for whom Atlantic Pacific named a nearby affordable housing project Friday,
has argued that Gimenez
“silenced” Liberty City’s
voice in the way he handled
Smith’s scores. But that issue
now appears moot following
a memorandum of understanding between Related
Urban and the resident
council that includes commitments to work on job
builder Atlantic Pacific
placement and home ownerCommunities that were
ship.
mathematically impossible
“I was pulled in two difand could have helped the
ferent directions. I have
developer land Gimenez’s
friends on the Atlantic
endorsement. But a legal
Pacific side and friends on
review ensued; it ended with the Related Urban side. But
Gimenez asking Related
in the end it’s not about me
Urban and Atlantic Pacific to or my friends, it’s about the
submit updated plans.
residents and this commuUpon a second review by
nity,” Smith said about the
the same committee, incontroversy and her supcluding Smith, Related Urport of Related Urban’s
ban’s new plan scored first
project. “We have a good
place, won Gimenez’s reredevelopment plan.”
commendation — and escaSmith on Tuesday also
lated allegations that Gime- downplayed allegations she
nez did all he could to give
made in a March 1 email to
the project to Related, a
county officials that lobbymajor campaign contributor. ist Dante Starks — currently
Amplifying those crita subject in a public
icisms, district County Com- corruption investigation in
Opa-locka — visited Liberty
Square on behalf of Related
Urban early this year. She
said she’s since learned
that Starks isn’t working
with Related Urban nor any
of its partners on the project.
Related Urban principal
Albert Milo said the increased support is due to a
better understanding of
what’s planned thanks to
weekly meetings at Liberty
Square and a door-to-door
campaign to explain crucial
details, like the fact that no
one will be forced to leave
during redevelopment. It’s
an effort he says has been
assisted by former Miami
Commissioner Michelle
Spence-Jones, who he said
is part of a team that has
helped explain the details
of the project.
“Every week as we continue to meet, we continue
to enhance our community
benefits program and work
with the residents council
to address the community’s
needs,” he said.
“We’re going to focus on
the people in this community.”
for permanent housing.
Homeless Trust officials
did not provide details of
how the funding loss would
play out in the agency’s $65
million budget. The nonprofits who receive the federal
funds through Miami-Dade
operate on different contracts, so some providers
may be in a tighter squeeze
than others without the
grants. Book said MiamiDade has essentially been
spending some of the money
in advance, with the grants
counted on covering expenses incurred since Jan. 1.
“We’re in the middle of
trying to sort it out,” Book
said. “We probably took the
biggest hit of any [homeless
agency] in the country.”
A list released by the
Homeless Trust showed
Jewish Community Services
losing $900,000 for a jobstraining service, the Inn
Transitions South home for
battered women losing
about $730,000, and
$430,000 lost for the New
Hope CORPS substanceabuse center in Homestead.
Camillus House CEO
Shed Boren said he lost
roughly 75 percent of the
funding for a mental health
center that provides showers
and meals during the day at
Camillus’ Norwegian Cruise
Line campus.
“I’m incredibly worried,”
Boren said. “This is the
center where people come to
rest and get involved in
support groups, get their
healthcare.”
Constance Collins, director of the Lotus House women’s shelter in Miami, said
her nonprofit won’t be immediately affected due to
the type of government
dollars the shelter receives.
But, she said, “The ripple
effect will be across the
system. It’s going to demand
solutions from local government across the board.”
Miami Herald staff writer
David Smiley contributed.
son Memorial.
Beruff’s family moved to
New York when he was 12,
and he told the Herald/
Times that he returned to
Florida in the 1970s. He
since has spent most of his
adult life on Florida’s west
coast between Sarasota and
Manatee counties, where
he sold homes then later
created his own homebuilding company.
Yet Miami is an important battleground in the
relations with Cuba in the
right circumstances, he has
come out hard against
President Barack Obama’s
approach on Cuba, saying
the United States is not
getting enough back in its
dealings with the Castro
dictatorship.
Beruff insists there is no
confusion about his Cuban
background or roots.
“I love my heritage,”
Beruff said. “I’m very
proud of being Cuban. But I
Liberty Square resident at
center of redevelopment flap
backs Related Urban’s plan
May 12 hearing before the
county’s Economic and
[email protected]
Prosperity Committee that,
according to county officials,
The developer seeking to
could send the project to a
redevelop Liberty Square
final vote by county commisscored a key endorsement
sioners or halt it in its tracks.
Tuesday that could mute the
“What we’re asking is that
noise around the proposed
all the commissioners agree
$307 million rebuild of Mia- and support the residents
mi-Dade’s oldest and largest and community over here, to
public housing project.
let the transition keep going
During a seniors’ breaksmoothly,” said council
fast, the Liberty Square
president Sara Smith.
Resident Council announced “We’re asking that they
its support of Related Urban respect the wishes of the
Development Group’s plans residents and the resident
to raze the outdated “Pork
council.”
n’ Beans” and rebuild it as a
By landing the support of
mixed-income community.
the group that represents the
The endorsement came just more than 600 families
days ahead of a possible
living in Liberty Square’s
BY DAVID SMILEY
row houses, Related Urban
can now tout the backing of
the community. But arguably just as important, the
developer has mended relations with Smith, whose
previous support for a competitor became the fulcrum
for allegations that MiamiDade Mayor Carlos
Gimenez “disrespected”
Liberty City when choosing
a developer.
Those criticisms began
back in October, after
Smith’s scores as a member
of a developer selection
committee became the subject of controversy. Smith,
the only committee member
from Liberty Square, gave
high scores to affordable
MIAMI-DADE
COUNTY
Hundreds of homeless face loss
of beds with cuts in federal aid
BY DOUGLAS HANKS
[email protected]
An unexpected loss of
federal funding has MiamiDade scrambling to find
money to keep hundreds of
homeless people in beds this
week, with a top agency
official warning of a “devastating impact” for the transitional program that houses
people forced to leave shelters.
Miami-Dade learned
Monday that the federal
housing department was not
awarding it millions of dollars in subsidies it had expected for the county’s transitional programs. The pro-
grams provide a place to live
for homeless who can no
longer stay in emergency
shelters but haven’t qualified
for permanent housing from
the government.
The county’s homeless
agency lost out on about $5
million in federal aid that
was earmarked to fund
housing for about 700 people, officials said.
“It has a real devastating
impact on us,” said Ron
Book, the lobbyist who
serves as the volunteer
chairman of the county’s
Homeless Trust, a board
that oversees Miami-Dade’s
homeless agency and the
food-and-beverage tax that
helps fund it. “This has the
potential of putting hundreds and hundreds of people on the street very quickly.”
A spokeswoman for the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development was not
available for comment. HUD
on Monday announced $355
million for homeless programs across the country,
and a press release called
the grant process “the most
competitive ever.”
In an email to board
members Tuesday, Homeless Trust director Victoria
Mallette wrote that “nearly
all” of the county’s transitional programs were not
funded by HUD, and that
related services for homeless
people took a big hit, too.
“Among the cuts, programs
supporting victims of domestic violence, those recovering from addiction, youth,
veteran services, legal services,” she wrote. “In short,
this cut represents more
than 750 transitional housing beds in our community,
and services to many more.”
Book said the lost funds
seem to reflect HUD’s
broader strategy to shift
dollars to permanent housing and away from more
temporary fixes. Transitional
programs provide housing
for up to two years and often
offer the drug rehab treatment that many homeless
need before they can qualify
CAMPAIGN 2016
U.S. Senate candidate says listing Cuba as
birthplace on voter form was a ‘screw up’
BY JEREMY WALLACE
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE
U.S. Senate candidate
form wrongly saying he was
born in Cuba was an unusual “screw up” and not a
case of his trying to deceive
anyone.
The handwritten voter
listed Cuba as his birthplace.
But Beruff, 58, was born
in Miami.
“I don’t know how it
happened,” Beruff told the
he has handed off a lot of
paperwork to assistants at
his office to fill out for him
— even personal records
like his voter registration
address change.