May 16, 2008 6:51 pm US/Eastern
No Bull, Miami Hosting Cattle Show
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Miami-Dade County will never be mistaken for the Ponderosa. This is not cattle country. So why is Miami-Dade County government spending more than $200,000 on a cattle show?
The story of the first Miami International Agriculture and Cattle Show reveals how one county commissioner can drive through a project that to some may not make a lot of sense.
The cattle show is the brainchild of Miami Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto who described himself as "an old country boy."
Souto started thinking about the cattle show three years ago on a trip to Colombia. It was one of three trips he's taken with county staff to Latin America at taxpayer expense to develop and promote the cattle show, which runs through the weekend at Tropical Park.
The cost of those trips $12,300.
"Those trips served as a combination of trade mission, as well as getting some of the logistical ideas for pulling off a cattle show that would be of interest to folks traveling from Latin America," argues Jack Kardys, the county parks director who accompanied Souto on his most recent trip to Colombia.
And so how interesting is Miami's cattle show to people in Latin America? Well if the advance registration is any indication, the answer is not very much. According to county officials of the 200 people registered to participate, only 40 are from Latin America.
Which means there will actually be more cattle than people registered to attend.
"This is about generating economic opportunity for our community," Kardys said.
And therein lies one of the oddities of this event. If it is truly about economic development, then why is it being run out of the county's Parks and Recreation Department as opposed to one of the county agencies charged with economic development?
The answer is simple: Commissioner Souto is chairman of the committee that oversees the parks department so it was easy for him to keep control of the project by having it under parks.
Souto counters that the reason it falls under parks is that they have the facility to host the show. More than 40 parks employees are assigned to the show, and a dozen of them have been working on its planning for months.
And as far as economic development from their trips to Colombia and Brazil, county officials can point to no tangible results from any of their missions. There have been no new jobs created and no new businesses moving to South Florida.
Nevertheless, they are still hopeful the cattle show will be the start of something grand. Charles LaPradd, the county agriculture director, is hoping the county can capture the corner on animal genetics.
The idea being what? Turn Miami into the bull semen capital of Florida?
"Well, quite frankly most of that goes through out airport anyway," LaPradd says.
Then why do we need to spend money to host a show, if we already have the business?
"Maybe not enough of it goes through the airport," he said.
Organizers also stress that the show is not just a cattle show, but is also an agriculture show.
And in fairness, agriculture is often a forgotten segment in our county and a show to promote that industry makes sense. Also, the event is free and open to the public, and there ill be educational components for kids. Hundreds of school kids are expected to attend.
The overall budget for the event is close to $500,000, with $215,000 of it coming from taxpayer money and another $50,000 in "in-kind" contributions from various county departments.
"You have to use money to get these things here," Souto says.
Souto makes a strong argument that in tough economic times, the county needs to find ways to generate business for the county and his hope is that in the next few years this show, which he would like to see be an annual event, will more than pay for itself. He notes they have already received more than $100,000 in donations to help with expenses.
"I think there is a lot of money to be made in this county," he says. "And if this county gets into that, the county will have more jobs, more employment, more money. Basically we are looking for money."
Let's hope that while they are looking for money, they don't step into something else.
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