County gives streetlight vendor notice to cure after prolonged outages; commissioners set 60-day deadline

Miami-Dade County officials said the county has issued a notice to cure to its streetlight contractor after prolonged outages and slower-than-expected upgrades.

The interim director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, Joseph Hernandez, told the committee the vendor had failed to meet the contract's 95% uptime requirement and that the county had given the contractor 180 days from the previous month to return service levels to the contract standard. Hernandez said the department is tracking work orders, wire-theft repairs and coordination with the Florida Department of Transportation.

The notice to cure prompted immediate questioning from commissioners who described outages of months in some neighborhoods. Chairman Rodriguez said 180 days was too long and sought a much shorter curing period. Rodriguez told the contractor's representative that the committee expects either a rapid fix or contract action.

Oscar Bode, CEO of Miami Dade Smart Lighting Partners, told the committee the contractor inherited an unreliable system when the contract began in February 2023. "When that contract…