Miami Lakes urges county action as adaptive signal system remains offline
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Summary
At a town hall, Miami Lakes officials said signal hardware installed years ago remains unoperational because the county controls the software and recently changed vendors, and the town’s police and staff described repeated, sometimes hardware-related outages that disrupt morning traffic.
Miami Lakes officials told residents on Jan. 14 that fixes to recurring traffic-signal failures depend largely on county and state partners, not the town alone, and urged stronger intergovernmental pressure to reduce outage times.
Town leaders opened the meeting by explaining the legal framework that limits municipal control over traffic engineering. Deputy Town Attorney Lorenzo Cobiella summarized the situation: municipal ownership of roads does not mean full operational authority. "Anything that is engineering in nature...is under the jurisdiction of the county," Cobiella said, describing interlocal agreements and FDOT guidelines that the town must follow.
Councilmembers and staff said the town installed adaptive-signal hardware years ago but does not operate the network. "That was done by the town 2017 2019," Public Works Director Omar Santos said, adding that "the county is the one that will operate that or operates that." Mayor and others said the county recently switched vendors to manage the adaptive system, contributing to rollout delays. "There's also a transition going on...they just had to change over recently to a new company," the mayor said.
Councilman Garcia pressed for firmer action. "Traffic is they're stealing your time," he said, calling the county's response "unacceptable" and urging the council to consider strengthening the interlocal agreement or pursuing litigation to ensure faster repairs.
Lieutenant Eddie Ulloa described the sheriff’s office role in operational mitigation, including direct lines to county traffic maintenance and on-site resets that sometimes restore signals. He said officers stationed at key intersections can attempt resets and direct traffic until county crews replace damaged hardware. Ulloa also cited physical damage to control cabinets—"iguanas... have fried some of the circuits"—that require parts replacement by county technicians.
Staff emphasized the operational costs of outages. Ulloa said a persistent malfunction once required three officers to manage the intersection while the signal repeatedly failed, drawing staff away from routine enforcement. Mayor and public‑works staff said the town will continue to press the county, track incidents, and ask for faster vendor response.
The town encouraged residents to report recurring signal problems and said it will pursue both technical fixes (coordination on cabinet upgrades and sealing against animal intrusion) and intergovernmental pressure to shorten repair times. The meeting closed with a pledge to keep residents informed as county and vendor actions proceed.
