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Sunday, March 05, 2006

Opportunity Cost

The president of one of Florida’s poorest public universities is a pooh-bah. While his students and faculty starve, he lives it way way up. "The opportunity cost of my time is very high,” he explains to the Miami Herald, which wants to know why it’s all limos, four-star hotels and private planes for Modesto “Mitch” Maidique of Florida International University.

The opportunity cost of my time is very high. I am a VIP. Everyone wants a piece of me. Every moment of me costs a fortune. I move within a four-star aura.

Hence, as to why “in February 2003, Maidique spent $462 to hire a limo for seven hours during the Miami International Film Festival,” he points out that "It was part of the whole patina and the whole style of the film festival" to travel in a Lincoln Town Car with dignitaries.

At all times a luxe tone must be maintained.

One summer day in 2004, the president of Miami-Dade County's only public university traveled to state Sen. Ken Pruitt's office in Port St. Lucie to lobby for more school funding.

Instead of using his state-issued Buick for the 2 ½-hour drive, Florida International University President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique chartered a private plane. Then, for the 13 miles between the St. Lucie County airport and Pruitt's office, he hired a chauffeured ``Diamond Limousine.''

Total cost of the trip: $1,616. Total travel time each way, according to his itinerary: two hours, 15 minutes.

It wasn't the first or last time Maidique traveled in style. Over the past four years, he has spent thousands of FIU's dollars on private planes, limousine services and guest rooms at some of the world's most luxurious hotels, according to a Miami Herald analysis of his travel records.

…Over the past four years, records show, he has stayed at The Plaza in New York, the St. Regis in Washington and the Ritz in Madrid -- where his taxi bill ran more than $1,000. He has taken a 14-hour limo ride in Connecticut and a four-day trip to Paris that cost $6,700.


He had to take a limo through Connecticut. It’s a jungle out there:

In 2003, for a lunch meeting at former FIU board chairman Armando Codina's Connecticut summer home, Maidique spent $474 for a night at the Four Seasons Pierre, a five-star hotel in Manhattan.

Then he contracted a limousine service for 14 hours, 15 minutes, charging $1,248 to the foundation. Maidique said that Codina's house is in this "absolutely unknown" place, so he hired a Connecticut driver and paid for the time it took to make two round trips.

In all, the luncheon, to discuss a proposed medical school and other FIU projects, cost $2,678...

"There's a big difference in speaking to someone on the telephone and speaking to someone in person," Maidique said.


The opportunity cost of talking to someone in person is so very high.