Vending machine business slated for big Miami-Dade contract didn’t pay taxes for years — but donated to Commissioners

A Hialeah company poised to land a lucrative deal to install and operate vending machines at Miami-Dade government facilities didn’t pay taxes on its machines for five straight years — during which time it donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political committees, several belonging to County Commissioners.

Several of those Commissioners are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a five-year contract with the company, RQ Vending Machines & Services, that county staff expect will generate more than $1 million in revenue.

Vendors involved in the bidding process say the arrangement should generate far more than that, with one estimating the revenue to be as much as $7.5 million by the contract’s end.

RQ Vending was one of 12 companies to respond to an Invitation to Bid that the county advertised Nov. 29, 2023, and Strategic Procurement Department staff determined it to be “the responsive and responsible bidder” offering the highest revenue share to the county.

As of Friday, RQ Vending had 73 active vending machines registered with Miami-Dade. The county solicitation called for some 250 machines, which would require RQ Vending to grow its inventory by nearly 350%.

RQ Vending offered the county a 52% cut of gross revenues, a share that a competing vendor argued to the county isn’t tenable during a June 24 bid protest. From its 48% share, RQ Vending would still have to pay a 7% sales tax and be on the hook for product, labor, insurance and maintenance costs.

It’s not illegal for a company to agree to a contract under which it loses money, county hearing examiner Marco Anthony Douthit wrote in his report, noting, “We are not always privy to a party’s motives for entering into a business venture and a party could knowingly decide to forego (sic) profit or even sign up for a loss.”

But the county’s evaluation of RQ Vending as “responsible” is questionable, considering it was delinquent on tangible personal property taxes for half a decade at the time procurement staff selected it.

Tangible personal property is any possession with a clear value, excluding household goods, and businesses like vending companies are responsible for paying taxes on each machine they own yearly.

County records show RQ Vending paid the county for its tangible personal property taxes for 2018 on April 30, 2019, the last day it could have before going delinquent. Then it didn’t pay another cent until Sept. 10, one week before the item approving its contract with Miami-Dade goes before the County Commission, when it paid its outstanding $25,313 tab in one lump sum.

RQ Vending, owned by Guillermo and Manuel Roversi, was registered in Florida as a for-profit limited liability company in September 2013, but it doesn’t appear to have become active until 2018, the year it first paid the county tangible personal property taxes and set up a website.

Owners of larger vending machine companies with whom Florida Politics spoke said RQ Vending is an unknown entity in Miami-Dade and that even before it won this year’s bidding contest for a county contract, it was almost assuredly operating at a deficit.

“I’m a medium-sized company with 2,200 machines,” one owner said. “You can’t run a business with less than 150 machines. That’s not profitable.”

So how did RQ Vending survive through and after a pandemic? The Roversis own dozens of other businesses, including several real estate companies like House Park LLC to which Miami-Dade Commissioners approved the sale of close to two dozen “surplus” county properties at $10 apiece to build affordable housing.

A note included in one deal Commissioner Keon Hardemon sponsored in late 2021 noted, “House Park since its inception has invested in real estate in Miami-Dade County a total of $6,500,000 … to purchase residential units as well as vacant (lots) to be developed for affordable housing.”

Since 2020, while RQ Vending was delinquent in its tangible personal property taxes, the Roversis gave Hardemon $4,000 directly, $1,000 from RQ Vending and $1,000 apiece from companies they own called MX Trading Corp. and MX Property Management.

RQ Vending also donated $100,000 in November 2023 to a political committee called All Miami-Dade operated by Hardemon’s cousin, Zakiya Hardemon Kelley, and $112,500 between September 2020 and October 2022 to a pair of political committees (One Miami-Dade and Improve Miami) run by his aunt, Barbara Hardemon.

Other contributions included:

— $41,500 to Miami-Dade Commission Chair Oliver Gilbert, consisting of $34,500 the Roversis gave directly to his political committee, Common Voices, and $7,000 they gave his campaign account in direct donations and from RQ Vending, MX Trading Corp. and MX Property Management.

— $15,000 RQ Vending gave in July 2022 to Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez’s political committee, A Bolder Florida.

— $15,000 from RQ Vending to Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera’s political committee, Dade First PC, in October 2022.

— $10,000 RQ Vending gave in July 2022 to Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins’ political committee, Fight for Our Future.

While the above sums may seem substantial, they are unremarkable outside the context of this report and compose a miniscule portion of each Commissioner’s campaign gains in the past four years. For example, Gilbert won re-election unopposed in June, by which time he had raised more than $360,000 this election cycle and had close to $1.8 million in his political committee account.

Florida Politics contacted RQ Vending, the Miami-Dade Strategic Procurement Department and Hardemon’s Office but did not receive a response by press time.