Miami-Dade contractor who was busted after Irma faces more charges in Keys
A west Miami-Dade man who was arrested in April on charges of operating a contracting business in the Keys without a license in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma has been charged with new counts of grand theft, according to the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
Florida Keys prosecutors charged Ulises Ramon Wiltz, 49, with four counts of not having a contracting license and two counts of grand theft. He is accused of not performing work for which he was paid. He was arrested on a Monroe County judge’s warrant Dec. 6 and booked into a Miami-Dade County jail before being released on $30,000 bond.
The charges stem from four cases — two on Duck Key, one on Grassy Key, and one in the Lower Keys — within a month and a half after Category 4 Irma struck on Sept. 10, 2017, said Larry Kahn, spokesman for State Attorney Dennis Ward.
“In two of these cases, Wiltz collected and kept deposits given by the homeowner totaling $15,940.50, but didn’t do any work,” Kahn said in a statement. “In one case, he performed partial work. In another case, he collected a deposit but returned the money after not performing any work.”
The investigation into Wiltz was a joint effort by the State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
The DBPR revoked Wiltz’s contracting license in August 2017, but that didn’t stop him from trying to do business in the Keys in the wake of Irma, Kahn said.
He and his wife, Shannon Mulholland Wiltz, were arrested by SAO investigators in April on charges of operating their business, Florida Roofing and Design, in the Keys without a license. Since the alleged crimes happened within months of the Keys being in a declared state of emergency, the charges were elevated to felonies.
Miami-Dade County suspended Wiltz’s permitting privileges in November 2017, Kahn said. “The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office encourages homeowners to do a diligent search on any contractor prior to entering into any agreement and giving out money,” Kahn said.
A list of Monroe County registered contractors is available at www.monroe county-fl.gov/162/ Contractor-Information -Forms-Application. Go to www.MyFloridaLicense.com to search for valid DBPR contractor licenses. 2018 data shows that in standard lanes, 98 percent of passengers wait less than 20 minutes and 54 percent waited less than 10 minutes. In TSA PreCheck lines, 98 percent waited less than five minutes and 2 percent waited less than 10 minutes.
In its overhaul project, Phoenix Sky Harbor airport installed the system and was recently ranked the best airport in the U.S. by The Points Guy, which included a No. 4 rating in the Timeliness category (wait times in lines and flight delay and cancellation rates). MIA improved to No. 12 on the list of 30, but its Timeliness rating was not so good at No. 23. New York’s John F. Kennedy airport ranked worst overall and worst in Timeliness and Accessibility. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International was low on the list at No. 26 overall and No. 26 in Timeliness.
Phoenix is adding another tech upgrade – a mobile app that checks for flight delays and alerts airport bar managers to stay open for late-night departures, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will address one of passengers’ chief concerns: Availability of preflight cocktails, presumably to blunt the stress of the air travel experience.
Linda Robertson: 305-376-3496