I have instructed the County Manager not to expend or exhaust further resources or time into the Marlins Baseball Stadium agreements.
Is he playing "Hard Ball"? (sorry can't help it). Hit read more to see Mayor Carlos Alvarez' full statement to County Commission Chair Dennis Moss:
I have long believed that there is a justifiable cause for a government partnership in the management and construction of a baseball facility in Miami-Dade County. Baseball is an important part of our community fabric and a stadium that protects taxpayers’
interests is a worthy project. I have never wavered from that position and I stand by it today.
Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and the Marlins have spent thousands of hours
hashing out five complex agreements to ensure Major League Baseball has a future in
South Florida. All parties have made concessions and negotiated in good faith. The
deal that our elected officials and residents have been reviewing over the last few
weeks is sound and strong. The project will create hundreds of jobs through 2012, and
help carry one of our core industries and top employment sectors through a historic
downturn. Market forces make this an ideal time to purchase construction materials and services. The financing is based on conservative projections over 35 years, based on the indisputable fact that South Florida remains well-positioned for long term growth and success. The costs have been independently verified as reasonable, risk has been mitigated, and we have forced the team to increase its financial and social contributions.
The deal is good, but the politics are bad.
Sincere and earnest work and meticulous and deliberate negotiations have been
hijacked. The best of intentions have morphed into unreasonable demands that have
nothing to do with baseball. Political grandstanding, the dissemination of half-truths and intellectually dishonest assumptions are rampant. Is there room for further discussion, scrutiny and additional give and take? Yes. However, the art of negotiation is being mocked. It is wrong to exploit the public’s keen interest in baseball in this way. The politicking on the stadium, frankly, has become a distraction.
I have instructed the County Manager not to expend or exhaust further resources or
time into the Marlins Baseball Stadium agreements. While we have never worked on
the ballpark project at the expense of other priority projects, we have other pressing
issues, including making the best use of federal economic stimulus dollars and
preparing a balanced budget for FY 2009-2010.
The fate of the proposed Marlins ballpark is in the hands of the Miami City Commission.
Until the City fully vets the Baseball Stadium Agreements and holds a comprehensive
set of votes on all elements of the proposal, I cannot support the process moving
forward. I would hope that we, as a community, demonstrate that we welcome
investment and can do business responsibly, with the acumen, integrity and panache
that a deal of this magnitude deserves.
18 comments:
Like Pontius Pilot Carlos Alvarez is publicly washing his hands. If the vote passes he is vindicated and if it fails he is not to be blamed. It’s a perfect political maneuver. It is a moot announcement, because that is exactly what has to take place. MDC has to wait for Miami Commissioners vote first. I am not an expert but I think there are many holes in this deal that will benefit the Marlins and be a major cost to Miami and MDC. I really think that this circus could have been prevented if the citizens of Miami and MDC could have been permitted the right to vote on this project from day one. They were denied that right.
Judge Cohan also had the opportunity to do the right thing and permit the citizens to vote. But once again she did not. The hypocrisy is that both Carlos Alvarez and Manny Diaz keep pitching Transparency to us. But they could have shown real Transparency by allowing us to vote and making the Marlines show their financial statements. I personally hope that this deal collapses because I believe our community has better things to do with that money, especially now that the economy is in worst shape then when this negotiation started.
Harry Emilio Gottlieb
It is my fond wish that the stadium fails. I might have even thought about it except for the fact that there are very few peop;e who care about baseball and those who do have to pay to much to watch it. On top of which the team could easily pay all the costs. When I see people who have very little education making 10 to 20 million a year for playing a childs game for part of the year I know they could pay their own costs.
What breaks my heart is that the Orange Bowl is gone. There is no history there left to love. Generations of wondrous memories now nothing more than a vacant lot. How sad is that?
Alvarez talking about hundreds of jobs is a laugh. The jobs are going from Miami Gardens to Little Havana, same jobs Carlos. This whole deal was from the mind of the weasel George Burgess who knows the BCC strength is latino. Can we have any hope Spence-Jones will kill it?
It is a pathetic and whiny memo.
Sincere and earnest work and meticulous and deliberate negotiations have been
hijacked. The best of intentions have morphed into unreasonable demands that have
nothing to do with baseball. Political grandstanding, the dissemination of half-truths and intellectually dishonest assumptions are rampant. Is there room for further discussion, scrutiny and additional give and take? Yes. However, the art of negotiation is being mocked. It is wrong to exploit the public’s keen interest in baseball in this way.
Where was he with the open books? Why weren't the negotiations done in the open chambers. Too much dirt? I don't suppose that the county managers (err, mayors) office did any politicking of their own, did they? The hijacking was being done behind closed doors because the public certainly hasn't been allowed to join in the game.
Classic case of CYA when this thing hopefully fails. He will be on record for doing as much as he could and not being his fault.
Of course the issue is not that a Marlin stadium is not wanted the issue is that it was a bad deal for the citizens, and second I agree with Mensa 100% if they can afford to pay millions to the players they can afford a stadium.
The deal was bad from the start. Carlos Alvarez was too stupid to demand the Marlins disclose their financial statements. In fact, Carlos Alvarez does not even know who owns the Marlins. It is owned by an offshore shell company.
Then Carlos Alvarez was too stupid to realize the deal was no-money down for the Marlins and a minimum $2 billion from the taxpayers.
Let us see if Spence-Jones votes for the taxpayers or if she made a backroom deal with Manny and the Marlins?
Its amazing how much some people on this blog claim to know. Pathetic. You got all the answers, do something about it. Run for office and actually do something...Nah its easier to sit in front of a computer and talk smack.
This is a blog recording history through the eyes of the people at ground level. If there were not reason to distrust the political system here, we would not be blogging. We are not always as dumb as you make us out.
The public has been treated as an unavoidable evil for the Marlins for years. The owners (various) never have acted like the community means anything and the community certainly has shown them the way they feel about the player sell offs and the lack of commitment to the fans on a community level.
Do you think that there have not been promises made to the politicians to sweeten this pot? Does anyone truly believe that we are going to have a happy little marriage with the current Marlins owners and public? NOPE.
The Marlins ownership has refused from the very beginning to be a full partner. Actually, that attitude started with the previous ownership who wanted a stadium. You cannot be a full business partner and hide your assets when you are asking all your other partners to commit to billions of dollars. What would Mr. Trump do? Accept a deal where he does not know whom he would be dealing with and does not know if the financial force has money in the bank? I do not think so. You are FIRED.
Alvarez, the commissioners and the City of Miami crew all are equally at fault here. Although, why the mayor, who was police chief in another life, has not smelled a red herring is beyond me. The first thing he should have done when he came into office (6 years ago?) is review the stadium deal like it was his own personal contract with his own personal piggy bank involved. As a police officer, he must know there is always the other story to see and investigate.
It is what it is.
In this time of financial foolery it is time for the Marlins to produce the facts, open their books, put the money on the table and equally share the burden of the building THEIR stadium, it is not the people’s stadium. Otherwise, the Marlins can figure out why they are going to be playing sand lot baseball and go back to their roots, and the public coffers will be a few billion dollars richer!
Blagoyevich has nothing on SoFla politics! The winners are the Marlins and Ms Spence-Jones who undoubtedly has been on the phone ALOT lately, ratcheting up the bids for her "yes" vote.
....and the Marlin's Samson ran to Alvarez and told him the conversations with Spence-Jones. Maybe Alvarez's memo is designed to pressure her in the press. You couldn't have a BCC member do it so Alvarez is left to carry their water. I think transparency has returned, we see right through this.
If she stands firm and does not fold, this community has to support her on many levels. We have rarely seen this kind of leadership and courage. This is her crucible. Soon we will know who she is. . .
She is a garden variety politician, selling her vote to the highest bidder. She wants Overtown taken care of (read Miami New Times Banana Republic). Doesn't she have family business in Overtown? If this is not illegal, it should be. Seems to me, the money spent on the stadium could go a long way in helping Overtown. But then the commissioners would not have their skyboxes or the PR of tossing the seasonal ball. They could have done more for Overtown a long time ago but there is no glory in that. Burgess tried to win this one but he is just too sleezy to pull it off.
I wonder, if the Marlins hand out a couple of $50,000 last minute lobbying contracts to the right people, will they get Spence-Jones' vote?
Does Carlos Alvarez have a side business as a lobbyist for whoever it is that owns the Marlins?
He isn't sharing that information either.
The Marlins demand for $2 bil from the taxpayers stinks. The whole process exposes how easy it is to coerce Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami into putting public money into private companies.
Carlos Alvarez must have never been an investigator. Spence-Jones must have never taken a course on business. Shame on them.
AGREE 100% WITH MENSA. ALL ATHLETES ARE PAID ASTRONOMICAL AMOUNTS OF MONEY FOR PLAYING A KIDS GAME SO THEY CAN INVEST THEIR OWN MONEY FOR A STADIUM.
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