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February 13, 2009
Marlins stadium hearings in "chaos"
A vote on the Florida Marlins stadium plan descended into chaos Friday afternoon after City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff demanded significant modifications to the deal in exchange for his support.
That's from the front page of the Miami Herald's website, as of about ten minutes ago. The actual chaos descended around 2 pm, and went something like this:
- After several hours of discussion, the Miami City Commission voted on approving the Marlins' final stadium contracts. Two members, Joe Sanchez and Angel Gonzalez, voted yes, and two, Marc Sarnoff and Tomas Regalado, voted no, creating a stalemate. Regalado said in explaining his vote that he wanted a new stadium, but the agreement as presented was a "very bad deal" for the city of Miami.
- Sarnoff then proposed a series of three amendments: 1) The Marlins would pay for cost overruns on the stadium's $94 million parking garages, in exchange for getting rental income from a retail tenant of the garage building, if one could be found; 2) the city would get a cut of naming-rights revenue, since it's putting up a share of the construction cost; 3) if the Marlins were sold, the city and county would get their stadium costs paid back before the team would be allowed to reap any profits from the sale.
- There was a proposal to recess for ten minutes, so that commissioners could check with the Marlins to see if these amendments would be acceptable to them. Right before that happened, though, Sanchez shouted that he was withdrawing his support for the motion, saying, "This will kill the deal!"
They recessed anyway, and after almost an hour, Sanchez just returned to his chair and called the meeting back to order. (You can watch the webcast for yourself here.) Marlins president David Samson is now answering Sarnoff's proposal - I'll post followups here in Comments.
UPDATE: Samson said he wouldn't budge on naming rights or a share of the sale price unless the whole deal were renegotiated. Regalado and Sarnoff said fine, let's renegotiate. Sanchez then declared, "The deal is dead," followed by - another recess!
It's not clear whether the county commission will wait around to see if a new deal can be struck this afternoon, or will just postpone its hearing. Stay tuned.
UPDATE #2: They just suspended the stadium discussion until an unspecified date in March March 12, by which time the fifth commission member, Michelle Spence-Jones, is expected to be back from maternity leave. Good luck to her juggling a newborn and all the lobbying calls she's about to receive. (She's also up for re-election, which should make things even more interesting.)
Samson's response: He'll cap the garage costs at $94 million by requiring that the building be made smaller if that's all that it'll pay for. On sharing naming rights and a cut of a sale price, he basically just said: You agreed to this deal, if you don't like it, we'll renegotiate it, but then everything is on the table.
Now to see if Sarnoff and Regalado call his bluff.
Posted by Neil on February 13, 2009 03:00 PM
Regalado is sticking to his guns, saying he's happy to reopen negotiations: "You negotiated with the administration, Mr. Samson, but not with this body."
Sanchez: "I don't think there's anything to vote here, because you [Samson] just said the deal is dead under these conditions, right?"
Samson: "There is no deal."
And the county commission representative just said this afternoon's county hearing is called off. Stick a fork in it, for now, at least.
Posted by Neil on February 13, 2009 03:05 PM
Chaos is an understatement at this point as the kids go off to recess again.
I hope Regalado and Sarnoff hold strong.
Neil, do you think Joe Sanchez is getting something more than a suite for the city out of his undying support?
Posted by Thomas on February 13, 2009 03:21 PM
It seems we now have a "New York Minute" and a "Miami Minute". One is very quick, the other, not so much.
Posted by Thomas on February 13, 2009 03:34 PM
Unfortunately, there are plenty of pols out there happy to shill for team owners for free.
Regalado got off a great line when Sanchez threw his hissy fit: "This deal is not dead. The Marlins need the stadium." Nice to see an elected official understanding that he has some leverage for a change.
Posted by Neil on February 13, 2009 03:34 PM
Have you ever seen anything like this?
We just passed the 60 minute recess mark. We're coming up on 5p Eastern.
So much for Regalado's negotiations in the "sunshine"
I have a sinking feeling Miami is about to get swindled
Posted by Thomas on February 13, 2009 04:27 PM
They're rescheduling the hearing for March, when the 5th commissioner will be back. (She's on maternity leave.)
Posted by Neil on February 13, 2009 04:39 PM
So after all that, they move to continue the meeting on March 12th, when all 5 commissioners will be present. Michelle Spence-Jones becomes the swing vote.
I wonder if her new baby would like some Marlins toddler outfits?
Even more interesting will be the reporting of Sarnoff's epic blasts today about "partnerships" and the city/county getting a fair deal instead of the garbage they kind of shot down today.
Posted by Thomas on February 13, 2009 04:47 PM
Neil, I'm kind of replaying today's events and I'm at a loss on a few points - I'm wondering if you can make any sense of them:
- The City Commission took a roll call vote on the contracts and ended up 2-2. Does that make those contracts "dead" or can they be revived by motion (presumably by Sanchez)?
I wonder if there's anything in the city charter/law that would prevent them from voting again on the same contract that were defeated today.
- Sarnoff then introduced his three revisions and after some discussion they began another roll call vote but it spiraled out of control so quickly that I don't think they finished it. Regalado voted no; Sarnoff voted yes; Sanchez voted no; I don't think Gonzalez got his vote on record.
When they meet again in March, are they having discussions leading up to a vote on the contracts as they have been amended by Sarnoff or does Sanchez and the Marlins get one huge mulligan for today's 2-2 defeat?
Posted by Thomas on February 13, 2009 05:26 PM
By "dead" I figured Sanchez meant "not going to pass." As well as (directed at Sarnoff and Regalado) "You killed the Marlins stadium, you bastards!"
There shouldn't be anything stopping them from reintroducing the same contracts in March, so I think all they did today was draw the battle lines and promise to meet back in a month with guns drawn.
Posted by Neil on February 13, 2009 05:32 PM
http://miami.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=209
Skip forward to 03:22:00 and watch Commissioner Sarnoff have a hissy fit at today's commission meeting. Not only does he insult the Chairman of the Commission, Joe Sanchez, he belittles the City Attorney Julie Bru. He is finally closed down by Joe Sanchez figuratively with a shot of Thorazine to his over active jaw muscle.
This all in front of children that were brought to City Chambers today for 'bring a child to work day'. The Commissioner should be ashamed and apologize to everyone involved. But alas it appears this individual has no shame.
Joe Sanchez showed class by ending the discussion as Commissioner Sarnoff continued to belittle the City Attorney. Sanchez was perfectly within his right to say to Commissioner Sarnoff after his verbal eruption, "Commissioner Sarnoff, are you finished"? After receiving an answer in the affirmative, his reply then should have been, "then wipe yourself".
It was a disgusting and classless display put on by Commissioner Sarnoff today. What an ARSE!
http://miami.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=209
Skip forward to 03:22:00 and watch Commissioner Sarnoff have a hissy fit at today's commission meeting. Not only does he insult the Chairman of the Commission, Joe Sanchez, he belittles the City Attorney Julie Bru. He is finally closed down by Joe Sanchez figuratively with a shot of Thorazine to his over active jaw muscle.
This all in front of children that were brought to City Chambers today for 'bring a child to work day'. The Commissioner should be ashamed and apologize to everyone involved. But alas it appears this individual has no shame.
Joe Sanchez showed class by ending the discussion as Commissioner Sarnoff continued to belittle the City Attorney. Sanchez was perfectly within his right to say to Commissioner Sarnoff after his verbal eruption, "Commissioner Sarnoff, are you finished"? After receiving an answer in the affirmative, his reply then should have been, "then wipe yourself".
It was a disgusting and classless display put on by Commissioner Sarnoff today. What an ARSE!