HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2009-02-13 MinutesCity of Miami
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Meeting Minutes
Friday, February 13, 2009
9:00 AM
SPECIAL MEETING
City Hall Commission Chambers
City Commission
Manuel A. Diaz, Mayor
Joe Sanchez, Chair
Michelle Spence -Jones, Vice -Chair
Angel Gonzalez, Commissioner District One
Marc David Sarnoff, Commissioner District Two
Tomas Regalado, Commissioner District Four
Pedro G. Hernandez, City Manager
Julie 0 Bru, City Attorney
Priscilla A. Thompson, City Clerk
City Commission
Meeting Minutes February 13, 2009
9:00 A.M. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Present: Commissioner Gonzalez, Commissioner Sarnoff, Chair Sanchez and Commissioner
Regalado
Absent: Vice Chair Spence -Jones
On the 13th day of February 2009, the City Commission of the City ofMiami, Florida, met at its
regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, in special
session. The meeting was called to order by Chair Sanchez at 9:19 a.m., recessed at 2: 04 p.m.,
reconvened at 2:49 p.m., recessed at 3:15 p.m., reconvened at 4:34 p.m., and was continued to
the Commission meeting currently scheduled for March 12, 2009 at 9 a.m.
Note for the Record: Commissioner Gonzalez entered the Commission chambers at 9:42 a.m.
Commissioner Regalado entered the Commission chambers at 10:11 a.m.
ALSO PRESENT:
Julie O. Bru, City Attorney
Pedro G. Hernandez, City Manager
Priscilla A. Thompson, City Clerk
Pamela E. Burns, Assistant City Clerk
Chair Sanchez: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is a special meeting being called
here on the agenda for February 13, Good Friday -- should be -- 209 [sic] at 9 a.m, at our City
Hall, which is a historical hall, 3500 Pan American Drive. Thank you for being here. Those
that'll be present, as we call the meeting to order, the Mayor, Manny Diaz, who will be joining
us, I believe; myself as Chair. Michelle Spence -Jones will not be joining us today, I don't
believe. Angel Gonzalez, Commissioner Gonzalez, Commissioner March Sarnoff Commissioner
Tomas Regalado; with us present also is the City Manager Pedro Hernandez and our City
Attorney, Julie O. Bru, along with our City Clerk, Priscilla Thompson. This meeting was
properly advertised. Today, there are three items on the agenda. Those items are pertaining to
the baseball stadium and the agreements. We'll go ahead and start with the invocation, and a
pledge of allegiance that will be done by Commissioner Sarnoff.
Invocation and pledge of allegiance delivered.
Order of the Day
Chair Sanchez: All right. Once again, I want to welcome each and every one of you to City
Hall. We do ask that everyone please take a seat. We also ask you that you cannot bring any
signs either for or against. Everyone will be afforded an opportunity to address this
Commission. So, please fry to take a seat. We cannot have people standing. The only ones
allowed to be standing are the media and the camera crew that stands in the back of the
Commission [sic]. So please move over, let someone sit next to you. There are some reserved
seats that were -- if not, what we're going to have to ask you to do is please step outside. There
are TV (Television) monitors outside which you can monitor the City ofMiami Commission
meeting, this special meeting. And if you will be speaking or addressing this Commission, we
ask you to please sign in with our City Clerk, put your name down, so we could have the list so
we can run through this meeting as smoothly as possible. So we're going to go ahead and start
with item number one. But before we do that, Madam Attorney, can you read the procedures to
be followed during this special meeting?
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, members of the
Commission, Madam Clerk, and the public, and Mr. Manager. This is a special City
Commission meeting that has been properly advertised and noticed. Any person who acts as a
lobbyist, pursuant to the City ofMiami ordinance, must register with the City Clerk prior to
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Meeting Minutes February 13, 2009
engaging in lobbying activities before the City staff boards and committees, and this
Commission today. Any person or entity requesting approval here today for relief or other
action from the City Commission must, before appearing, do the following. They shall disclose
in writing whether any consideration has been provided or committed directly on its behalf to
any entity or person for an agreement to support or withhold objection to the requested
approval, relief or action; disclose to whom the consideration has been provided or committed,
the nature of the consideration and a description of what's being requested and exchanged for
the consideration. The disclosure form, which is available from the City Clerk, must be read into
the record by the requesting person or entity prior to submission to the secretary -- clerk of the
board. Any person making impertinent or slanderous remarks or who becomes boisterous while
addressing the Commission shall be barred from further audience before the Commission by the
presiding officer. Please, no clapping, applauding, heckling or verbal outburst in support or
opposition to a speaker. Please silence all noise -making devices. Thank you very much.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. Once again, this is a public hearing. Those that will be addressing us
will be afforded three minutes to address the Commission when the public is allowed to speak.
Once again, being that we're worried about our economy, today being Friday the 13th,
tomorrow's Valentine's Day. So I hope that you do go out of your way and get your spouse or
your loved one a nice gift, hopefully, bought in the City ofMiami, okay.
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Meeting Minutes February 13, 2009
PUBLIC HEARINGS
SP.1 09-00132 RESOLUTION
City Manager's A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Office ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE
FOLLOWING STADIUM AGREEMENTS, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE
ATTACHED FORMS HERETO, AS EXHIBITS "A" THROUGH "E",
RESPECTIVELY, RELATING TO THE DEVELOPMENT, CONSTRUCTION
AND OPERATION OF A NEW BASEBALL STADIUM FOR THE FLORIDA
MARLINS, AND RELATED PARKING FACILITIES, AS CONTEMPLATED IN
THE BASEBALL STADIUM AGREEMENT DATED MARCH 3, 2008,
APPROVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NO.
08-0089, ADOPTED FEBRUARY 21, 2008:
1.CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION AGREEMENT AMONG
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY ("COUNTY"); THE CITY OF MIAMI
("CITY") AND MARLINS STADIUM; DEVELOPER, LLC, A
DELAWARE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
(EXHIBIT "A")
2.OPERATING AGREEMENT AMONG THE COUNTY, THE
CITY AND MARLINS STADIUM OPERATOR, LLC, A
DELAWARE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
(EXHIBIT "B");
3.CITY PARKING AGREEMENT AMONG THE CITY, THE
COUNTY AND MARLINS STADIUM OPERATOR, LLC, A
DELAWARE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
(EXHIBIT "C");
4.ASSURANCE AGREEMENT AMONG THE COUNTY, THE
CITY AND FLORIDA MARLINS, L.P., A DELAWARE LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP
(EXHIBIT "D"); AND
5.NON-RELOCATION AGREEMENT AMONG THE COUNTY,
THE CITY AND FLORIDA MARLINS, L.P., A DELAWARE
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
(EXHIBIT "E");
FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER AND/OR THE CITY
MANAGER'S DESIGNEE TO EXECUTE SUCH OTHER DOCUMENTS, IN A
FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, AND TO TAKE SUCH
OTHER ACTIONS, AS MORE PARTICULARLY REQUIRED OR PERMITTED
IN THE STADIUM AGREEMENTS.
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Meeting Minutes February 13, 2009
09-00132 Summary Form .pdf
09-00132 Legislation.pdf
09-00132 Exhibit 1.pdf
09-00132 Exhibit 2.pdf
09-00132 Exhibit 3.pdf
09-00132 Exhibit 4.pdf
09-00132 Exhibit 5.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Gonzalez, seconded by Commissioner Sarnoff, that this matter
be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS FAILED by the following vote.
Votes: Ayes: 2 - Commissioner Gonzalez and Sanchez
Noes: 2 - Commissioner Sarnoff and Regalado
Absent: 1 - Commissioner Spence -Jones
Motion by Commissioner Sarnoff, seconded by Commissioner Regalado, FAILED by the
following vote.
Votes: Ayes: 2 - Commissioner Sarnoff and Regalado
Noes: 2 - Commissioner Gonzalez and Sanchez
Absent: 1 - Commissioner Spence -Jones
A motion was made by Commissioner Sarnoff, seconded by Commissioner Regalado, which
failed, with Chair Sanchez and Commissioner Gonzalez voting no and Vice Chair Spence -Jones
absent, to amend the proposed Marlins Baseball Stadium Agreement to include (1) establishing a
$94 million cap on the consfruction of the parking garage; and further, in return, the Marlins
would receive their pro rata share of net profits for the retail component; (2) that the City of
Miami and Miami -Dade County receive its pro rata share for the overall naming rights which
the City would use to pay for its debt service; and (3) in the event of the sale of the Marlins, the
City and Miami -Dade County would benefit in the proceeds in a pro rata amount.
A motion was made by Chair Sanchez, seconded by Commissioner Regalado, and was passed
unanimously, with Vice Chair Spence -Jones and Commissioner Sarnoff absent, to continue the
Special City Commission meeting of February 13, 2009 to March 12, 2009 at 9 a.m.
Chair Sanchez: So we'll go ahead and start with item number one. Item number one is SP.1.
That is the executive agreement pertaining to the new baseball stadium. At this time, I'd like to
turn it over to the City Manager.
Pedro G. Hernandez (City Manager): Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. Today,
as you all know, is a very significant day in our city and our county, as we bring before you the
documents that will have the final say as to the implementation of the baseball stadium at the
Orange Bowl. This is something that has been under discussion and negotiations probably for
the last eight to ten years. I've been involved, from the City's side, on these negotiations over the
last two. And what we have before you today is the result of those negotiations. We have five
definitive agreements; the consfruction agreement, the operation agreement, non -relocation
agreement, assurance agreement and City parking agreement. And that is the first item that
we'll be dealing with this morning. During the briefings that we had, we used some term sheets
that explain the benefits of each one of the agreements and how it compared to the baseball
stadium agreement that was approved in February of last year. The baseball stadium agreement
is a binding document that provided the framework for the agreements that we have before us
today. I also provided yesterday a memorandum, in a narrative form, explaining the various
agreements and how they impact the City ofMiami. In general, the stadium is proposed to be
located at the same site of the Orange Bowl. And it's interesting to note that back in the early
1930's, the Orange Bowl was constructed as part of a stimulus program; that was the WPA
(Works Progress Administration), as part of the New Deal by President Roosevelt in those days.
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And the Orange Bowl was constructed to create jobs. And here we are today, 77 years later,
basically, contemplating a stadium at the same site that will provide additional jobs, which I
think is the main goal in all of our minds. I have Mayor Diaz now that has joined us here, and
I'm going to yield to the Mayor to do his opening statement, and then I will continue with the
details of the impacts to the City ofMiami. Mayor Diaz.
Mayor Manuel A. Diaz: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, good morning. Let me first take this
opportunity to thank County Mayor, Carlos Alvarez, who will be joining us shortly; George
Burgess, all the County attorneys, County staff that worked on this -- have worked on this for a
very long time. And I really appreciate the level of cooperation that we got and received from
them and their commitment to continue to work with us in the City as true partners in this effort.
I also want to thank Bob DuPuy, who's here, the president ofMajor League Baseball, and all
associated with Major League Baseball. So -- also, I would like to thank Jeff Loria, David
Sampson [sic], and the entire Marlins family, and at this point, acknowledge the commitment of
Major League Baseball and the Marlins to keeping this team in South Florida. I also want to
thank City staff. Pete -- and I hope I -- I'm sure I'm going to leave somebody out. But Pete
Hernandez and Larry Spring and Olga Ramirez, Veronica Xiques and Julie Bru, Robert Fenton.
The amount of hours that they devoted to this process, sacrificing a significant amount of family
time, to make this deal happen, especially those that just had recent babies, they have fought
very hard, and have been very prudent in providing you today with what believe is a very
beneficial deal for us in the City. Andl also want to finally acknowledge Ed Marquez, our
financial adviser, and really, when you come down to it, the entire City family, because this is a
process that has taken some ten years and has involved numerous people who are here today
and those that have preceded us. Today marks the sixth time I have appeared in front of this
Commission asking for your support in keeping Major League Baseball in Miami. And I want to
thank all of you for your support the previous five times that I've been before you. It's been a
difficult road. These have been very long negotiations, but everyone in the process, I assure you,
has taken their responsibilities very seriously. Now I'm not going to get into the details of the
deal. We've had extensive briefings over the last two weeks, and clearly, we've had extensive
briefings through the years, each and every time this deal has been asked -- you have been asked
to vote on this issue, including, by the way, just last year, when you approved a binding baseball
stadium agreement, which created the business framework for the agreements that you have
before you today. The fact is that the deal that you have before you today is the same deal that
you approved last year; only better. I will let Pete, Larry, Olga and others review the details
with you. I really do believe that after your careful consideration of these agreements and after
your consideration of staffs recommendations, that you will reach the same conclusion I did and
support the deal and vote favorably for the sixth time. Instead, I will focus my remarks on those
critical areas that form the part of my analysis in supporting the deal. First, I believe the
threshold question for us here today has to be, is this deal in the best interest of the people we
are elected to represent? This is our job. Not to concern ourselves with said policy for the
people ofMiami Beach, Perrine, Aventura, or Unincorporated Dade; we represent the people of
the City ofMiami. Now, clearly, there's a lot of noise out there, and there's a lot, certainly, of
misinformation that's been put out there for some time now. Some people simply don't know
better. Others know precisely what they're doing. But as representatives of the people ofMiami,
I, again, reiterate our focus is on the people ofMiami. Our job is to focus on the facts and only
the facts that are before us. So what are they? At the moment, we have a 40-plus acre of land
vacant, right in the middle of our city, right in the heart of Little Havana. And today we are on
the verge of a $600 million investment in our city, using other people's money. This is a very
important fact that can't be ignored, and Pete and Larry, I'm sure, will get into more detail on
that in a while. We have an obligation to create desperately needed jobs. We have an obligation
to revitalize a neighborhood in need. That is the bottom line. Those are the real facts. Nothing
else. It is really this simple. In addition, we have to ask ourselves, is it important to keep a
Major League Baseball franchise in Miami that will bear our brand name? Are the Miami
Marlins part of the building blocks for the future of our city? Is this one of the many elements,
the investments that we talk about, that we approve, along with a performing arts center or
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museums or other cultural facilities; the investments that are necessary in our ports, in our
airports -- and Commissioner Sarnoff, and particularly, I comment you for your advocacy and
your leadership on the issue of the tunnel, which is a project, to me, that shares many of the
similar characteristics of why we're here today in support of this project -- our investments and
infrastructure, including transportation and great parks and open spaces; our investments to
create a diversified economy, to be environmental stewards? I could go on and on and on. All
of these form part of a blueprint that is designed to create a competitive, long-term sustainable
city. Investments that are part of the future ofMiami that we are all collectively building today.
I believe the answer is yes. This is one of those investments. Ifwe close our eyes and imagine
what Miami could look like in 10, 20, 50 years, I believe we can all envision a Miami that has all
of these elements. Think of our grandchildren, think of our children and grandchildren, and
their children and grandchildren enjoying all of these great amenities in the future Miami. We
have finally emerged as a global city. People from all over are choosing to live, work and open
businesses in our city. But as I have said before, this future is not a guarantee. There are many
other cities that can also lay claim to the very same virtues that make us strong. And we will
only continue to be relevant if we continue to effectively compete. Other cities in the United
States and abroad don't look inward. They're not lacking in confidence and they're not afraid to
invest in their futures. We should not, we cannot be afraid either. We need to continue to build
on the momentum that we've started. Ifwe want our children and our grandchildren to choose
Miami in the future, we must be able to sustain a globally competitive economy by continuing to
invest in the people, places and things that make us who we are. This is why the state of our
future depends on the kinds of investments that we make today. And this is why the city that we
pass on to our children will be determined in large part by whether we are willing to seize this
moment, make the hard decisions and see them through. Now, let's talk about the economy.
There is absolutely no doubt that times are extremely tough. The economy is in a crisis, and
things may very well get worse before they get better. That is why now, more than ever, it is
highly important that we create jobs. Many of our residents, through no fault of their own, have
lost their jobs, their homes and their small businesses that, in many cases, have been in the
family for generations. Our country, last year alone, lost three and a half million jobs. Last
month, we lost 600, 000 jobs. Think about that. That's 20, 000 jobs a day; 20, 000 families that
are losing their livelihood. In our city, in December of '07, the unemployment rate was 4.3;
December of '08, it was 7.5; and projections show that we could have much greater job loss in
the year to come. This project will produce over 2,000 construction jobs over the next three
years. That's 2, 000 families. It will create hundreds of permanent jobs once the stadium is built.
And I will also remind you that we retained a significant amount of property that we can do
other development in, which I believe can generate close to a thousand new jobs, with the
development of a possible hotel, retail shops, restaurants, residential and office. These are more
than simple statistics. You need to see the faces behind these numbers. A week or two ago, I was
at one of the office buildings that is being built on Brickell Avenue and some 2 or 300 workers
were there, and many of them came to me and said, `Mayor, please make sure that the
Commission approves the baseball stadium. This project will be done in the next three, four, five
months. I have no idea what I'm going to do once I'm done here." I am offended by the
suggestion of some critics that some of these jobs that we're going to create are not high paying
jobs, that they're not worthy of being created. First of all, they all probably have jobs
themselves, but it is my opinion that a job is a job. My parents washed dishes, they cleaned
homes, they parked cars, and they spent their entire life working in factories in Miami; and it
was those low paying jobs, those unworthy jobs that made it possible for me to be the first
person in my family to graduate from college and go on to become a lawyer. In fact, my first job
was a minimum -wage job as a janitor. Commissioners, these are real jobs. These are real
people. These are real families. These are real people that need to feed their family and send
their kids to school, pay their rent and keep a roof over their head. We cannot afford to wait.
We must act, and we must act now. We can't afford to hope that things get better. We have to
stop bickering. We have a moral responsibility to lend a hand to our residents by continuing to
create jobs. At this particular moment, all of us know that investment in the private sector, for a
whole host of reasons, is practically shut down. Government has a responsibility. We are the
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only entity. Look at the discussion that is taking place and has taken place in Washington over
the last few months. We are the only entity left with the resources to create jobs and to jolt our
local economy back to life. We are the only ones that can break the vicious cycle of rising
unemployment. We need to invest to create jobs and to create prosperity for the people that we
represent; and in so doing, we can't lose faith in our city and where we're going to go. We have
to accept this challenge. We have to rise to the occasion of the day. Let us not sit idly and let
the world pass us by. You know, it's very easy to say no. I believe this is not why we get elected.
We get elected to act. We get elected to be decisive. We get elected to lead and not be afraid to
say yes and not be afraid to face up to challenges. Finally, let me say this. These agreements
may not be perfect. As a lawyer -- and I'm looking at another lawyer -- I can tell you that no
agreement ever is. As a lawyer, I could also tell you that if one side is very happy, that is a
transaction that is a recipe for failure. Every transaction is about give and take. This deal has
been very carefully negotiated, very carefully crafted, and there are many pieces, obviously, that
make up this very large puzzle that is now before you. When all parties to a deal are not happy,
when all parties to a deal did not get everything they wanted, you know that you have negotiated
a fair deal, and you know that you have the greatest chance of success. President Obama
recently said that we cannot allow the perfect to prevent us from enjoying the good. And so
today, in your hands, after ten years, it is time to seize the moment, or we can choose to allow a
40 plus acre parcel of land to remain vacant in the middle of our city in the heart of Little
Havana. We can choose to invest in Little Havana. We can choose to take those 40 acres that
sat idle for all but six days of the year and make it home now to a new baseball stadium, retail
shops, restaurants, and yes, possibly even a hotel. We can take those 40 acres that sat idle for
all but six days and make it create jobs for thousands, inject millions of dollars into our
economy, and create a sense of pride for a neighborhood that has long served as the entry point
for so many in search of the American Dream. We can take this investment and create thousands
of jobs at a time when thousands are losing their jobs. We can continue to position Miami
competitively with other great American cities. We can create opportunities for our children and
our grandchildren to grow up in a city where they will be able to watch a Major League
Baseball game. At the beginning, I talked about our threshold question. And that was, what is
in the best interest of the people ofMiami today and the people in Miami in the future? All of
these, I believe, are important obligations. And these are obligations that we can achieve, and
we can achieve today, and we can achieve with other people's money. It is time, once and for
all, for us to decide. In your hands today is the fulfillment of the dreams of many that have
worked for many years on this project, and in your hands will be the future enjoyment through
jobs and through recreation offuture generations ofMiamians. You have supported this deal in
the past, and I ask for your support one last time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman, I'm going to proceed and complete my brief introduction of the
agreements. Larry will then talk about the origin of the funding sources that we're using, and
then we will be hearing from the County mayor. We have 40 acres at the Orange Bowl, out of
which our plan is to convey to the County a total of 17 acres, 14 of which are for the stadium,
and 3 acres of those are for a public plaza. And the public plaza, in my opinion, is one of the
great benefits to the City ofMiami and to that community. It's a plaza that is about two blocks
long by one block wide and will be available all year long to the residents of that community.
We convey the land to the County; and the County, through the Team, will have the consfruction
of the stadium accomplished. Something very significant about the stadium is that the -- there is
a guaranteed maximum price that is being worked on, and that the team will be responsible for
the cost overruns. If these agreements are approved today, we're looking at consfruction in July
of this year, so this is really one of those ready -to -go projects that can have an impact on our
economy immediately. With reference to the parking garages, which are the responsibility of the
City, we plan to construct -- it's four buildings that will serve for parking structures. And we
would also make available six parcels that will provide surface parking for a minimum of 5,500
spaces. The parking structures and parking facilities in total are estimated to cost 94 million.
That's a figure that I generated back in November of '07. I know that prices after that went up
and then have come down, and we feel that those prices today should be within many ten, no
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more than fifteen percent of the original estimate made in November of '07. The consfruction is
estimated to start in early 2010. Since the garages is a project that can be accomplished in
about 20 months, while the stadium requires the early start, because they do require about 30
months to be able to do their construction. We also have a responsibility with the County to
provide the public infrasfructure that will serve the stadium and also the garages, and this
includes utilities, like water and sewer, gas, telecommunications, electrical lines, sidewalks,
streets, sfreet lighting, et cetera. We will share with the County on the public infrastructure, and
it's one of those elements of the project that will have a lot of opportunity for local involvement,
since I know that we have an abundance of contractors locally that do specifically that kind of
work. The public infrastructure is the item that, in today's agenda, requires a waiver of the
formal competitive bidding process. We are recommending to the Commission that they support
that waiver. And I can tell you from my own personal experience that I've been involved in many
projects having to do with these type of improvements, I can get it done. However, I think it's
imperative that we have Hunt/Moss, who's the contractor that will be doing the stadium, to also
be responsible for the public infrasfructure. As a manager, I can tell you that that will protect
the City because it will control potential increases; it will control the risk of finger pointing as to
who's responsible for what. That protects the City and the County, so it's very significant;; and
that's why we are supporting that waiver. We also have, with the remaining lands, an
opportunity for development, potential hotel, potential commercial development. We have eight
acres available for that purpose. Besides that, there is something that is very, very significant.
We have a neighborhood in the City ofMiami that is willing to accept a stadium. Sometimes it's
difficult to place any kind of institution in any location in the City. Here we have a
neighborhood that lived in good harmony with the Orange Bowl for many years and is willing
and looking forward to have this new stadium in that neighborhood. We also have a
responsibility at the City level to provide improvements to that community, so this is not just a
baseball stadium. That's why the City is committed to looking into other potential improvements
around the stadium, like enhanced sfreet lighting, additional street improvements, additional
landscaping, to ensure that the stadium harmonizes with the community and that we do
something for the community that is willing to receive the stadium. Also, as the Mayor said, this
is the right moment, the right moment because consfruction is at a low. The cost of construction
is going to be level, if not, lower, and also because we have a high level of unemployment,
especially of construction people. And these are the construction individuals that can find a job
in a project such as this. I'm going to be asking now for Larry Spring, our chief financial officer,
to give you more detailed information as to the origin of the funding that we plan to use for each
one of these elements. Larry.
Larry Spring: Commissioners, Larry Spring, chief financial officer. Since the BSA (Baseball
Stadium Agreement) -- the passing of the BSA, we've continued to develop our financial model
with regard to our funding obligations for the -- required on the stadium agreements. As the
City Manager's pointed out, the City has four or five different funding categories that we've --
are -- committed ourselves to in these agreements. There is a $13.5 million contribution to the
stadium consfruction itself. Over the past 18 months, those funds have been secured, via CDT
(Convention Development Tax) funds that have been provided to the City from the County prey --
oh, excuse me, CDT funds that were provided from the County to MSEA (Miami Sports and
Exhibition Authority), as well as sales proceeds that were transferred from MSEA to the City of
Miami. With regards to the public infrastructure obligation, we estimate that obligation to be
roughly around $12.4 million. The City has sfreet bonds [sic], proceeds, sunshine state loan
proceeds, as well as sanitary sewer bond proceeds. It should be noted that the use for the
stadium purposes, with regards to the Orange Bowl redevelopment, were already approved by
the City Commission; and another note is the public infrastructure work at the site would be
work that the City would have had to do regardless if it was this project or any other project.
With regards to our funding obligation to the parking facility, we have an obligation to deliver a
minimum of 5,500 parking spaces for the stadium and for general public purpose use. Estimated
at around $94 million, we expect to be able to finance that via the proceeds -- the bond proceeds
derived from the CDT revenues that will be provided by the County, and those -- that agreement
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will be approved and are memorialized in the CDT interlocal agreement that's before you today.
In addition, the City has gone through great pain in negotiating parking revenue structure with
the Team that calls for a minimum bulk sales price for every single parking space for every
single home game of the soon -to -be Miami Marlins. Between those two sources, we expect to
generate at least the $94 million and have built-in cushion to be able to expand that -- those
bond proceeds as necessary. Also, the City is obligated to make a annual contribution of
250,000 a year towards the capital expenditure fund for maintaining the stadium itself. Again,
we expect that we will be able to meet that obligation via the CDT revenues that are being
provided by the various agreements, as well as the additional revenues generated on -site; that
would include advertising, other parking, so on and so forth. However, in my model, I have
included them specifically from the CDT revenues that we expect to get from the County. There's
also an obligation towards a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
contribution to ensure that the stadium meets silver LEED certification. That obligation is a
$1.75 million requirement. Again, we expect to be able to meet that obligation from the bond
proceeds derived in delivering the parking garage. Again, the documents -- and our City
Attorney can get into this in more detail -- allow for the City to receive a credit towards that $1.7
million obligation, as we add qualifying elements -- LEED elements to our parking obligation.
So this is not necessarily an additional cost on top of the delivery of the stadium. Finally, the
pre -site development requirements, again, these are things that the City would have had to do
regardless of the project; demolition of the old Orange Bowl stadium, environmental testing and
remediation. These funds -- this approximate -- actually, these expenditures have already been
made. They amounted to approximately $3.3 million. Those expenditures were paid from CDTs
that were previously transferred from the stadi -- from MSEA, as well as Homeland Defense
Series 1 bond proceeds that were approved by the voters for the Orange Bowl redevelopment. I
would say on top of this, I would like to just add to the record that, again, in negotiating with the
Team and the County, we have, from the City's perspective, made sure that we've negotiated
prices, secured funding for this site. We have a site, again, that is essentially vacant right now,
from the City's perspective. We have secured financing, revenues from the City and the County -
- I mean, excuse me, from the County and the Team that will assist in the City meeting its
obligations. Based on our number runs and what we see today, we do not expect to have any
impact on our general fund, whatsoever. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, Larry. At this time, we call up to the mike Mayor Carlos Alvarez
from the County. Mayor, welcome to City Hall, sir. Always a pleasure.
Miami -Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez: Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners. Thank
you very much for the invitation. I think you all know where I stand on this issue. I'm here to
ask for your vote. I can tell you that, just like Mayor Diaz said, today is decision day, but this
subject matter is nothing new. I can tell you that, when I first made my decision to run for
mayor, late 2002, early 2003, that was one of the first things that I had to come to grips with,
whether I would be supportive of utilizing public funds for a construction of a Marlins stadium;
and back then, six years ago, I came to the decision that I would. So it's nothing new. It's
something that's been around for probably, in talking to the Mayor last night, as long as he's
been mayor, which is eight years; but today is decision day. Let me tell you a little bit about why
I made the decision five, six years ago to be in favor of utilizing public funds for the construction
of a Marlins stadium. First of all, I looked at what it meant for our community. We all talk
about having a great city, a great community. Well, you know, if you go around the world, if you
go around this country, you will realize that there's a number of things that make up a great city,
and one of them, not all of them, not the most important one, but one of them is the fact that you
have major league sports. Here, we have football and we have basketball, and we used to have
hockey, but they moved a little bit north, and we're lucky enough to have Major League Baseball.
And quite frankly, they might never win another World Series, but they've won two. They've
between pretty successful. And I remembered what this community was like when those two --
when the team went to the World Series and it was unbelievable. So I looked at, you know, what
does a team mean to this community? It means a lot. It means that we are investing in the future
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of our community. A lot of people say, well, you know, you're building a stadium for the
Marlins. Well -- but what are we getting in return? Well, we're getting the fact that we're going
to have a Major League Baseball franchise playing here in the City ofMiami, not the Florida
Marlins, but the Miami Marlins, for the next 35 years. Quite frankly, I think that that's
important. That's a step in the right direction in making us a great city, such as New York and
Chicago, L.A. (Los Angeles), and so on and so forth. So that's why I reached my decision. Back
then it was like, you know, why are you going to build a stadium for folks that are rich? Well,
we're not building a stadium for folks that are rich. We're building a stadium for us, you know.
We're going to own the stadium. The Marlins are going to give a down payment and pay rent,
and they're going to be playing in our stadium for the next 35 years. And I think that the fact
that they are making a commitment to stay here in Miami, in your city, for the next 35 years, is
extremely important. And that's why I supported it back then. Obviously, economic development
- - and when you talk about economic development, it's just like if you have, you know, ten
lawyers in a room, five will give you an opinion this way, and five will give you that one. When
you talk about whether a stadium actually does anything for economic development, if you have -
- if you talk to five economists, they'll tell you -- five of them will tell you that it does, five you tell
you that it doesn't. But the fact of the matter is -- and this was a lower priority in my mind when
I made the decision five or six years ago, but it's changed. And that's what the Mayor said.
Jobs. Back then our unemployment rate was probably at three percent, three point two, three
point four. Well, now it's upwards of seven, probably more if you count the people that want to
work full time and can only find a part-time job. So it's upwards of ten percent. That's what it
means right now. Our decision today, your decision here, our decision in the County will affect
approximately 2, 000 jobs that could start working in three months in an area that's been hard
hit. And that's consfruction. If you talk to the folks at the Beacon Council, that the one area that
has suffered the most in our community. There has been a reduction of almost 16 percent, 15.7
percent in the area of construction, and that's why it's so important. You know, things change.
Things change over time. The fact is that our financing is over a 35 year period. Now, four
years ago, we wouldn't be worried about financing. We'd be worried about it and make sure that
everything was all right, but we wouldn't be worried about the financing like we are today.
Why? Because the economy has taken a downturn. But I can tell you that over 35 years, it's
going to go like this; and I can tell you that, personally, I'm a very conservative person. And I've
told the Manager that whatever agreement we come with, it has to be very conservative, based
on historical facts, based on a history of things. And no, it's not a perfect agreement, and it's
probably not the best agreement that the City could get. It's certainly not the best agreement the
County would get, and if you talk to the Marlins, it's certainly not the best agreement they could
get. So everybody has given a little bit. Everybody has negotiated for a long time and, like I
said, it's decision day. Quite frankly, right now, it means a lot. It's jobs, jobs, and jobs. And like
the Mayor, like Mayor Diaz, I do take exception to some of the articles that have been written,
you know. There will be good jobs. There was one article in particular that said in the short
term, there will be good jobs. They agreed to that. There will be high paying, good consfruction
jobs, in the short term. Didn't explain what the short term was, though. Short term is almost
three years. Who wouldn't want a job for three years, a high -paying construction job, if you
don't have a job right now? The other thing was that, yeah, okay; and after the three years, what
we're going to have is a bunch of minimum wage jobs. I truly took exception to that because I
came to this country as a political refugee in 1960, and my father parked cars at the
Fontainebleau, and he didn't have minimum wage; it was tips. That's what it was. We lived off
tips. And if you would have told my mother or my sister or myself that my father didn't have a
good job, we would have thought you were crazy because that's what paid the rent, paid the
phone bill, paid the electric bill, and put food on our table. And it means thousands of jobs for
the next 35 years. And quite frankly, they won't be at the Orange -- they won't be at Dolphin
Stadium because they'll leave. They'll leave because they are a private institution, and they're
there to make money. People are afraid that the Marlins will make money. I hope they make a
lot of money because if they make money, we're successful here in this community. That means
that people are going to their stadium and people are going -- having a good time, and that's
what we want. Government's not in the business of making money. We're in the business of
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providing service, improving the quality of life for people, and that's what I think this stadium
means. Now, baseball, you know, in the big scheme of things, when people are losing their jobs,
it's just a piece of the puzzle, but it's an important piece of the puzzle. When you talk about New
York, what do you talk about? You just don't talk about the museums. You talk about the
museums. You talk about the parks, the theater, restaurants. It's just a piece of the puzzle. And
quite frankly, I fruly believe that it would be a shame if we had a major league franchise leave
our community because, after 10 years of negotiation, we couldn't come up with a contract. And
let me just reiterate one thing -- because I understand that this has been a big issue, and quite
frankly, rightly so -- and that is the status of our economy right now. We live in the greatest
country in the world, and we will overcome this economic downturn. And all you have to do is
look at the history of the CDT and the TDT (Tourist Development Tax) and the sports franchise
tax, and you will see that even in the worst of times, in the worst of times, after September 11,
there was growth. Wasn't as much growth, but there was growth. Think back 35 years. I know
where I was. I was at FIU (Florida International University). I was a senior in FIU. How many
things have occurred in 35 years? That's what we're planning for. Will there be ups and downs?
I think we have come up with a better plan because of what has occurred, and we have seen
some of the things that could occur 10 years from now, and we have learned from those -- from
that information. I can tell you that this hasn't been an easy process. I've had to, on many
occasions, give my County Manager a lot of medication to keep him going. But quite frankly, I
think that this is the best deal that we can come up with. I'm asking for your support. I'm asking
for your vote. Thank you very much.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right.
Applause.
Chair Sanchez: Rule number two: no clapping, okay. No clapping. No signs, no clapping.
And that way we could get through this meeting and you can hold your applause 'til -- when you
leave City Hall at the parking lot, you can do the wave, you could cheer, you could do whatever
you want. We had our City Manager address us. We would afford the opportunity to the County
Manager Burgess to speak on the issue. Sir, welcome to City Hall. Always a pleasure.
George Burgess: Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the City Commission. Good morning. I
would like to take the opportunity to thank Mayor Diaz, the City Administration, Pete, Larry, the
gang. This has not been easy. It's not been easy for the Team. It's not been easy for the City.
It's not been easy for the County. This project has been something we have been working on for
a long, long time. And we've persevered every bump in the road, and we're finally to a point
where I think it's decision time, up or down. I don't believe that, going forward without an
affirmative vote today, any time soon, if ever, are we going to have this kind of conversation
again. Opportunities come, opportunities go. This is a complicated deal. If it wasn't a
complicated deal, we would have had a deal a long time ago. It is a complex financing, but the
financing is no different than it was in the BSA. As Mayor Diaz said, what is before you today is
fundamentally the same as what was in the BSA that you approved, with some refinements, in my
judgment, things that actually improved the position of the public sector in this deal. I would
urge you not to believe those that suggest to you that somehow this deal is significantly worse
than other deals that have been struck in other major metropolitan areas in this country; frankly,
to the contrary. But I would urge you to also understand that it's almost impossible to compare
one deal to the other because every market is different, every deal is different, every situation is
different. As to the financing, my boss, Mayor Alvarez, I think said it beautifully. This is a
35 year financing. If someone were to say, why don't we take a breather and come back and
consider this in two years, I would submit to you that if we're moving forward in two years
because things have improved that, by definition, we could do the deal today because of the
construct of the financing. The financing is structured with debt that is built in the back. It's
back -loaded. When you bring those costs to the present, the costs are not significantly different
than they would be with what's called "current interest bonds." We've looked at our revenue
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streams. We've looked at them very conservatively. I understand. My hearing is good, and we
looked at things very cautiously, and we used history as an indicator. And it's interesting to
know -- and I'll share with you three numbers. Convention Development Tax dollars, since its
inception, have on average, year to year, grown by over seven percent. That's since inception.
That's over twenty -something years. The Tourist Development Tax has grown by over 6 percent
since its inception. The Professional Sports Franchise Tax has grown by over five percent,
roughly five and a half I believe, since its inception. We're running numbers as conservative as
a 35-year average of 4 percent. As the Mayor said, things go up, things go down; averages, by
definition, compensate for the ups and the downs. And with that kind of conservative
assumption, we have sufficient capacity to do the same deal that we talked about a year ago
when we were talking about the BSA. We have researched the Team's ability to secure its debt,
to meet its obligations. We validated, as the estimates have progressed, the cost of the stadium,
the validity of the estimate, the validity of the schedule. We have done very good work at
negotiating away government cause to overrun risk. The team has assumed it in all of the public
infrastruction. That's an enormous concession. When you look at all of the different concerns
we had, from is itfinanceable? Can the team meet its obligations? Can we protect government
from overruns? We have successfully, in my judgment, done all of those as best we could, given
the circumstances. We wouldn't be here before you today if we didn't believe that this works.
And yes, it creates jobs. It creates economic opportunity. What it also does is it continues the
right thing to do as a region, and that is invest in significant public infrastructure in our urban
core. And that -- it isn't about one project; it isn't about two. It's about a sustained, continued
recognition that public investment in the urban core will ultimately fuel private investment, and
we will bring people closer to where they work, pedestrian activity where it belongs; and this is
one small component of that bigger initiative. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. At this time, Bob DuPuy.
Bob DuPuy: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, my name is Bob DuPuy. I'm the president of
Major League Baseball, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak for a few minutes in favor of a
ballpark for the soon -to -be Miami Marlins. I would like to thank Mayor Diaz, Manager
Hernandez, Mr. Spring, and the entire City attorneys, the entire staff and of course, Mayor
Alvarez and County Manager Burgess and their entire staff for spending literally hundreds and
hundreds of hours to get us to where we are today, and that is, with a chance to save Major
League Baseball for generations to come in South Florida. The decision to utilize public funds
for any project is obviously your work, and I would not be presumptuous enough to come here
from New York and suggest how you should do that. I would only say that I have been involved
in more than a dozen of the twenty-one new ballparks that have been built by communities since
the early 90's. In every one of those, there has been vigorous debate and often acrimony; and in
every single one of those instances, that debate has dissolved as these wonderful ballparks have
been built and it served as destination points and it served as places of joy for millions and
millions of fans. A year ago I stood here, and I told you about what's happened in some of the
communities where major league parks have been built. I asked you to look at Baltimore and
Cleveland, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver and others, where ballparks have served as hubs of
urban development. That development goes on today, unabated, and today, Miami can join that
list of communities. I'd like to provide just a few examples of what I think a Major League
Baseball facility can provide and only a Major League Baseball facility can provide. A place
where 30,000 local fans can gather with a sense of community, with a sense of purpose, and a
sense of pride 80 times a year for affordable family entertainment; coverage in the newspapers
of the world every single day, from February to October, and frankly, most other days during the
off-season. If you travel in Latin America, you travel in Asia, you travel in Europe and you see
Hanley Ramirez shirts and Miami Marlin caps all over the world advertising your community.
When you have your long-awaited and delayed all-star game, which is a five-day celebration of
baseball, the finals of the World Baseball Classic or a World Series -- and as Mayor Alvarez
pointed out in the short history of the Marlins, you've already had two -- your city will be
showcased in 13 languages to 225 countries and over 100 million people. No brochure can do
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that for this community. A world -class academy, which is only the second that Major League
Baseball has invested in, that will produce not just good baseball players, but good citizens as
well. Mr. Chairman, no one remembers their first visit to a convention center, but almost
everyone remembers their first visit to a Major League Baseball game. Hundreds of thousands
of grandparents and parents will take their grandchildren and children to their first game.
Thousands of those may catch a foul ball or get an autograph. Each will have the memory of a
lifetime. The 20 major cities in the United States, each have a major league team and it helps
define their cities as major league. Today, you have a chance to ensure Major League Baseball
for Miami for generations to come. I ask for your support and that you vote yes. Thank you very
much.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Mr. Loria. Thank you, Bob.
Jeffrey Loria: Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, Mayors Alvarez and Diaz, and County
Managers. I wanted to take a minute ofyour time, A, thanking you for -- to thank you for letting
me speak on the record, but also to express what I've been trying to say for a long time.
Obviously, my presence in this community and -- in the community is probably the longest
running presence of any owner of a major league team here, and it's for a reason. It's because I
have an unwavering commitment to see things well done, professionally done, and to continue in
that same manner here in Miami. I just want you to know that it will continue in that same vein.
I do take exception, however, to Mayor Alvarez's comments that we may never win another
World Series. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: I knew you would. Thank you. Next speaker. Mr. Samson.
David Samson: I knew that was coming, Mayor Alvarez. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Members of the Commission, I am reminded that we have been before you many times, six times,
I guess, in the six years, to discuss this very important issue; and I wanted to clarify a few things
that have come up in recent days, weeks, months, and years that have not been stated enough or
clearly enough. The Miami Marlins, from the very beginning, have said one thing and one thing
only: The only money that could be used or that the Marlins would like to be used in a
public private partnership is money that comes from other people. Tourist dollars. We are not
interested in using money from the general revenue, whether it is money for police, for fire or for
other social services. And there is one reason for that that has not very widely been discussed,
and that is because we are members ofyour community. Even though we are private business
owners and we want to continue doing business, we recognize that in order to live here and in
order to maintain our quality of life, we need to have all the services that make this community
so great. So when we discuss becoming a partner with Miami, the City ofMiami and the County
ofMiami-Dade, from the beginning we had those parameters. So we sat with Mayor Diaz and
Mayor Alvarez, and prior to Mayor Alvarez, and George Burgess, the County Manager, and
Pete Hernandez, and all of the attorneys, and we all sat in one room many times, many hours
because we all had one goal. In a public -private partnership, there must be winners on every
side of the table. And everyone has to understand what it is they are doing and what it is they
are trying to achieve. You have heard from the Mayor, Mayor Diaz, about what the City of
Miami is trying to achieve and what the City ofMiami alone can accomplish. Your role today is
to make a decision on behalf of the City ofMiami. The County had a decision to make on a
countywide basis. What is the benefit of having baseball in Little Havana? What is the benefit of
having Major League Baseball period, of being a major league city? And the Team had a
decision to make, like every private company and every private business in this fine city, do we
want to do business here? And our answer, from my boss, Jeffrey Loria, has been the same from
day one in 2002. Yes. This is where we want to do business. This is where we want to build a
legacy. This is where we want to have the Museum of Baseball, a ballpark that people will come
to from all over the world. This is where we want to celebrate championships. This is where we
want to see economic development and revival. This is where we want to run our foundation to
give money and time back to the community. This is where we want players to touch the lives of
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kids, to touch the lives of the elderly, to touch the lives of people who need to be touched because
we have choices. As members of the Commission, and certainly as the Chair, and all of the
members, you have choices, too. The next thing we did is we sat down with the County and the
City and we decided, what is the best way to get to all of our goals? And we spent -- someone
today testified that it was hundreds of hours. Well, I actually counted -- I didn't sleep much last
night, as I was surfing the Internet and watching the news -- and I was able to calculate in my
new agenda that's on a computer the number of hours spent, and I can only tell you that I wish I
were compensated by the hour because then I would be in a higher tax bracket. I was paying
bed tax last night in Miami, and I will tell you that this City is waiting all over the radio, all over
TV (Television). This has been debated. This is not the first time I have been before you or this
issue has been before you. People have had an opportunity from day one to vet these issues
publicly. Anybody who tells you they have not had an opportunity is not being forthcoming.
Anyone who tells you that they think that it's either a ballpark or money to help social services,
they're not being forthcoming. Anyone who tells you that the Florida Marlins are not committed
to this community only has to look at the actions we've taken in the past six years. Forget the
World Series victories. Forget those things. I'm talking about things when the cameras are off.
Anyone can perform when the camera's on. That's not what you should look for from your
private businesses 'cause the real world operates without a camera; when we are doing services,
when we are giving food away during Christmas or toys to people who can't afford toys, or
games to kids -- or dinner to kids, forget desert. We have a rule with our foundation, Mr. Chair
and Commissioners. We will not give desert to children who cannot afford dinner. We will give
dinner. When we talk about the jobs that we create and the jobs that we have, when we talk
about our commitment to ballparks and ballfields and sports, to keeping kids off the streets and
keeping kids doing things that matter, that will make them productive members of this
community, that's what my job is; and I would say to you that I hope that that's what you believe
your job is, to take responsibility for the future, for a future that all of us, when we are no longer
here, that will be enjoyed. I am here to humbly, for the sixth time, ask for your vote so that,
finally, there will be no more votes; that you will say, once and for all, to the people, there will
be a ballpark; there will be jobs; there will be economic development; and we have satisfied and
gotten another good partner to keep this City going. Because when this economic downturn
changes, people will look to Miami and say Miami positioned itself to come out stronger than
before and ready to take on all challenges. Thank you very much for your time.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. All right. What we're going to do now is we're going to -- we're on
SP.1, and that is to approve the -- all five agreements. What we're going to do is we're going to
open it up to the public, and then we'll come back to the Commission, make a motion and a
second. Well debate it, and then we'll legislate, okay. So at this time, what I'm asking is, all
speakers who are going to speak in favor or against, you will be afforded three minutes to
address this Commission. All right. Did you sign --? The only thing that we ask is that you sign
up with the City Clerk so we could get you to come up. And when you come up, please state your
name and address clearly for the records, as we do our best to keep good public records here at
City Hall. So we'll start with the first speaker. Yes. Not everybody at once. All right.
Carlos Rodriguez: Hello.
Chair Sanchez: Good morning.
Mr. Rodriguez: Morning. My name is Carlos Rodriguez, from Urban All Development Group,
also owner ofMarlins View Holdings, LLC (Limited Liability Corporation). It's a company that
owns properties close to the stadium in 12th Avenue, between 5th and 6th Street. Also, we own
this building in 12th Avenue and 2nd Street that we just finished. I'm here because Miami is
becoming to be a global city from a small town in a tremendous pace. And this Marlins Stadium,
as Mayor Alvarez mentioned, is just part of the puzzle. This announcement about this stadium is
for us to start investing in the area, and also wanting to propose, not only the stadium. The
stadium was just the beginning. It's to create in Miami, the Marlins Sports Village as a
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destination point between 1st Sfreet to 7th Sfreet, between 12th Avenue and 17th Avenue, what is
going to be the Marlins Stadium, the soccer stadium, the Champions Hotel, the destination point
for the city. This is a tremendous engine for the City. When we talk about jobs, it's not only job
for the stadiums [sic]. It's what that is going to irrigate in the rest. For example, dreaming
about and what that contribute to the City and reading in the papers about the problems of the
garage, I say the parkings [sic] -- we have parking here in the City ofMiami. We have parking
at the Marina Stadium. We have parking in Bayside. We have parking in the airport. We can
create the marina in the river in 13th Avenue. And we have -- we can create a water taxi. So I
can give you a tremendous amount of ideas how this stadium and the surrounding area, creating
the sports village as a destination, as a new district, can bring to the City. So I'm here to support
the stadium and everything -- initiatives that can irrigate the area and create the Miami -- a
world destination point for entertainment and sports. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. State your name and address for the
record.
Mariano Cruz: Okay. Mariano Cruz, 1227 Northwest 26th Street. I have live in Miami since
1962, when I came by boat. I was picked up there I'm the Bahamas. I have been now -- being
sent back Cuba because we are wet feet -- no, it was the Bahamas by the Coast Guard that was
sent here. Since 1962, I been here. The only time I was out when I was out on the assignment as
a volunteer during the October crisis. That's when I got to use all this stuff now. Listen, there
was a saying in Cuba (Speaking in Spanish). It's going to be candy for everybody. Not for just a
few; candy for everybody. And everybody, according to the dictionary, encompass everybody,
don't leave out anybody. Now (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It was a senator there in Congress that was
saying -- asking, how come you don't make any speeches? He said, I don't need to make
speeches; I have the votes. He said, if you have the votes, you have to make speeches. So I won't
have to make the speech. We don't have the votes. But never know -- but this is -- see, I am not
against Major League. See -- you see here I am a Major League insider, okay. I have that
inside (UNINTELLIGIBLE), okay? So I am for that. I used to follow it. But the only thing is the
transparency of being done. Company without bids, how much, all that. (UNINTELLIGIBLE),
whatever. When there is a time now -- there's a lot of construction company without work. No,
we can bid. Just now there was a -- I am in the bonds advisory board of the City. I know what is
- - it was a $5 million job, and you know how much came the bid? Three point one million, and
everything the same, same specs, same thing; almost $2 million less, okay. That's it. But am
there. Since years ago, I remember going to Grapeland Park. I was a member of the Parks
Advisory Board. And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I was lobbying for the Marlins too, many, many
years ago. And we were the first in Commissioner Regalado program to ask for the Marlins to
be at the Orange Bowl site, when everybody wanted downtown, Bicentennial, blah, blah. I've
been following that 'cause I live close to the old Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium there. I used to -
- I followed everything there. And I own a house in Polk County, so I knew all the grapefruit
leagues there. No, the lakes there -- the -- Lakeland, everything, Baseball City. So I follow the
baseball. But what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is there no transparency. What are the salaries? Are
you going to follow TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program), too? Are you going to follow that?
Because you go to the Yankees, three people there, Rodriguez, Jeter, and Giambi, over $70
million one year. Over $70 million. Are they contribute anything? No.
Chair Sanchez: Mariano, in conclusion.
Mr. Cruz: Okay, in conclusion. The only thing is transparency and what are we going to get?
When people in my neighborhood complain that street -- they stop at 29th Terrace fixing the
street. What happened to the other street? There is money -- billions of dollar for a stadium.
Our quality of living has to come too. Bring some money there to Allapattah, too, okay.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
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Mr. Cruz: Bring some money to the neighborhood, too --
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Cruz: -- because we are taxpayers, too.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Mr. Cruz: Thank you.
Ramon Guillen: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) come in the morning, you know, 7:30 we been here.
Chair Sanchez: Yes, sir.
Mr. Guillen: Ramon Guillen. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the area of Dade County, Miami for 42
years. Me coming today (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I no play today. I like it -- you know, the
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) people come, the City ofMiami, they put money. Me like it.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) you know the kitchen over here and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) money,
(UNINTELLIGIBLE). No way. I like the people. You no put the stadium, the Marlins Stadium.
You know the something people (UNINTELLIGIBLE) North Miami and 2ndAvenue, northeast.
Some of the people, he say, oh, he no like the idea of the area. That a good area. you know now
I put up that big building. I got the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The people come in New York, they
put one -- 700 million all the people, you know the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Now Allapattah, you
(UNINTELLIGIBLE). Allapattah number one. And the 70 -- 57 Street and the expressway, you
know the 36 -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It got -- you know, 20, 000 people (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
boat. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Mr. Gonzalez. He got -- when Gonzalez come, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
progress with Allapattah. Some of the people tell me now, what happened, Mr. Ramon? You no
put up the stadium. I tell (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And today, the City ofMiami tell all the
Commission, Gonzalez, Joe Sanchez, Michelle, Angel, and my friend, Mr. Regalado, he said
Regalado put, you know, the stadium, the Orange Bowl. If you happy today, Mr. Regalado, you
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) put the support to the Miami and put up the stadium today.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) the people. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Commission put the support the
Miami stadium, the Miami put the support. I no play. I work (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for 42 years,
the community. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) now, Miami come up, up, up. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Manny
Diaz, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he put up more building. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), sent the
people different place, the Dominican Republican. (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, and Santo
Domingo -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE). He got the support of the Marlins. Maybe next year I look at
my family, you know, the stadium, the Orange Bowl. Thank you very much.
Chair Sanchez: So you are in favor of the stadium?
Mr. Guillen: Yeah. I support the stadium today.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
John Siegle: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Mayor Diaz, Mayor Alvarez, my name is John
Siegle, from the Construction Association of South Florida; and I'm here to talk to you about
jobs and small businesses and clarify some of the statistics. As we're all aware, South Florida
construction companies are experiencing the most abrupt and steepest construction slowdown in
more than 25 years. Just in the state of Florida, 184, 000 jobs have been lost in the last 24
months. Private and public contractors have been canceled or delayed, and we estimate that at
least 4, 000 jobs, just in Miami alone, will vanish in 2009 unless projects start. And unless
there's a change, hundreds of construction businesses will cease to exist. Small businesses with
fewer than 20 employees are especially the most vulnerable. Fortunately, there is an opportunity
to turn this situation around, and that is the -- going forward with the stadium project. This
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important project will allow many South Florida companies to survive, save jobs, expand their
payrolls and help turn this economy around. So we would like you to remember that this mustn't
be a debate about politics, policy, or who gets to spend tourist dollars. It's a debate about the
very survival of small businesses, of jobs, and our ability to sustain the local economy for years
to come. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Next speaker. Morning.
Osvaldo Vento: Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, Mayor Alvarez, Mayor Diaz. My
name is Osvaldo Vento. I am the immediate past president of the Latin Builders Association, and
I am the president and owner of Everglades Lumber. As immediate past president of the Latin
Builders, we, obviously, support the Marlins Stadium. We're advocates of an industry that's been
hurt severely, and we need jobs. But I need to speak to you as president and owner of
Everglades Lumber, a company that has been in the City ofMiami since 1940; Commissioner
Regalado, in your district. For the first time -- my family has been involved in the business since
1972. For the first time in 37 years, we've had to let a hundred families -- we've had to lay off a
hundred families, a hundred families that I believe that with this stadium and the opportunities
that are in front of you, will be able to be rehired. Just this morning -- I normally don't wear a
suit to work. They saw me in a suit; they knew I was coming here. Just this morning, three of my
guys looked at me, came up to me, and says, (Speaking in Spanish). Is this going to pass? I wish
I could have captured the anxiety in their eyes. And I said, you know what, it's going to pass. I
really believe it's going to pass because our elected officials understand the need, understand the
situation, and understand that we need to continue to create jobs in this community. Thank you
very much.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Carol Bowen: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, City Commissioners, Mayor Diaz, Mayor Alvarez.
For the record, my name is Carol Bowen. I'm the director of Government Affairs for Associated
Builders and Contractors, Florida East Coast Chapter. We are a commercial construction
association headquartered in Coconut Creek, with offices in Doral going up to Brevard County.
On behalf of our 900 member companies and their thousands of employees, I want to publicly
encourage the Commissioners to vote this project forward today. As has been explained to you
repeatedly, the stakes for this project couldn't be any higher. The economy is bad, people are
out of work, and there are no guarantees that the federal dollars will save us in the way we hope.
We need this project to move forward and we need to do so today. The project will create
thousands of construction jobs, employ hundreds of suppliers, increase much -needed foot traffic
to the surrounding local businesses and bring millions of dollars in tourism to the local
community for years to come. We simply cannot wait any longer to move forward and must vote
in support of the stadium project today. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Denise Perry: Good morning. My name's Denise Perry. My address is 164 Northwest 20th
Street. I thought the game was three strikes, you're out. And my understanding is this is the
sixth time up here, so I'm not sure if the game is understood by everyone the same way. I also
want to raise a comment to the Marlins representative who said that the dollars being spent on
this is not our money, and I strongly disagree with that. We're the ones who cleaned for that
money to serve those tourists. We gave them massages. We cooked for them. We drove them to
all the places and beautiful sights of South Florida. We earned that money to be spent in our
best interest. If this is about jobs, then does it matter what we build? Construction is
construction, whether you're building a stadium or, more importantly, a school, housing, parks,
a community center, something that serves the people ofMiami in our greatest hour of need. A
deal? A deal for who? Mayor Diaz said that we didn't understand what was going on and that
this is easy to say no. I disagree. I don't think it's about yes or no. I think it's about a
responsible decision. You say no to bad deals, and you say yes to good deals. This appears to
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be a bad deal, or is the information that we don't know what's happening behind closed doors.
What are the pay offs for everybody else because it doesn't seem to be paying off for the housing
needed in Miami, the jobs needed in Miami, to build schools. I would like to know ifAlvarez or
the County or the City, who laid off people -- and the thousands of people who need work, we're
saying to them, this is a 35 year trajectory; maybe in 35 years, you can come back to this job.
I'm concerned about the fact that the Miami Arena was a hot deal, was going to bail out
Overtown and provide us with a great future. I don't know if anyone's driven by there lately, but
that's nothing but dust. The opportunity for jobs was minimal. Those jobs were minimum wage,
and yes, they were working, but it wasn't enough to take care of their family, and now it's
nothing. The -- following the lead of our public projects that have happened, I'm concerned
about the Performing Arts Center, a bleeding, bad deal that, thanks to a wealthy woman,
brought us a little bit out of the hole, but it's still a bad deal. I'm not sure that we're all capable
of just watching our elected officials make decisions that do not respect the desire of the people.
This is also -- I'd like to represent the folks who are at the County right now. There are
thousands of people who are against this. It's difficult for us to all be in two places. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Truly Burton: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Truly Burton. I represent the Builders
Association of South Florida. We are residential and multifamily builders, located in
Miami -Dade and Broward County. Good morning, Commissioners, Mr. Manager, Mr.
Chairman, Mayors Alvarez and Diaz. I'm here today to express the support of our board of
directors for jobs. The preceding speaker related the issue about jobs. I'm here today to tell
you, as you all know -- you're heard from preceding speakers -- our industry is hurting. Our
people are hurting. They need work. They need work now. As Mr. Vento mentioned, he's got
families that he had to lay off. Our folks are in the same place. We are both in the same
industry. In fact, the one major way that a government can help its people is to propose and
approve and get started major public facilities like stadiums. We are very excited that thousands
of construction jobs and then permanent jobs will be created by this project. However, before
our board chose to support this resolution and the stadium, they wanted assurances from the
Marlins management that two things would happen. First, that all work would be bid out in a
fair, open, and competitive process so that everybody could participate, and that the majority of
work, from professional services down to construction laborers, would be drawn from the local
pool of talent here in Miami. It's a very rich talent pool, and these folks are ready to get to work.
Once the Marlins' senior management gave the Builders Association's board of directors that
assurance, our folks endorsed it. So I'm here today with pride to tell you, please say yes and
build the stadium. Thanks.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker, ma'am. Good morning.
Vonkeva Sneed: Good morning. My name is Vonkeva Sneed. This is Felicia Norris. We're
members of the Power U unit. We stay at 419 Northwest 8th Street, Apartments 204 and 201.
We are in a crisis baseball cannot answer. The City and County must stop rewarding the most
able. We must stop rewarding the slumlords and profiters. Use this money to hire the thousands
of new code inspectors needed to clean up years of neglected housing in Little Haiti, Overtown,
Little Havana, Wynwood and Liberty City. Make money by taking down slumlords like Del
Plaza, LLC. Our Commissioner, Michelle Spence -Jones, knows that there are more pressing
issues than baseball. She knows that the slumlords and profiteers of the City are killing the
people ofMiami. We will see if she and this body could do the right thing and truly protect the
people of the City. Say no to Del Plaza and to baseball. Hit a home run. Knock this deal back
to the thousand ofMiami workers at the Dolphin Stadium who will lose an entire season of pay if
you make this deal. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
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Jane Winston: Hi. My name is Jane Winston. I'm a resident of the City ofMiami and an owner
of a business in the City ofMiami, and I'm a season ticket holder of the Florida Marlins. And I
thank Mr. Loria and Mr. Samson and Mr. Beinfest for bringing us a wonderful team year in and
year out, a competitive team. I just think that -- I'm going to be redundant. I'm just going to say
that, obviously, bringing jobs -- I really want Miami to be a major league city. I think that's
really important for our city. And I think -- I grew up in a different city up north, in northeast,
and my fondest memories were as a child, going to baseball games. It's an eminently affordable
recreation activity that I'm looking forward to a whole new generation of baseball fans being
spawned here in South Florida. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker.
Shannon Reaze: Hi. I'm Shannon Reaze, with Power U Center for Social Change, address 164
Northwest 20th Street. I just want to talk for a second about the issue of jobs within this. If we
add the 2, 000 jobs that will occur over the next three years, what does that make our
unemployment rate? I bet we'll still be at the seven or eight percent once you guys get done
calculating those numbers. The major cities that the president mentioned, three of them are on
the worst cities in the nation list, three of them. We are one of them. Will this deal continue to
put us on this list, or will we actually be able to get off? I don't know how he feels about that.
Tourism dollars are for the benefit of the people, not to enable businesses to make more profits.
Baseball cannot get us out of this crisis. If the Marlins truly do love this city, they will find a way
to stay without our tourism dollars. What will the Marlins do for the slumlords all around Little
Havana? What will the Marlins do to improve the conditions of housing that people have to live
in every single day? Not baseball, not now. Fix our homes, fix our roads, support our schools
and build a green industry. That will produce more than 2,000 jobs over three years. We have
to stop having these backroom deals between private business and the government. It is truly
time that at every one of those tables, the people of this community are who are sitting there
making the decisions and deciding how our money is going to be spent. We didn't make this
decision. It has been six years of trying to get this done. We keep telling you no. I'm from
Cleveland. I went to the Indians games. It did not -- it was not what improved my home. It is
not what improved my life. The Indians didn't do it, and the Marlins will not do it for Miami.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Jose Gonzalez: My name is Jose Gonzalez. I live at 1118 Southwest loth Street, Miami.
Through this whole proceeding, I have received a lot of deceit, deception. I was taught that a
deceiver is worse than a liar. For example, Mr. DuPuy talk about the economic impact on a
stadium and the benefit that will bring. An economic study was done by the University of
Columbia and it says no arena, no stadium, no sport facility on this whole nation has contribute
to the economic benefit of a city or a county. Mr. Mayor, you are deceiving the people in here
when you talk about 2, 000 jobs. You're talking about 2,000 sophisticated jobs where they want
to put up a sophisticated building, which you guys -- ifI come in here and fry to put up a
building, the first thing that is required is the parking; and somebody forgot the parking at this
stadium, which we are going to pay for. And another thing, Mr. Loria, I have to congratulate
you. You got the best deal of a baseball team in the nation in the history of baseball. You're
getting 70 percent of our money, and you're only putting 30 percent, which, normally, it's the
other way around. You deceive the people, and you, too, because the last stadium that came to a
vote, they lost. And this one never came to a vote. Don't lie to yourself. If this has been up for
ten years, what happened with the Bobby Maduro Stadium? What happened with the land there
that was so cheap? What happened with Allapattah? It's because they are blacks or Puerto
Ricans, we cannot do it there, and now we have to do it in Little Havana? Something is wrong.
You're thinking about the big business, Mr. Mayor. And something happened the other day that
opened a little bit my eyes. My daughter-in-law went to get a permit at the County. Are you
aware that if you go to get a building permit -- and this is not related to the stadium -- you have
to pass a five -question exam; and a police officer, a doctor, an attorney, or whatever -- or
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contractor can go 20 times to pass the exam; but if you fail as a property owner, you cannot pull
the permit?
Chair Sanchez: Okay. In conclusion, sir, please.
Mr. Gonzalez: I am against the stadium. Don't do it. There is a lot of things that you can do for
this City if you are using the stimulus now as a reason for the stadium.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Gonzalez: You're welcome.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Greg Bush: Good morning. My name is Greg Bush. I'm representing the Urban Environment
League. And several of you, we've been talking about this, Joe, and Commissioner Regalado, for
ten years, ifyou recall back to Bicentennial Park days. I would like to read one very brief
comment from Tom Fiedler, back in 2000. I was looking back at a lot of clippings of the history
of all this. And he said, "When the game begins, we transform from a crowd into a community.
On this mid -summer weekend, elongated by many of us who encompass Independence Day,
would be un-American for thoughts to turn anywhere other than baseball, hot dogs and apple
pie." Well, my concern is, in many ways, a kind of mystical deference to a grand architectural
structure like a stadium as a panacea for this community. I think it's a mistake. I think, if you
take a look at the Obama Administration, if you take a look at what we, hopefully, have learned
with a lot of the fraud and deception at the national level, it comes down to the fact that there
has not been a set of public officials who've had their eyes on the ball in terms of accountability.
You guys are going to be gone from this Commission in "X" number of years, but you need to
think, as far as I'm concerned, 20 or 30 years down the road. The Miami Herald said $1.8
billion, in terms of all the bonding. There's serious questions in terms of the CDT tax money and
whether there's enough to fund all of this, and I think it's real important that the time spent on
this, which has been an argument by several people that they spent so much time on this,
including all yourselves, on this issue -- well, in one sense, shame on you, as far as I'm
concerned. You should have been spending a lot more time on other more important issues, such
as housing, such as jobs, such as other kinds of infrastructure, even parks and things that
actually bring people to the city. People don't come here for baseball games. And I think it's
real important that you get your economic minds together on this, and I thank you, and with all
due deference.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Howard Kosowsky: My name is Howard Kosowsky, from 3832 Shipping Avenue. I've been a
resident of Dade County for over 45 years; and I believe that this stadium, whether it be an
economic incentive, whether it promote jobs, whether it help us in the long run, is one of the best
investments we can make for our children, grandchildren, and hopefully, great grandchildren, to
enjoy them and enjoy them being able to enjoy the game of baseball. I've been in the
construction industry, Wand on, for as long as I've been here, and I do know that any
construction does promote jobs. I just hope that everyone honors the agreement and allows
local confractors to provide the majority of the work and enjoy most of the income that can be
generated from the stadium. In addition, I feel that it's necessary that the confractors, once they
are awarded contracts, have the opportunity to purchase their equipment from local vendors.
On the Performing Arts Center, this was not the case, and we all suffered because of it. There
are still problems that exist at the Performing Arts Center that have not been remedied, and
many of those problems were caused by vendors from outside the area providing equipment that
didn't fully meet the specifications, and we have to live with it. It is necessary that locals stay
involved because they have a vested interest in making sure that things work because they're
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local and somebody can tap them on the shoulder when a problem exists. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Madam Clerk, we need to get the clock going again. You got
it? You got it under control? All right. Next speaker. State your name and address for the
record. Three minutes.
Andy Mattes: Thank you very much. Andy Mattes, 1525 Northwest 167th Street, Miami,
Florida. I'm with Unite Here. I represent 5,000 hospitality workers here in the South Florida
area, and I'd just like to say, I think I'm qualified to talk about stadiums and jobs. I represented
workers at both Yankee and Shea stadium, and I witnessed firsthand what good quality jobs
these were. I was always struck by the fact that workers would come back year after year, and
some of them worked there 10, 20, 30 years, most of their lives. And that wasn't because they
were bad jobs; they were good jobs. These were jobs that afforded people great opportunities in
the community. These were jobs that gave people opportunities that they wouldn't have
otherwise. My three brothers are construction workers, and they work up in New York, and they
just recently completed Yankee Stadium. I can't tell you how grateful they were that the stadium
was built because it put a lot of food on the table and it put a roof over their heads. And I'd like
to close just by saying that our union is committed to this project. We entered into a labor peace
agreement with the Marlins, which means that we would give up our right to strike, picket,
boycott or promote any labor disputes because that's how committed we are to the people in this
community. And the future of those workers will have a choice that they can make on their own.
And I want to urge everybody here and the Commissioners to vote on this project because I think
it's great for the community at a very important time in our community. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Jesus Ojito (as translated by Rene Ramos, official Spanish interpreter): Good morning,
Commissioners, Mayor, administrators. My name is Jesus Ojito. I live in the City of Hialeah.
I'm here representing 5, 000 families, 5,000 signatures that requesting the stadium to be built.
They're not -- I haven't been sent by the City, by the Marlins, by anybody. I picked up these
signatures myself from cafeteria to cafeteria, restaurants and out on the street. These people,
this town wants the stadium. It's the only team that united these families when they won the
Series. We're in need of jobs. This is the moment not to make Miami the capital of the food
stamps. We have 2, 000 jobs that are going to be starting right away. I'm asking the
Commissioners at time of voting, keep it in mind that Miami lives off of tourists, not industry.
There's 80 flights today that are going to Fort Lauderdale that are going to come to Miami. The
press and the players and everybody's going to be in Miami hotels. The stadium is a necessity
for Little Havana and for the County of Dade. We have to do the museum, the river. There
might be some opposition. This is not a joke, but some people saying that the river's going to
dry. It's a lot of optimism. I want -- keep it in mind. There's 30 cities in the United States that
have a franchise of baseball. Vote with your conscious, but vote with the idea that Miami will
continue growing. I have lived in this county for 40 years. I have seen it grow, and I want it
continue to grow. Miami wants to be a big city. It has to have a franchise for baseball. I'm
asking the Commissioners to think good, think hard, and keep it in mind Miami needs it. And let
us be proud in the City ofMiami, the Miami Marlins Stadium. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Gracias. Next speaker.
Christopher Beaton: Hello. My name is Christopher Beaton. I am -- during the day, I'm a
software engineer, but more importantly, I have a master's degree in Accounting and plan to
become a PhD candidate in Accounting. I happen to be a personal friend ofJonathan Mariner,
the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) ofMajor League Baseball and the former CFO of the
Marlins; and I'm friends with their executives and entire accounting staff. And I know that the
Marlins' numbers are on the up and up. But more importantly, I'm a charter Marlins season
ticket holder, along with my wife, Sally, and I'm the only Marlins fan to attend all 33 post season
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games, the road games, as well as the home games. And more importantly, my wife and I have
attended Marlins games in 24 of the other 29 major league cities; and I have seen, firsthand,
with my wife, Sally, the incredible positive benefit that these new stadiums have had in the
surrounding area, such as Cleveland, Baltimore, Denver, Phoenix, and Seattle, where I attended
last year. I've seen the benefit that those neighborhoods that are decrepit become rejuvenated
and a gleaming metropolis, with the stadium as its crown jewel. For the most part, culture
vultures don't go into other cities to see the symphony. My second favorite hobby after Marlins
baseball is classical music, and for the most part, people don't plan vacations to Miami to see
Michael Tilson Thomas in the New World Symphony, even though I love them, or formerly,
James Judd in the Philharmonic. They do go plan vacations, like my wife and I do, to other
cities to see their stadium and to see their team, the other city. And I guarantee you that that will
happen here. I strongly encourage a vote for this proposal. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Good morning.
Herschel Haynes: Good morning, sir. My name is Herschel Haynes, and my address is 4601
Northwest 15th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33142. And I'm chairman of the Hadley Park/Model
City Homeowners Association, cochair ofMNU, Miami Neighborhoods United, an organization
that represent 18 communities, 18 other organizations. And we are here this morning to ask you
to vote no in opposition to this stadium. People we represent pay a great deal of taxes, and it's
so many other critical needs in the City ofMiami, not to mention Dade County. We just heard
from our two mayors -- not too long ago, we were at the Marti, and one of our mayors was there,
Mr. Alvarez, and part of the discussion was about transportation, among other needs within the
Greater Mi -- within Miami -Dade County. And so we have a lot of major issues that needs to be
looked at in terms of priorities aside from looking at a baseball stadium. And the reason for that
is the citizens have been denied the right to vote on this particular issue, and the other reason is
that one of our mayors, Manny Diaz, said that it's ideal to use other people's money. We don't
have a problem with that, and that speaks to why people whom we represent would like to see the
people who have an ownership in this -- going to have an ownership eventually in the stadium,
which is the Miami Marlins -- the City ofMiami is not going to get any worthwhile revenue
generated from this stadium. And so then -- and the other reason is one of our mayors made
reference to our children. A huge debt in 35 years of financing a project for 35 years is going to
be paid over 35 years. A lot of people's hard work and children are going to have to pay for that
debt. And so for that reason -- not to mention one other reason. Professional baseball is not
hard up for money; we know that because they pay upwards to 70, $80 million to one player, so
we know that they have -- and are sitting on a lot of money. So we would just ask them to look at
a source of funding from another area; basically, the money that they're sitting on --
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Haynes: -- would be a good idea to use that money to build the stadium.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Haynes: Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Elvis Cruz: Thank you. Elvis Cruz, 631 Northeast 57th Street. Commissioners, those speakers
who spoke in favor of this 335-page contract today haven't talked about the details very much for
a simple reason. It's a terrible deal. I have put on your dais this yellow sheet with 32 different
pitfalls, a very insightful article written by Michael Louis ofMiami Today. The devil is in the
details and the details are described there. Instead, the speakers have talked about jobs that
would be created. So here's a great compromise. Let the Marlins get a loan to buy the land at
the old Miami Arena site, just like any private business should have to do; and let them build
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their own stadium, just like Joe Robbie did and other stadiums have done around the country.
Let Major League Baseball guarantee the loan; you'd have a stadium constructed and you'd
have the jobs. Interest rates are very low right now. If the Marlins are such a good business,
they should have no problem getting a loan. If the Marlins are not such a good business, should
we be getting into a partnership with them? But how would we know either way when the
Marlins have refused to open up their books? Some people have said we have to give the
Marlins this corporate welfare, super sweetheart deal or they will leave. Does it bother you that
they're trying to leverage us that way? And if they aren't really committed to staying with us,
why should we be so eager to commit to them? The people have never voted on a new Marlins
Stadium. In 2004, we did vote to approve $50 million to renovate the existing Orange Bowl, not
to have it demolished and replaced by a new Marlins Stadium. It can be argued that that
majority of voters that voted to renovate the Orange Bowl wanted to keep that historic structure
from the 1930s and could conceivably have been against the concept of having it torn down. In
closing, I am asking this Commission, especially my district Commissioner, Marc Sarnoff, and
the two declared candidates for mayor, Commissioner Regalado and Commissioner Sanchez, to
place this 335-page contract on the ballot. Let there be a referendum. Let the people vote.
Commissioner Sanchez, in your invocation you spoke about the importance of protecting
democracy. Please do so. Please let the people vote. Failing that, I ask you to vote no on this
today.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Cruz: Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Luis Herrera: My name is Luis Herrera. I live at 1181 Southwest 22nd Terrace, president of
Vizcaya Homeowner Association. First of all, the Marlin [sic] is private sector and it's a
private. Last year, the baseball make $18 million (UNINTELLIGIBLE); and why the citizen of
Miami, we have to be use our money in the stadium when he can provide their own stadium in
the City ofMiami, especially now when the -- we have the school fry to the teachers working --
taking one day off. If the stadium makes so much money, why they don't -- if they make the proof
of that kind of money, give it to the school that we need it right now, instead of the teachers
getting less money. This is ridiculous to approve our money in the stadium to have a Marlin
[sic] Stadium. I love the Marlin [sic] Stadium. I want the stadium, but it's a private company.
Let him put his money in the stadium, and let him do it by himself not with our money. Thank
you.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Phil Trucks: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Phil Trucks. I'm the vice president of
South Florida Building Trades, 14105 Northwest 58th Court, Miami Lakes. I'm here
representing about 4,000 construction workers that live in Miami -Dade and the City ofMiami,
and we're here in support of the stadium. One thing that hasn't been said today that we're
harping on is jobs, jobs, jobs. These jobs are not going to be minimum -wage jobs. The Marlins
have agreed. If you agree to this and the County agrees later on, these will be good -paying jobs
with benefits, with health insurance, that come with these jobs. These are not minimum -wage
jobs. With all due respect, all these buildings that you see up and down this road that have been
built in the last few years, none of them can say that. And you've sat in here and approved all
those businesses that do that. So I'm here to ask for your support. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Next speaker. Good morning.
Luis Morales: Morning, Mr. Mayors and Commissioners and members of the board,
distinguished members of the press and visitors, people in general. My name is Luis Morales. I
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live at 1143 Southwest 22nd Terrace, Miami. I have a couple of questions and worries that are
not only mine, but I spoke to several residents of the City and they also have these worries and
questions, so I'm trying to bring them to you. I would like to address Mr. Sanchez, which is my
Commissioner, if you can answer. My first question is: Do you have at this time -- and this is
specific and difficult moment that we have in the economy of this country -- a final figure for the
cost of this stadium? How much of this money is going to be public, because we're going to use
bonds, which is, at the end, our responsibility? And how much of this money is going to be
private? Also -- it's going to be short.
Chair Sanchez: No, hold on. You've got questions. They'll come through the Chair.
Mr. Morales: Okay.
Chair Sanchez: The Administration will answer your question. Does this -- In other words, does
the City have the financing that we're required to provide for the stadium? That's the question.
Our side.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes, we do. We fully have it in place.
Commissioner Sarnoff I think his question is, break it down. How much?
Chair Sanchez: Break it down as to what we're putting, which is $13 million
Mr. Hernandez: We have --
Chair Sanchez: -- and then the parking lot.
Mr. Hernandez: -- it's 13.5 million going towards the stadium as our contribution to the
stadium, and that's basically convention development tax dollars. Then for the parking garages,
it's 94 million, part of which is funded by convention development tax, and the other -- 60
million, convention development tax -- and the remainder is paid with the parking revenue
stream that the Team will provide by committing to buy, for the full season, all the parking
spaces, with the exception of 250. With those two funding streams, we have the sufficient amount
of money to be able to construct, operate, maintain the four garages. Outside of that, we have
the public infrastructure, which is estimated with contingencies to be at a range of 24 million.
We're sharing those costs with the County, and those monies are coming from street bonds, are
coming from sanitary/sewer bonds that we have in place, and also from sunshine state loan
funds.
Mr. Morales: May I --?
Chair Sanchez: Were you satisfied with the response?
Mr. Morales: May I speak? I'm part of the county, too, so when I'm paying taxes, I also pay
taxes -- so you said 30 million is the public -- part of the money that the City will pay. In
general, with the -- including the County, how much it's going to be? Do you -- can somebody
answer? Because I suppose you're working together, right, so I suppose you have been able to
answer that question.
Chair Sanchez: The total financing.
Mr. Hernandez: The stadium is 515 million. The County contribution to it is 347 million. The
City is providing 13 towards the stadium and is providing 94 million towards the parking
garages. I think the overall figure is like 610, plus or minus. You have to -- something that is
very, very critical here is that the -- all this CDTs and TDTs and all of these monies are monies
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that come from a tax on bed -- what is called a bed tax. It is taxes on tourism. And those dollars
can only be used for specific purposes. They can only be used for stadiums, convention centers,
those kind of things. Those are dollars that are earmarked to be reinvested into the community
to have attractions and amenities that will reinforce our tourism position.
Mr. Morales: My second question is --
Chair Sanchez: How many questions do you have there?
Mr. Morales: It's only three questions. That's it.
Chair Sanchez: Three? Okay.
Mr. Morales: Can you guarantee at this moment that no monies from the taxes of the citizens of
the City ofMiami is going to be used, except the bonds for this project?
Chair Sanchez: Once again, Mr. City Attorney, you could answer that -- Mr. City Manager.
Mr. Hernandez: We have no City ofMiami general funds for any of this work, period.
Chair Sanchez: Zero.
Mr. Morales: Zero. Okay. My third question is, have you think about the fraffic problem of this
stadium? We don't have any major road, except 836, which is already a problematic route, that
serve the project -- place of this stadium will be built. And we don't have any Metrorail station
close to that place either. So have you think about how you're going to solve that problem?
Chair Sanchez: That has been looked into, and Mr. City Manager.
Mr. Hernandez: I'll be quick on that. Basically, we have to keep in mind that the Orange Bowl
used to have a capacity of 75,000, upwards of that, and because of the fact that it sits within a
very good grid of streets and avenues, it used to, I would say, handle the fraffic reasonably well,
considering 75,000 in attendance for big games. But having said that, we're also working with
the County in providing trolley services from the Civic Center Station on 12th Avenue near
Jackson, and also, possibly from the Government Center Station in downtown Miami. We're also
planning to have meetings with the Miami -Dade Expressway Authority to look at improvements
that can be made for the on- and off -ramps to the 836 to improve the viability of traffic.
Mr. Morales: Is this transportation going to be free, or it's going to be paid by the people who is
going to use it?
Mr. Hernandez: The trolley service, I believe that it's something that we accounted for. I don't
think that a final -- I cannot tell you right now whether the trolley service from the Metrorail
station to the stadium will be free of charge. I think that that may be part ofyour ride. If you're
going by rail, I think that that will be a service that will be provided, but it's something that we
have to continue to explore with the County.
Chair Sanchez: All right.
Mr. Morales: Because somebody has to pay for that --
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Morales: -- if it's coming from our taxes or it's coming from the pocket of the people using
it. So, you know --
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Chair Sanchez: Thank --
Mr. Morales: -- we need to have it -- Okay, and finally, I want to refer you to the history of
projects like this. For example, the stadium that was built, the Miami stadium -- the old Miami
stadium that was built for the Panthers, that was a total disaster because it was a public -- totally
public project, which is almost this. And the other side, we have the AAA (American Airlines
Arena) arena, the one for the Heats [sic]. It's a very good situation with that stadium. That's the
reason why I don't support a project like this.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Morales: Thank you very much.
Chair Sanchez: Next speaker.
Robert Fournier: My name is Robert Fournier. I live at 2070 Northwest 13th Street. It's in the
vicinity of the Orange Bowl. Saturday I went out to buy a brand-new car. I have a credit card
from the General Motors with $3,400 credit. And I said I'm going to buy a car this weekend. I
brought my checkbook. Well, I picked out the car, was doing the paperwork, and the salesman
said to me, you're lucky; this is the last car at that price. I got up and left. Now that's what I'm
recommending today. The sales talk is not proper that I've heard here from the promoters. Now,
I'm not against the stadium, but I'm against Miami building the parking garage. Now, we just
heard what it's going to cost, and I -- my readings tell me it's going to cost the general revenue
of the City ofMiami between two and three million dollars a year to operate the parking
garages. We'll go on, talk about cars. The future of any city in the United States is going to be
the mass transit system. With the price of gasoline being five, six, seven, eight dollars, it's going
to be a mass transit. Can our Mayor tell us how much money our mass transit system is going to
lose by not having the stadium built on the transit line, like downtown at the old arena site, for
instance? If 5,000 people attend each game, and 5,000 senior citizens attend, which get free
travel -- but if 5,000 attend each game, that's $20, 000 per game. That is $1.8 million a year into
the County transit line just by placing that stadium downtown Miami. Now, my third point is
jobs, jobs, and more jobs. If these guys want to create jobs, we can turn that 40 acres into a
strawberry field and hire people who do not get minimum wage, who don't get benefits,
healthcare and who do not qualify, because they're part-timers, for unemployment insurance.
Now, I'm asking each and every one of you, do you want to be part of a slave labor system for a
multimillion -dollar operation? That's -- you need to think that one over. I'm not against the
stadium. I think it should be downtown. That guy wants to swap that land at the arena for the
Orange Bowl site, do it.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir.
Eric Knowles: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Mayors. Eric Knowles, chairman of the board of
the Miami -Dade Chamber of Commerce. I just came up to say that the board has unanimously
voted to support this initiative. Wearing my other hat, I want to thank the Marlins for all the
good work that they do in the South Florida community. Nancy Olsen and the Foundation, you
continue to support and push youth initiatives, and that's what we need. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker. No, no. Go ahead. You're there already.
Bill Diggs: Good morning. Bill Diggs, president/CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the
Miami -Dade Chamber of Commerce. And thank you so much for taking this time out to talk
about this important initiative. Some years ago when the stadium was discussed being built, we
came down to County hall and to City Hall, and one of the things we talked about was making
sure that there was meat in this initiative for black businesses because, at the end of the day, the
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Miami -Dade Chamber of Commerce is the largest organization that supports black -owned
business, not only in this community, but in all of Florida. Many of our members have lost jobs.
Many of our members have lost contracts, many of their businesses are closing because of the
loss of opportunity. This stadium opportunity for us means great news. It means great news
because when we talked about this and we talked about putting more meat on the bone, we met
with Mayor Alvarez, we met with County Manager Burgess, we've met with Larry Spring, and
then, finally, we met with the Marlins. The Marlins, as a private business partner of this
community, has stepped up to the plate in what we consider to be a substantial and monumental
way. To be quite honest with you, this is a model that the nation needs to take a look at. There
is a firm partnership that exists between the Florida Marlins and the Miami -Dade Chamber of
Commerce and black -owned businesses to the tune that they have agreed to create a
procurement opportunity, an agreement between ourselves that would mandate that 15 percent
of all procurement through this opportunity comes to black -owned businesses. This is the first of
its kind. From our perspective, it's not only monumental, but it signals what other people in this
community need to follow. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a critical point. It's absolutely about
jobs. But it's about economic development. It's about making sure that those that are the least of
us have an opportunity to participate. We formed an agreement with the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and their thousands of members and Bishop
Curry some time ago to attack this issue, to talk about it. This is the result of a partnership and a
collaboration between our organizations. This is not only something that we are making sure
that happens, this is something that needs to happen because, from a long-term perspective,
we're talking about 30 years of economic growth in the black business community. So when you
talked earlier about Puerto Ricans and African Americans and people of color not participating
in this great economic engine, this is happening because of this deal. This deal doesn't happen,
that economic engine does not run. We need to make sure that the Marlins have the opportunity
to help black business to grow in our community. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Yes, sir. Next speaker.
Ricardo Gonzalez: Good morning. My name's Ricardo Gonzalez. I'm here representing
Kiwanis of Little Havana, as their president. Our board of directors passed a resolution in
support of the stadium. As Mayor Diaz said before, we think it'll bring relevance to -- more
relevance to Little Havana and a great addition to the quality of life of the residents. But Mr.
Samson, our offices are two blocks from where the stadium will be, and our focus is the children
of that community; and we look forward, as our new neighbor, to work with you in -- with the
kids of Little Havana in the Miami area. So we're here in support of the stadium. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you so much. Next speaker.
Marc Berenfeld: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, my name is
Marc Berenfeld. I'm here today representing the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, as its
chairman. We represent over 800 businesses and 1,600 members not only in Coral Gables, but
throughout South Florida. And because of the positive effect the stadium will have for our local
businesses and economy, and to further project the image of Miami to the country and to the
world as a major international city and destination, I'd like to report to you that the board of
directors of the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce supports the Florida Marlins baseball
stadium and the positive impact it will have on our local economy. Thank you very much.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning.
Ken Knight: Good morning, Commissioners, and Mayor, and Mr. Chair. I'm Ken Knight, 1281
Northwest 56th Street, homeowner and business owner. I didn't sleep much last night because I
was just thinking about my position as, really, a business owner, but I'm often reminded that the
people are always first. And just like other business owners, I'm suffering, too. And there again,
we think that in terms of these -- of the stadium, the jobs and all that, we want to believe in that.
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But Mr. Chair, I only remember a few years ago we were talking about property tax reform, and
we were vowing to go to Tallahassee and go to the County because we seen people, Mr. Chair,
two years ago losing their homes and all of that. And the tax reform turned out to be the biggest
disappointment in all ofMiami-Dade's County history because we don't really have it. So there
again on the surface, this really looks good, but there again, me switching on my other hat as --
talking for the people, we really want to make sure that when we talk about those jobs, it's not
cleaning out the bathrooms, picking up trash from the parking lot. We want to see those
professional service people and suit and ties. I was encouraged by Bill Digg's remarks, but at
the same time, we need those assurances because, in the inner city, we're not getting those
assurances that those jobs are going to reach those people. We know and I know and you know
of all the special interests that are out there. But this is not about the special interests this time
around. This is about the people's interests because we only remind you it was only yesterday
we were celebrating the miracle on the Hudson. I need to remind you what has lately happened.
So what I'm saying is instead of really making sure we have a legacy versus larceny, we really
make sure that that minority participation component, that it don't have sfraw in it, that it really
has some real steel and we can really get something done in terms of putting people back to
work. So this is just for informational purposes that I'm here because -- and also I want to
remind you that Broward, our partners, our regional partners, are losing residents to -- in
history, we don't have the people, so people are leaving. They're not only leaving Broward, but
they're also leaving Miami -Dade County. So we got to make sure that the decisions that we
make here today are in the interests of the people. Thank you for your time.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Next speaker.
Raissa Fernandez: Hi. Good morning to all members here at City Hall. My name is Raissa
Fernandez, 1835 Southwest 12th Avenue, and I am a community member, and I am a small
business owner in this area for -- my family's business for over 40 years in Little Havana and
Overtown. I come here to ask you guys to -- I'm not against building a stadium for baseball
'cause my grandparents, my parents, my whole family are baseball fans, butt remember them
enjoying baseball as a sport, as bringing people together, not having lavish stadiums, and they
still had fun. They still came out and enjoyed their time. And I am just against paying for it with
City money. If you want to bring tourism dollars to work, let's rebuild Miami Marine Stadium.
Let's rebuild our convention center, you know. Let's rebuild our parks in that area for people to
come, for the community to be involved. A lot of corporations don't come to city -- to the City.
Why? Because we don't have the workforce. We don't have the skills of the people to work in
these big corporations. We want people to be educated. We want a city that thrives, not a city
that's on the list every month, every week, you know. We want a city that really stands out as
people that are educated, involved, and are smart; a place that is beautiful as Miami. And I ask
you guys, as mayors that are sitting here, to please make sure that whatever decision you make,
you make it in the best serious interest of this city, and that you -- if those contracts are made,
make sure that the local jobs are written into that contract, that those services are going to be
provided by local businesses in the state of Florida, in the County, in the City, okay; all from the
cleaning services to the food and restaurants, to everything. It has to be a sustainable kind of
development for the whole city and the state. Thank you so much --
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Ms. Fernandez: -- and thank you for your time.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Frank Nero: Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission, Mayors. My name is Frank Nero. I'm
president of the Miami -Dade County Beacon Council. We have long supported a new baseball
park to retain and re -brand the Miami Marlins in the community. As an economic development
professional, we view this as a retention issue, really, for Miami -Dade County. As a former
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public official who negotiated on behalf of the City with the professional sports franchise, I
understand the difficult public policy issues that you all have to deal with and the pros and cons
on each side. But this is why I support this agreement with the Marlins and the consfruction of a
new baseball park in Little Havana. Opponents focus primarily on the use of `public funds,"
and they use the term "taxpayers' money, " and I think many times it's utilized to incite sort of
outrage and conjure up what I call false choices; that these construction funds can somehow be
utilized for housing, social services or education. That's simply not true. The funding includes,
by the way -- and I think we need to emphasize this -- $120 million from the Marlins, which
should be mentioned, perhaps, first and not last, plus the present day value of $35 million from
the Marlins' rent payments. Public sources include, yes, tourism taxes, known as bed taxes, and
they're generated by visitors. These bed taxes, as you, I think, well know, are restricted and
cannot be used to fund teachers, police or firefighters. More than $475 million will be spent
locally on goods and services and labor to build the new ballpark and the associated
infrastructure. The Marlins Stadium will also be the largest indoor facility in Florida and will
allow Miami -- the City ofMiami to host other large-scale events in this facility. Opposition is
also generated by advocates for revitalization of the Miami Beach Convention Center. I think
this is another false choice. The money is already available to renovate and upgrade the Center.
The County has provided dedicated revenue streams in one-time payments with the total net
present value of $260 million. Mayor Alvarez has said -- and I think it's true -- we're not
building a stadium to the exclusion of everything else; we're building a stadium along with
everything else. Let me just talk about the jobs component. Elitists scoff at the jobs being
created for consfruction workers, groundkeepers [sic], vendors, and security guards, but the
people who hold these jobs, who support their children, know better. I think the most telling
comment today was by the union leader, who represents the people who hold those jobs, how
important those jobs are to them. I was struck by the comments of the -- both mayors of their
family. We didn't come from Cuba, but we came from another place across the ocean, my family.
And our family made it because my father caddied at a golf course so we could go to school.
And if it wasn't for that, I don't know where I would be today. Let me talk about consfruction
jobs. We have lost, in this community, over 15,000 construction jobs year-to-year, December to
December. The unemployment is going to be out -- numbers next Friday, and I daresay that
number's going to increase. If you're looking at what's dragging down this economy right now
in Miami -Dade County, it's construction jobs. It's the single largest loss of jobs in this
community. And jobs are going to be necessary, whether they be short-term -- and three years
isn't exactly short term if you don't have work -- and also in the area of the permanent jobs
created. Let me just close by saying that great cities have great amenities, and those amenities
are ones that all of you in the public sector have worked so hard to provide, whether it's the
Performing Arts Center, the American Airlines Arena; it's the airport, it's the seaport, it's the
economic engines. This is a issue for companies who are looking to locate here because quality
of life -- I talk to them every day, and quality of life is important. No, it's just not a baseball
stadium. It's all of those things in its totality. And the fact is that no great city is known for the
things that they didn't do. Cities are known for the things that they have done and they have
created. Now, whether it's the Guggenheim Museum or the Museum ofModern Art in New York,
or whether it's New Yankee and Shea stadium, the fact of the matter is is that whether you look at
the Urban League that has said, yes, stadiums in urban areas can be a catalyst to revitalization,
or see the examples that other cities have done, I think it's a model for what we can all follow.
So I know you have a very difficult decision to make today, but we urge you to vote in favor of
this. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
RobertArgudin: Good morning. My name is Albert Argudin, 7841 Southwest 28th Street, in
Miami, Florida 33155. And first and foremost, I'd like to applaud the efforts of the Marlins, the
City and the County on making this stadium a reality. As an employee of a small business, we've
definitely felt, you know, the crunch of the economy. And getting a stadium like this off the
ground definitely gets us and the local community back on frack to where we were a couple
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years ago and definitely where we need to be. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Sir -- okay, ma'am.
Raisa P. Fernandez: Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Good morning. How are you? Good to see you.
Ms. R. P. Fernandez: Good morning.
Chair Sanchez: Good.
Ms. R. P. Fernandez: Hi. How are you? My name is Raisa P. Fernandez, and I'm at 1835
Southwest 12th Avenue. And I am a resident and also a small business. My company had to
move -- be displaced because a -- some condominium was going to be built by the river, and just
in that area, that block, that was not commercial. And the other side is the -- right next to it is
the water, and it's commercial. So we had to, after 20 years with our fleet there, you know, try to
find somewhere else to go. We did, and we just moved again within the Little Havana area. And
what I'm saying is that before you vote yes to the stadium, I know -- Mr. Sanchez, I know you
'cause you -- we live in our area, in the area together. There's thousands of kids in that area,
thousands in East Little Havana 'cause I worked in an organization where we study the, you
know, population there. And our business is transportation in the area, so -- and I'm able to see
the kids from Overtown, Little Havana, Liberty City, all over, and they don't have any, you know,
sports, and it's a few -- Jose Marti is limited to maybe 50 or 60 kids for after -school program.
You have a center you just built by the youth center or whatever, Jose Marti --
Chair Sanchez: A gym.
Ms. R. P. Fernandez: I don't know. It's not open. It's a beautiful building, right underneath 5th
Street and 3rd Avenue. I haven't seen it open. I don't know. I don't see anything. The gates are
closed. We have thousands of kids that need after -school programs and services. I heard
someone from the Little Havana Kiwanis. You know how many kids they accept? Like 70 kids in
the summer. Thousands of kids in the area that need it, thousands of people in Little Havana
and Overtown and Liberty City, all over that are in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) need. Miami was just -
said it was -- by the Forbes magazine, was a miserable state. Mr. Sanchez -- Mayor [sic]
Sanchez, you know, you said how can that be? How can that be? Okay. Take your car after 5,
6 o'clock in the afternoon or p.m., before 6 a.m., and travel Little Havana, Overtown and all that
area; you'll see it. And, yeah, the stadium -- we were mad because we grew up with the Orange
Bowl and you had the funds, like a gentleman just said, that we approved it in 2004 to rebuild
the Orange Bowl. We were sad. My daughter, who was just speaking, she was very, very upset,
and we -- and thousands upset that you tore down that building. We didn't have a chance. We
couldn't do anything. That ball was striking the Orange Bowl and coming down. And you're
selling things of the Orange Bowl, selling. Bathroom things and -- on eBay. What is that? You
think that we have to sell -- everything is for sale? Everything is for sale? No, everything is not
for sale. The Miami Arena, the arena, you had it built. It was a white elephant there for years.
Why can't you build -- the Bicentennial Park. What are you trying do? Are you trying to get
more of the land so you -- somebody -- some corporation or some -- you know, come in and buy
it fi^om the City ofMiami and then build whatever they want to? No. We love -- we have to go
where, Hialeah, 'cause they have the water park? Last year, you built a water park, one water
park in the City ofMiami for thousands of kids that live here. Hialeah has about five water
parks. So before you vote in favor of -- you know, I love baseball. I grew up -- I mean,
everything was the World Series, with my parents, my father. You know, I grew up eight years
old here, so I know what it is to have a baseball, you know, stadium. But think that you have to
-- there's classroom -- there's schools that are in need. Housing -- a lot of desperate situation,
okay, Joe. Let me speak 'cause, you know -- I mean, I'm a resident, but sometimes I don't -- you
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know, I don't -- I can't speak 'cause -- I mean, it's (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know. I know. I
worked in offices, too, but that's gone from my life. I can speak and dress the way I want to and
share my Obama everywhere I want to, sometimes, you know. In Little Havana
(UNINTELLIGIBLE). It's changing. Thank you so much, and I think that you should realize
what's happening and vote -- you know, let the Marlins put more of their money, you know,
because they see -- we don't get a bailout.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Ms. R. P. Fernandez: Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Always a pleasure to see you and your daughter. Thank you. Next speaker.
Alberto Argudin: Good morning. My name is Alberto Argudin, 13841 Southwest 36th Street.
I'm also a small business owner, but I'm here today as a father and a grandfather. You heard
from my son earlier today. We strongly support the stadium. We think it's going to be a great
economic stimulus to the area. It's going to help families enjoy an affordable event. The
economics of the region, of the area, is going to be helped because, you know, we not only go to
the stadium for the game; afterwards we go to restaurants, we go to, you know, theaters and, you
know, businesses that are located around the stadium. I think the Marlins are putting a strong
effort to provide money for the region. They've helped, you know, in some of the local businesses
to do some of the engineering and professional services that are, you know, related to the
stadium. And again, we strongly support it and we hope that you all support it as well. You
know, we've been hearing a lot of talk about putting it out to the public, but we, the public,
elected you as our representatives; and we feel that, you know, the fact that it's been a positive
and it's going to continue to be a positive for the community, you should go ahead and support it
on our behalf. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Next speaker.
Grace Solares: Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Grace Solares,
president ofMiami Neighborhoods United. The organization does not oppose having a baseball
stadium in the City ofMiami. We do oppose, though, however, the deal as drafted, as having
monies from the City, whether it's tourist tax or anything else, paying for this endeavor. I had
something prepared to say this morning; however, I've set it aside in order to address a couple of
issues that I have heard here tonight -- I mean, this morning. I've heard -- and I have to repeat
this issue with reference to Elvis Cruz. I've heard the Mayor of the City this morning say on
several occasions "that vacant land that is at the Orange Bowl." The vacant land is there
because, under his instruction -- he's the leader of the City -- he gave instructions to demolish
the Orange Bowl when we, the people, voted to renovate it. I have a newspaper article with me
when the ex -City Manager, brought to the City by the great mayor of this City, Manny Diaz,
Arriola, wherein he's giving here -- number says that it'll be so much cheaper to refit the Orange
Bowl with a retractable roof than to build a new one. And I have to tell you that was in 2004.
And Commissioner Winton said at that time that there will be no ballpark without adequate
financing. The fact is there is no money. This is when it was $325 million, the structure. Now
it's 600 million. He says, the money, as far as I'm concerned, can only come from two sources,
Major League and the private sector. We believe that still remains the same. We ought not to
give one penny for this endeavor, and if we do, that it -- it's not as unbalanced as it is right now.
I heard the City Manager say this morning that we will recoup the parking investment in 20
years. You stand by that? Twenty years is the lease of the Marlins.
Mr. Hernandez: What I said was that the construction dollars to build the parking garages, to
operate, to maintain, and to do major repairs throughout its life was supported by CDT coming
from the County to the City in an amount of 60 million, $6 million a year, and from the parking
revenue stream from the Team; so the parking garage is totally covered.
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Chair Sanchez: Ms. Solares --
Ms. Solares: Right.
Chair Sanchez: -- all questions directed should come through the Chair, please.
Ms. Solares: Okay. With all due respect, Mr. Chairman. I did a number last night. Under this
contract, the City will receive $10 per parking space. That is $55, 000 per game. Eighty-one
games is 4,455,000 times 20 years? It's $89 million -- not even what he's saying today, the $94
million -- is going to be the cost of the parking lot. That is impossible. And just the final -- in
closing, Mr. Samson said today that all funds will come from the tourist tax, that nothing will be
taken from any of the ad valorem taxes or anything else. Section 6.2 of the actual agreement
says the County may use any other funding available to it to satisfy its obligation under this
section. Since the County, Mr. Chairman --
Chair Sanchez: In conclusion --
Ms. Solares: -- is open to be able to go to the general fund, my question to you, sir, is, what
about if the tourist dollars are not sufficient to pay? Where will you be taking the monies from?
Chair Sanchez: That question should be directed at 1 o'clock to the County when they deal with
this issue.
Ms. Solares: No. You will have a certain amount of --
Chair Sanchez: And we'll --
Ms. Solares: You have a responsibility here.
Chair Sanchez: And we will address that issue. We will address that issue. You want to answer
the questions?
Ms. Solares: But you will be voting here, sir, today.
Mr. Hernandez: The City ofMiami has no responsibility or no impact in its general fund as a
result of all the components of this project.
Ms. Solares: You mean (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to the County? I understand that. Where are you
going to get the money if you cannot satisfy -- if the tourist tax is not enough to cover all that
you're trying to do here, where is the money going to get -- where is the City going to get the
money in order to comply with the agreement it's signing today, or in three days, whenever it is,
where are you going to get those monies from?
Mr. Hernandez: Our contribution to the stadium is capped at 13.5 million. Our participation in
the parking garage, or our construction of the parking garage operation maintenance and
repairs, is fully supported through two funding sources; one is CDT monies coming from the
County to the City. We have an interlocal that discusses that item, and we also have the parking
revenue stream for the Team, so we have that fully covered. We also have the funds in place to
cover the public infrastructure. We have everything detailed as to where it's coming from, and
there is no impact on the City's general fund whatsoever, period.
Ms. Solares: In closing, I tell you you will not have sufficient funds coming from the parking to
pay anything. That's it.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
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Ms. Solares: Thank you, sir.
Chair Sanchez: Okay, next --
Ms. Solares: And please vote no. Oh, I have to remind you, Mr. -- Commissioner Sanchez, in
this particular article, you closed that day -- that deal, with that item before you with we don't
want to build another white elephant in the City ofMiami, said Commissioner Joe Sanchez. This
is exactly the same white elephant, except 200 million pounds heavier.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, Mrs. Solares. Next speaker.
Eloy Cepero: Commissioners, Mr. Chairman. My name is Eloy Cepero. I'm speaking as an
individual and also as a past president of the Latin Builders. I think we do need this stadium
built. We need jobs. And the surrounding area -- I understand there's an economic impact that
will be helping the City ofMiami. And besides, as a grandfather, I sure like to see that stadium
built to bring my grandkids. I came here in 1962. I was raised by an American family, the
McGregor -Smith family, and from day one, he took us to the Orange Bowl. My last visit to the
Orange Bowl last year, the smell in the Orange Bowl was horrible. I was very glad that it was
torn down and a new facility will be built in this stadium. I think we need this stadium. And I --
if you all remember, in 1972, when the Dolphins won, the community got all together. We had a
lot of problems back then, and the whole community got together, and it was very beneficial to
the community. When the Marlins won in the last two championships, the whole city came
together. We need this. Everybody's putting a lot of emphasis on the money. We need the
Marlins here. If we are going to become one of the most important cities in the United States,
which we already are, we need the stadium. Besides, we have to applaud the Marlins. They
have kept one of the lowest payroll in the major leagues. And as a fact, by them being at the
stadium here, they will be able to collect all the revenues which, at the present time, is picked up
by the Dolphins owners, and this will help not only bring good baseball players to the City, but
also maintain the cost of the tickets cheap enough so people can go and take their kids over
there. So I really appreciate if you guys vote for the approval of this stadium. Thank you very
much.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, sir. Next speaker.
Dana Pollitt: Hi. Good morning. Dana Pollitt.
Chair Sanchez: Dana, before you go, is this our last speaker? Anybody else that will be
addressing us? So this will be our last speaker, and we'll go ahead and close the public hearing,
coming back to the Commission. Yes, sir.
Mr. Pollitt: Good morning. Dana Pollitt, 5845 Northwest 158th Street, Miami Lakes. I'm here
in support of this project. I employ over 95 employees in the construction and engineering
industry, and we have worked on over 70 stadium and arena projects across this country; this
project is vital to my 95 employees here in Miami -Dade County. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the public hearing,
coming back to the Commission for deliberation. Before we start debating this, the appropriate
motion is a motion to approve or deny. Is there a motion to approve?
Commissioner Gonzalez: Motion to approve.
Chair Sanchez: There's a motion to approve. Is there a second?
Commissioner Sarnoff I'll second for purpose of discussion.
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Chair Sanchez: All right, the item is under discussion. Commissioner Regalado.
Commissioner Regalado: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I totally agree with Mayor Diaz in two
things that he said. He said that we represent the people ofMiami, nobody else; and I do believe
that, so we are here to make a decision for the people ofMiami. I agree with whatMayor Diaz
said that there is a lot of misinformation out there. There is -- in fact, the misinformation -- and
since this a historic day, we need to rectify history; so when it would be written, the City of
Miami gets its fair share on the history. If you read the paper, and even the City Manager, you'll
see that the City ofMiami is part of the stadium deal with $13 million; and that is what the
media will pick, because that is what has been the official line. The garage is a collateral in the
story, but the City ofMiami contribution to the stadium is according to the media and according
to the official line $13 million. I do not agree with whatMayor Diaz said, that this is something
that will be done with other people's money; and I think that to rectify history, we should start by
putting on the record what the residents ofMiami are contributing to this plan. Number one, 17
acres of land. I mean, we know that the bubble has burst, but still, 17 acres do cost a lot of
money, especially on a major thoroughfare, especially near the 836; and we are conveying this
land to the County, 14 acres for the stadium, 3 for the public plaza. Nobody knows exactly --
nobody bothered, not even the City, to know how much is exactly the land that we are putting on
this project, 17 acres. It could be, I read, 10 million, but I don't know because the City has not
done the numbers. Then there is the 3.3 homeland defense bond that was approved by the voters
the same day that Mayor Diaz was elected in 2001. This is a $255 million bond issue that the
voters ofMiami, not Miami -Dade County, approved for parks and infrastructure; and this bond
money was used to demolish the Orange Bowl. Had the Orange Bowl not been demolished, no
stadium can be built. So the City ofMiami also contributed $3.5 million in bonds that we, the
residents, are paying because we get the bill; and the bill says debt, City ofMiami; and we pay
that, the bonds of the City ofMiami. Then there is the $50 million that the voters ofMiami-Dade
County and the voters ofMiami -- it was a countywide election approved -- for the renovation of
the Orange Bowl. It was a line item on the eight different categories that we voted on it, $50
million for the renovations of the Orange Bowl. By the way, we paid a debt to the County, the
citizens ofMiami, the residents ofMiami. We pay 50 -- those $50 million, plus the other billions
of dollars in bond; we pay also the debt of the County. And then there is the public
infrastructure. According to the City Manager and to Larry Spring, we are going to use the
street bonds and sewer bonds. That belongs to the City ofMiami. So the residents of the City of
Miami are paying into the infrastructure at least $12 million, which is real money that belong
really to the people ofMiami. The thing that really got me concerned was the chief financial
officer's statement, when he was talking about the funding for the parking; and twice he said,
twice, we expect that only CDT money will be used for funding the parking; we expect that with
CDT money, we can cover the amount of $250, 000 that each year we have place in a special
fund for the Marlins stadiums [sic] at the Orange Bowl. I just want to say that the City ofMiami
is giving a lot. The City ofMiami is not getting a lot. Because not even the Police Department
can go into the stadium, not even the Fire Department is and will be the primary server in this
stadium, even though there was a 5-0 resolution mandating the Manager that the Fire and
Police of the City ofMiami should be the primary force. I know that it's give-and-take and all
that, but we are -- we, as the residents, are putting a lot. For now I just want to put that in the
record. I think that the City ofMiami are -- the residents are giving more than is perceived by
many people; and since we only represent the City ofMiami and the residents, it is important to
share that information. It's a shame that not even our leaders are saying that the City is giving a
lot, and this $13 million is becoming an urban legend; but there is more and there will be more,
so I just want to set the record straight; and at least, if this going to be a historic day, that
history does remember that the residents ofMiami had a lot to do with this project, which it will
not be owned by the residents ofMiami. The City has done other major projects. Look at the
Children's Museum; City ofMiami residents paid half all the year, everyday; and this is a history
of success, so I just want to -- the people to acknowledge that the residents ofMiami are putting
a lot, so don't tell us that this is a partnership that -- where the City got the best of the deal. It
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did not. We are not -- the only thing we are getting is that we can say that we have a stadium in
the City. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you, Commissioner. Let me just take this opportunity to thank all of you
for coming out and addressing your government as the duty that you have to question us and
address us to items pertaining to the future of this city. Those of you that are here today, I praise
you. I was expecting more to come and address us on such an important matter. I want to talk
to you about a very important subject, and that is, the future of this city. I think, if we focus on
all that has been said here, you have to look at one thing, the thing that's on everybody's mind,
which is jobs and the economy. I looked throughout the city, and I tell you that, personally, I
have been affected by the unemployment rate continuing to skyrocket in this city and family
members losing their jobs. Not only are they losing their jobs, they're losing their homes; and
they're moving in with me, so I could speak from experience. I don't know about anybody who
could stand here and say that our economy is not affected, not only in our great nation but in the
world. I'm not going to bore you with numbers. Those numbers speaks for themselves. When
unemployment goes up, crime goes up; and our city today is yearning for employment. As I walk
the community and I meet people, I can tell you this much. They're asking for jobs. That's the
number -one issue. They're asking for jobs. In my heart and mind, I see this stadium as an
opportunity to create jobs; an opportunity to create jobs for everyone in this community, the
hardworking class. Ladies and gentlemen, the best investment we could ever make is investing in
our people. It will invest and have the highest dividend that we could request and deserve in this
City. Not only the construction jobs -- and once again, I'm not going to go into figures; they're
there. Fifteen thousand people have lost their jobs in the construction industry. Several years
ago unemployment rate was one of the lowest in the nation here in Miami. Why? Because we
were blessed by having people from all over the world believing that we live in paradise and,
ladies and gentlemen, Miami is paradise, so why shouldn't we be a world -class city? Why
shouldn't we not [sic] invest in our infrastructure? Why shouldn't we not [sic] invest in our
people? Now let's talk about Little Havana. How can anyone sit up here and tell you that Little
Havana does not deserve the economic vitality and the revitalization that today, as we speak,
and hopefully in about ten to fifteen minutes, we will vote on that. Not only are we voting on the
future ofMiami; we're voting on the future of Little Havana, and we're certainly voting on the
future of the Marlins being in this City, so let's take that into consideration. You know, the
easiest thing to say would say no; let's vote no, let's not do it, let's not partner up with other
government entities and the private sector and bail the people of our city out of the financial
crisis that they're in. Some people speak about being indebted and, you know, they don't have
funds or money to pay. Well, guess what? People are living out of their credit cards. And if you
don't have a job, you can't pay your credit card; and if you don't have a job, you can't pay your
home; and if you don't have a job, you can't pay your car; and if you don't have a job, you can't
pay your child's health insurance, so it's all about jobs nowadays, whether you like it or not.
Now we could sit back and wait for the perfect scenario. What is the perfect scenario? What is
the perfect opportunity? Is it to wait till unemployment reaches 17, 18, 20 percent? Is it the
Marlins to win another World Series? Is it for our crime rate to hit the highest it's ever hit in our
city? What is the perfect scenario? The perfect scenario is today, after so many years of
working together; and that's what government is all about. People are looking for a leader that
could work with other people and find solutions to hard issues. This has been a hard issue. But
I think, overall, when this is said and done, we have a great opportunity to not only invest in
neighborhoods, because I think it's important that we invest in neighborhoods. Now let's talk
about the things in job creation, which is very important. There's a couple of questions thatl
think every Commissioner here should ask on our side. The County will have an opportunity to
address their issues. And there's plenty of safeguard where, if we don't come to an agreement,
this deal is dead; but we got to continue forward. We got to be able to sit at the table and work
together to see if we could get this done. Let's talk about jobs. This construction, the
construction not only of a baseball stadium but a parking facility, will be built in a
neighborhood, a neighborhood you all know very well. Because what stood there before was
greatness, the Orange Bowl. Some people blame us for tearing that the Orange Bowl. You
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know, the University ofMiami left. They had a ten-year lease. We lost the University ofMiami.
We had no one else to play there, and where one great tradition ends, another one begins;
however, we cannot lose that historical tradition that has made our city great. It is important
that as we move forward with these construction jobs, these projects that are going into
neighborhoods benefit the neighbors, and that's what I want to talk to the Marlins about. I want
to make sure that in this agreement we provide no less than 20 percent of employment to the
residents ofMiami. It is very important that we stick up for our people because, you know,
there's a lot of people that are supporting this stadium for the basic simple fact -- You know
what? My son may get a job out of this, I may get a job out of this, or somebody in my family
who's unemployment [sic] may not be unemployment [sic] in the next couple of months. I also
want to focus on one thing. We need to make sure that we comply with Miami -Dade County
responsible wage on County construction in the City. I know that's a law, effective October 1,
208 [sic]; and I think you have agreed to that already, correct? Now let's talk about the benefits
that we're going to receive in this community, and I think we don't focus enough on that. We
don't focus on what you're going to do for our community where you're giving 80,000 tickets
away at a very cheap rate of $15. That's affordable to family. I know that things are tough, but
that is the cheapest entertainment that you could take your children to or your family to. The
other is you're giving, what is it, 10,000 tickets per game to charitable organizations throughout
our community. You know, the people I respect the most are the ones that come here and fight
for the children. They fight for our future. They want to make sure that our greatest pastime is
enjoyed by everyone. And yes. Somebody said, "You know what, I look forward to taking my
children and my grandchildren to the baseball stadium." So do I. I just had -- we just had a
baby; she's 10 years [sic] old. All my children have gone to a baseball game because it was
what my parents did to me. As immigrants, we went to baseball games. My father was a great
fan of baseball, and he enjoyed that pastime. Now one thing that I want to also emphasize is
some of the things that have been said here, 17 acres; that we're giving away 17 acres. We're
not giving the 17 acres to the Marlins; we're giving the 17 acres to the County. It is still the
public's land, and something great will be built there. And I could tell you this much, ladies and
gentlemen, history will treat us kind; and the worst thing that we could do is when we look at
someone in the eyes, a needy family, like I see them in my office -- I know the Commissioners do,
too -- that they come to my office saying, I don't have a job. It's been eight months since I don't
have a job. I'm down to $50 in my pocket. " I can't look at those people in the eyes and tell
them, you know what, as an elected official, there's nothing I could do for you. Sure there is. I
could create opportunities for the people I represent. I could create hope, and I could create a
vision for this city; and that's what it's all about. When it's all said and done, this will be a
win -win situation. You know what? Somebody stated that I stated in a quote, which I have not
seen, that this would be another white elephant. I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, this stadium
will not be a white elephant. It'll be one of the things that people will come to our city to enjoy,
and people will drive by it and look at it; and even ifyou don't go to baseball game [sic], you
could attend the plaza; you could go to a restaurant. And it's about the economic vitality around
the stadium that's going to create more jobs and create more pedestrian friendly streets, more
opportunities for people. That's what it's all about. So I just wanted to state that because I think
it's important that we clear a lot of misinformation out there about let's use that money for
something else. It's very clear. CDT tax dollars cannot be used for schools, police, and other
matters. It has to be pertaining to this type of construction development, and that money is
restricted. So with that, you know where I stand on the issue; and when it comes time to vote, I'm
going to vote for what's right for the City, what's right for the people of the City, and what's right
for everyone who lives in the City. Thank you. Commissioner Sarnoff.
Commissioner Sarnoff Thank you, Mr. Chair. It seems that it's easy to fly over a community at
20,000 square feet and to look at it fi^om that height, but if you really get into this agreement and
you ask yourself is this a partnership, is it fair, is it equitable? That's the question you have to
ask yourself and the only way to do that is to helicopter down into the agreement itself. You
can't do it fi^om 20,000 square feet. You can't just generally say jobs, jobs, jobs. Interestingly
enough, when I first came on this Commission, I was the only one up here talking about jobs. I
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was the only person up here saying before you can afford anything, you must have a job; but
then it was talking about something different. It was about putting condos up and housing, so
now we're back to the basics -- jobs; and everybody deserves and needs a job. Part of the job
issue, though, I question -- you know, I looked at the Marlins' roster of jobs, and I see the
number of people they employ. It's a nice, big, thick list. But they're already employed right now
up in Dolphin Stadium, so I guess they'll be relocating, or somebody will lose their job. As for
construction jobs, it's true. I imagine 2,000 well paid jobs will come. I suppose, if we built two
condos, 2,000 well -paid jobs would equally come; and I suppose the Marlins will create some
new jobs other than these when they start opening up and serving the concessions that they have
the right to serve. I think the best way to do this is to really talk about history. We stand at a
place in time in America that we have probably never stood at before. Arguably, you could say
the Great Depression; and certainly, we know that the Orange Bowl herself was built with the
WPA project from the Great Depression, as was Shenandoah High School, as were a number of
great facilities in the City ofMiami; so we know history teaches us in times of need, government
does step up, and government should step up in this time of need. But I think it's worthwhile to
go through the deal itself because ifyou don't go through the deal itself you really don't
understand what the deal is; and I really wanted to come here today to try to educate and not so
much advocate. I didn't know exactly what a tourist development dollar was. I didn't exactly
know what a convention development dollar was. I didn't completely know what a professional
sports franchise dollar was. And let's go into it. The tourist development tax is a tax that was
passed by the Florida Legislature, and it says it shall be used to pay debt service on bonds,
publicly -owned and -operated convention centers, sports stadiums, arenas; and that's the -- we
like to call that the TDT. Any of us here that would vote TDT money that could be used to hire a
police officer, a teacher, or buy one person a school book should immediately be fired. It can't
be used for that. Convention development tax -- anybody want to proof this, it's Florida Statute
212.0305. It's an interesting statute because, apparently, Miami Beach must have a good lobby.
Two-thirds of the proceeds must be spent to improve and enlarge the largest publicly owned
facility in the county, Miami Beach. That's the largest county facility. One-third shall be used to
construct a new multipurpose convention exhibition center in the most populous municipality. I
don't think the Mayor did a good job in negotiating that one. I say that facetiously. A third of
that money must be used in the City ofMiami. Any one of us who gets up here and suggests that
we could have used that to build a school, buy a textbook, or pay for a police officer would be
wrong; but somebody up in Tallahassee, in their infinite wisdom, decided that this was money
that was going to be put towards convention or tourist issues. Then there's something called the
Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax. That shall be used to pay debt service on bonds
issued to finance the construction, reconstruction or renovation of professional sports franchise
facilities. Now at one time the Administration told me this could only be used for Major League
Baseball, NHL (National Hockey League), NBA (National Basketball Association), and the other
one. They turned out to be wrong. But it certainly has been used in the past for the Key
Biscayne golf course, the Golf Club ofMiami, the International Tennis Center, the Homestead
Sports Complex, the three -million -dollar International Speedway; so these tax dollars come from
what we colloquially call "bed tax." That means that when you go to a hotel on the mainland of
Miami, you pay all these taxes; when you go to Miami Beach, you lose one of these taxes. So we
know $60 million of convention development tax is being used to pay by the County. We know
$88 million of the tourist development tax is being used to pay the County's portion. Now at one
time I said this was a good deal for the City and, in part, it is. A little bit of history -- and I
apologize, butt suspect those of the people that don't know history might be doomed to repeat it.
In December of 2004, as a result of the sale of the Miami Arena -- everybody remember the
Miami Arena? -- the City and the County agreed that if they could come to an agreement by
September of 2005 for a baseball agreement with the County, the County would remit the cash
flow of convention development tax that was given to the Miami Arena to the City in order to
bond up to the $60 million project, the baseball project. We didn't have the agreement by
September 2005, so what happened? The County only gave us $2 million a year as opposed to
what we were -- what we had agreed to get in the event we had baseball. If you guys want to do
a present -value analysis, it meant that the City ofMiami would get about $32 million when they
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could have gotten $81 million. So when I said in the paper -- in the past this was a good deal for
the City ofMiami, I actually commented to the Mayor I thought it was a very good deal for the
City ofMiami, in that respect. With regard to the tourist development tax, this has an interesting
and tortured history in the City ofMiami. Actually, if you go back -- actually, I had to get a
couple of lawyers together to tell us this. Apparently, the City had sued the County many years
ago, in the '80s, to get back WASA (Water and Sewer Authority). As a result of that, the County
was unable to actually bond almost anything it wanted to do, which included the airport, which
included many, many different things. As part of a settlement between the City ofMiami and the
County, they agreed to give us 20 percent of what? TDT, Tourist Development Tax; and that
stayed that way until a dispute occurred at Jungle Island. And I think I see George Burgess kind
of nodding because I think he was part of that dispute, and I'm not even going to say who was
right or wrong. The County then subsequently passed an ordinance taking away the tourist
development tax from us, and I've asked our City Attorney to look into -- quite honestly, I know I
have the County Mayor here, I know I have the County Manager -- whether that violates the
settlement agreement as expo facto legislation, and we'll find out whether it does or it doesn't;;
but that's the origin behind that. Now what -- so what we have, so you all know, is CDT, TDT --
I promised my wife I wouldn't use acronyms -- and SFTs, sports franchise professional tax; and
these are the numbers: 60 million, 88 million, $149, 500, 000 -- don't want to cheat anybody out
of their 500,000 -- and then -- we talked about it earlier -- the $50 million general obligation
bond to renovate the Orange Bowl. The other part of the issue that the County is going to fund is
they're going to loan the Marlins $35 million to pay the rent upfront. I call that a front -loaded
deal. Don't know what you better corporate guys call it, but to me it's a front -loaded rent
payment. That, folks, totals up to your $550 million when you add to that the City ofMiami's
$13.5 million money that itgotfrom MSEA, and that's been talked about. That's the stadium
agreement. Now, let me just say as a threshold question. I cannot support this unless someone
confirms to me that the CDT, the TDT, and the professional sports franchise tax have adequately
-- adequate numbers to pay the obligations and that this will not touch the general fund of the
County. Now I know I'm above my pay grade here, butt will not vote for this unless there's an
assurance that that cannot be done. Now, if you read the Construction Administration
Agreement, in that agreement there's an "in the event of" That means, in the event there is not
adequate CDT and TDT -- and let's just leave the PSFT out of that for right now -- that this will
then become an obligation to the general fund. What do we fund out of the general fund?
Police, Fire; the things that you come to expect of your City and County services. So that's a
threshold question for me, ifI cannot get past the fact that this will not touch the general fund for
the County; and I'd also need to know their projections because I said to you a moment ago we
stand at a historic time. Now do men make time, or does time make men? That's where we are.
In other words, should we be projecting five percent increases in tourist development bed taxes?
Should we be considering that for the next three to five years, we are facing a troubled economy?
Should we be considering that growth may not take place at all or may only take place at two
percent? I ask you all this question: If you were going to buy a million -dollar home, and you
were being offered a job at Merrill Lynch, and the job was going to pay $800,000 or $250,000,
would you wait to find out which job you got before you bought the million -dollar home? I
suspect each one of you, in your own prudence, would do that; and I think that's why you elected
me to act in your prudence to ensure that your general fund revenues are never touched, not
based on projections of what we've done from 9/11, not what we've done when we killed some
German tourists in Miami and we had a horrible year for that. You are living in different times.
You are living in some of the most profound times that this country has faced and may face in the
future. This is not an economy attendant to Miami, to New York City, or America alone. This is
a worldwide recession. There's nobody coming to our aid. There is no South American country
that's going to come. There is no other issue that's going to suddenly inject a great deal of cash
into this area that we live in. So I need to know --
Chair Sanchez: Got to ask you a question.
Commissioner Sarnoff Go ahead.
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Chair Sanchez: Absolutely.
Mayor Alvarez: Through the Chair.
Chair Sanchez: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Before the Mayor address the Commission, let me make a point clear.
The same concern that you have expressed, Commissioner Sarnoff, has been my concern -- one
of my concerns. Another one of my concern was the service of the Police and Fire, and make
sure that our Police Department and our Fire Department were in agreement with the contract;
but I -- that was expressly one of the questions, and I did sent [sic] the Manager's office a list of
questions in reference to the agreement and to the whole deal; and one of the assurances that
I've requested from the Administration -- from the City Administration was that at no point we
will ever use --
Chair Sanchez: General funds.
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- general fund monies to fund this project or to maintain this project,
and I was told that, in fact, there will be no general funds monies involved.
Commissioner Sarnoff And Commissioner, so you --
Commissioner Gonzalez: The reason --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- I don't mean --
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- that I made the motion was to facilitate the discussion because I
needed -- somebody needed to make a motion, get a second to open it for discussion, so --
Commissioner Sarnoff And just so you know, all I'm dealing with right now is I'm frying to keep
it focused on the stadium. We're going to go to the parking garage, and I don't think anybody's
going to stand in front of us and give us a guarantee. They're going to give us a likelihood, but
no guarantee. But I just want to stay focused on the stadium 'cause I know, number one, I think
the Manager and the Mayor himself are going to want to go back to their own agendas and to
their own Commissioners and their own questions they're facing; so I really want to put this on
the front end so I understand it.
Mayor Alvarez: Commissioner -- and I'll turn it over to the Manager, but the reason I stood up
before him is because the same concern that you have, I had, and -- until it was explained to me
to my satisfaction. When you're looking at the sources of revenue, the CDT, the TDT, the sports
franchise tax, you have to look historically at how those streams of revenue have grown over the
years and then make projections. Quite frankly, the Manager's going to stand up here and go
over a long list of numbers, but I thought that I had to stand up and just share with you that I
had the same concerns. As the former director of the Miami -Dade --
Commissioner Sarnoff Sure.
Mayor Alvarez: -- Police Department, I am very aware of public safety and public safety
concerns and what it would mean to our community, so under no circumstances would I even
present a plan to our County Commission where I didn't feel very comfortable with the fact that
the general fund monies would not be utilized; and that -- with that I'll turn it over to the
Manager.
Commissioner Sarnoff Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
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Commissioner Gonzalez: And, Mr. Mayor, forgive me for having interrupted your answer --
Mayor Alvarez: No, sir.
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- to the Commissioner, butt wanted to express also my concern on
the deal.
Chair Sanchez: I think the question that everyone has in mind is if the tourist taxes fall
drastically because of a bad economy where does that put you and us since we're partners on
this deal? Because that -- right now I could tell you from our point of view the City ofMiami has
minimal invest -- minimal risk in the maximum return in this deal. However, when it comes to
your side, you have more questions to answer than we do; but that's a very good question, and I
think you need to address that, Mr. County Manager.
Mr. Burgess: As I said earlier, the financing plan is a long-term plan. It's not a plan where your
debt is going to be paid in the next 3 or 4 years; it's 35 year debt. I think the issue of the -- this -
- all of this general fund talk you've heard of late has to do with the fact that when we issue
certain debt, we have a secondary pledge. That's not uncommon. It improves the credit
attractiveness of an issuance, and we've done it for years without ever having to access the
secondary pledge. It's not our intent, whatsoever, to do that now. This financing construct is no
different today than it was two years ago. What we're doing to be ultraconservative is we looked
at it and said what has history been over the last 25 years of Hurricane Andrews, of 9/11 s, of
recessions, of booms, and everything in between? How have these taxes performed? And they
have performed as I said, sports tax at about five and a half percent average growth, the tourist
development tax at over six percent, and the convention development tax over seven percent
growth. So we look at this and say let's assume for the next three years we have negative growth,
we have negative growth over the next 3 years; and over the entirety of the 35 years, we have
four percent average growth. Even under that scenario we're able to, within roughly ten years,
build a $45 million internal cash reserve inside our bed tax funds to protect us in the event our
projections are even off from what we're assuming so that we don't have to go outside the bed tax
revenue streams. At that four percent level, once we hit the $45 million level, which is in roughly
-- and I have to wear these nowadays -- it's probably within about 10 to 12, no more than 15
years; and before that, you're talking about 30 million, 25 million; very large numbers.
Remember that a lot of our debt is built in the back end. So to make a long answer shorter,
between the cash reserve we've built and actual residuals we've accumulated even above and
beyond that, at a four percent average annual growth with negative growth in the next three
years we're able to do this and not have concern at reaching into our general fund. None of us
have a crystal ball, but we have to be intelligent in our assumptions. Is there anybody in this
room genuinely believes that our tourist economy in this town over the next five, six, seven, eight,
ten years is going to drop negative every single one of those years, I assure you there are bigger
issues than this stadium to deal with; and it's not a rational assumption. It's not rational, at all.
If you look at our market, if you look at our bookings, if you look at the kinds of things that drive
our tourist economy, if you look at the bed mix, the number of four -star, five-star beds -- the fact
that we're actually looking at a need for two- and three -star beds, and people out there in the
tourist business know that -- there's no reason to believe that our bed counts are -- we haven't
reached saturation yet. There's every reason to believe that there's plenty of growth potential
before we ever hit a capacity in visitor beds. It's not rational to assume that that would happen.
To answer your question, we're comfortable with these numbers, or we wouldn't be standing here
before you.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, let me ask this question. Have you or since you've been City
Manager or even been an adult ever seen the economy decline at such a rapid rate?
Mr. Burgess: I -- Commissioner, that's why we're looking over 35 years. This drop -- well, sure.
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I mean, I'll tell you, we saw our bed tax drop a heck of a lot more rapidly, dramatically than this
after 9/11; and those 9/11 numbers are part of that average I shared with you over this last
25-some-odd-year period; and I believe after 9/11, those tourist numbers might have dropped 17
percent, 17. That is precipitous. That is not what we're talking about here, even under this kind
of an economic climate.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Chair Sanchez: But -- may I, for a minute?
Commissioner Sarnoff Sure.
Chair Sanchez: So, Mr. County Manager, based on your assumptions of a four percent
conservative, you will be able to meet your obligation?
Mr. Burgess: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Regalado: Can I -- Mr. Manager, one -- your projections in 2009, the growth is
two percent; in 2010, it's zero percent; 2011, zero percent. Now in 2012, your projection is five
percent. So what you're saying is that you're projecting zero percent growth in the next three
years, which will be the construction phase of the stadium. You also have said on the record that
the interest on the bonds now is greater than before because of the bond market situation, so
those two combined. We are in the midst of a crisis in terms of bonding, in terms of interest;; and
of course, you have placed that in the contract. The chief financial officer has said twice "we
expect, " so he's not sure if we do not have to go after the general fund. So I just want to
understand your projection of zero, zero in the next -- and two this year, which we don't know
because, as of today, the hotels, because of the boat show, are showing a dismal bookings. It's
down completely like --
Mr. Burgess: Well, I read the article, too, Commissioner --
Commissioner Regalado: Right.
Mr. Burgess: -- and I also read that the individual who's sharing the fact that this is not the kind
of situation they've seen in years at the boat show; that there were also 90 percent bookings in
that hotel. Obviously, the prices are down. That's the nature of the business. What we're
looking at -- and we don't have crystal balls, but we're assuming actually negative two percent
this year; zero, zero, four; it could be negative five, but we don't believe the two zeros after that
are necessarily rational either; and remember that when you have negative growth, the
percentage increase from the negative is usually higher because it's from a lower numbering. I
hope that made some sort of sense. I don't know what to tell you, other than this is 35-year debt.
When you talk about interest, I will tell you that timing is everything on a lot of different -- in a
lot of different ways. One of the big questions you might have is well, how do you know whether
or not you can build that stadium for $515 million? It's a fair question. Well, there's -- and we
validated the fact that, you know, that is a number that we're -- our consultants are certainly
comfortable is a good number. There's no better climate to go to the market in than right now.
Labor and material prices are going down. This is a absolute bidder's market, and if you want
to control the cost of the project, you go to the market when, you know, the market is like it is
right now. As far as interest costs, the interest costs between two years now and today on this
kind offinancing, I submit to you, aren't going to be significantly different.
Commissioner Sarnoff Maybe while you're up there, I was given a schedule by our City
department around the 9th of this year; and then I was given a different schedule as to what the
commitments were for the CDTs, and a number of things got dropped off of it. One of them that
brought my eye up was the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Can you possibly explain this to me?
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Mr. Burgess: The Performing Arts Center bonds that had been issued initially included about
$20 million for pre -- for non -PAC (Performing Arts Center) projects. Those commitments are
still there, and the funding is there. One of them was the Playhouse; one of them was Lyric.
There was money for the -- actually above even that amount. There was money for the South
Dade Performing Arts Center, et cetera; so those projects, the debt was issued; some of the
projects were underway; some of them, for other understandable reasons, haven't proceeded.
Commissioner Sarnoff So there is -- so I understand it, what I showed you earlier, showing the
Lyric, the Caribbean Marketplace, Coconut Grove Playhouse, additional PAC, still exists?
Mr. Burgess: Yeah. Actually, I think the money's already gone into the Lyric; hasn't it, guys? I
think so. The Playhouse, of course, it hasn't.
Commissioner Sarnoff Right. But those funding sources remain intact?
Mr. Burgess: Yeah, proceeds are there for that. Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Then my other question is, this is the document I should be looking at
when it comes to how much the stadium should cost -- I had to blow it up; I couldn't even read it,
it was so small.
Mr. Burgess: It looks like -- and it looks like that might be the monthly or annual drawdown
schedule.
Commissioner Sarnoff Right. I think --
Mr. Burgess: Yeah.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- it was Exhibit F to your -- so maybe you can help me with this 'cause
I'm looking at some line items here, and I know the City Manager told me that there would be
$32 million in contingencies. Maybe you can explain what that means.
Mr. Burgess: Inside the -- and Pete and I are numbers -- may be -- I thought it was 28, 32. It's
right around $30 million. There are different kinds of contingency, but inside the 515 there's a
project contingency, which is kind of outside the general contractor's contract. There's a
contingency inside the GC (General Contractor), the GMP (phonetic) contract, and those
contingencies protect us -- so the 515 isn't the hard -cost budget. It's hard cost, it's soft costs,
and it's roughly $30 million of contingency. If it's a bidder's market and things go well,
theoretically you could have a bid come in $30 million under. I'm not suggesting it will. I'm
certainly not suggesting that, but it's within the realm of the possible.
Commissioner Sarnoff So all these numbers, all these issues here, let's just keep the
contingencies aside for one moment 'cause I want to visit that with you in a moment. But all
these are the numbers that are the components of the $515 million that, essentially, we're
funding as a result of you at 347 million, the City, et cetera, and then the Marlins coming in with
their 122, then paying you back for the rent; about right?
Mr. Burgess: Yeah --
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Burgess: -- about right.
Commissioner Sarnoff What -- let me ask you, line item 21 indicates $4.5 million for an owner's
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representative. What would that indicate? What would that be for?
Mr. Burgess: Well, we want to make sure we have representation on the project site. We have
roles -- our delegated authorities are delegated to both the City and the County for different
provisions in the agreement. We want to be on site. There are certain things we need to sign off
on, certain numbers of days.
Commissioner Sarnoff So this $4.5 million is for City oversight people or --
Mr. Burgess: Well, I --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- is this for Marlins over --?
Mr. Hernandez: I would call it government oversight people, in essence.
Mr. Burgess: Yeah. A lot of it's the County.
Mr. Hernandez: Right.
Commissioner Sarnoff So we've acted --
Mr. Hernandez: In this case it's more the County since --
Mr. Burgess: Yeah.
Mr. Hernandez: -- they oversee directly the construction of the stadium.
Mr. Burgess: Right. And we've retained the services of an owner -- you know, we have an
owner's rep; and one of our subconsultants actually is the one who looked at the interim -- a
guaranteed maximum price contract to, you know, validate, if you will, the numbers.
Commissioner Sarnoff So the $4.5 million, is that an employee of the County; is that an
employee of the City; is that an outside consultant?
Mr. Samson: Through the Chair, may I?
Commissioner Sarnoff Sure.
Mr. Samson: I'm sorry. The ans -- thank you very much. That is actually separate. The 4.5
million that I believe you're referring to is an owner's representative, and it's a company who has
been hired, who has helped to oversee stadiums in both St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and is currently in
Kansas City; and they are going to be working with the owner's reps of the County and City, a
very well known company called IFG (International Facilities Group).
Mr. Burgess: I have the sheet in front of me now. Your --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm looking at line item 21.
Mr. Burgess: Yeah. Your four and a half kind of caught me off guard 'cause I said, gee, that's a
tad bit high. That's actually their rep. We have rep services estimated at about 2.3 million.
Commissioner Sarnoff So that's --
Mr. Burgess: That's lower on the chart.
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Commissioner Sarnoff -- the owner -- well, they're the owners, or is the County the owners?
Mr. Samson: It's --
Unidentified Speaker: It's a term of art.
Mr. Samson: -- a colloquial term. It's a word of art.
Commissioner Sarnoff So you're the owners in this document?
Mr. Samson: No, no.
Mr. Burgess: The owner's rep is a -- it's a term of art for a kind of contractor. They have some -
- is this John Lloyd?
Mr. Samson: Yes.
Mr. Burgess: This is -- they have somebody who's basically keeping an eye out on things for
them because they're responsible for the general contractors, for example.
Commissioner Sarnoff So you have somebody other than HOK (Hellmuth, Obata &
Kassabaum), other than Hunt/Moss --
Mr. Burgess: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- that are going to oversee those people, and they're projected to make
$4.5 million?
Mr. Samson: Just for the record, I would like to say it's not one individual.
Mr. Burgess: Correct.
Mr. Samson: Okay. John Lloyd -- we've now mentioned John Lloyd's name, of course, but he'd
like it to be just him; but he has a group of people with whom he works who's in charge of being
onsite every single day and making sure the budget comes in -- the ballpark comes in on time
and on budget.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. But then below that, on line item 22, you have owner's
consultants at a million, five hundred and thirty-six thousand, plus dollars. Who would they be?
Mr. Samson: That's separate owners -- their consultants -- we can go all the way from -- you
have wind studies; you have roof consultants; you've got consultants who help with traffic; you
have to do traffic studies; you have legal fees. It's all the things that are associated that are a
part of the soft costs that the Marlins are paying outside of the County and City construction
fund actually. It comes out of the Marlins $30 million that -- up front. It's part of the Marlins
155 total million.
Commissioner Sarnoff And I was looking out for the lawyers, and they had a separate line item;
and they were $3 million, so that wouldn't be the lawyers.
Mr. Samson: There's a lot of jobs out there that are -- a lot of people are being paid, and these -
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Samson: -- are very complicated projects. There's a lot of contracts that need to be done.
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There's a lot of things throughout the course of construction that happen in setting up the
construction. Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. And then you also have advertising and marketing. I guess
that's during the consfruction?
Mr. Samson: I'd like to see the exhibit, but yes. It's --
Commissioner Sarnoff It's line item 28.
Mr. Samson: -- part of the 515. Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Samson: Yes. There's an entire -- we are going to be working on building all the revenues
that are required to maintain and operate and pay all the expenses of the facility.
Commissioner Sarnoff But that's $400, 000.
Mr. Samson: Excuse me?
Commissioner Sarnoff That's $400, 000.
Mr. Samson: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. And then you have public art of $7.5 million.
Mr. Samson: Yes. That's under the art in public places. That is actually a County ordinance --
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Samson: -- that is required.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. And then there are two contingencies, and maybe you guys can
help me with this. Maybe these are what you're talking about. On line item 39 you have project
contingency $18, 898, 490 amongst friends. Is that one of the contingencies, Mr. Manager?
Mr. Hernandez: Yes, it is.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. Then you have a second contingency of -- that appears
$15,971, 705 amongst friends, so is that the -- is that that 32 million you've combined -- is that
the 32 million you've come up with?
Mr. Hernandez: I believe so. I don't have the document in front of me right now.
Commissioner Sarnoff It's line item number 8, and it's attachment F to the CAA.
Mr. Hernandez: There is a major contingency having to do with the consfruction of the stadium,
which is the one thatl made reference to, but it's 30, 32 million.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. And as long as we're on this, then the other threshold issue I have
is what call cost overruns. In other words, who bears the cost overruns of the actual stadium?
And I'm still -- I apologize, Commissioner; I'm still on the stadium. Okay.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Fine.
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Commissioner Sarnoff So just with regard to the stadium, it seems to me we have protection
that you guys have told me of $32 million, and I think I've uncovered those; and then there is a
$20 million -- I -- the term of art I think you guys used is some sort of commercial vehicle. That's
your cost overrun, right? 'Cause you never turned over your financials to us, so we don't know
what you're worth; so you're saying I'll put $20 million in some vehicle.
Mr. Samson: I actually would state it differently, through the Chair, ifI could, Commissioner
Sarnoff; and I would tell you that under the document, if it's executed, the Florida Marlins, L. P.,
the actual team, the actual franchise that is owned by the actual man, Jeffrey Loria, is standing
behind all of the cost overruns; any possible cost overrun is the Florida Marlins. The Florida
Marlins team is responsible for all cost overruns. This $20 million that has been mistakenly
written about in the newspaper day after day purposely, it has to be -- 'cause it's quite easy to
understand, in my opinion -- is that the $20 million was just a line of credit that is available just
to -- as a belt and suspenders, if you will -- buttress the notion that we are legally bound by the
four corners to cover every penny to infinity, but the 20 million is just a ready set aside so people
can know that it's there; but, frankly, people have misunderstood it.
Commissioner Sarnoff Is that, Mr. Samson, an irrevocable line of credit?
Mr. Samson: An irrevocable line of credit in perpetuity.
Commissioner Sarnoff Did I say that right?
Mr. Samson: I guess I would tell you that that line of credit needs to be in place at the time these
documents are executed.
Commissioner Sarnoff Oh, I understand, but I think an irrevocable line of credit is a term of art
you're familiar with.
Mr. Samson: Yes, I am.
Commissioner Sarnoff And that means that a bank cannot revoke it, correct?
Mr. Samson: It depends on the terms, but I -- for purposes of this discussion amongst friends, I
would agree that is what it means.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. And is that going to be an irrevocable line of credit?
Mr. Samson: Well, it's actually going to be rolled into the full financing that the Marlins are
going to do; and what we agreed to and what we presented is that there is a $20 million line of
credit that is available and that is in place right now just for overruns.
Commissioner Sarnoff Is that an irrevocable line of credit? I mean, are there terms and
conditions that somebody can --?
Mr. Samson: Yes. Are there terms and conditions of the current line of credit? Yes, of course.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. Are there terms and conditions that an outside third party can
say "don't pay"?
Mr. Samson: I'm not sure that I understand. That an outside --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm fried to be as colloquially and simple --
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Mr. Samson: Yeah.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- as I can be.
Mr. Samson: I don't -- that an outside person --
Commissioner Sarnoff You told me it's a $20 million belt and suspenders, above and beyond --
Mr. Samson: Right.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- this $32 million contingency built into the contract price; and my
question is, ifI were doing business with you, which I guess I am, I would want a $20 million
security that could not be controlled by a third party. I'd want a bank to say, as soon as you hit
this number, you can start drawing into this bank account.
Mr. Samson: Well, I guess I would tell you the mechanics of it will be -- is that there will be a
GMP, and there -- if there are any overruns, the City, the County, and the Team will identify the
overruns; and then the Team, together with the City and County, have to identify how the
overruns will be paid; and there are different ways that overruns are paid. One is through value
engineering; you go through a whole process. However, the Marlins individually cannot change
the scope of the project as it is an exhibit to the CAA. We cannot remove dugouts or bases or air
conditioning --
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. I --
Mr. Samson: -- or anything like that, so --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- understand.
Mr. Samson: -- if your question is does it automatically get paid into the --
Commissioner Sarnoff No, no, no.
Mr. Samson: -- construction fund --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm not -- I'm saying once you go through your, I think, ADR (Alternate
Dispute Resolution) process -- once you go through your Alternate Dispute Resolution process in
your agreement, and it's been determined it's your overrun, and you're above the 515 number,
what is the vehicle to protect any of the taxpayers?
Mr. Samson: The vehicle is that we have a contractual obligation to pay all overruns. We
absolutely have to. And the fact of the matter is there's a -- the public entity, actually, will have
the franchise standing behind that entire obligation, so I just -- I hope I'm answering your
question. I hope I'm being responsive.
Commissioner Sarnoff No. And -- I understand, and I was going to pull out who all the public
entities are, and I really don't want to do that 'cause it wouldn't be a good moment for you guys.
My point is, as a steward of the money of the taxpayers, I understand that there is a procedure in
place in the CAA and other agreements as well to, in the event something goes haywire -- I've
heard people come up here and talk about the Performing Arts Center. I'd like to believe we
learn from our mistakes. You know, I heard about other cost overruns. I still like to believe we
learn from our mistakes. But in the event something goes beyond your realm and you're into the
-- you're at $520 million, no fault of the County, no fault of the City, is there an irrevocable line
of credit available so that no taxpayer bears the brunt of that?
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Mr. Samson: I guess to that simple question, I would be able to answer yes; there is a line of
credit for the 20 million in place. However, whether that line will be drawn for $5 million of
overruns, I can't answer because it may come from different sources of revenue from the Team;
but under no circumstances would it ever come from the public.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Samson: Okay.
Commissioner Regalado: IfI may.
Commissioner Sarnoff No. Absolutely.
Commissioner Regalado: Mr. Samson, just a question --
Mr. Samson: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Regalado: -- on the agreement itself. And it has been mentioned here that a
paramount condition will be that 20 percent of the workers will be hired from the City ofMiami,
and my question to you is you have hire -- or you have, at least, talked to a company that
specialize in stadiums. In the afternoon you'll be going to the County. There are 13 regions in
the County. How far can you go in terms of local employment? Is it 100 percent? Is it 90
percent? Because I'm sure that the County Commissioners and, of course, the Mayor, and the --
will be looking after their districts, be that from Perrine or from North Miami. County
Commissioners are very attached to the needs of their districts, so how far -- having 20 percent
by contract in -- within the City ofMiami, how far would -- you think that you can go in local
employment?
Mr. Samson: Well, as far as aspirations, I would tell you that it would be our hope, as a member
of this community, to have as many people working locally on the job in the different trades as
possible. What I can tell you is the way it works in practicality is people will have an
opportunity to competitively be selected to work on this job. If you're talking about construction
or operations, I can address both. The way it works, actually, is that you start in the Little
Havana area where the project is, and then you really branch out in concentric circles from
there until you find the people who can do the jobs that are being required; so I would certainly
aspire I'd like everything to be local just from Dade County or even the City ofMiami. Having
said that, you have to make sure that people are able to do the job that's required, but of course
we want as much local participation as possible because those are the people who are going to
be enjoying the ballpark, who will be going everyday once it's built and seeing the fruits of their
labor.
Commissioner Regalado: No. I -- because I just think that we cannot give false hopes because,
you know, you need the people that you need; and it would be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you say, so -
Mr. Samson: Thank you for clarifying. You're right.
Commissioner Regalado: Thank you.
Mr. Samson: Thank you.
Commissioner Sarnoff Can you stay up there? Could I --
Mr. Samson: Sure.
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Commissioner Sarnoff -- just ask one more question on the construction agreement? Under the
CAA, it appears that you get reimbursed an amount of money; and if you want, I can give you
the actual document. It is the Construction Administration Agreement final draft. I'm looking at
page 47. It says "Advance of Funds." And it appears that you're getting money back that you've
already advanced, and I just want to know how much and what funds.
Mr. Samson: I apologize. I was trying to make sure I said nothing incorrect. It turns out I have
not --
Commissioner Sarnoff Oh, okay.
Mr. Samson: -- so --
Commissioner Sarnoff All right.
Mr. Samson: I was frying to make sure for the record that everything was --
Commissioner Sarnoff And I appreciate that.
Mr. Samson: -- perfect, and it is.
Commissioner Sarnoff I appreciate that. My question to you is not that profound, but it's a
curiosity point since we went through this agreement to some degree or we went through the
schedule, if you will. What amount of money are you being paid back, by whom and how?
Mr. Samson: Are you talk --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm sorry; I'll read it to you. And it's the CAA, so everybody knows that
we're on the same thing; it's page 47; it's Section 6.7. It says "The parties acknowledge that
expenses have been incurred and monies will be required to fund stadium costs prior to the
issuance of the bonds and other further funding contemplated in Section 6.2 and 6.3.
Accordingly, the County and the City shall advance monies to reimburse the stadium developer"
-- that would be you -- 'for expended stadium project costs, says subject to Section 7.1 (b) and to
fund future stadium costs at such times in such amounts as is provided in the drawdown
schedule." And I think I read enough. My question to you is what are you getting reimbursed?
Mr. Samson: Okay. We have been spending money for months and months and months on
design. We've already -- as you've seen the renderings that have been made public -- and we've
gone through a process of regulatory approvals here in order to start construction and to
provide the jobs to the people who need them, starting in July; and we have been fronting money
from the construction fund that will be -- once the construction fund is built and funded by the
County and the City, the Marlins will receive some of that money back that they have loaned to
the construction fund. The other thing you may be referring to has to do with any sort of
reimbursement because -- that could come in a case of a termination; but as far as that's
concerned, there is money that will be coming back to the Marlins that we have lent, really, to
the public to get this project going, to start it, to make sure that we don't lose another year; and
that the cost to the public and to the private partnership would go even higher.
Commissioner Sarnoff Let me ask the City Attorney what that is. What am I reading, and what
amounts of money are we talking about?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Commissioner, I think that the drawdown schedule is referenced as Exhibit
I to the CAA, and it outlines the anticipated costs of each of the parties, starting December 2008;
and I think that is the draw schedule that you are referring to.
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Commissioner Sarnoff So let's say we enter into this agreement. How much do the Marlins get
back?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Well, I guess the Marlins would be getting back in proportion -- well, I
don't know. Do you know the answer to that question?
Commissioner Sarnoff Who's the one that wrote the agreement for us?
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, I think that this relates to the termination for convenience --
Mr. Samson: Yes.
Mr. Hernandez: -- to July 1 or June 30, and --
Commissioner Sarnoff Six point seven?
Mr. Hernandez: Yeah.
Commissioner Regalado: No.
Commissioner Sarnoff No. I don't think that's right, Pete.
Mr. Hernandez: No?
Chair Sanchez: No. It's --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Okay. Commissioner --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm at 6.7; I'm in the CAA; I'm at page 47; and all I'm asking you is, we
vote for this today, I want to know what the Marlins get reimbursed.
Mr. Samson: Nothing. IfI could -- I'm sorry. Through the Chair, the answer is nothing; it's all
part of the budget. We've simply started -- this project had started after the BSA was approved,
which is substantially the same. You're talking about how would the Marlins get money outside
of the budget, and the answer is if there's no project and there's a termination. That may be
what the City Attorney may have been discussing.
Commissioner Sarnoff Here's what envision it to be. And by the way, I am no contract writer,
so I have -- I'm just a litigator, which means I just read this stuff; and I think to myself what
does that mean? So here's what think it means. I think it means some amount of money -- that
I have no desire to go through the mental masturbation and processes of try to figure out what
that is right now -- gets -- it gets reimbursed to you for whatever efforts you've put into this,
whether it's architectural fees, whether it's consulting fees; I just want to know what that is.
Mr. Samson: If there's a termination -- I just want to make sure there's a clarification there --
there's got to be a termination which can be done by the City or County any time prior to July 1,
and it's a termination for convenience for any purpose. Then there is a reimbursement. Whatl
think you're looking at and referring to is money that's been spent to pay the construction
manager in preconstruction work that --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Samson: -- has already been going on --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
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Mr. Samson: -- that is part of the budget. It's part of the 515.
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Samson: So the construction fund has been paying out money, except it doesn't exist, so the
Marlins, as a team -- 'cause we're not even the developer yet 'cause there's not even a signed
agreement yet -- the Marlins have been paying the preconstruction costs to the joint venture
Hunt/Moss to do preconstruction work to stay on time, to stay on budget; but that doesn't get
reimbursed. That's part of the 515 that goes forward as part of the 515 project.
Commissioner Sarnoff Is that -- Madam City Attorney, is that a correct statement?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: I believe it is, Commissioner. And the relevance of this section to the City
and to answer your question with respect to how much the City will have to pay, I don't know
how much are going to be get reimbursed, but --
Commissioner Sarnoff My question to you is much more fundamental and simple. Six point
seven, does that --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Yes. Six point seven --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- have to do with termi --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- if you take a look at the very last sentence in 6.7 --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- it is saying this is exactly the preconstruction expenses, and it says that
notwithstanding the foregoing -- and it has to do with the termination -- in no event shall the
parties be obligated to pay an amount in excess of the eligible reimbursable expenses, which is
the termination for convenience provision that in the event that this agreement or either party
elects to terminate prior to July 1, they will have -- the City will be paying 3.5 million; the
County, 10; the County -- no -- the County, 7; and the Team, 10. And this document is the
document that formed the basis, as I understand it, for that conclusion and that negotiation.
Commissioner Sarnoff So it's your contention, 6.7 does not apply at all -- I'm not talking to
you; I'm just talking to her; don't take that disrespectfully. So it's your contention 6.7 does not
apply at all until and unless there's a termination?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: I think it could apply. I think that, basically, it has -- I don't know if it has
been applying. Physically, it could apply. It is an advancement of funds. I just don't know
whether that advance has actually been made to date or will -- it's planned.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well -- see, but that's my question, what would the advance be?
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, I think that -- and maybe this will help. Over last year or so
there have been expenses that have been committed by the Team, some by the City, some by the
County. If there is a termination for convenience by -- prior to July 1 of this year, what's
determined to be eligible expenses will be paid up to that amount; and in that case, the City --
the total amount of those reimbursements in the event of a termination for convenience is 20.5
million; and the total responsibility of the City is capped at 3.5, the County's at 7, and the Team
is at 10.5.
Commissioner Sarnoff I think what you have is a lawyer reading another lawyer's -- and I
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promised the Mayor I wouldn't do this. But I'm not sure it says what you say it says, as long as
everybody agrees that's the intent.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes, that's the intent of this.
Commissioner Sarnoff That's the intent, right? You want --
Mr. Burgess: Yeah. I was going to take a stab at it, which is always --
Commissioner Sarnoff Sure.
Mr. Burgess: -- risky, Commissioner.
Commissioner Sarnoff You always get a better answer from a non -lawyer.
Mr. Burgess: Sometimes, not always. When the project agreements are approved, the project
has been proceeding. The way we got to the point we have now with an interim guaranteed
maximum price and so forth, they're activities for which money has been spent, much of it in a
drawdown schedule that's outlined in the agreement; it's the responsibility of the Team, but
there's responsibilities that are also outlined as public responsibilities. The project moves
forward as though there's no termination once these agreements are approved. However, in an
abundance of caution, the public sector wants the ability to terminate for convenience by either
July 1, in which case the County's maximum exposure is 7 million, the City's 3.5; or if we can
have a certainty in our financing, the availability to secure the funds before June 1, if we
couldn't before June 1, then the County's maximum out-of-pocket would be 4, and the City's, I
believe, 2.5.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Mr. Burgess: Is that right, Pete?
Mr. Hernandez: Yes. Correct.
Mr. Burgess: So it becomes more relevant, I think, in the case of a termination; but if not
terminated, we're just -- we're moving forward proceeding with the project, and we're just
contributing our respective shares to get the job done.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. Well, let me -- while you're up here, I just have -- and this will be
my last question with regard to the stadium agreement, and probably for you, Mr. Manager. It's
a curiosity standpoint, and maybe for the folks in District 2 you could explain it. You're loaning
the Marlins money to pay rent.
Mr. Burgess: I wouldn't word it that way.
Commissioner Sarnoff How would you word it?
Mr. Burgess: I would submit to you that as part of the negotiations, we negotiated rent payments
to come to the County. They start at $2.3 million, and they escalate by two percent a year. What
had -- in previous negotiations, probably had a -- roughly a present value of 35, would drop to
probably 34. We renegotiated the growth, so now, based on the current rates, it probably has a
present value of 44 million; so we're pretty happy with the additional money coming in. Part of
the deal all along was that we were going to secure issue debt to the tune of $35 million.
Commissioner Sarnoff Predicated on that income stream?
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Mr. Burgess: Well, we certainly wouldn't do one without the other, not that it's rent back debt. I
mean, we will go ahead and secure additional debt, but we expect rent payments; and we expect
them to escalate, and they do; but it's not -- one is not necessarily -- it's not directly linked to the
other, but obviously, in the pure process of negotiation, we're certainly not going to agree to one
without the other.
Commissioner Sarnoff Let me -- and I'm going to get to this again later, but it's a question. You
allow rent to increase by two percent a year?
Mr. Burgess: I would allow it to increase by --
Commissioner Sarnoff Well --
Mr. Burgess: -- four if David was agreeable.
Commissioner Sarnoff I understand. But on the other hand, you allow them to increase the
value of the franchise by eight percent a year so that you don't get any of the benefit of the profit
that they theoretically could make by signing the agreement?
Mr. Burgess: I don't think -- we don't -- I don't think you, in my judgment --
Commissioner Sarnoff Can't marry the two?
Mr. Burgess: -- no disrespect intended. I don't think you can link the two. I think they're
independent issues in the negotiation. There's -- the issue of the $250 million of initial value and
the imputed value growth of I think, eight percent, that was part of the negotiation on the value
increase of the Team. Then there's a process of calculating if there ever was a sale, and this is a
sale in the first seven years; and there's a declining percentage that would be shared, depending
on whether it was -- the Team was flipped or sold in the first, second, third, through the seventh
year, the public sector would share in the net of obligations that are resolved if -- out of any
profit from a sale, but one does not tie to the other.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. And then I'm ready to go off the stadium. Do you have any
questions or --?
Chair Sanchez: No. I believe -- where's -- Commissioner Gonzalez, I don't think he had any
questions.
Commissioner Sarnoff 'Cause I'm going to start talking about the parking garage.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. Hold on. I don't want to -- let's go ahead and wait for Commissioner
Gonzalez, who's coming. Let me just ask one more question that was raised on the public
infrastructure, the money that we will be putting towards the public infrastructure around the
stadium. That -- those funds are for sidewalks, streets, light fixtures, and all the stuff that's going
around; so that money's being put into the City.
Mr. Hernandez: Basically, it's in the City. It's an improvement to the neighborhood as a whole,
sure.
Chair Sanchez: Just wanted to clarify that because of the misconceptions. Did you have any
questions --
Commissioner Gonzalez: No, I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) questions.
Chair Sanchez: -- pertaining to the stadium? All right.
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Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman, those are improvements that are considered to be neighborhood
improvements, enhancements to the community; like for instance, improving the street lighting in
the community --
Chair Sanchez: That's a total of $18 million.
Mr. Hernandez: -- providing new sidewalks.
Chair Sanchez: That's $18 million?
Mr. Hernandez: That's the combined between the City and the County; 24 with contingencies.
Chair Sanchez: Twenty-four with contingency? Okay. All right, so we're done with the stadium.
Now let's focus on the parking structure.
Commissioner Sarnoff Yeah. Just -- Larry, as long as you're here -- 'cause I just got this
handed to me. It appears to be a January 21, 2009 letter from Bank ofAmerica. It says "Bank
ofAmerica, N.A., as the administrative agent under a credit agreement dated May 24, 2005, as
amended, among the Florida Marlins, L. P., as borrower, the agent and lenders party therefore
is pleased to confirm the Marlins have in place under credit agreement a dedicated $20 million
revolving credit facility, b, that may be used by the Marlins solely to fund its obligation to pay
cost overruns with respect to the construction of new ballpark, subject to certain maturity and
termination provisions set forth in the credit agreement. Now, have you reviewed the credit
agreement?
Larry Spring: Commissioner -- Larry Spring, chief financial officer -- no, I have not reviewed
the credit agreement.
Commissioner Sarnoff So how do we know what it says?
Mr. Spring: We can ask the banker; he's here right now.
Commissioner Sarnoff Can we get the banker up.
Mr. Samson: If there's specific questions about it, I'd be happy to answer --
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, I'm --
Mr. Samson: -- and be happy to introduce Jim Nash too. Our actual banker from Bank of
America is here who -- if you would like him to approach, he could approach as well.
Commissioner Sarnoff I just want to know what the contingencies are. I want to know why --
how close to an irrevocable letter of credit this would be.
Mr. Samson: I mean, I'm happy to have you address it. I just -- This is Jim Nash, who is Bank of
America.
Jim Nash: Sure. Hi. As David said, my name is Jim Nash. I'm with Bank ofAmerica. We've
been a banker to the club for about five years now, and so what we described here is a very
traditional, common line of credit that we provide to the club; and it is part of a comprehensive
credit agreement, and it is a very normal type of a commercially reasonable agreement that we
have with the club.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, would -- let me ask you this. Wouldn't it be simple just to say the
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credit agreement would secure the terms and conditions of the Consfruction Administration
Agreement?
Mr. Nash: The line of credit is -- it's actually there today, as the letter states, and it's been there
for a number of years --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Nash: -- and it is for the only purpose of cost overruns. That's the only reason it can be
used for. And so it exists and is there and available when there's a need for the funds.
Commissioner Sarnoff Subject to the terms and conditions of the Consfruction Adminisfration
Agreement?
Mr. Nash: And subject to the credit agreement, itself.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well --
Mr. Nash: Absolutely.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- see, that's just it; I don't know what the --
Mr. Nash: So everything is --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- I don't know if the credit agreement acts like a crimp in the hose and
restricts some of the water flowing out, and that's why, to me, it needs to be an irrevocable letter
of credit or a letter of credit subject to the terms and conditions of the CAA. Am I wrong on
that?
Mr. Nash: We're just providing the credit agreement that was required per the terms of the CAA.
Commissioner Sarnoff Per the terms of the --
Mr. Nash: We're just addressing what is part and parcel of the agreement.
Commissioner Sarnoff Do you understand where I'm going at, Mr. Samson?
Mr. Samson: Yeah. I just wanted to say you keep saying letter of credit, and I just want to point
out it's a line, and that has a significant legal difference.
Mr. Nash: Correct. It is a line of credit.
Commissioner Sarnoff Is the line of credit pledged or in any way encumbered or in any way
transferred or in any way hypothecated in favor -- let me finish -- of the Construction
Adminisfration Agreement?
Mr. Samson: It's part of a credit agreement. It's -- I don't under -- I fruly don't understand the
question. It can only be used for overruns that are caused -- that would be --
Commissioner Sarnoff Here's --
Mr. Samson: -- the responsibility of the developer.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- my concern, and I know I'm harping on it; and I don't think I'm
getting satisfaction, so I'll leave it that I can't be satisfied, but here's the last opportunity. I want
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to ensure that that $20 million is there subject to all the terms and conditions that George
Burgess negotiated in that CAA agreement to protect him and the City, and that there's no
further terms and conditions; for instance, Major League Baseball decides, no, you can't take
that $20 million, or some other third party says, no --
Mr. Samson: Now I get it.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- I get to review that, and I don't think there's a breach; or no, it is not
an encum -- I don't want it to be encumbered at all, other than what the CAA says.
Mr. Samson: I do understand your question. The answer is -- you're saying it exactly right. I
would just add it is encumbered by a credit agreement in general, which defines the uses for that,
but it's always subject to the terms of the Construction Administration Agreement.
Commissioner Sarnoff And all you need to tell me is it's subject to a credit agreement that
assigns it to the CAA.
Mr. Samson: Which is exactly right, except the CAA was not in place at the time; but it is to -- at
the time it was --
Commissioner Sarnoff As you're speaking to me now or prior to the execution of this
agreement, will your credit -- line of credit, will that be subject to the CAA and no other
agreements?
Mr. Nash: It is only to be used for cost overruns. Cost overruns only arise from the construction
documents, so that's why it's there.
Commissioner Sarnoff No. I gotcha but -- and I don't want to cross-examine you because it
would be a long time.
Mr. Samson: The answer's yes --
Commissioner Sarnoff That's what I think it is too.
Mr. Samson: -- to make it very simple, but --
Commissioner Sarnoff The banker doesn't want to say yes, but you do.
Mr. Samson: The answer is yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: So there is no third party? Okay.
Mr. Nash: It's an agreement between the Marlins and the bank for one purpose --
Commissioner Sarnoff All right.
Mr. Nash: -- cost overruns, and that's it; so thank you.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. Mr. Manager, I wanted to address -- you want to talk about
anymore --?
Commissioner Gonzalez: No, no, no. I'm all right.
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Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. So we move over now to the -- so we move over to the parking lot
structures, okay.
Commissioner Regalado: Mr. Chairman, before --
Chair Sanchez: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Regalado: -- you move on the parking. Mr. Manager, I mention that, but didn't
had any response. On this agreement, what about the resolution that was approved by the City
Commission in February of last year about the Police and the Fire being the primary force? It is
-- it does not appear like that on the agreement that we're about to vote on it. This was not a
discussion. This was not a suggestion. This was a direction of the Commission to the Manager
to have that. What happened that you were not able to follow the directions of the Commission?
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, what have done through the negotiations is to, I would say,
gain or establish the best participation by our Police and Fire Department. We're dealing with a
building that is going to be County -owned. We are partners with the County on this. Both our
Fire and Police Department will have, you know, participation; and what we have in these
agreements are basically a framework that we will have the opportunity. I, personally, want to
continue to work on it to improve the operation of the concerns that our folks may have. That's
it.
Commissioner Regalado: So the Miami Police Department and the Fire Department will not be
the primary force?
Mr. Hernandez: With respect to Fire, if you have any kind of an emergency there that requires
more than the units at the stadium, the City ofMiami is the one that would be responding. We're
using City ofMiami protocol and City ofMiami communications on Fire.
Commissioner Regalado: But there will be rescue from the County there --
Mr. Hernandez: Well --
Commissioner Regalado: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) respond?
Mr. Hernandez: -- they are -- they're basically sharing in a unit basis. Normally you have
maybe three, maybe four individuals per fire unit; and if you have a need for four, you'll have
two from each; and they will have a joint command from Fire, the County, and Fire from the
City in order to address any emergencies.
Commissioner Regalado: So in the negotiations, yes or no, the City -- you were not able to have
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, it's not --
Commissioner Regalado: -- on this location the -- on this location in the City ofMiami, they --
the Police and Fire as primary source?
Mr. Hernandez: Well, in essence, when you say primary, if we have the need in any kind of
emergency to respond, obviously our Fire and Police are the ones that will be first responders in
the sense that it's within -- it's in the heart of the City ofMiami. It's a county building. We are
partners of this. The idea is for the County to have the control of the house or have police
inside; we'll have police outside. My understanding is that we'll be able to access the building
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for our needs, too, in working with them. We also have something that is very important because
neither police department has the ability to continually staff every event; they don't, so what I
think is important is that we will back each other up. If the County is short in their personnel
inside the facility, we'll fill those slots. If we have a similar situation outside, they will fill those
slots. And we'll only go to a third party agency in the event that neither party has enough police
force or fire force.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Anymore questions?
Commissioner Regalado: Not on the stadium, no.
Commissioner Sarnoff Just one last brief one on the stadium. It's a one -minute one. You
indicated, Mr. Manager, that part of the public infrastructure would be paid for with sunshine
state funds.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Sarnoff Those are loans, correct?
Commissioner Regalado: That's the law.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes, they are. It is.
Commissioner Sarnoff So we don't have a funding source for that; we're just borrowing the
money?
Mr. Hernandez: We have already closed on that funding source, so those monies are available
to us.
Mr. Spring: Commissioner, Larry Spring, chieffinancial officer. The sunshine state loan
portion was already closed on by the City. We brought before this Commission some
47-odd-million-dollar approval. This project was part of that --
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Spring: -- approval.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right.
Commissioner Regalado: On the infrastructure, Northwest 17th Avenue is a county road; right?
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Commissioner Regalado: Northwest 7th Street is a state road?
Mr. Hernandez: I believe it's county.
Commissioner Regalado: No. It's a state road. Northwest 7th Street is a state -- it's Florida
Department of Transportation state road. But my question was so the infrastructure will be done
on the city streets -- I mean, the City will be paying for the city streets infrastructure --
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, we --
Commissioner Regalado: -- not 17 --
Mr. Hernandez: No.
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Commissioner Regalado: -- or 7?
Mr. Hernandez: We did a very extensive detailed analysis of the scope of services under the
public infrastructure, extremely detailed; and when we totaled up all the expenses, we were like
in the range of 51, 52 percent with City; and 48, 49 was County; and that's, in essence, when we
decided, you know, the County Manager and I, to just say basically that we're sharing on the
expenses 50-50 because after detailing every line item, it was that close.
Commissioner Regalado: But why is that if there is a county road and a state road?
Mr. Hernandez: Well, we could -- what we're trying to do is to make it --
Commissioner Regalado: I mean, it's their responsibility.
Mr. Hernandez: Right.
Commissioner Regalado: According to charter, it's their responsibility.
Mr. Hernandez: But we went through what's needed on 7th, what's needed on 17th, what's
needed on 4th, on 6th, on 16th Avenue, 14th Avenue, 3rd Street, everything; and we had a
column for the County and a column for the City. When we got at the end of it, we were in the
range of -- odds at 51, 52 percent, and they were below 50; and we decided, look, it's so close;
let's shake hands on it. Let's make it 50-50, which makes it a lot easier to manage in the
construction field, rather than have a contractor separate -- what I did -- you know, I have two
men working here, and that's County; two men working there, that's City; so we simplified it, but
it was after an extensive analysis of the cost for both City and County.
Commissioner Sarnoff You okay?
Commissioner Gonzalez: Go ahead.
Commissioner Sarnoff Mr. Manager, with regard to the garage -- now, this is what I
understood Larry to say -- that the Convention Development Tax, so that's the CDT, has a
present value of $60 million.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes. We have a revenue stream that --
Commissioner Sarnoff He believes could be bonded out --
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- at $60 million?
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. For those of us that are not good with the bonds, we're just
taking a mortgage house on -- a partial mortgage on the parking garage, correct?
Mr. Hernandez: That's it. Exactly.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. Then he said the second source of funding was going to be
the debt service to support from the Marlins. I think it's --
Mr. Hernandez: Right. Those --
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Commissioner Sarnoff -- $10.03 a space.
Mr. Hernandez: Right.
Commissioner Sarnoff Is it at 4, 774 spots, or is it 5,000 straight spots?
Mr. Hernandez: It's in the range of 54 or 5,500; in that range.
Commissioner Sarnoff Spots?
Mr. Hernandez: Spots.
Commissioner Sarnoff Which would make the Marlins Stadium go number one in the United
States, am I correct, in terms of parking? We would have the most parking of any stadium?
Mr. Hernandez: No, I don't think so.
Commissioner Sarnoff No?
Mr. Hernandez: No. As a matter offact, when we were negotiating this, I don't know, a year
and a half ago or so, I believe the team initially wanted to have like 10,000 spaces or maybe
12,000.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Hernandez: And we began to work away from it because we wanted to reach a balance
between what was practical for the stadium to serve their, let's say, season ticketholders, et
cetera; and to be able to also allow for the community to be able to have that overflow parking,
which they have relied on for so many years during the Orange Bowl existence.
Commissioner Sarnoff What -- let me ask you this 'cause I've heard you use the number $94
million 'cause that's what it will cost the citizens ofMiami to build this parking garage.
Mr. Hernandez: The $94 million -- and I haven't changed it because I didn't want to give you
different numbers throughout the different months -- dates back to November of '07, and after
that, with time going on -- keep in mind that we're -- our plan was to have been under
construction way -- already; I mean, six months ago or so. We had some legal delays. The
prices, I would say, went up; then with the economic depression that we have, they have gone
down. I feel confident that the price of the garage will be within 10 to 15 percent at most of the
94; and we have the capacity to handle that cost.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right. So let me ask it -- I remember, I think you used a number of
$17, 000 per parking space. Was that about right?
Mr. Hernandez: I think that -- initially that the 207 [sic] figure of 94 could be based on -- I
think it's around 15,000.
Commissioner Sarnoff Fifteen thousand a parking space.
Mr. Hernandez: Could be. Yeah.
Commissioner Sarnoff So if the industry is telling at least this Commissioner -- I don't know
what the others have heard -- that it's $25, 000 per parking space, have things changed, or are
they wrong, or --
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Mr. Hernandez: Well, I think that --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- can you just do it cheaper?
Mr. Hernandez: -- they were extremely conservative with that figure. I'm confident that the
number that we have, that you could actually build a garage for 94 million today --
Commissioner Sarnoff Have you ever built --
Mr. Hernandez: -- except for the dressing that you do on it.
Commissioner Sarnoff Have you --
Mr. Hernandez: You can dress it up.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- ever built a garage of this magnitude, of this size for $94 million?
Well, let me ask a better question. Have you ever built a garage for $15, 000 a parking space?
Mr. Hernandez: There have been many because that's how we base -- our $15, 000 per space
was based on receiving information from garages that had been recently constructed for below
that amount. They were at 13,000, and I believe that we jumped our number to 15 to give us
some cushion.
Commissioner Sarnoff Now, does that include the retail spaces that you're required to put in?
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff So you have built parking garages -- or you know of parking garages
that were built at $15, 000 per space, inclusive of turnkey or I guess it's ready -to -build or
ready -to -suit retail space of the magnitude of 60,000 -- I think it's 60,000 square feet of retail; it
might be 58,000 and change?
Mr. Hernandez: Right. On the -- when we're talking retail, for everyone to understand, we're
talking about what is called the gray box; we're providing the space. We are not doing the build
out. The information that we had, Commissioner, back in the end of '07 supports the figures that
we use.
Commissioner Sarnoff Now, if you're wrong -- if your numbers are wrong, if they've been too
ambitious, if somebody has given you poor information; if something happens that it doesn't
come in at $15,000 a parking space, but it comes in closer to 20 to 25 or maybe even 30,000,
how are the citizens ofMiami protected?
Mr. Hernandez: Okay. The -- two steps. We're in the process right now of selecting an architect
for the design of the garages. We're also in the process, following just the designer, of selecting
a construction manager at -risk in order to have our construction entity working with the
designer to ensure that what's being designed can be built for the budget that we have already
established so we'll be able to, as the design goes forward, to do value engineering; so before we
actually start with construction, we'll have an idea as to what that maximum price of that garage
will be. The same way that -- with the stadium, that I believe the County, the Team, and the City
have been careful in developing a true, realistic estimate. We plan to take the same approach so
when we're ready to go forward, we'll have our guaranteed maximum price from our
construction manager before proceeding; so we're taking those steps in advance. We're also
confident that the capacity that we have right now allow us to go at least 15, maybe close to 20
percent over what we have right now; and beyond that, we have also other revenues associated
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with the garage that we haven't even taken into account at all. Keep in mind that every use of
the garage beyond the 81 games is going to produce additional parking surcharge. We're not
taking that into account. If the Team is successful and they do 20 concerts a year in the off
season, we'll be doing very well; so that's something that we haven't included; that we have in
the back pocket in case that we need to bring it up and use it. And we also have 50 percent of
the advertising on the parking garage that we have not counted on either. That will be
additional revenue that we can always use. So we have a series of I would say, fallback
positions or safeguards to ensure we can manage it.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, let's talk about the safeguards that you have because there are
some more obligations, correct me if I'm wrong, attendant to this garage. There is an operations
element to this garage that you've not spoken about, 1.5 million a year, 2 million a year.
Mr. Hernandez: In our financial model, we are covering the operation, the maintenance, and
what is called the "Cap X," which is the extended major repairs needed. That's already --
everything is built in -- into our financial model.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, everything's built in on a financial model based on projections.
Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff The Cap X, what's your number on that? And just for the folks out there,
Cap X means what?
Mr. Hernandez: I think Larry have -- has those details handy; he can go over them.
Mr. Spring: Commissioner, I think, as we briefed -- and with all the Commissioners, I explained
that. The $10 per space, per game included a great deal of items. It included an operations
subsidy to run the garage; it included maintenance; it included a parking management fee to pay
an operator; it included $2 million worth of Cap X to -- which is actually, interestingly enough,
the same amount for the stadium to make sure that it is kept in good repair. And at the end of my
model, there was actually -- I know it's not a lot -- about $60, 000 a year left over of revenue that
would just fall into the general fund, and that number increases over time as debt service
changes and the per space price revenue increases, which, collaterally, also increases the
parking surcharge amount that we will --
Commissioner Sarnoff Well --
Mr. Spring: -- earn from the garage.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- correct me if I'm wrong, Larry, but you're not going to get dollar one
from the Marlins until your parking garage is already built; correct?
Mr. Spring: Correct.
Commissioner Sarnoff So for at least a period of time, you have to at least envision using zero
coupons?
Mr. Spring: No. Actually --
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, you can't keep paying debt service.
Mr. Spring: No, no, no, no, no. Remember, the -- you're -- we're looking at a couple different
things.
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Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Spring: You're talking about receiving bond proceeds in order to proceed with the
construction --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Spring: -- versus making a debt payment,; and our -- we will sfructure, one -- a, we're
getting revenue, CDT revenue coming in from the County day one.
Commissioner Sarnoff Sixty million dollars.
Mr. Spring: Well we're getting an annual contribution from the County on day one or actually --
Commissioner Sarnoff Sixty million dollars.
Mr. Spring: That's the notion or net present value amount.
Commissioner Regalado: CDT?
Mr. Spring: The CDT.
Commissioner Regalado: CDT is two million a year.
Mr. Spring: Again, like I --
Commissioner Regalado: Contribution this year is two million, right?
Mr. Spring: Contribution on the first year is two million, correct. We will start --
Commissioner Regalado: Two thousand ten -- on 2010 it's three million, and it would not get to
six million --
Mr. Spring: Correct.
Commissioner Regalado: -- until 2026.
Mr. Spring: Correct. However, we will sfructure our debt financing in such a way that we will
be able to make our year one, year two, year three debt payment necessary to finance the
garage.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well -- and I'm not a real sophisticated guy, so help me with this. Let's
just say it's $100 million for your garage.
Mr. Spring: Yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff Pete's not exactly -- he didn't hit it right on the head, but he wasn't far.
And you have a certain stream you're going to bond, correct?
Mr. Spring: Correct.
Commissioner Sarnoff You're then going to have a certain shortfall when some contractor with
very, you know, crossed arms is going to be looking for his payment. How does that payment get
made?
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Mr. Spring: From the bond proceeds we will receive on --
Commissioner Sarnoff So you're going to overbond [sic] the amount to pay him?
Mr. Spring: No, no. It is not --
Commissioner Sarnoff How would you do that otherwise?
Mr. Spring: -- an overbonding [sic]. We would pay our construction team that's building this
garage from the bond proceeds. We go to market -- on the day we go to market, we receive $100
million, in your scenario, of cash.
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Spring: It's sitting in the consfruction account. That -- those are the dollars that will be
used to build the garage, pay the contractors, pay the subs --
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Spring: -- pay design, pay all of these things.
Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Spring: So those things are taking place. Then on the other side, the -- we have a debt
payment which is built into the City's overall debt structure. What I'm telling you is -- and I
guess, just like the construction of a house; you enter into a consfruction loan; you set up your
construction loan --
Commissioner Sarnoff Pay interest first only for a while --
Mr. Spring: -- for a year, two years, whatever that construction period is, and then you proceed
with your P & I (Principal & Interest) at -- you know, at that normal rate.
Commissioner Sarnoff So, in essence, then that cost the taxpayers a little bit more money of
interest because you're not going to be addressing the principal for a period of time?
Mr. Spring: Perhaps, butl don't want to say it's a nominal amount; but we're not talking
millions of dollars over the construction period.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Spring: And the consfruction --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm just --
Mr. Spring: -- period for the garage is less than that of the stadium, as well.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay.
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, ifI may. I have some clarification on numbers. There was a
garage you're probably familiar with, the one in South Miami, in the downtown area of South
Miami, that was --
Commissioner Sarnoff Yeah.
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Mr. Hernandez: -- done about a year and a half ago, that came in at 17,000, which equates to
about 93.5 million; and I believe that the prices have gone down from a year and a half to today,
so I don't think that we're that far off. That garage has commercial liners and also has aesthetic
treatments on the outside. Also, Commissioner Regalado, Northwest 7th Street is County.
Northwest 7th Avenue is state, but I believe the County has to assume jurisdiction on 7th Street.
Mr. Spring: One thing I'd also like to put on the Commission for the -- on the record for the
Commission. Keep in mind -- and I've said this in the briefings -- the revenue -- and the
Manager just said it -- there are revenues from advertising, from the retail leasing, from the
other days and hours of operations of this garage that will be coming to the City that have not
been included in my model, our financing model, at all.
Chair Sanchez: Would -- Commissioner Sarnoff, would you yield on the revenue from stadium
event parking?
Commissioner Sarnoff Absolutely.
Chair Sanchez: I -- just to keep things simple, okay. Let's not confuse here. It's very simple.
Sixty million dollars coming from bond money for the parking lot, okay; the rest we are getting --
we're bonding out, and we're getting -- it's 5,500 parking lots [sic]. Really, it's 5,750, but 250 of
them were secured for the team, for their players and security and stuff.
Mr. Spring: Correct.
Chair Sanchez: So just based on the 5,500 --
Mr. Spring: Right.
Chair Sanchez: -- of a rate which is from one year to five year is 10.3, and then it increases up
to --
Mr. Spring: Over time.
Chair Sanchez:--1010, 1020 as we go along; but based on that projection alone, would we be
able to meet the bond obligation?
Mr. Spring: Yes.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Commissioner Regalado: Well, why did you said [sic] "we expect" the other time?
Mr. Spring: It's just a statement that I made, sir. I think I've provided the scenarios, our
financing scenarios that show we could meet that obligation based on the current rates -- the
current rate environment that we're in right now. I apologize for using "expect."
Commissioner Regalado: No. I mean, it's just that you used it twice; we expect, we expect. The
$250,000 we expect; and you know, we need to trust you because you're asking -- there is no
information about the finances of the team, at all; there's no information about -- we don't know
the future, so you're asking this Commission to take just a leap of faith and say everything is
going to get well. Don't -- trust us, everything is going to be okay; and you know --
Mr. Spring: I think the Administration is asking this Commission to make a very calculated
decision based on real numbers, real scenarios, a legal contract between the County and the
Team that we have demonstrated by running number runs, which is the best thing we can do
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right now today, other than I'm in New York at the trading desk selling the bonds on that day to
make this decision. Based on what -- everything that we can put together today, we feel that we
can make this work; and it does work, and there is cushion.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well -- Do you mind ifI --?
Commissioner Regalado: No, no. Go ahead.
Commissioner Sarnoff If -- correct me if I'm wrong, but the Manager would never say I
guarantee this will never touch the general fund," right? I can't get you to say that, right? And
put your house up as well.
Mr. Hernandez: Commissioner, I can come as close as a guarantee, as I have to, in this thing
because, in essence, we are not impacting the general fund. Even if we have to -- and I'm
looking at David Samson here -- even ifI have to reduce the number of spaces, I'm not touching
the general fund.
Commissioner Sarnoff And so I'm clear -- and we're not being required, like the County was, to
have a second source funding; is that the right word for it? Second --
Unidentified Speaker: Second what?
Commissioner Sarnoff Second pledge. We're not required to have a secondary pledge.
Mr. Spring: No, no. Well, no. Let me answer that question. With regards to all of our bond
issuance, special obligation bonds, we always back our bond issuance by a covenant
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) budget and appropriate from our non ad valorem to make the credit better,
just like the County Manager says; and it's in all of our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).
It's about credit enhancement. It is not about dipping into the general fund, and it's there; and
I'm not going to sit here and lie and say that it's not.
Commissioner Sarnoff All right, so --
Mr. Spring: And it's not a tricky answer.
Commissioner Sarnoff No. I got you, I got you. I didn't know that we did it, butt got you.
Mr. Spring: Yes. We do it on every -- the street bonds that you approved, the pension bond, all
of those things have that back pledge.
Commissioner Sarnoff So we pledge our non ad valorem general revenue fund.
Mr. Spring: The big pot, which, at one point -- and it's -- we'd have to rerun it, butt know
maybe a year ago, it was -- we're talking about a $2 billion capacity on our non -ad valorem.
Commissioner Sarnoff So we do similarly what --
Mr. Spring: What everybody else does.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- the County Manager does?
Mr. Spring: With regards to the bond issuance, yes.
Commissioner Sarnoff For the secondary pledge.
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Mr. Spring: Right.
Commissioner Regalado: But have we -- Larry, have we ever used -- like, for instance, on the
first steps of the tunnel project, any general fund was used for -- to start the bonding process and
all that?
Mr. Spring: We have not started the bonding process for the tunnel project.
Commissioner Regalado: Okay. Let me rephrase the question. For the tunnel project, any
general fund --
Mr. Spring: With regards to our obligations under the tunnel project, we entered into a letter of
credit agreement with Wachovia Bank that is paying out at 55 basis points on $50 million.
We've spent last year 175,000 in interest costs that came from our spec -- I think we funded from
our special rev -- our --
Commissioner Regalado: The non --
Mr. Spring: -- debt special revenue account.
Commissioner Regalado: -- ad valorem general fund.
Mr. Spring: From non -ad valorem sources, yes.
Commissioner Regalado: So we did went into the general fund for the tunnel, and that's --?
Well --
Mr. Spring: With regards to the letter of credit, yes.
Commissioner Regalado: Yes. I understand what you're saying.
Mr. Spring: But, as you know, in the agreement that letter of credit goes away the day that the
City puts its money into the account.
Commissioner Regalado: I understand. So there is no -- there's no guarantee to the people of
Miami that the general fund will not be used in all these projects if we were to be short in the
future in any of the projects?
Mr. Spring: I would say that our -- again, our City Manager and this Administration has been
clear that we have no intention and do not --
Chair Sanchez: But Larry -
Mr. Spring: -- will not put any general fund -- my numbers show clearly that we do not have to
dip into the general fund in order to meet this obligation. I don't know what else to tell you,
Commissioner. I'm -- and I've been -- I've told you the same in the briefing, as I told everybody
else; and we stand by that commitment.
Chair Sanchez: IfI may. I don't know; maybe I got briefed too much on this issue. I know we
spent, as the Chair -- you know, I spend at least 14, 16 hours with the City Attorney and -- so I'm
-- maybe I'm overbriefed [sic] on this. But Mr. City Manager, these are simple questions that
you need to have a simple question for -- an answer for; and that is, you know, it's going to be
$94 million. Your -- it's going to be $94 million. That is it, okay. And we're not going to dip
into our general revenue. You need to say that. You need to --
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Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman, I'll be --
Chair Sanchez: -- put that on the record with confidence.
Mr. Hernandez: -- very clear. It may be up to 10, 15 percent over the 94 million; and we do
have the capacity to cover that amount. Besides that, I have additional funding revenues coming
from parking surcharge --
Mr. Spring: Advertising.
Mr. Hernandez: -- coming from advertising; and then besides that, if everything else fails, I'll
call David; I'll look him in the eye and say, "David, I can only do three and a half buildings
because I cannot touch my general fund.
Chair Sanchez: All right. But the other issue is you need to make it crystal clear, as crystal as
possible, that you will not be dipping into the general revenues; that simple.
Mr. Hernandez: The City -- this Administration will not be dipping into general funds of the --
Chair Sanchez: Thank you.
Mr. Hernandez: -- City ofMiami.
Chair Sanchez: Thank you. Now, on the question back getting to the parking and the stadium in
itself I want to make it very clear that this is being supported for many reasons; but one of the
most important reasons is that it's going to bring economic revitalization to the City, economic
vitality, and jobs to people. And I made it very clear when we've had our meetings that it's not
we should or we may; it's we shall, all right? These projects are being built in neighborhoods,
and we need to give benefits to the neighbors who live in those communities; and it's about force
- - first force [sic] hiring, which we need to focus on. You've agreed on that, and it's very
important to put on the record that 20 percent -- and the County should do the same at the
County -- to make sure that a lot of these jobs come from our communities and cities because let
me tell you, in the past -- and I don't want to compare this to anybody else -- what we've had,
when we've had major, major big projects like this -- if we've had major companies that were out
of town coming in and benefiting with -- local companies did not benefit from that. That should
not happen anymore. And on the employment side, it should be the same thing. We should give
priority to the people that pay taxes, the people that live in the City, and the people that basically
- - overall, in that community where you're building a baseball stadium, a large percentage of it
is supporting the baseball stadium because they're looking forward to having their family, their
children, and their grandchildren having a job at that stadium. I just wanted to put that on the
record. David, Mr. Samson, and you need to agree on me with that; those are priorities that
we've set forth and you will accomplish.
Mr. Samson: Local jobs are a priority; we plan to accomplish that. Thank you.
Chair Sanchez: All right. And there are no false hopes, because I heard somebody say the word
'false hopes." There's no false hopes here. Okay. Any further discussion on the agreements?
We are on -- let me just get my thoughts here. We're on SP.1. That is the executive agreements,
all five agreements. There is no further discussion. There was a motion and a second. For the
record, we need to put the changes on the record. Madam Attorney, can you put all the changes
into the record on the final vote of this agreement?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Yes. I had previously delivered to you -- there have been a couple of
changes to the documents. There are a couple of substantive changes to the City parking
agreement and to the construction administration agreement. You have them in front of you, but
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I want to explain what these amendments are intended to accomplish. The CAA (Construction
Administration Agreement) is being amended under Section 3.8 (m) in order to clarify what will
happen in the event that Hunt/Moss is not retained as the construction manager for the public
infrastructure work. The agreement contemplates that the construction -- that the retention of
Hunt/Moss will be waived by this Commission, but in the event that the City Commission does
not waive it, it provides that the government parties will assume the responsibilities directly with
respect to the construction manager; that the additional contribution that the stadium developer
would be required to make towards the design costs of the public infrastructure work would no
longer apply; and accordingly, the $500, 000 exfra that the City would be contributing if
Hunt/Moss is retained by the stadium developer would not only -- would no longer apply. That's
basically the change to Section 3.8 (m); and this, again, is to cover the possibility that this
Commission or the County Commission may not waive competitive bidding with respect to the
construction manager for the public infrastructure work. The second change is to make -- to
clarify that the termination for convenience provision can only be exercised with respect to the
City by the City Commission. As you know, the construction administration agreement provides
that either party may terminate for convenience before July 1. It was not clear in the document
whether that was a termination that could be exercised by the City Manager, and we are
proposing a clarification that it can only be exercised by action of the City Commission.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. Any other changes to be added to the record?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: These are -- I have explained the changes.
Chair Sanchez: You put them on the record?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Now there are sever -- there's changes to the City parking agreement.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. Why don't we put them all on the record because --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Okay.
Chair Sanchez: -- we're voting on -- SP.1 covers the parking agreement.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Yes, it does. The -- basically, the changes to the City parking agreement
are intended to express the authority of the Miami Parking Authority to operate the parking
facility. The revised provisions are Sections 5.1 on page 12 of the agreement, and it says that the
City, through MPA (Miami Parking Authority), or in the event MPA declines to upgrade the
parking facilities through a third party manager, will operate. It qualifies the City's obligation
to operate by providing that the Miami Parking Authority will have the right to do that, and that
same change is reflected in 5.6, again, to show that MPA has the authority to operate it. And
then the last change to the City parking agreement is in Section 8.3 and --
Chair Sanchez: May I stop you for a minute --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Sure.
Chair Sanchez: -- just to clarify? So the thing is that they would have first option --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Pretty much.
Chair Sanchez: -- to either --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: If --
Chair Sanchez: -- accept or deny, and then we could reach to somebody else?
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Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: MPA has the authority to operate it under the terms that have been
negotiated with respect to the 81 days that the team has a right to occupy the parking. If they
decline, the City has the right to proceed with a request for proposal --
Chair Sanchez: Okay.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- to have a third party manager. Then the last item is 8.3, and it is to
reflect that the CDT interlocal agreement is no longer going to be an amended interlocal as
indicated in the document that was previously distributed to you, but instead, it is a new
agreement that will be entered into between the City and the County for the remittance of the
CDT funds. Those are the substantive changes.
Chair Sanchez: All right. So those changes have been put on the record. I believe it is time to
vote. There was a motion made by Commissioner Gonzalez. Would you like to add something,
counsel?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Yes. One more change. With respect to the resolution, the resolution that
was previously submitted to you had -- the second whereas clause to the last, it said -- where it
says condition, the City's right to execute the City parking agreement upon the execution of a
contract with Miami Parking Authority. Once we made the changes to the City parking
agreement, that requirement is no longer necessary; so the reference that the agreement with
Miami Parking Authority has to be entered into prior to the execution of the City parking
agreement is no longer applicable.
Chair Sanchez: All right. Anything else?
Commissioner Regalado: Madam --
Chair Sanchez: If not --
Commissioner Regalado: IfI may. Madam City Attorney, what happens if the County
Commission changes this agreement this evening?
Chair Sanchez: It would come back to us. If it's a substantial change --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: It will --
Chair Sanchez: -- it'll come back to this Commission.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- have to come back to this City Commission to the extent that the changes
are substantive.
Commissioner Regalado: It would have to come back to the City Commission?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Exactly. This --
Commissioner Regalado: And the --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- Commission --
Commissioner Regalado: -- City Commission can accept or reject the changes?
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Sure. Yes. This Commission would be approving or disapproving the
documents that you'll have before you. If the documents that are approved by the County
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Commission are substantially different from these documents, then they -- we don't have a
meeting of the minds, and it would have to come back to this Commission.
Chair Sanchez: All right. We still have to address SP. 2, which is --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: And 3, but --
Chair Sanchez: -- and then we could talk about it if we're coming back. That's housekeeping
stuff that we'll do at the end of the --
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: Sure.
Chair Sanchez: -- special meeting. So for the record, the changes have been put on the record.
It is time for this Commission meeting [sic] to deliberate. There's been a motion by
Commissioner Gonzalez, second by Commissioner Sarnoff. It is a resolution. Let's have a roll
call, City Clerk.
Pamela E. Burns (Assistant City Clerk): Roll call on SP.1. Commissioner Regalado?
Commissioner Regalado: Well, I'd like to say that really want the stadium. I want the Marlins
to play in Little Havana. This is a very good idea, but this is a very bad deal for the City of
Miami. I -- this is a textbook City -of -Miami bad deal. We have no guarantees, and we should
discuss jobs and soon; but we can cannot mortgage the City ofMiami residents in -- just because
we feel that we need to do this, so my vote is no.
Chair Sanchez: And you owe me dinner.
Ms. Burns: Commissioner Sarnoff?
Commissioner Sarnoff My vote is no, but I'll make a motion after this.
Ms. Burns: Commissioner Gonzalez?
Commissioner Gonzalez: Yes.
Ms. Burns: Chair Sanchez?
Chair Sanchez: Yes. The motion dies, 2-2.
Ms. Burns: That's correct.
Chair Sanchez: So is there a motion?
Commissioner Sarnoff I'll make a motion. It seems to me, Mr. City Manager, that you don't
need to go to anyone and ask him to reduce your parking. What should happen and
appropriately should be part of this agreement is that the City ofMiami should not have to pay
anything more than your projection, so here's what propose; and I don't even know that the
Marlins wouldn't like this. You must only come in at $94 million. Anything between 94 million
to $100 million, the Marlins and the City would split 50-50. Anything over $100 million, the
Marlins would pay for. In return, they would get their pro rata share of the retail rent that we're
always going to say we're going to get; so, in theory, you've motivated the Marlins to actually
bring a retail tenant to this facility; and in addition, you are preventing any theoretical invasion
of your general fund. That's number one. Number two, I fail to see how the Marlins should
enjoy any naming right revenue with regard to the stadium, and the way I figure this is that the
City ofMiami and the Marlins are about co -equal partners in terms of the amount of money that
they have into this deal. The County has 53 percent into this. It seems to me, by and between the
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City and the County and the Marlins, we would enjoy the difference between that 53 percent;
and that we should have that money to pay for our debt service for the naming rights. Third, and
most important, everything about this deal, if you look at the history and you look at the people
involved, indicates that you are using public money to enhance a private franchise; and it is, I
think, likely that this team will sell. You have a death clause for someone that is a nominee. You
don't even know who the death clause is for. It's an unnamed person. It seems to me that all the
County, the City should get paid back before the Marlins get to enjoy any of the profits of the
increase of the value of their franchise. Very simply, they should not be giving us a pro rata
formula. They should not be creating this expense, that expense. I don't understand why their
franchise gets to grow at eight percent a year and that comes off the top on their formula,
whereas rent only goes up two percent a year. I'm more than willing to keep the Marlins here. I
would love them to stay here, but think they have to fess up. If we're going to be partners, let's
be partners. Let's be equal about this. Retire the debt of the citizens ofMiami, retire the debt of
the citizens ofMiami-Dade County on a pro rata basis for at least the first ten years; allow the
Marlins to step up with an increase after that ten years, once they show that long-term
commitment so they can enjoy a better benefit. But got to tell you, nobody should be able to
flip this team and derive a profit without the citizens getting paid back. And if y'all think I'm so
wrong, what happened to the Miami Arena? Where is that now? What good is an arena without
a team in it? What value does it have for any of us to not have the Marlins playing there? So I
can make that amendment, and I would then vote for this.
Chair Sanchez: I will second it. I have passed the gavel. I will second it for the purpose of
discussion. Under discussion --
Commissioner Gonzalez: Okay. We have a motion, and we have a second. Discussion.
Chair Sanchez: -- I tend to agree with some of the amendments that you're proffering here. I do
think that this may be the death of a thousand cuts to this deal. And although I want this deal to
move forward, and I want to work with the County, and I want to work with the Marlins to build
a baseball stadium in our city, I find myself in a situation where I have to support your
amendments to see if we could keep this on a ventilator to move this city to the County and see if
they're going to accept it. I know that it's coming back because just the amendments that we're
proffering here, they're going to make changes to it; and it's coming back because there's going
to be significant modifications to the agreement.
Commissioner Gonzalez: May suggest something?
Chair Sanchez: Hold on. I would yield to you. I just want to put that on the record. Just to
keep this deal on ice and to keep it alive, I'm going to go ahead and support this -- the motions
that you have presented on my second. I'll yield to you, Commissioner Gonzalez.
Commissioner Gonzalez: What suggest that we do is that we take a ten-minute recess, let the
Administration and the County and the City and the Team get together, and you know, study the
proposal of Commissioner Sarnoff; and if they don't agree, then there is nothing to vote on. I
mean, you know, it's dead, it's dead. So I'm going to call a ten-minute recess --
Chair Sanchez: All right.
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- to give them an opportunity to -- Mr. Manager, do you have a
record of Commissioner Sarnoff proposal -- amendments?
Mr. Hernandez: I understand the first one, which deals with the City parking. That one I believe
I got totally, which is between 94 and 100, to be shared between the City and the Team; above
100, it would be the Team.
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Commissioner Sarnoff Right.
Mr. Hernandez: Right? Number two, I need to -- if you could repeat number two and three?
Commissioner Sarnoff Number two is in the event of a sale --
Unidentified Speaker: No.
Mr. Hernandez: No, it's naming rights.
Commissioner Sarnoff Naming rights. I'm sorry. In the event of the naming rights -- oh,
naming rights should be -- should go to the County and the City --
Mr. Spring: Commissioner --
Commissioner Sarnoff -- to retire debt.
Mr. Spring: May I, Mr. Chair?
Commissioner Gonzalez: Yes.
Chair Sanchez: Listen, we're going to call the -- well --
Mr. Spring: No. I need to ask a question about what he's putting on the record.
Commissioner Sarnoff Yes.
Mr. Spring: I need you --
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm not talking about the -- I'm talking --
Mr. Spring: Okay.
Commissioner Sarnoff -- about the overall naming rights.
Mr. Spring: All right. No, no, that's not my question. I need you to repeat the entirety of your
first issue because you suggested a revenue sharing in there that I need --
Commissioner Sarnoff Oh, right.
Mr. Spring: -- that I need -- that needs to be legally evaluated.
Commissioner Sarnoff What I'm saying is, in return, the Marlins, as a inducement -- there are
how many condominiums today with retail space on the bottom that's vacant? So obviously
we're not doing a great job of retailing, plus a tough economy. You want to induce the Marlins
to put a retail center in our parking garage; so what I'm saying is in between the 94 to $100
million, we would split the cost overruns 50-50. Anything above that, the Marlins would bear.
In return for any monies they put into this garage, they would get a pro rata share of whatever
net profits would go into the respective retail center; so they would get back what they put in,
and it gives them an inducement to put something in there.
Commissioner Gonzalez: You got that?
Chair Sanchez: Yeah, but --
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Mr. Hernandez: Yes.
Chair Sanchez: -- before we go to recess, I withdraw my motion. This would just kill the deal.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay; we got nothing to talk about then.
Commissioner Regalado: Okay.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right. This Commission will stand in recess for the next ten
minutes.
Commissioner Regalado: Why? We -- he withdrew the motion. He --
Commissioner Gonzalez: You withdraw the second?
Commissioner Regalado: Yeah. He withdrew the motion, so --
Commissioner Gonzalez: Huh?
Chair Sanchez: No. Take a recess.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right, let's take a ten-minute recess.
[Later...
Chair Sanchez: Ladies and gentlemen, the City ofMiami Commission meeting -- special meeting
on the baseball is back in order at this time. We took a recess. There were three issues that were
proffered as conditions by Commissioner Sarnoff. What we'd like to do is have -- where are the
representatives of the Marlins? They're still upstairs? All right.
Commissioner Regalado: Mr. Chairman, to simplify, ifI may. I will second Commissioner
Sarnoffs motion for discussion since you withdrew, so -- your second, so I will second his motion
that was presented before the recess.
Chair Sanchez: Okay.
Mr. Samson: Excuse me, sir.
Chair Sanchez: Yes. Mr. Samson --
Mr. Samson: Yes, sir.
Chair Sanchez: -- the meeting has been called back to order. I believe that there were three
conditions proffered by Commissioner Sarnoff. Would you like to address them; maybe these
questions can be answered by you or your staff?
Mr. Samson: Sure, I'd be happy to address the Commissioner's questions. The first issue I
believe that was brought up -- and, of course, the record could correct if I'm incorrect in how I
am informing and saying the issues -- was a cap or a -- some sort of discussion on overruns for
the garage, what would happen if the garage were more than $94 million. What the Team is
willing to agree to is that we will cap the garages at $94 million; therefore, if the $94 million can
only build `X" number of spaces, then that is the number of spaces that will be built. I believe
that should take care of any issue with general revenue, but obviously, that's for you to decide,
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sir; but given what is on record now in terms of the financing, I think that would take care of it.
As far as naming rights is concerned, on February 21, 2008, in front of this very body, you and
the rest of the Commissioners agreed to a baseball stadium agreement that contained the exact
same provisions that are contained in the documents before you, financing provisions as well as
certain other things in the agreement. There have been changes, I would agree, which is why we
are here with definitive documents, and those changes consist of things that make this deal better
from the public standpoint. As an example, for the record, the rent used to be 2.3 million a year.
It's now 2.3 growing to two percent, which is about a 9 million -dollar present value increased
contribution. In addition, the public had agreed, under the BSA (Baseball Stadium Agreement),
this very body, actually, to cover public infrastructure and any overruns. The Team has now
agreed with a Hunt/Moss in charge that there would be no overruns for the City or the County,
and that the team would cover those. There are myriad other things that have changed to the
benefit, including the sales kicker provision, which I'll get to next. As far as your request for
naming rights, on behalf of the Marlins I would be very happy to reopen the entire document if
that is the desire of anyone on this board, and I would tell you that everything would then be
open. If you want to renegotiate naming rights, then we officially open for renegotiation the
entire parking agreement and our contribution toward your parking. We officially open the rent
and any possible payment that we would have. We officially open our contribution to this
building as a private company trying to do business in the City ofMiami. So as far as naming
rights is concerned by itself the Marlins are not opening just that provision or changing any
part of that provision. To address your third issue, which I believe was the sales kicker, there
was a question, I believe, raised and maybe it could be read back. I believe it had to do with
death, dying; somebody dying; somebody being nominated to die. The person -- we can put a
name to the face of the taxpayer who wants to -- who owns the Marlins. There is one owner, and
his name is Jeffrey Loria. He's in this building. And just to clarify for the record, that is the
death that we are talking about should he die, which he assures me he has no plans of doing, nor
are we wishing to discuss that further. As far as the sales kicker percentages are concerned, I
draw your attention to February 21, 2008 when the provision of the sales kicker was voted on by
this very body and agreed to; and the changes that have taken place, having nothing to do with
anything other than a renegotiation of the documents trying to make it a better deal; and the
percentages were increased across the board, and the number of years was changed from the
BSA to this document. The sales kicker was initially invented as something called a 'flip tax" to
guard against an owner, or Jeffrey Loria, flipping the team and taking advantage of any
perceived increase in value that could come from approving stadium agreements and then
immediately selling. We tried to deal with that concern by going out three extra years and
increasing the percentages. So as far as your request on any change to the sales kicker
provision, that, again, is part of the negotiated, long -negotiated deal that has been negotiated
between the City, County, and Team for a long period of time. Ifyou would like to reopen
discussions through either your negotiators or through yourself we, again, are more than happy
to reopen those negotiations; but then the entire non -relocation agreement, it will then be open
for renegotiation. Your desire to not have baseball relocate for 35 years will then be open for
discussion. The agreement by the Team not to seek relocation during these negotiations and
from this day forward will again be open for negotiation. And I would point out for the record
something even more important. The sale of the team by Mr. Loria does not result in the Florida
Marlins/Miami Marlins leaving Florida. By definition, that is not allowed by your approval of
these documents. When you approve these documents as they are now, the nonrelocation
agreement states that the Marlins may not relocate -- not Jeffrey Loria as owner, not the next
owner or the next owner or the next owner or if it's just Jeffrey Loria -- for 35 years. The Miami
Marlins will not leave. They cannot leave. That is the agreement, whether he sells or doesn't
sell, whether the kicker provision is 150 percent of the gross proceeds, net proceeds; 10 percent
of zero or 100 percent of a billion. None of that matters to the issue that was discussed, which is
that the Miami Marlins would not be able to move under any circumstances. I'd be happy to
clarify anything. I believe those were the three provisions. If there's anything more, I'd be
happy to address that.
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Chair Sanchez: For the point of clarification, on the number one, which is the 94 million, you
agree that it will be not to exceed 94 million --
Mr. Samson: Well -- and the way --
Chair Sanchez: -- as to the parking --?
Mr. Samson: -- it will work is -- as far as the agreement's concerned, I would certainly defer to
the very capable City Attorney, butt would assume the way it would work is that the request and
the provision, which would require a minimum of a certain number of spots, would be edited to
reflect the fact that the number of spots will be whatever number of spots that are eligible to be
constructed for $94 million.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. And number two, you have clearly stated that it's unacceptable to you.
Number two is unacceptable to you as to the 50 percent naming rights to the City and the
County?
Mr. Samson: That is correct.
Chair Sanchez: That is correct. All right. And on the third one, I was not too clear; that is, if
the team is sold, all public debt is paid off first. That was --
Mr. Samson: That is not accepted.
Chair Sanchez: That is also not accepted.
Mr. Samson: I was frying to address the Commissioner's question. I believe there was a
question during the motion to amend on death, so I wanted to address that; and I was frying to
just point out, for informational purposes, that there are 21 new stadium deals and only three of
them have a kicker, at all.
Chair Sanchez: And --
Mr. Samson: I was just trying to clarify that.
Chair Sanchez: -- your suggestion is that you are open for renegotiating the agreement?
Mr. Samson: The entire agreement, every single --
Chair Sanchez: The entire agreement.
Mr. Samson: -- provision would then be reopened.
Chair Sanchez: Every single provision of the agreements because --
Mr. Samson: Of all five agreements.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. All right. Commissioner Sarnoff.
Commissioner Sarnoff I'm sorry. I thought there was -- I apologize, but there is a motion and a
second.
Chair Sanchez: Okay, there's a motion and a second with these conditions. Commissioner
Regalado.
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Commissioner Regalado: I mean, I just -- I second this motion because I think things could be
negotiated. As you stated, Mr. Samson, you negotiate with the Administration, but not with this
body; we just were informed. As a matter of fact, the naming rights were something that, to me,
was important, very important, and I discuss it with the City Manager and the -- the advertising
on the garage because I told them I know about this issue, and I know that we can share, and we
can be partners; so I wish that you and the Administration and everyone will help me vote yes on
this agreement. I think these conditions, especially the naming right [sic], will give the residents
the comfort of -- that we can pay the debt; that we can pay what the residents ofMiami are
putting into the stadium, so I would -- I'll second the motion with the conditions.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. I withdrew my motion, so there wasn't a motion. Commissioner Sarnoff,
you need to make the motion with the conditions, and then it needs to be second by
Commissioner Regalado; then we'll open it up for discussion.
Commissioner Sarnoff Okay. It's the same motion as I made before, which is the $94 million
cap on the parking garage; the naming rights to be paid by -- the naming rights should be
enjoyed by the County and the City in its pro rata amount; and in the event of a sale of the team,
that we already have what they call the baseline price of $250 million, I guess, plus -- was it
seven or eight percent already? -- so it's at 270, if my math is right. I'll always bend to -- the
County Manager is much better at math with me. The City and the County should enjoy or
should benefit in a pro rata amount for the flip of enhancing a private person's property right at
the expense of the public. That's my motion.
Chair Sanchez: Okay, and it's been second by Commissioner Regalado?
Commissioner Regalado: Yes.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. The item is under discussion. Anyone wishing to discuss the item? Yes,
sir. Do you --? Well, it's under discussion, unless they have a question for you or something.
But, basically, I don't think there's anything to vote here because you basically said the deal is
dead under these agreements; correct?
Mr. Samson: Can I come up?
Chair Sanchez: Yes, come on up; I'm asking you a question.
Mr. Samson: Mr. Chair, I'm sorry.
Chair Sanchez: Basically -- under these agreements --
Mr. Samson: I'm trying to understand his new motion. It sounded different than the motion that
happened prior to the recess, so I was just trying to --
Commissioner Sarnoff Did I say it differently?
Mr. Samson: It felt different to me, so I was wondering --
Commissioner Sarnoff Feel nicer?
Mr. Samson: No, not that --
Commissioner Sarnoff Oh.
Mr. Samson: -- actually. I was just frying to hear it again.
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Commissioner Sarnoff I was really frying.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: The only difference was the 94 million cap rather than the sharing over the
94 --
Mr. Samson: Oh, and every other thing was in there.
Ms. Ramirez-Seijas: -- for the City parking. That's the only difference that could
(INAUDIBLE).
Chair Sanchez: So, under these conditions, this deal to you is unacceptable, correct?
Mr. Samson: That is correct.
Chair Sanchez: So the deal would be dead between the City, the County, and yourself
Mr. Samson: There is no deal.
Chair Sanchez: Can I get the County up and ask them a question? Mr. County Manager,
basically this is dead. And you had a meeting at 1 o'clock;; hopefully, you have contacted the
chair at the County and told them there will be no meeting this afternoon?
Mr. Burgess: There would be no need for a meeting this afternoon.
Chair Sanchez: All right. So let me just state something for the record. This has been a deal
that we -- and I say "we," a lot of people; the City, the County, and the Marlins -- have been
working on for quite some time; as a matter of fact, for a lot of years. And to come this close to
being able to come to an agreement to move this City forward and build a great stadium for our
city and keep the Marlins here and give people an opportunity for jobs has, hopefully, not come
to an end; but it -- certainly, today has come to an end. But what's alarming is that am
appalled at how we have handled this because we have had an opportunity to meet with the
Administration, to meet with the Marlins, and negotiate in good faith, and negotiate in good faith
to see if we could come to an agreement. If these conditions would have been addressed earlier,
way, way earlier, then we should not have wasted the time and effort of so much of us who
worked so hard for the residents and the citizens of this City. I have wasted so much time and all
the Commissioners here have wasted so much time on this to have these three conditions tossed
up at the last minute that has basically derailed this agreement. This agreement is dead, and if
there is a vote, there shouldn't even be a vote because we're wasting our time on a vote because
it's not going nowhere; but, hopefully, maybe good minds will prevail; people can come to a
compromise and agree on certain issues; and maybe we could bring this back and give it some
life. So if we're going to vote on the issue -- basically, what we've done here with this motion is
we've killed this deal, and I will be voting no on the issue. All right, roll call on the issue as to
the conditions.
Ms. Burns: Roll call, as amended.
Commissioner Gonzalez: I believe there is no need to call a vote.
Chair Sanchez: There is no -- it's dead --
Commissioner Gonzalez: I mean, if there is no --
Chair Sanchez: -- so --
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- agreement, you don't need a vote.
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Chair Sanchez: -- need a motion to adjourn.
Ms. Burns: We had -- excuse me --
Chair Sanchez: There is --
Commissioner Gonzalez: Motion to --
Ms. Burns: -- but we have a motion and a second.
Chair Sanchez: Well --
Commissioner Sarnoff Call the question.
Commissioner Regalado: You need to vote.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right, call the question.
Chair Sanchez: Well --
Commissioner Sarnoff Call the question.
Ms. Burns: Commissioner Gonzalez?
Commissioner Gonzalez: No.
Ms. Burns: Commissioner Sarnoff?
Commissioner Sarnoff Yes.
Ms. Burns: Commissioner Regalado?
Commissioner Regalado: Yes, and I would like also another motion to renegotiate this deal with
the Marlins.
Chair Sanchez: But you're just voting against the items. I don't --
Commissioner Regalado: No, we're not. I'm voting for the residents of Miami, Mr. Chairman.
It's -- I'm sorry. Respectfully, it is not about the deal; it's about the residents of the City of
Miami. I believe that these terms can be achieved. I believe that these terms -- and I -- and this
is not a last-minute thing. The Manager and Larry knows that I have been talking to them about
naming rights and advertising for several, several days on their briefings; and what they told me
is this is a done deal, so the only way for me is a public forum to express myself and to convey
the message. This deal is not dead. The Marlins need the stadium. We want the stadium. These
are details that you all been work out, but according to you, Mr. Manager, you got a lot of things
from the County and from -- well, now is the time to come back to the table.
Commissioner Gonzalez: But let -- but if you allow me.
Chair Sanchez: Can I address -- Commissioner --
Commissioner Gonzalez: If you allow me.
Chair Sanchez: IfI may. Commissioner, with all due respect, I think it's about time you start
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legislating in this dais and stop campaigning in this legislative [sic], all right? You can't vote
against an item --
Commissioner Regalado: Commissioner Sanchez --
Chair Sanchez: -- you can't be for or [sic] against an item.
Commissioner Regalado: -- you are out of order.
Chair Sanchez: No, you're out of order.
Commissioner Regalado: You don't do politics in City Hall; you do the people's work.
Chair Sanchez: People's work.
Commissioner Gonzalez: If you allow me. With all due respect, let me tell you what -- the only
thing that don't understand is that we have been briefed on the stadium deal for the last two
weeks, okay; and don't understand, having two weeks of briefing with the City Attorney, with
the City Manager, with Larry Spring, with everybody involved, that we don't put forward during
those briefings the issues at hand and the issues that we have problems with and allow a meeting
to take place. All of this press that has been here since early this morning, all the public that
came to attend the meeting, all the resources that have been moved to just, at the final moment,
come up with, you know, our --I don't know. Each one has his own style, butt wouldn't do that.
I mean, ifI have a problem, ifI have an issue, ifI have conditions, I would present it to the
Adminisfration; and I would fry to deal with the Adminisfration before coming to a Commission
meeting, and this is something that has been a custom in these Commission meetings. At the last
minute -- you know, I don't know why, honestly, we have briefings. Why -- we should avoid
having briefings, you know. We could be saving a lot of money on overtime on the City
employees. Let's not have briefings; let's have meetings, and then let's discuss the issues at the
meetings, not on briefings. To me, it's totally, it's totally insane. To me, it's totally insane, with
all due respect. I mean, every time that have had an issue, I have told the Administration I
have this issue; and until get the answer that need on this issue, I will not be ready to go to
the Commission with the item.
Commissioner Sarnoff Well, Commissioner, let me just tell you this; and I mean this with all
due respect. I did not get briefed, as I bet none of you did either, on what the capacity of the
TDT and CDT money and PSFT money was because nobody had those answers until as late as
last night. That's when I got my final briefing on what the capacity was. Your three primary
sources of funding only came to me a little bit on -- what is today? Today is Friday.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Today is Friday.
Commissioner Sarnoff So I got a little piece of it on Wednesday, a little more on Thursday; and
we knew exactly where we stood late last night. So the component of this deal, which is how you
were going to fund it and what the gaps were going to be and what the full debt service would be
-- and I read it in the paper this morning, $1.8 billion -- only came to me, I guess this morning,
at 6 o'clock in the morning when I got up to get here to City Hall at 7 this morning. I'm not
going to fault myself or anyone on this dais for bringing up issues with a $1.8 billion deal. I'm
sorry if it's not pretty, and I'm sorry if it's not acceptable to the Marlins. If they wish to continue
and work through this issue, think about what you're asking them to do. You're asking them
don'tflip the team. That's it. Don't flip the team. They agreed to the 94 million, naming rights.
Look at the amount of money we're spending of taxpayer dollars. You know what, this was the
right place; andl disagree with you. I humbly disagree with you.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right.
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Commissioner Regalado: And ifI may.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right, Mr. Chairman.
Commissioner Regalado: Commissioner Gonzalez, I think that I need to tell you that in those
briefings, the Manager asked me about my vote; and I told the Manager, directly, that on this
deal I could vote no; and I told the Manager that if we had a better deal, my vote will be
different. I didn't lie to him. I cannot tell you because I will be violating --
Commissioner Gonzalez: The sunshine.
Commissioner Regalado: -- the sunshine law, but I told the Manager that this deal, it wasn't
right for me; and he knew that. So this is about briefings or no briefings. It's -- the whole thing -
- the whole information that we needed, we got it late; and the public forum is the right place to
discuss this because that's why we have government in the sunshine. This is where we need to
discuss this, not in back rooms. So for those who want government in the dark, well, so be it; but
this is the right place and the right time to discuss everything that is on the table.
Commissioner Gonzalez: So you're calling --
Mr. Hernandez: Mr. --
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- the regular briefings that take place with each Commissioner and
the Administration, you call that --
Chair Sanchez: Back -room deal?
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- meetings in the dark?
Commissioner Regalado: No, sir.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Because if that's what you're saying, then --
Commissioner Regalado: No, sir.
Commissioner Gonzalez: -- I want to suspend all my briefings.
Commissioner Regalado: No, sir, I did not say that. I did not say that. I said that the deals, the
deals, not the briefings -- I used the word "deals" should not be made in rooms; it should be
made in public. It should be made in front of the public. That's what I said. I didn't say
anything about briefings.
Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman, ifI may, briefly. When we deal with a series of agreements like
this, there are hundreds of factors that are being discussed; there's a lot of give and take; there
are ones in which we do much better than in others. When you put it all combined, it's your final
deal; and sometimes when you start impacting economic factors in one, it's going to have an
impact someplace else. So it's -- that's what happens when you're doing negotiations. I think
there's room for additional discussion here today. I would beg of you to allow me another
recess, sir. I would like to have an opportunity to get back to the Team and the County to see if
we can save this today.
Chair Sanchez: Before we do that -- and we'll see if we call for a recess, that's going to be all
the Commission. I just -- I think today is truly a sad day for Miami. I mean this. My colleagues
who have voted against this have taken the hopes of many people that live in Little Havana, but I
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will bring that argument back. If there's a recess to keep this going -- and I want to keep this
moving forward -- I will give -- is there a motion for a ten-minute recess or just a ten-minute
recess by all my colleagues?
Ms. Burns: Mr. Chair --
Commissioner Gonzalez: I'll make another motion.
Ms. Burns: -- we also have one more vote for the roll call.
Chair Sanchez: Well -- but -- you know, if we could accept the recess see if we could come to
agreement --
Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman --
Chair Sanchez: -- we don't have to vote on the issue.
Mr. Hernandez: -- we're able to handle one item. I would like to give it a shot to see if we can
do something with the other two or at least one.
Chair Sanchez: All right. City Commission meeting stands in recess, and there's a motion on
the table.
[Later...
Chair Sanchez: City ofMiami Commission meeting -- special meeting on the baseball is back in
order. We just had a long recess, frying to come up with a compromise and agreement. All
right. We're -- Madam Clerk, we had a motion and a second, and it was voted on the floor. The
last vote that was not casted was my vote, correct?
Ms. Burns: Yes. We are continuing the roll call, and you were the last vote.
Chair Sanchez: Okay. And my vote is a no, so therefore, it's 2-2; and that dies, correct?
Ms. Burns: That's correct.
Chair Sanchez: All right. So, basically, what I'm going to do is pass the gavel and make a
motion to continue to -- this meeting, special meeting of the baseball to February 26 at 9 o'clock,
when we will have a full Commission to address this matter. So move.
Commissioner Gonzalez: Well, before doing that -- I will second for discussion. I'm sorry. I
can't second it because I'm chairing.
Commissioner Regalado: I'll second the motion for discussion.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right. Before doing that, I think that we need to call back all the
parties and see if they have come to an agreement or what they're going to do. The other thing is
that think it's kind of premature to advertise that we're going to have a full Commission on the
29th because we are not sure that Commissioner Spence -Jones is going to be here by then. What
I would recommend is that, you know, the meeting dealing with the Marlins be advertised in the
future for whatever date, butl wouldn't commit for the 29th because we are not sure that the
Commissioner is going to be ready to be back.
Chair Sanchez: Well, I believe we must have a date so we could properly advertise this meeting.
Madam Clerk.
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Ms. Burns: The date that we're talking of is February 26, and I would defer to the City
Attorney's Office for that matter.
Chair Sanchez: We should have Vice Chair Spence -Jones back, hopefully.
Mr. Hernandez: Mr. Chairman, in talking to the City Attorney, she tells me that the notice
period with respect to a special City Commission meeting would be whatever would be
reasonable. It's got to be reasonable notice, so it could be seven days?
Ms. Bru: Reasonable notice -- but thought what was being discussed was continuing this
meeting.
Chair Sanchez: All right. Can I make a suggestion to that? Can we make it the first meeting of
March? That's reasonable.
Ms. Bru: You can continue this meeting to whatever date you choose.
Chair Sanchez: What is the first meeting ofMarch, Madam Clerk?
Ms. Burns: March 12.
Chair Sanchez: That is the meeting. So why don't we go ahead and continue it to that date?
Ms. Burns: We have a motion on the floor to continue to February 26 --
Chair Sanchez: Well --
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right.
Ms. Burns: -- at this time.
Commissioner Gonzalez: We have a motion --
Chair Sanchez: -- let's --
Commissioner Regalado: I'll withdraw the second, and he'll withdraw the motion.
Chair Sanchez: Andl will make it March 12, right?
Ms. Burns: That's correct.
Chair Sanchez: All right. So moved.
Commissioner Regalado: Second.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right. We have a motion, and we have a second. All in favor, say
"aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Ms. Burns: And --
Commissioner Gonzalez: Meeting stand --
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Ms. Burns: -- is this -- will there be a time certain?
Chair Sanchez: Yes.
Commissioner Regalado: 9 a.m.
Chair Sanchez: It will be properly advertised at 9 a.m.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right. Now we need a motion to adjourn.
Ms. Bru: Mr. Chairman, you don't have to advertise this again 'cause you're continuing it at this
meeting; so if you're continuing it for 9 o'clock on March the 12th, the special meeting is being
continued for 9 o'clock in the morning, March 12, there need be no further advertisements.
Chair Sanchez: Look, in all fairness, I think this is the right thing to do, okay. Apparently, there
were some surprises in the meeting; and I think that we need to regroup, give both sides an
ample opportunity to either work out an agreement of some type, and with time, given us an
opportunity to vest [sic] and make an intelligent decision on this; it'll come back to this
Commission. Hopefully, we will have a full Commission to be able to deliberate and vote on
these agreements. All right. So I think the motion to adjourn -- I make a motion to adjourn.
Ms. Burns: Excuse me. We're not adjourning the meeting, Mr. Chair.
Chair Sanchez: All right. That's right. I do apologize.
Ms. Bru: We're continuing the meeting.
Chair Sanchez: We're continuing the meeting, okay.
Commissioner Gonzalez: All right. Meeting continued.
Order of the Day
A motion was made by Chair Sanchez, seconded by Commissioner Regalado, and was passed
unanimously, with Vice Chair Spence -Jones and Commissioner Sarnoff absent, to continue the
Special City Commission meeting of February 13, 2009 to March 12, 2009 at 9 a.m.
Note for the Record: During the regularly scheduled Commission meeting of March 12, 2009,
Chair Sanchez officially reopened the Special Commission meeting of February 13, 2009 at 9:32
a.m. and adjourned same at 9:33 a.m.
SP.2 09-00133 RESOLUTION
City Manager's A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION , WITH
Office ATTACHMENT(S), WAIVING BY A FOUR -FIFTHS (4/5 THS) AFFIRMATIVE
VOTE OF THE CITY COMMISSION, COMPETITIVE SELECTION
(COMPETITIVE SEALED BIDDING) FOR THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
WORK ASSOCIATED WITH THE PROPOSED FLORIDA MARLINS
BALLPARK ("THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE WORK") AS NOT BEING
PRACTICABLE OR ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE CITY OF MIAMI IN
ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 18-85( A) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("CITY CODE"); FURTHER AUTHORIZING
THE AWARD OF THE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE WORK, PURSUANT TO
SECTION 255.20, FLORIDA STATUTES, BY A FOUR -FIFTHS (4/5 THS)
AFFIRMATIVE VOTE, TO HUNT/MOSS, A JOINT VENTURE, AS
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER/CONTRACTOR, BASED UPON THE CRITERIA
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Meeting Minutes February 13, 2009
AND PROCEDURES SET FORTH IN SECTION 18-85(A) AND OTHER
SECTIONS OF THE CITY CODE, AND THE ATTACHED WRITTEN FINDINGS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND THE
ARCHITECT/ ENGINEER OF RECORD, RESPECTIVELY.
09-00133 Legislation.pdf
09-00133 Exhibit 1.pdf
09-00133 Exhibit 2.pdf
09-00133 Summary Form.pdf
09-00133 Public Notice 1.pdf
09-00133 Public Notice 2.pdf
09-00133 Public Notice 3.pdf
NO ACTION TAKEN
SP.3 09-00134 RESOLUTION
City Manager's A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Office ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO: (I) EXECUTE
AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY ("COUNTY"),
IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT
OF CONVENTION DEVELOPMENT TAX ("CDT") FUNDS PAYABLE BY THE
COUNTY TO THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") IN CONNECTION WITH THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARKING FACILITIES ON THE FORMER ORANGE
BOWL SITE (THE "NEW CDT AGREEMENT") AND (II) TERMINATE THE
INTERLOCAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT DATED DECEMBER 14, 2004,
BY AND AMONG THE COUNTY, THE CITY, AND THE MIAMI SPORTS AND
EXHIBITION AUTHORITY ("MSEA"), APPROVED BY THE CITY
COMMISSION PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NO. 04-0750, ADOPTED
NOVEMBER 18, 2004, ("MSEA CDT INTERLOCAL"), PROVIDED THAT THE
TERMINATION OF THE MSEA CDT INTERLOCAL SHALL BE SUBJECT TO
THE CITY AND THE COUNTY ENTERING INTO THE NEW CDT
AGREEMENT AND THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF TERMINATION SHALL BE NO
EARLIER THAN JUNE 30, 2009.
09-00134 Legislation.pdf
09-00134 Exhibit 1.pdf
09-00134 Exhibit 2.pdf
09-00134 Exhibit 3.pdf
09-00134 Summary Form.pdf
Motion to Adjourn
NO ACTION TAKEN
MOTION
Chair Sanchez: (INAUDIBLE) gentlemen, please take your seats. Before we open up the
regular scheduled and properly advertised meeting for today, Thursday, March 12, 209 [sic], we
have a bit of a clean-up issue here that we have to take care of. As you are aware, the special
meeting that the City Commission had on February 12, 209 [sic] was recessed and --
Priscilla A. Thompson (City Clerk): Excuse me, Chair. February 13.
Chair Sanchez: Thirteenth. Yes, February 13, 209 [sic]. I do apologize for that. -- was
scheduled to be reopened today, March 12, 209 [sic]. Since the City Commission will be
considering those items at a special meeting on March 19, 209 [sic], it is necessary to close out
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the recessed meeting; so we need a motion to close out that meeting. Is there a motion?
Commissioner Gonzalez: I make a motion to close the meeting.
Chair Sanchez: The motion is made by Commissioner Gonzalez. Is there a second?
Commissioner Regalado: Second.
Chair Sanchez: Second by Commissioner Regalado. Any further discussion on that item?
Hearing none, all in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sanchez: Anyone in opposition, having the same right, say "nay." So, therefore, for the
record, that meeting was properly closed and it has been properly advertised; and under the
powers of the Mayor, a special meeting has been called for March 19, 209 [sic]. That takes care
of that item.
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