For strong mayor, soccer, Miami Riverside Center — just say no

While this year’s Florida ballot is long on state amendments, city of Miami voters only have to remember three little words when it comes to their city questions: Just say no.

None of the Miami referendums put to voters should pass because none of them pass the smell test. Ladra will dissect them one at a time for you.

Let’s start with the strong mayor, which is getting the most attention, which is weird because it comes at the same time as a vote on providing public land for a massive commercial development complex disguised as a soccer stadium, which you might think would get more attention. But more on that later.

Say no to a strongman mayor

The strong mayor charter amendment would make the mayor the official key decision maker and put him in charge of day-to-day operations. Sure, he or she will be able to hire and fire staff — including the city attorney and city clerk — willy nilly and manage the $1 billion annual budget. But this is really a move on the procurement department.

There is no other reason to be strong mayor. Mayor Francis Suarez has already said that City Manager Emilio Gonzalez would stay on and do his job and make the same $300,000 annual salary and compensation package. Baby X just wants to be in charge of procurement without making it oh so obvious, same as his predecessor in Miami-Dade. Because that’s where the money is. Literally.

Who can blame him? He sees how great the strong mayor gig is for county Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his family and his friends and he wants what Carlos has.

Ladra predicts it will fail for the same reason: Because we’ve seen how the strong mayor gig has worked for Gimenez and his friends and family plan. This will be an unintended referendum on Gimenez, who abuses his power on the regular — you know, to give his BFF a $200 an hour job or make himself supervisor of elections for the day or wipe out a public corruptions police unit.

People have seen how it can go to one’s head. They will vote it down. As they should. This is the most important no.

The salary issue — that the city mayor will get 75% of the county mayor’s salary — is only part of it. And while Baby X has said that he will keep his same $130,000 salary and compensation package, this is a change that will be indefinite in the future. So a future Miami mayor will make at least $300,000 because the Miami-Dade mayor’s salary and compensation is at $478,000. Set in stone.

Besides, Suarez lost a lot of his luster and influence earlier this year when he sold his soul to the devil, er, Ladra means Jorge Mas and David Beckham on that real estate deal disguised as a soccer stadium. He really acted more like their paid lobbyist than the designated watchdog for the city chosen by voters to protect us from such scams. Lots of Suarez voters told Ladra later that they wouldn’t vote for him again today. They’re certainly not going to vote for his strong mayor wet dream.

Say no Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium

The Miami Freedom Park proposal would allow the leasing of the historic city owned Melreese Golf Course next to Miami International Airport to Beckham’s MLS group, who would build a a mega retail destination with shops, offices and restaurants, plus a 700-room. Oh, and a 25,000-seat stadium, too.

Let’s forget for a minute that there are hundreds of people — neighbors, users, kids who benefit from the no-cost program there — against it. The details of this $1 billion, 73-acre complex with 600,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 400,000 square feet of office space and at least 3,700 parking spaces that have a business plan all of their own were negotiated in secret. There was no open competitive process.

While there is still a lot to negotiate — another reason to vote it down — Mas and Co. would be paying the city a paltry $3.5 million a year in rent. For 73 acres?! Whoever negotiated on the city’s behalf should be fired.

If this is such a good idea, then why couldn’t it go through the normal open bidding process? The proposal should have been one of many taken in an open bid so the city could make the best use of the property — which just might be exactly as it is used now. Ladra has never stepped foot on Melreese. But that doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate it and that the green space should be replaced by a shiny new mega mall creating more traffic by the airport.

This, again, does not mean we don’t want soccer. But why do they have to keep picking and insisting on all these wrong places? Seriously! Someone needs to talk to them about West Kendall and getting them to invest in the rapid transit solutions we need there because that is what makes the most sense.

Don’t worry. Beckham won’t go anywhere else when we vote no. There are other opportunities for his group to make money with this stadium.

Say no to revamping Miami Riverside Center

The third question put to Miami voters, and one not getting much ink or radio time, is for the City of Miami to lease and its 3.1-acre Miami Riverside Center property, where its main — and outdated and cramped — downtown administrative offices are. In exchange, the city will get new digs.

After a competitive bid process two years ago, the city has been negotiating a lease and redevelopment deal with Adler Group, which owns an adjacent 1.6 acre property and wants to build three towers with 1,500 residential units, an office building that could be used by the city, with ground floor riverside retail and a public riverwalk.

It all sounds really good and it looks really pretty. You don’t have to be an urban planner to know that the space could be utilized better. And, all by itself, this might have been a yes. The process seems long enough and transparent. The proposal was chosen from 18 in total.

But Adler — a well connected developer who has donated to Baby X’s campaign — is looking for a 99-year lease starting at either $3.6 million in annual rent, which in the fifth year would increase 1.5 % annually — or 3% of annual gross revenue, whichever is higher. And there’s the possibility of buying the property in the future at the minimum current value of $69.4 million.

While the lease is not as ridiculous as the Miami Freedom Park deal of 73 acres for $100K less, it does seem a little low. So does the sale price. The River Oaks Tower & Marina, a 21-story building on 19th Street and the river, sold for $61 million in September.

And that right there is part of the issue. Besides the fact that the city doesn’t yet have anywhere to go in the meantime and hasn’t really decided if it wants to go back to the same complex with 1,500 homes — shouldn’t we have more of that plan in place first? — that seems like a really low bargain price. Time to renegotiate.

It doesn’t help that there are a bunch of new PACs financed by special interests pushing the yes vote on each of these questions. Just say no is easier to remember going into the polling places and if Miami voters reject all three ballot questions, the city will get more serious about what it presents us in the future.

Think of it as a teaching moment.

Francis Suarez, Miami Freedom Park, MLS soccer, MRC lease, soccer stadium

For strong mayor, soccer, Miami Riverside Center — just say no added by Ladra on October 22, 2018
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