On the surface, it seemed like the perfect end to a nasty local controversy. It was a “win-win situation” for everyone, as Mount Sinai Medical Center’s CEO put it: Replace the hardly used Miami Heart Medical Center campus at 4701 N. Meridian Ave. with a park and end the perceived threat that the current owners, Mount Sinai, would sell it to a developer to build another version of Grove Bay or Aqua in the middle of a single-family Miami Beach neighborhood.

The blood feud between Mid-Beach homeowners and Mount Sinai Medical Center ended when commissioner and mayoral candidate Simon Cruz pushed to place on the ballot a bond “up to” $95 million to buy the nine-acre property. There were no more threats of medical boycotts or complaints about fears of personal attacks. It was all replaced by a communal “hey, we get what we want and they get what they want.” Solidarity replaced mistrust. Everyone was happy — except for three of seven Miami Beach elected officials who cast doubt on the proposal. Why? Simple: No real financial analysis was conducted to find out how much it would truly cost for Miami Beach taxpayers to purchase the land.

In the end, the three elected officials won out.

The Miami Beach City Commission reconsidered the bond referendum during a special meeting Monday and took the item off the November ballot. It was the right thing to do. Rushing a bond issue of that size and magnitude without any kind of analysis is a recipe for disaster.

At the request of Commissioner Jerry Libbin, City Manager Jorge Gonzalez declared in a memo that a $95 million bond, after 30 years, would actually cost taxpayers more than $181 million. That means a primary resident homeowner with a $250,000 home would have to pay an additional $233 in property taxes per year for the proposed park on 47th Street, just west of Alton Road.

Cruz admitted that he came up with the $95 million figure when city administrators asked for a concrete estimate.

“I asked them, ‘What do you think the price will be?’” Cruz said. City officials didn’t know, so Cruz, a real estate investor, conducted his own cost analysis. He said he factored the price of the Miami Heart-to-park conversion into the bond issue and was certain the ultimate price tag would not exceed $95 million. Without any real analysis, though, no one knew if those estimates were correct or if Mount Sinai would accept an offer that low.

When the nonprofit hospital sought to leverage its insurance costs in 2000, it bought its main competitor, Miami Heart, for about $81 million. Financially, the venture put Mount Sinai in the red and, four years later, most of Miami Heart’s operations closed down or merged with Mount Sinai. For Mount Sinai to continue its medical aspirations, it needs to recoup the money it lost in that venture and continue gaining favor on the Miami Beach City Commission.

Besides, commissioners did not address how the city would pay the hundreds of millions of dollars it owes for existing parks, sewers and other capital improvement projects if voters approved the new park. How would it have paid for those things in light of the property tax cuts recently mandated by Tallahassee lawmakers? Would other capital projects promised to Miami Beach voters fall by the wayside for a patch of grass?

Those questions should have been asked before commissioners placed the referendum before voters. Fortunately, however, Cruz and the City Commission wisely removed the question from the ballot. Getting the city into another $181 million in debt is no small matter. It requires a lot of thought.