Not Exactly Playing Ball
Although Skeptical of Funding Baseball Scheme, CRA Officials Will Accept Analysis That Details Its Benefits to Overtown

“I think that we should stop all these people that want to use redevelopment money of the poor to fund their pet projects and grandiose ideas.”

By Kris Conesa

Providing affordable housing in Overtown and a potential Marlins baseball stadium were the most contentious issues Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency discussed on Monday.

The CRA, which is governed by the Miami City Commission, has made many promises regarding the affordable housing initiative. Some residents and elected officials feel paying for a proposed baseball stadium with redevelopment funds (essentially property taxes collected within the redevelopment district) would only slow the realization of the housing projects.

Several of the commissioners, including CRA Chair Michelle Spence-Jones and Commissioner Tomas Regalado, claimed they were surprised by a Miami Herald article that implied the money for the proposed stadium would be coming from the CRA.

“I just want to make sure that I’m very, very clear tonight. I do not support putting a baseball stadium in the Overtown area. It is important that we deliver housing and all the things we have promised to these people before we consider anything else,” said Spence-Jones, to the applause of many who watched the meeting at Frederick R. Douglas Elementary School.

Regalado then made a motion that the CRA’s official position would be not to participate in a stadium plan or anything else that does not provide direct benefit to the community.

“I think that we should stop all these people that want to use redevelopment money of the poor to fund their pet projects and grandiose ideas,” Regalado said.

But his motion did not pass. Instead the commissioners will be provided with a financial analysis detailing the benefits a Marlins baseball stadium would bring to the Overtown area. Those figures will be available by the end of February.

That Regalado’s motion did not pass angered many in the crowd, who felt the extra time would be used to convince the CRA to make way for the stadium.

“Between now and February, the other commissioners of the city of Miami, the developers and Manny Diaz are going to place every bit of pressure they can, and use every dirty trick to get that money,” said Miami activist Judith Sandoval.

The commissioners also acted on the NW Third Avenue Beautification Project, quickly resolving to pay no more than $6,000 to purchase and install banners designed by a cooperative effort of students living in the area. Then, it was on to a resolution to donate outdated computers to nonprofit organizations working within the CRA boundaries. The item passed and the existing desktops will be replaced by new Dell computers running the new Microsoft operating system, Vista, at a cost not to exceed $21,000.

Next item on the agenda was a resolution to execute an agreement with Akerman, Senterfitt and Eidson, P.A. to lobby on the CRA’s behalf before Congress and other federal agencies. The firm, which has carved out a niche in Miami’s appropriations department, has previously been successful in obtaining federal funds, including acquiring more than a million dollars for Camillus House at the behest of the CRA. The two-year agreement, which begins today, will cost $48,000 annually.

In the past, the Akerman firm had a narrow mandate to bring money to Camillus House, but this new contract charges the lobbyists with broader goals to be laid out in a legislative agenda Commissioner Marc Sarnoff will oversee. The agenda will be put together within the next 30 days. Despite having no clear source of funding, the resolution to sign the agreement passed.

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