No Rush, Souto Says

Museum Park funds on hold indefinitely

By Cynthia Archbold

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto listened to answers to the legal questions he raised about “anomalies” in the city-county plans to build Museum Park. But Souto did not say whether he was satisfied with them.

Assistant County Manager Alex Muñoz presented a report during a Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee meeting Monday to “address questions that weren’t clear” in the Memorandum of Understanding between the city, county and the museums to set the legal and fiscal framework for building Museum Park.

In January, Souto, who chairs the committee, was asked to approve the MOU and issue the first installment of the county’s general obligation bond funds — $235,000 to the Miami Art Museum and $3.3 million to the Miami Science Museum. Instead, he lambasted the agreement and put the museum funds “on hold” until the county responded to the many issues he raised.

Specifically, Souto denied the museums’ request to waive a rule under the county general obligation bond program requiring the museums to have control of the land in order to receive county funds.

“This convoluted deal seeks to avoid a referendum by the residents of the city of Miami, which would be required if the city of Miami tries to execute a lease directly with the museums,” Souto wrote in a letter to County Manager George Burgess.

The land — waterfront park land in Bicentennial Park — is protected under the Joe Carollo Amendment from development, unless voters decide otherwise in a public referendum.

In addition, the commissioner questioned the MOU’s leasing arrangement, in which the city would lease the land to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority, which would then sublease the land to the museums.

Muñoz did not justify the request for waiver, but insisted it is necessary for the museums to continue planning and fundraising. He added that it would only apply to the initial grant allocations to the museums “in order to sustain momentum on the design phase of these projects.”

“These initial [bond] grant allocations for each museum cover very limited amounts of their total grant funds,” according to the memo Muñoz presented Monday.

He told Souto, “But at this time, it is important to keep these projects moving forward because they are at a critical juncture. It was important to ask permission from the board to do this.”

Souto also wanted proof — studies required by state law that “demonstrate that the area being annexed to the existing Community Redevelopment Areas meet the criteria of slum and blight.” In January, the commissioner wrote that without solid evidence, the CRAs and the global agreement would be “just another scandal … defrauding the African-American community out of dollars meant to tackle poverty and create opportunities for the African-American Community.”

The city-county deal would use CRA funds to landscape Bicentennial Park; build a port tunnel, Marlins baseball stadium with a 6,000-car parking garage and a soccer stadium; and pay off the construction debt of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

On Monday, Muñoz provided reams of folio numbers and property tax information to justify expanding the Community Redevelopment Area, showing values for Bicentennial Park, Overtown North, Overtown West and Watson Island — the neighborhoods the city wants to include in the CRA to fund the $3 billion “global agreement.”

But the summary of the property values shows escalating market prices. For example, Overtown West increased from $24 million in 2001 to $87 million in 2007; Watson Island went up from $5 million in 2001 to $28 million in 2007.

Muñoz said increasing values don’t disqualify the properties from being included in the CRA. “While slum or blighted conditions need to exist within a CRA, those conditions do not need to prevail in the area,” he wrote in his memo. “In many occasions, CRAs are designed to include areas where slum or blight are nonexistent and only serve as a financial catalyst towards the revitalization of the greater area.”

Muñoz did not provide Souto with infant mortality rates or information about public health issues and diseases in the proposed expansion areas, as requested.

As for Souto’s objection to giving the museums and their boards ownership of the museum buildings, “there were several key factors that resulted in the recommendation for both museums to own their buildings,” Muñoz wrote. He noted that the $120 million raised by the Miami Art Museum and the $112 million raised by the Miami Science Museum “is reliant on being able to assure to the private contributors that each of the museums are the developers, operators and owners of their facility.”

“From the county’s perspective, the museums’ responsibility for developing their own projects and owning the buildings emphasizes the museum’s sole obligation for all capital costs in excess of the county’s … grant support,” Muñoz wrote.

With a lawsuit that auto magnate Norman Braman filed in January looming over the $3 billion mega-deal, Souto said he needs time to digest the information, adding that there currently is no timetable for reconsidering the MOU and releasing the funds to the museums — until he hears acceptable answers.

“There is no rush,” Souto said.

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