Thursday, Feb. 21, 08

Foul Deal

Marlins stadium deal sparks lawsuits

Norman Braman is waging war on a multibillion-dollar boondoggle. Photo by Richard M. Brooks

By Cynthia Archbold

The Florida Marlins could have a deal for a new stadium by the end of the day. City of Miami and Miami-Dade County commissioners are holding special meetings Thursday to vote on a new plan to build a half-billion-dollar stadium at the old Orange Bowl site in Little Havana. Both commissions are expected to pass the pact, which is prompting a growing number of outraged Miamians to fight back, saying the action would violate taxpayer rights.

The backlash began when auto magnate and philanthropist Norman Braman filed the first of his lawsuits in January. He has been looking out for the rights of Miami taxpayers the way our presidents carved into Mount Rushmore symbolically watch over democracy. Now, others are vowing to join Braman’s battle against the stadium and the $3 billion city-county global agreement to rebuild downtown Miami.

Braman, born in Philadelphia, birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, has his own granite principles and objects to every aspect of the Marlins’ 98-page deal, feverishly negotiated late last Friday night.

He can’t tolerate what he sees as a complete lack of principle in using hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, without a public vote, to build a stadium for a wealthy, private baseball team.

“It’s outrageous,” Braman said. “It shows the contempt that our elected representatives have for the people who live in our community.” 

Commissioners have only had a few days to ponder the baseball treaty. Under the agreement, county and city tax dollars would pay for most of the construction costs — $347 million from the county and $23 million from the city — and the Marlins would pay $120 million up front and a yearly rent of $2.3 million for 35 years. In addition, the city would foot the entire $94 million cost of the new 6,000-car parking garage. The pact grants the team millions in tax breaks, free parking for staff, free office space in downtown and almost all of the profits from ticket sales.

Groundbreaking would likely take place in November, and the ballpark would be scheduled to open by April 2011, in time for the Marlins’ deadline. The team’s lease at Dolphin Stadium expires after the 2010 season.

“I am comfortable with the agreement that has been reached, but understand there are many conflicting views as it relates to public funding/involvement in construction of professional sports facilities,” County Manager George Burgess wrote to commissioners in a memo.

In fact, the stadium deal could soon grind to a halt as Braman and others come forward to stop what they see as an abuse of taxpayer rights.

Braman is asking for an expedited hearing of his lawsuit in Miami’s 11th Circuit Court to fight the stadium and the rest of the “global agreement,” masterminded by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and approved in concept by both the city and county commissions in December. This week, Braman filed two more lawsuits to block the stadium deal and the entire global agreement.

“It is unprecedented not to have this go before the voters,” said Braman, the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.

If the Marlins want to build a new baseball stadium they should pay for it themselves, he said, and if they insist on asking for public money, the issue should be brought to a referendum.

He pointed out that Joe Robbie built Dolphin Stadium privately, as did the owners of the New England Patriots and the San Francisco Giants. In New York, the Giants and Jets are paying to build their new football stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey, and the Mets are paying to construct their own ballpark.

“This is just shocking that our elected officials are probably going to ratify this — shame on them,” Braman said. “I have been deluged by people who are as upset by this as I have been.”

Art collector Marty Margulies has offered Braman to help pay for the lawsuit, and be included as a plaintiff.

“How does the government finance private business and put up most of the money? It’s a private business! This private individual [Jeffrey Loria] owns a baseball team, and he’s getting all kinds of perks — I mean, it’s absurd,” Margulies said. “They’re cutting human essential services for a ballpark?”

Miami Neighborhoods United, which represents 17 Miami homeowners associations, opposes the stadium. “It’s outrageous and disgraceful to take tax dollars to build a stadium when they know they’re not going to have money for necessary programs for the elderly and the poor,” the group’s president, Grace Solares, said.

The Urban Environment League also wants to fight the stadium deal. “I think it’s terrible — it’s another giveaway,” said Fran Bohnsack, the league’s president. “Voters don’t want it! The public has said over and over again they don’t want it. It’s really a back-room deal. If they [the Marlins] want that stadium, they should buy it and pay for it with their own money.”

Greg Bush, another league member, says he is “outraged” by the deal. “This is a last-minute thing they are trying to stuff down people’s throats,” he said. “The only way to fight this is with a lawsuit.

“I personally applaud what Norman Braman is doing,” Bush added. “When does the public have the financial clout to do that? Almost never. We have almost no resources, no staff and almost no money, so there’s a real disjuncture in terms of power in Miami that is done year in and year out.”

Bush objects to the hasty attempt to pass the stadium pact and the rush by city and county leaders to put through the entire the mega-deal without public input. He says it sets a terrible precedent.

“How are they going to go about making the decisions in the future?” he said. “Are they going to be sneaking each one like this?”

According to the agreement, $297 million of the county’s share of the stadium costs will come from tourist tax dollars; $50 million will come from the Building Better Communities General Obligation Bond, which voters approved in 2004 to restore the Orange Bowl, not to build a new stadium.

For that reason, Braman and others say the stadium financing plan is a ruse to fool taxpayers, because the tourism tax dollars were meant to pay for the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center — not a new Marlins stadium.

“Elected officials are playing a shell game,” Braman said.

Attorney John De Leon said Braman’s lawsuit makes many good points, including violation of the state Sunshine Law, that he believes will stand up in court. Meanwhile, De Leon and other lawyers are scrutinizing the legality of the way property is being transferred at the Orange Bowl as possible breaches of county and city codes.

“There is a whole group of … concerned citizens who are questioning this,” he said. “There is a whole group of lawyers who are questioning this. They are saying something isn’t right here.”

De Leon predicts that more lawsuits are inevitable “because of the massive nature of this behind-the-door deal that was hatched by a small group of people with no public input.  When you have secrecy in government, you have lawsuits.”

Miami Commissioner Tomas Regalado also objects to the proposed stadium financing because it would force the city to pay for the performing arts center with Community Redevelopment Agency funds intended to cure blight in poor neighborhoods through affordable housing and economic incentives. “If it weren’t for the city [CRA funds], the county couldn’t pay for it,” Regalado said. “The ‘global’ thing is misleading people.”

District 10 County Commissioner Javier Souto also opposes the plan.

“They are in a hurry,” he said. “They are treating the people like fools — like ‘We are the only ones who know, and you don’t know anything,’” he said.

Although Miami Mayor Manny Diaz has repeatedly said he is confident the Braman lawsuits will fail, history says otherwise. Braman has waged successful public battles in Miami before. In 1999, he helped defeat a one-penny sales tax measure for county transit projects. In 1982, he led the effort to defeat a Miami sales tax measure to renovate the Orange Bowl for the Dolphins.

This time, too, Braman vows he will ultimately prevail, despite the speed of the deal and the likelihood that most commissioners will vote to pass it.

 “We’re going to win this eventually in court — whether it’s in the local court, whether it’s in the appellate court or the state Supreme Court,” Braman said. “This is wrong morally.”

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.