Miami mayor pushes to redirect millions in citywide park funding to Inter Miami site
When 60% of Miami voters approved a ballot question in 2018 allowing the city to negotiate a development deal for a billion-dollar Major League Soccer stadium on city-owned land, the proposal included the following contingency: that the developers also spend $20 million of their own money on a large public park attached to the site, 'or other green space.'
Now, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez wants to set up a 'special revenue account' for Miami Freedom Park — his marquee project — to ensure that the entire $20 million is dedicated to the public park at the soccer stadium site, rather than any portion of that money going to parks elsewhere in the city. His proposal, first reported by Political Cortadito, is slated to go before the City Commission on Thursday.
In an interview with the Miami Herald on Tuesday, Suarez contended that the entire $20 million was always supposed to go to the 58-acre public park at the stadium site as part of the 99-year lease that the city awarded to retired soccer player David Beckham and business partners Jorge and José Mas.
'It was always originally intended to be that way,' Suarez said, referencing the 2018 ballot item.
However, the mayor acknowledged to the Herald that the City Commission did vote in 2022 to spend a chunk of the $20 million on citywide parks. Suarez said the 'political appetite at the moment' of the City Commission was to 'divert' the funds elsewhere.
'The better question is why was it diverted,' Suarez said.
In his opinion, Miami voters had approved spending the $20 million specifically at the Miami Freedom Park site. The upcoming City Commission vote, he said, is intended to put the funding 'back in its original position.'
But former City Commissioner Ken Russell, who was the swing vote in favor of the project nearly three years ago, disagrees with that framing.
'Clawing back the $20 million that was meant for the creation of new parks around the city would be an absolute violation of the Freedom Park agreement and the Commission should reject that proposal this Thursday,' Russell said in a statement to the Herald.
Russell said the City Commission approved half of the $20 million staying in District 1 — where the stadium development is located — for additional park improvements 'above the baseline park that would be delivered by the Mas Group.' The remaining $10 million, Russell said, was to be divided four ways for parks throughout the city. That element was 'crucial' to Russell's vote on the project, he said. (Suarez said it was $7.5 million rather than $10 million.)
'In a heated exchange on the dais, I was ready to vote No on the entire project if this condition wasn't met,' Russell said. 'The supermajority of the Commission agreed with my amendment, and it must be honored.'
After Russell outlined his conditions at the pivotal 2022 meeting, Suarez then asked Chairwoman Christine King to add an amendment to the stadium deal proposal 'to include the additional conditions by Commissioner Russell,' the meeting minutes show.
However, that amendment never made it into the final resolution that Suarez signed finalizing that deal about a week later.
It's unclear why Russell's amendment didn't get added. The City Attorney's Office — which oversees City Commission legislation — did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The city attorney at the time, Victoria Méndez, was terminated last year.
READ MORE: Miami mayor calls Inter Miami stadium 'best sports deal in America' in farewell address
Russell wasn't the only city commissioner who thought portions of that money should be spent on citywide parks, rather than the entire $20 million going to the 58-acre park attached to the stadium site.
During the April 2022 meeting where the stadium deal was approved, meeting minutes show that Commissioner Joe Carollo proposed that the developers 'give us the park, basically done' and that the $20 million 'would be used to [acquire] additional parks' or for spending on improvements 'of parks citywide.'
But Carollo has since changed his mind. In an interview Tuesday, he called the stadium deal 'the biggest project in the history of this city.' He said he is not dependent on the parks funds that were supposed to have gone to his district via the April 2022 commission vote.
'If any elected official voted on a project of this magnitude because they were going to get a couple million dollars more for their district, they shouldn't be in office,' Carollo said.
Carollo said he has met with the Mas brothers this year about the proposal that the mayor is putting forward.
Suarez said he, too, has consulted with the Mas brothers about the legislation.
'Of course, I've communicated this to them,' Suarez said.
An attorney representing Miami Freedom Park did not respond to a request for comment.
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