Don’t take Ladra’s word for it.
Learn the details of the Miami Dolphins publicly-financed stadium scam, er, I mean deal at one of several community meetings — scheduled as the absentee ballots drop less than three weeks from Election Day — that both the pro and con sides will be at to sway, er, I mean inform voters.
While we caught the Miami-Dade Democratic Party’s first town hall debate between Miami First Coalition campaign H.T. Smith and DEC Chairwoman Annette Taddeo Goldstein, we missed Wednesday’s reportedly more heated face-off between Smith and car mogul Norman Braman , the biggest stadium scam critic after Ladra, at the Downtown Bay Forum Tuesday for lunch.
The big reveal at the midday exchange was that Smith is getting paid $18,000 ($12K for April and $6K for the two weeks in May) for his public rah rahs. Nice coinage. But from all accounts, he is grossly overpaid.
Because all he can do, apparently — besides talk about how he’s worked with the Dolphins for years and repeat the rehearsed packaged messages he’s been trained to repeat and that you will find on mailers — is attack Braman for having benefitted from the same CRA grant and Enterprise Florida tax credits that other businesses get. He spent much of the first forum calling Braman a hypocrite, which means he can’t advocate for the stadium deal on its merits.
Don’t take Ladra’s word for it. Hear Sean Foreman, associate professor of political science at Barry University.
“The Dolphins can’t defend their deal and neither can their paid mouthpieces so all they can do is attack the messenger, Braman,” Foreman told Ladra shortly after the gig.
Smith was almost assuredly in a room full of people who leaned toward, if not downright sided with Braman, and who probably did not change their mind. Several of Ladra’s unknowning spies (read: people who just happened to be there and who I chose to hound for details after) say Braman won at the end, although Smith held his own about three-quarters of the way.
Annette Taddeo was not one of my spies, but she was there — likely to take notes so she’d be better prepared for that evening’s debate on her turf.
And it worked.
The nightside exchange was more of a debate. And while Smith repeated the same practiced and professionally massaged messages from earlier — and from the phone calls and the radio ads and the mailers — Taddeo sounded more unrehearsed. He sounded “media trained” and packaged. Her responses were natural. Heck, I bet she even surprised herself with some of her best lines.
“Have you been to Homestead lately,” she asked the audience, referring to the relatively unused Speedway. “We’re still paying for that.”
“I would have preferred that he bought a roof instead of an island,” Taddeo said, and we assume she is referring to Watson Island, where Ross has announced intentions of doing a project.
“Really quick… wasn’t that the Miami Vice years,” she asked Smith after he forecast and warned of a Superbowl drought like the one we had for the 10-year span before SunLife Stadium, then Joe Robbie Stadium, was built.
Taddeo said she is not against the roof or the improvements to the stadium or the team itself. She wants the improvements. “But I am against welfare for billionaires,” she said. “This is #83 on Forbes List [of wealthiest Americans]. He can do this on his own.”
Taddeo even shot off what Ladra heard as a veiled threat against Mayor Carlos Gimenez, the architect of this best bad deal that has ever been negotiated.
“I believe the Democrats elected the mayor and we will make sure we have a Democrat run for mayor the next time,” said Annette Taddeo Goldstein, who has lost a Congressional race against U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and a county commission race and who might be hinting at her own renewed political aspirations with a longer and more demographically-appealing surname as well as a higher profile and debate practice.
Smith, meanwhile, stayed on point with the same branded messages: That this brings 4,000 jobs, that it benefits the community, that we could lose the Dolphins if we don’t do this. That it is tourist tax dollars, produced by tourists, that go to Ross. That the county still gets a quarter of that additional bed tax penny, and he urged Taddeo to meet with the mayor and give him some suggestions. Was he being sarcastic?
“The most important thing is our taxes, the ones we pay, will not be raised at all,” he said.
Well, at least he is not saying it ain’t public money anymore. It’s public money now, but our taxes won’t be raised. How does he know that they won’t be in the future to make up for the lost revenue lost to tax breaks?
Taddeo told us that Politifact had found Gimenez was less than truthful when he said that the Dolphins were the only NFL team that paid property taxes (his office now says he was just repeating what Stephen Ross told him, which is a cause for alarm in and of itself). She said she, too, is tired of hearing one thing and learning something completely different.
She also breathlessly disclosed that the same company doing the studies on construction cost estimates and workforce needs for this stadium did it for the Marlins stadium — which the Dolphins are desperately trying to distance themselves from.
Or were trying to distance themselves from. It seems they realized they can’t, so now they are going to use it. Classic professional marketing strategy. If you can’t beat ’em… They are drawing attention to the differences instead. Half of Smith’s nightside pitch was dedicated to what he called “the 800-pound gorilla” in the room — and how this deal is different from that last one: The Dolphins opened the books to us. (They had to). They agreed to a referendum. (They had to). They paid for the cost. (They had to). They are paying us back (With our own money).
Ladra did have a couple of tips for Taddeo for next time. Call it free media advice. Remind everyone that the 4,000 alleged jobs are temporary. Explain that — based on the past history, our climate and just sheer luck — we are likely to get four Super Bowls in the next 30 years anyway. Heck, let’s say six. Bring up the fact that this was rushed for a special election ballot when they could have done this last year and gotten a real mandate from more people. Because they knew they would lose and it is easier to manipulate a smaller turnout like the one expected May 14. When the other side says the sales tax rebate is on items sold at the stadium concessions, say ‘So What?’ Everyone pays sales tax on what she or he sells. Duh. That’s the point.
While Taddeo was out for blood and did not hold back, Smith stuck to a more passive aggressive stance. “Again, I am sure Annette is not intentionally misleading you,” he said, before publicly dismissing her knowledge of the material and questioning if she understood the contract or even read it. In hindsight, Ladra finds it a bit machista.
Taddeo read all 88 pages, she told him. She is a better woman than I. Because I cannot get through three pages of this mumbo jumbo without getting MEGO (my eyes glaze over). It seems as intentionally confusing as the ballot language seems intentionally pushing you in the yes direction (more on that later).
That’s why it is important to attend these meetings and ask questions and challenge the reasons for this or the motivation behind it.
One question asked at the town hall Wednesday night if the Dolphins, or specifically Ross, could share their revenues with the county, you know, because it is such a good deal.
“I can’t speak on behalf of Mr. Ross,” Smith said, except that is exactly what he is being paid to do. “He and the mayor negotiated. And it’s too late now. It’s going to a vote. “Maybe we should have revenue sharing with the Marlins, with the Heat.”
Moderator Marc Caputo, who was excellent in getting to the point and consolidating like questions, to say “I think that’s a ‘no.'”
“I would have asked for a share in the profit,” said Taddeo, sounding more and more like a candidate as the night gets long.
“If you want a public/private partnership, make it a real public/private partnership,” she said.
The Miami-Dade Democrats will host at least three other town hall forums or debates in different parts of the county in the next few days, and Taddeo will not be the only one to serve from her team. Former Commissioner Katy Sorenson is going to be presenting the anti side in one of them, Taddeo told me Wednesday.
We’re not sure if Smith is going to go to bat for the Dolphins at every one of those (and of course I realize I am mixing metaphors). Maybe Jorge Arizurieta, who is the other co-chair of the Miami First Campaign, will do a live public debate since he already went toe-to-toe with Taddeo on Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera‘s La Diferencia.
But don’t expect Arizurieta — who was there Wednesday night, sitting next to heaveyweight Democratic fundraiser and pro-stadium supporter Chris Korge (more on that later) — to tell us how much he is getting paid. I asked Wednesday night.
“It will be in the reports in two days,” he told me, referring to campaign finance documents that are due Friday and showing, once again, the slant of their campaign and lack of transparency that makes Ladra wary. “But I am getting paid.”
I have no doubt. And, yes, there will be more on that later.
The upcoming Miami Dade Democratic Party town halls on the Dolphin public-financed stadium deal are:
- 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25th with FIU College Democrats and the Democratic Club of Greater Homestead at Florida International University Graham Center, 11200 SW 8th St.
- 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1st with the Miami Gardens Democratic Club, Democratic Black Caucus of Miami-Dade and Democracy for America at the Star Lakes Condominium’s Card Room, 19100 NE 3rd Ave.
- 11 a.m. Saturday, May 4th with the Cuban American Democratic Club and the Venezuelan American and Dominican American Democratic Club at the DEC office, 2141 SW 1st St.
Go. And ask questions.
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