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the government connections to get what it wants. Those people think the county is working on behalf of the university to amp up that pressure. Otherwise, why even get involved, they ask.
Why is the county spending countless hours on what should be an agreement, that costs the county nothing, between the non-profit and the university? Are county staffers doing the work that FIU would have to otherwise do itself?
There have been several meetings — at least four or five — between FIU representatives and Fair representatives and the mayor or his staff. 
Gimenez Senior Advisor Michael Spring is in charge of the negotiations. Some people think the county is working on behalf of the university — or else they wouldn’t be involved to begin with.
But Miami-Dade Communications Director Michael Hernandez said that the county, which can provide land, has a role to play and is just doing due diligence.
“The Gimenez Administration is acting as mediators and not favoring one side over the other,” Hernandez told Ladra Monday night. “The county is caught between a rock ad a hard place. The voters approved the ballot item, but we must respect the terms of the Fair’s lease.”
He said the status report Tuesday was called for when the county entered into a memorandum of agreement with the university about the expansion back in October — pressuring even before the Nov. 4 vote.
But why are two of the four locations listed — the former Homestead Air Force Base 
and Sun Life Stadium — are sites that the Youth Fair executive board has already unanimously rejected. Hernandez said that maybe the situation had changed since a few months ago.
“I’m really confused as to why they brought back those two sites,” Hohenstein told Ladra.
It’s called pressure, Bob.
He says he feels it every day. “The pressure is subtle,” Hohenstein said. “Some days it’s very impacting. Other days it is under the radar.
“What they call their mandate we now are about to confirm is what everybody thought it was, another lever they could pull to convince everybody to get us out,” Hohenstein told me.
Read related story: From the ‘Duh’ department — LBA backs FIU expansion plan
“The campaign continued. Everybody voted Nov. 4 but the campaign hasn’t stopped,” he said.
Why didn’t they counter the campaign, which faced zero opposition? 
Money, Hohenstein said. FIU has the funds to throw at this and spent $1.6 million to urge a yes vote. Hohenstein is convinced that they would have spent $3 million if he had funded a “vote no” push.
“It’s not in our organization’s DNA,” he said. “W’re a private, non-profit organization that gets people to donate and to turn around and use that money for a political campaign, an election campaign, we just can’t do it.
“We didn’t have a $40 million foundation of tax deductible contributions to tap into. We’re not a multi-billion university. I also can’t help but wonder if the Fair doesn’t have a legal case against FIU, which, according to a Miami Herald story, makes about 33 times the revenue a year and is apparently ready to spend some of that money on continuing its campaign for expansion (read: land grab). Jorge Luis Lopez does not come cheap. And
Fair organizers have hired lobbyist Brian May for their defense, at $12,500 a month. Which may be too little, too late.
To be a good neighbor, the Fair is willing to study the other two sites. One is 138 acres just west of Dolphin Mall owned entirely or mostly by the Florida Department of Transportation, at the Turnpike and State Road 836 (and a stone’s throw from the proposed mega mall?). The other site is just west of that near 137th Avenue, which is owned by private entities who might not even be looking to sell.
But has there been
any progress made?
“I don’t believe so, no,” Hohenstein said.
The sites on the table, for example, would force the Youth Fair to split its operations, holding the exposition events at the Tamiami Park fair grounds and the fair itself elsewhere.
But he has to see if that makes sense an operational, financial and legal standpoints. And hints it probably doesn’t.
“I’m not interested in something that triples our operating expenses,” Hohenstein said.
While he is willing to listen to any presentation, he will not move while his financial consultant tells him that it’s a losing situation.
And he seems pretty cool under the pressure.
After all, he has a rock solid lease through 2085. That is another 70 years and Gimenez and Lopez and Hohenstein and all of us will be long gone by then — but the Fair might still be standing.
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