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comply with the promise to the people” once enough funding was available. Maybe, she added, the property would be rented for other events at the higher fees and the county could get to that point faster.
Read related story: ‘El Zorro’ Zapata rides again; kills $62 mil in gifts to ‘insiders’
“What I find very compelling about this is we went to the voters with an offer and we never kept our word on that,” Zapata told his colleagues Tuesday. “There has to be a price for when we change kind of mid stream, when we tell them were going to give you park space but we don’t really give them park space, there’s got to be some sort of financial compensation. I think applying a proper rent is the best way to do it until we figure out a way to proceed moving forward.
“What I’m not going to do is neglect my duties. When I ran I ran to be a county commissioner. 
Not a commissioner for district 11 only. I ran as a county commissioner,” Zapata said.
“We are elected to govern collectively, as a body. Not parochially. I have not bought into this idea that 100 percent of the time blindly we need to look the other way when it is happening in another commissioner’s district.”
The item to lease the land to the Heat was on a countywide ballot, he reminded his colleagues. “So everybody in the county had a voice. It wasn’t just a particular commissioner’s district,” Zapata said. And the $6 million patch up job on the seawall came out of general countywide funds not a district budget. “This was really supposed to be maintained and operated by Miami Heat. This was handed back to the county to fix the seawall. How are we making whole the taxpayers?”
And it’s not like Edmonson doesn’t stray from her own neighborhood. Last year, she proposed a resolution with West Kendall Hospital. “I never got a Sunshine request. You know? I don’t mind,” Zapata said. “I appreciate her doing something in my district. Thank you very much. It was something good for my district and I appreciate her doing that.
“If anybody wants to come in my district and do something positive, 
I will thank you and appreciate it. I don’t even have to be asked permission,” he said.
Monestime seems to have caught that Kumbaya infection from the chair’s position. “Can’t we all get along,” he asked, before he interrupted Zapata, who said he felt he had to defend himself. “Your point is loud and clear.”
“I brought this for the best of intentions, not to offend anybody but to maximize an asset we have for the people of Dade County. We’ve talked about this four times and for this to become an issue at the final step? I find it offensive to me,” Zap said.
Edmonson was so adamant of protecting the Heat’s sweet deal that she quickly shot down a motion to defer the item until she and Zap could speak.
“Mr. Chair, I don’t understand why we are deferring this and prolonging this. This is something I don’t agree with, that the adjacent district commissioner doesn’t agree with,” she said, referring to Bruno Barreiro, who also said he would only consider a countywide policy. “I think it should go down. And if anything comes back it comes back for every single parcel. What are we going to accomplish by deferral anyway? I’m not going to change my mind.”
Wow. She’s so deep in the tank already that she knows she can’t be won over by any sound meritorious argument.
The motion failed 7 to 5. Bravo to Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Daniella Levine Cava, Rebeca Sosa and Xavier Suarez, who supported Zapata’s proposal that we, again, get paid a fair market value for that land. They can see past the egos and act for the greater good.
But any of the prevailing commissioners — that is the ones who voted no — 
can bring this up for reconsideration and I urge them strongly to do so.
Chairman Jean Monestime would be my first choice. Not just because he is the leader of the pack. Mostly because in the spirit of “can’t we all just get along,” he joked about “spot pricing” and said he “liked the intent” but wanted to give latitude for good causes who needed waivers — and then, even after being told that the latitude was there, he voted against it anyway.
He did keep looking at the clock as they approached the eighth hour of the meeting.
They all need to be reminded that this is not Audrey Edmonson’s parcel. This waterfront property belongs to all of us. Call your commissioner and tell her or him that they need to bring this up again for reconsideration and do what is right by all of us.
Here are the phone numbers and emails for all the county commissioners who took part in the pissing match and voted against this — and against us. If you want to call Edmonson, too, and tell her how wrong she is, Ladra wouldn’t mind. They need to hear our outrage on this because any one of them can bring it up for discussion again and do right by us this time:
- Commissioner Barbara Jordan — 305-375-5694 or 305-474-3011 at the district office or district1@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Jean Monestime — 305-375-4833 or 305-694-2779 at the district office or district2@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Audrey Edmonson –305-375-5393 or 305-636-2331 at the district office or district3@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Sally Heyman — 305-375-5128 or 305-787-5999 at the district office or district4@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — 305-643-8525 or 305-673-7743 at the district office or district5@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Dennis Moss — 305-375-4832 or 305-234-4938 at the district office or district9@miamidade.gov
- Commissioner Javier Souto — 305-375-4835 or 305-222-2116 at the district office or district10@miamidade.gov
They should all be ashamed of themselves for throwing our hard-earned tax dollars away.
What happened last week was outrageous. Good policy was sacrificed for, at best, an inflated commissioner’s ego and, at worst, graft or favor. It would behoove any of the aforementioned commissioners to bring this up again. You can be known for doing the right thing — even if it’s not in your district.
Heat’s sweet Parcel B parking deal causes commission clash added by Ladra on
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