Sarasota County delays vote on Reds deal

Another step closer. Nice to see another city and county government as inept as mine. -SDM

By DOUG SWORD, doug.sword@heraldtribune.com
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 at 2:05 p.m.

Well, they didn’t kill it.

Sarasota County commissioners put off an up-or-down vote that would make them the biggest contributor to a $41 million overhaul of Ed Smith Stadium, because it almost certainly would have failed. Delaying the vote keeps several possibilities open for eventually funding the stadium.

While city officials had hoped for an outright vote the county’s action leaves open “a window of opportunity” to work a deal with the Cincinnati Reds, said City Manager Robert Bartolotta.

County commissioners punted the issue until two weeks from now when they will decide whether to remove their own rule that requires four out of five of them agree on how to spend the $18 million sought for the stadium deal.

That may be enough to kill the deal, since city officials say the Reds are negotiating with Goodyear, Ariz., and Orlando on possible stadium deals.

“I don’t know if the Reds are going to wait a couple of weeks,” said Mayor Lou Ann Palmer.

Of the five county commissioners, only two – Shannon Staub and Joseph Barbetta - are whole-heartedly for the stadium deal. Two – Jon Thaxton and Nora Patterson – say they can’t justify spending money on the stadium that could be used to shore up the county’s budget, which is facing a shortfall of perhaps $30 million.

Incidentally, the county announced 11 layoffs and the elimination of another four positions today. Commissioner Paul Mercier is undecided on his support of the new stadium deal.

It’s uncertain whether there are four votes to eliminate the supermajority
requirement on the stadium deal, since both Barbetta and Mercier said they probably wouldn’t vote for it.

The commissioners did vote for a counter offer. Instead of putting up $17.6 million, the county would match the state’s contribution of $7 million for the stadium. That would require the Reds to accept a deal of about $30 million.

If all else fails, commissioners voted to put it to the voters in April or May whether the county should fund the deal.

However, the supermajority requirement can be waived by a supermajority vote. Thaxton says he may end up voting against the stadium deal, but that he is willing to join the three supporters in casting aside the supermajority requirement.

Even though Barbetta has been the staunchest county supporter of a new stadium, which he calls an "economic engine" for Sarasota, he won’t support removing the supermajority requirement.

"The stadium needs to stand on its own and I don't want to manipulate a system" so that only three commissioners can approve spending the money, he said.

Barbetta said he received numerous e-mails and phone calls from citizens irate over the issue being back even though voters did not support a measure to use property tax dollars to pay for a new stadium. That ballot question failed by only 225 votes on Nov. 6.

Count Noelle Paredes among the irate. Paredes lives near the intersection of Bee Ridge Road and Bee Ridge Road Extension where she said neighbors opposed a new Publix supermarket five times before the county finally approved a scaled-back version of the store. She sees the same thing happening with the stadium project.

"People with money just get that vote out there over and over again until they pass what they want," Paredes said.

Voters turned down a proposal to use property taxes to pay off $16 million in bonds for a new stadium, and those funds won’t be needed to fund this less expensive proposal, Bartolotta noted.

"The voters said, No, to a $54 million project, this is $41 million," he said. "The voters said, No, to a property tax increase to service debt, this doesn't have that. I think this is a different proposal."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080122/BREAKING/804343122