County assets are not suitable departure gifts for officials

Either Miami-Dade County is rolling in cash, the naming rights market has collapsed in red-hot Miami, or term-limited commissioners are about to exit with big-time public gifts.

How else could you explain last week’s unanimous renaming of the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center as the Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center? 

One by one, commissioners and the mayor hailed ex-commissioner Moss as a gentleman, respected colleague and champion of the county’s south end. We agree.

But we are dismayed that no commissioner mentioned the obvious: the county was giving away valuable naming rights that it intended to sell, commissioners were violating their own policies, they left no wiggle room if conditions change, and they removed ‘Miami-Dade’ completely from the county-funded center.

All four had been past issues. Yet none of the 13 commissioners cited them. It was just a gift to a gentleman with whom most served, so why muddy the waters with uncomfortable facts?

The giveaway was never taken before a committee as is usual. The only full commission discussion was to praise Mr. Moss, not look at the issues.

The arts center itself is large: more than triple the 300-seat revival planned for the Coconut Grove Playhouse. The 961-seat South Dade center was built with taxes that are still repaying borrowing. But while the center was rising with a $38.5 million budget and ran up extra costs as work had to be redone, the money was also building a value in naming rights.

Even before construction began in 2005, the Superlative Group of Cleveland told commissioners, including Mr. Moss and many who spoke for the naming rights gift last week, that center naming should net millions. The county planned to sell those rights, not give them away.

While the center was rising the county looked to sell other naming rights too. Consultant Front Row Marketing told commissioners naming rights fees for Metromover stations could net from $2,500 a year for the Third Street Station up to $48,000 for the stop at Bayfront Park.

The biggest rights inflow came from a larger performing arts center. Adrienne Arsht’s $30 million got her name on the county’s arts complex downtown – though commissioners at the time made a point that even for $30 million the county’s name had to appear on what became the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

More recently, the county sought a new sponsor for what was AmericanAirlines Arena. It got $135 million over 19 years to name the FTX Arena. Frequent agenda items note use of that money by individual commissioners. Yet it never occurred to commissioners last week to go after funds from the center in Cutler Bay that taxes had built – just give the name away.

There was a barrier: commissioners had been stung by fumbled street namings, so they had passed a rule that three-fifths of commissioners were needed to name a property for someone. But that rule also specified that an elected official had to be out of office five years to get a naming, and Mr. Moss has been gone less than two years. So they suspended the rule and named the two buildings for Mr. Moss.

The county has reason to be wary of namings. Street signs honoring living persons have been removed after some went to jail. And current commissioners Joe Martinez and Javier Souto acted to remove a retired baseball star’s name from a county street after he was arrested in the early 2000s on multiple charges. 

“I’m not a fan of naming streets after people who are alive,” Mr. Souto said about that in 2005. “This is an example of what can go wrong.”

Yet last week, he voted to name a far larger asset for Mr. Moss. “Commissioner Moss is a real gentleman,” said Mr. Souto, a leader of cattle shows here. “He loved the cattle shows and the horses.”

Said Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, “he deserves that and more.”

Commission Chair Jose “Pepe” Diaz said in a 2018 debate on naming rights for the basketball arena that the county should index its properties and determine how to leverage them to earn extra dollars. “We need to review, in general, our full structure,” he said. “We shouldn’t just stop at this building. There’s a hunger for this type of advertising.”

But he never raised the issue in last week’s discussion, calling Mr. Moss “the dean of the commission” and “my dear friend.”

Yet even deans and friends can become impediments after they get valuable naming rights as exit gifts. Florida International University, which named its main campus for outgoing president Modesto Maidique, got into a nasty battle when its board was told it could get $100 million for the name and ought to take it back. But the Maidique name remains on the campus. 

That’s one reason public assets should not honor living persons: too many potential problems, from reputation to simply giving away assets that are worth millions.

Commissioners were right to praise Mr. Moss. But now that they have opened the door to giveaways, what perks are they going to provide for other ladies and gentlemen of the commission who will leave this year? And how firm are rules if commissioners can break them at will?

If Miami-Dade isn’t serious about protecting assets – and naming rights are valuable – what more will they try to give away?

Commissioner Diaz was right in 2018: the county should index all its marketable assets, because they belong to the public. Either market naming rights or place them out of bounds. But don’t just give them away to ex-colleagues, no matter how well respected, as departure honors.