Nobody is giving away benefits, so look beneath the frosting

Cake decorating classes abound where you learn to apply frosting to make a cake look ultra-appealing and tasty no matter what’s actually inside. 

If you want to know how to best put that buy-me frosting on the cake, though, look to governments. They’re the best at covering big-money deals in irresistible frosting that not only hides the quality of what’s inside but often has nothing at all to do with it.

That applies equally to deals that benefit the public and deals that either need major changes or should never be made. The quality of deals, good and bad, is totally hidden under frosting.

The worst deal where nobody saw under the frosting was the $3 billion that Miami-Dade County governments spent for a baseball stadium 15 years ago. Nobody was told the cost until the deal was made, but everybody saw the pretty frosted benefits. 

The stadium came wrapped in a big jobs package, with poor areas to get extra consideration. It was a great sales tool, except that the jobs just shifted from the team’s old home to a new one. Vendors in Little Havana replaced vendors in North Dade. Players and staff were the same. It’s questionable whether a single job was created. But commissioners claimed credit for “new” jobs.

There was a different “benefit” for the City of Miami, which built the parking garages. The stadium was going to send Little Havana’s economy and quality of life soaring, with a centerpiece of white-tablecloth restaurants in the city’s garages. I am not making that up. That was clearly white frosting that hid no substance whatsoever.

The stadium, as soon was evident, was an empty package wrapped in sugar frosting that left a bad taste. 

But frosting on a bum deal is not the only example of obscuring quality. Even government deals that might be excellent are packaged and sold by frosting. Nobody sees beneath it to judge.

As Aviation Director Ralph Cutié answered a commission question last week about safeguards in a 40-year deal for investors to build a vital cargo-handling facility at Miami International Airport, he concluded by stressing 8,500 construction jobs and 2,500 thereafter. Secure deal or not, look at all these nice jobs – look at the frosting.

Another one: Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez last week urged votes for a deal for Ocean Aviation to spend $67 million to build and run for 40 years both aviation and non-aviation operations at Miami Executive Airport not by stressing terms or what it would do for aviation or the county but by pointing to the frosting.

“I want to highlight the community benefits that include a new Wings [Over] Miami building museum at a cost of approximately $5 million and two common-use ramps for the US CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and for the Watson School of Aviation that’s going to cost between $1.2 million to $1.5 million,” he said.

Then, he said, more frosting just appeared: “They have also agreed to provide a much-needed classroom for the Civil Air Patrol, which is a tremendous program for our youth.” The mayor would negotiate the 1,200-square-foot classroom into the deal.

Each of those ingredients for which commissioners can claim credit goes into the frosting. It was so pretty that nobody asked what the non-aviation uses at the airport will be – what’s in the cake?

Adept as Mr. Gonzalez was in adding frosting, the champions are Miami commissioners, who for years have whipsawed businesses seeking contracts by demanding changes that generally add frosting rather than digging into the substance of deals. 

Two weeks ago the city authorized two public votes on game-changing leases for separate developments on city land on Watson Island. One would build condos, re-doing plans for a west side project that was to be finished two decades ago but hasn’t yet started. The other would turn the Jungle Island attraction into a condo tower and return some of the land to the city as a park.

These are pivotal developments on what is now the city’s land that would become private if the deals are made, akin to the deal that turned the city’s only golf course into a multi-element project that is also returning to the city some of its own land as a park.

So, what did commissioners focus on as they agreed to put before the public votes to yield its land? The frosting.

“I have worked with both teams, and I believe that we have a significant community benefits package carved out where the districts will receive money for affordable housing,” commission Chairwoman Cristine King said in support of the deals. 

The commissioners then argued over which commissioner’s district will get the largest share of that affordable housing money rather than about the deals themselves. The nature and quality of individual elements of each deal for city land was forgotten in picking over the bones of housing funds that seem to have little to do with Watson Island.

“We’re doing everything that we can to tick all of the boxes that are important to our constituents: resiliency, preserving our bay, addressing affordable housing in the entirety of the city of Miami, getting green space, park space,” Ms. King said. 

But what about the overall use and ownership of the city’s waterfront land? The frosting is prettier and the basics are neglected. All those condos are no issue at all.

Beyond the baseball fiasco, Miami Today has no firm opinion on these deals. After all, it’s hard to see the details under all this frosting.

But one thing we do know: no frosting on any deal is ever free. If developers provide extra goodies someone else will pay, and the cost is built into every single contract. 

It’s a smart business move to provide the “community benefits” that commissioners always demand, but in the end it’s the community that pays for them while commissioners take credit for things that they couldn’t otherwise get into the budget. 

Nobody is giving “community benefits” away. Always look under the frosting.