Bumbling and fumbling sink county port in a sea of troubles

Failure of the county to order a vital legal step added another costly – and perilous – inaction that has jeopardized the economic future of PortMiami. It didn’t have to happen.

The unwillingness of the county commission majority last month to initiate eminent domain to protect the port’s sole source of maritime fuel has since raised the bill to keep port fuel flowing by what is likely to become tens of millions of dollars. That bill has yet to fall due.

The fumble by commissioners can be added to bumbling by county officials who for more than 35 years left the seaport totally unprotected should it ever lose its sole fuel source on Fisher Island. Everyone knew of the danger; nobody acted.

Now the unthinkable has happened – the Fisher Island fuel hub has been sold to a developer who plans luxury condos on the island. 

It should never have been unthinkable – it was entirely logical. Fuel tanks are a sore thumb on Fisher Island, the highest income ZIP code in the nation. When the Fisher Island ferry lands, what do the world’s wealthiest people see? Fuel tanks. The high-rise condo planned there fits, fuel doesn’t. The land is too valuable.

The county has been warned about port fuel security since 1989, when fallow Fisher Island was being converted into an ultra-luxury, ultra-secure resort, the ultimate gated community.

In 1989, recounted Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a lawsuit alerted commissioners to the issue. In 2000, the Coast Guard said use of Fisher Island as a fueling hub was a risk to the seaport. In 2013 then-Commissioner Rebeca Sosa sought another fueling site. Still, nobody acted.
Then, more than a year ago, the private owner, TransMontaigne Partners LLC, which handles marine fueling across the nation, put the land up for sale for $200 million, immediately imperiling fuel for the seaport. 

While Commissioner Regalado joined the mayor’s team to find a solution, she put a formal hold that kept the peril off the commission’s radar until the administration realized in September that it wasn’t getting anywhere and sought an emergency meeting. Valuable time had been lost.  

So when commissioners in the emergency session sought to secure the port’s fuel lifeline, they recognized that they had no immediate alternative. Commissioners Oliver Gilbert III and Eileen Higgins sought eminent domain as a bargaining chip before the Fisher Island site could be sold and increase in value. They couldn’t get a majority to agree. More inaction.

By the time they met last week it was too late – the land was sold before they could meet. That ups the ante for the county. The eight lawyers on the 13-member commission should have spotted that reality in advance.

“Well, I hate to tell you I told you so, but I told you so at the last meeting,” Ms. Higgins told last week’s meeting. “I said if we did not include the option of eminent domain at the beginning … that by the time we sat here today that’d be off the table because we would be negotiating with the buyer because they would rush to close and, boy howdy, they did do that, and it is not missed on me that they cancelled the mediation meeting. They didn’t have time to enter the mediation because they didn’t have all the facts but, boy howdy, they had time to close on the property, so we are no longer negotiating with the seller.

“So here we are,” Ms. Higgins continued as she underscored the costly commission fumble. “I’m extremely disappointed. We’re all hootin’ and hollerin’ that the port made a mistake. Yes, they did and they should not. They were asleep at the wheel and should have dealt with this when the property was put up for sale.

“But the decision we made last time puts this county’s economy at risk. The cruise and cargo industry at PortMiami drive our economy. They employ thousands of people in and around the port, from at our airport.

“Let’s be very clear about what we’ve done,” said Ms. Higgins, who has just two more commission meetings before she must resign in her race to be elected City of Miami mayor. “We have now raised the price of absolutely everything and wasted county money unnecessarily. We are here. I certainly did not vote for us to be in this situation negotiating with the worst possible scenario versus the best possible scenario.”

Looking at the planned use of the fuel depot for a luxury tower, Ms. Higgins said, “The future of this county is at stake. We cannot and do not need luxury buildings to ruin the economic vitality of PortMiami.”

Unfortunately for the seaport, however, a luxury tower makes a lot more sense on Fisher Island than a fuel depot – so long as the county can secure in perpetuity a better site for fueling and maintain use on Fisher Island until the new site is up and flowing. 

Negotiations in mediation sessions that begin Oct. 20 should make that happen, and they will be facilitated mightily by the threat of eminent domain that nobody really wants to exercise but finally was approved last week – too late to save tens of millions but not too late for a shot at securing the seaport’s future.

“We know that the sale will affect the price if we have to use eminent domain,” Mr. Gilbert noted. “People say this doesn’t affect taxpayer dollars. That is in fact not true. By making things more expensive when they cruise into our port it is affecting us. By making it more expensive … it affects everything about us.”

“This is a question of maintaining our competitiveness,” said Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez. “Everybody knew that this was an issue. Prior administrations should have been more diligent.”

Commissioners who subsequently voted for eminent domain said they don’t like it but see it as the county’s only negotiating tool to protect the port’s fuel.

“I don’t like it either,” said Mr. Bermudez, but “nothing precludes us from negotiating even if we file eminent domain.”

The negotiating window is set for 60 days. That’s 60 days to repair decades of neglect and secure seaport fuel. It’s going to be far more costly because of past and recent procrastination. 

Negotiators have a lot of heedlessly lost ground to regain.