A state official has informed Sarasota County that he will not authorize spending the $7.5 million provided by the legislature to help keep Major League Baseball in town.
"In short it means it would take a legislative change … to make those funds available," Deputy County Administrator Dave Bullock told the county commission on Tuesday.
In 2006 the legislature passed a bill granting money to seven Florida cities and counties trying to either retain Major League Baseball spring training, or to attract a new team. At the time, the City of Sarasota was negotiating to keep the Cincinnati Reds team in town. The city requested and received a total of $7.5 million, to come in monthly installments, but the deal fell through.
Since then both the city and county actively have hunted for a replacement. Talking first to the Boston Red Sox (who decided to stay in Lee County), they later turned to the Baltimore Orioles.
On June 29, Bullock was told the state grant was not transferable, either from the city to the county, or to negotiations with another team. On Tuesday he said, "Yesterday I received a call from Larry Pendleton from the Florida Sports Foundation, which is the certifying agency for [the Florida Office of Trade, Tourism and Economic Development]. We had been asking them how to get the grant available to this project with the Orioles. He asked OTTED that, and the answer they gave is that they see no leeway in the statute to change the original certification which was for the City of Sarasota and the Cincinnati Reds deal."
Bullock has passed the news along to the city and the Orioles, but he said he has not spoken further with either party.
A legislative bill this spring would have cleared up the ambiguity, but it failed to come up for a vote in the Senate during the final days of the session.
"How come the county spent all these months negotiating when there was, in fact, going to be a $7.5-million hole?" asked Commissioner Nora Patterson. "We have money being deposited monthly from the state into an account that they can’t touch and we can’t touch. "
"Mr. Pendleton said the essence of the deal [with the city and the Reds] was embodied in the legislation," Bullock explained. "For the past three years, we’ve been talking about a different deal, actually three different deals. Each time we spoke with representatives of OTTED, we were led to understand as long as the deal being proposed meant a long-term commitment of a team to the city and the stadium that those grants would be – I don’t know if ‘transferred’ is the right word – but, made available to the project. "
Then about two months ago, when Bullock looked into the specifics of a transfer, he said he began to hear about the possibility of "a legislative change."
"My understanding is the state does not have the statutory authority to stop sending that money, or to ask for that money back," said Bullock. "While the state is sending money to the city, it is saying without a legislative change, you can’t use this money for a real project. It’s only intended for a project that isn’t going to happen."
"Do we have any alternatives?" asked Commissioner Shannon Staub. "I mean, the head of OTTED said this. So who’s over OTTED? Who’s higher up?"
"My recollection is, OTTED is a branch of the office of the governor," said Bullock.
"We maybe should check with the governor," said Staub. "After all this time, this is ridiculous. Now we’re on our second team for ad nauseam months. We need to do something."
"It is unfair, and I think we should approach the governor’s office," said Patterson. "Let’s start with a letter."
July 2nd 2009 - 2:17PM