The Miami City Commission debate over increased costs for parking garages to serve the new Florida Marlins ballpark crystalizes the challenge Miami voters face in selecting the Magic City's next mayor. Vision and leadership are lacking.

The two mayoral candidates, Commissioners Tomás Regalado and Joe Sanchez, fell into predictable stances. Instead of offering a solution to the increased financing costs that would catapult the garages' price to $135 million in a deal that was supposed to be sealed at $94 million, Mr. Regalado simply voted no -- which, had the majority gone along, would open the city to a costly lawsuit.

And Mr. Sanchez, whose district includes the old Orange Bowl site? He seemed willing to accept the new hefty price tag instead of proposing a way to protect city taxpayers.

The leader who emerged at Thursday's meeting was Marc Sarnoff, a lawyer who reminded fellow commissioners that he previously voted against the stadium deal but that the city is legally bound to build the garages. Mr. Sarnoff suggested renegotiating the terms of the garages deal with project managers and reducing the new costs to $120 million. Mr. Sanchez eventually went along with Mr. Sarnoff's 3-2 majority vote.

During these difficult economic times -- with Miami facing staggering salary and pension costs to comply with police and firefighter union contracts and as property values have plummeted because of foreclosures -- the city desperately needs a mayor who can work effectively with the unions, help keep services steady for residents and offer a vision for this international city's revival that goes beyond fixing potholes.

Both Mr. Regalado and Mr. Sanchez are amiable fellows, but each has high deficits in the leadership camp.

Mr. Sanchez has agreed with many of Mayor Manny Diaz's visionary proposals, like the port tunnel, to build on Miami's reputation and its economy as the Gateway to the Americas but, unfortunately, he rarely shows any leadership on his own. He sometimes seems soft on the details of multimillion-dollar projects. We had high hopes for Mr. Sanchez to grow as a leader but that hasn't materialized.

Mr. Regalado, who has served longer than any other commissioner, has a solid grasp of budget details, but as a radio and TV commentator for 30 years, he is known more for criticizing whomever is mayor even when the projects before him, like Miami 21, will help build a more pedestrian-friendly and livable place.

It's worrisome, too, that this man who likes to highlight his independent streak would be endorsed by the city's powerful unions, which want to keep the status quo. Mr. Regalado promises to tackle the pension mess on his first day in office. Good.

At a time when police and firefighter contracts have resulted in outrageous salaries -- half of all city employees earn more than $100,000 a year -- the next mayor will have to move quickly to stop the bleeding flowing from the city's books and extract real concessions from the unions.

If he is to lead Miami to more business opportunities that will generate revenue for the cash-strapped city Mr. Regalado must abandon his ``just say no'' attitude and come up with solutions that improve neighborhood services for residents and result in a vibrant downtown. The next mayor must have a plan to rev up the city's economic engine to attract more tourists and more businesses to struggling centers from Overtown to Little Havana. He needs a vision -- not a playback list of gripes.

The recession will end, and the city must be poised to move forward on many fronts. That's the next mayor's challenge.

Mr. Regalado has the opportunity to show he can be more than a bare-bones caretaker of city government by broadening his vision. Miami residents' quality of life will depend on such a leader.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@