Formula One narrowly survives Miami-Dade commission vote after Dolphins lobbying push

One commission vote flipped to the side of the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday and killed a legislative effort to keep the Formula One race from going to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

On Oct. 29, commissioners passed legislation to ban the street closures needed in Miami Gardens to run the high-speed race around the stadium perimeter. Residents of neighborhoods surrounding the stadium championed the legislation, saying they didn’t want the noise, exhaust and traffic from Formula One.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez vetoed the legislation earlier this month, saying it would kill the race, rob Miami-Dade of Formula One’s economic boost and not give him the time to negotiate a deal that would satisfy both sides. That set up Tuesday’s showdown, as sponsor Barbara Jordan tried to lock in the eight commission votes needed to override the mayor’s veto. The legislation would have survived if her original eight-member coalition held, but Commissioner Javier Souto switched votes, saying he thought the race was too valuable to the economy to let neighbors’ objections derail the event.

“I am a commissioner for Miami-Dade County, the whole county,” Souto said in defending his switch from a vote favored by neighborhood groups to one they opposed.

Overriding the veto failed on a 7 to 5 vote. Under the county charter, the 13-seat commission needs two-thirds of votes from commissioners attending a meeting to override a veto. With 12 commissioners in the chamber Tuesday, an override needed eight votes.

Though a significant win for Formula One in one of the most high-profile commission fights of the year, the victory doesn’t clear the way for the race’s planned Miami-Dade debut in 2021. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who has the rights for a Miami F1 race, still needs permits from Miami Gardens, where the City Commission opposes the event, and also has to defeat another piece of county legislation that would hamper the race’s efforts.

“I know you know this isn’t good for my community,” Commissioner Barbara Jordan, sponsor of the anti-F1 legislation defeated on Tuesday, said to her fellow commissioners before a chamber packed with about 200 Dolphins employees and dozens of Miami Gardens residents.

Addressing Ross by name, Jordan, whose district includes Miami Gardens and the stadium grounds, said the Dolphins should be prepared for bad publicity if the team continues to push the race over neighbor objections as the Super Bowl prepares to return to Hard Rock in 2020.

“We won’t give up. We don’t have millions. We don’t have trillions,” Jordan said, adding she will no longer be the team’s main sponsor for expanding county subsidies at Hard Rock. “For me, this is personal. I am nine blocks away. We will not give up. “

Gimenez, who lobbied Souto to switch his vote, said he wants more time to work out a Formula One deal that can bring the race to Miami-Dade without so much controversy. He held talks with Formula One and the Homestead Speedway about having the race there, but F1 executives rejected that option last week, saying Hard Rock offers a better venue than one of the nation’s leading NASCAR race tracks.

“Hard Rock Stadium embodies many elements that we find attractive and important, including spectator and television sight-lines from the circuit to the Miami and Fort Lauderdale skylines, unique circuit views from the stadium’s luxury hospitality areas, proximity to hotels, immediate access to multiple international airports, and reasonable highway travel times that are critical to the success of this global event for for Formula 1 and Miami-Dade County,” the race’s organizers said in the Nov. 13 letter to Homestead Speedway president Al Garcia.

On Tuesday, Gimenez said he will continue negotiations with the Dolphins to address neighbors’ concerns in Miami Gardens.

“There’s no clear winner here,” Gimenez said after his veto was upheld. “This doesn’t mean that the race is going to happen there.”

The Formula One debate divided the commission and had some of the Dolphins’ political allies lambasting the team for putting stadium profits over concerns about noise, air pollution and traffic from the planned yearly race around Hard Rock. The Dolphins pitch the race as a Super Bowl-style event, with a $400 million in spending across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Ross did not attend the commission meeting, but Dolphins president Tom Garfinkel watched the proceedings from the front row of the chamber.

Jordan won passage of the anti-F1 resolution Oct. 29 on an 8 to 5 vote. It would have banned road closures for the event in Miami Gardens and required commission approval for county road closures anywhere else in Miami-Dade.

The Dolphins effort to sustain the veto was complicated by the absence of Commissioner Joe Martinez, who voted against Jordan last month but was in Los Angeles on Tuesday watching his daughter, Joana Martinez, competing on The Voice.

With Martinez, Jordan would have needed to flip a No vote to override the veto. Without him, the Dolphins needed a flipped vote and found it in Souto. Voting with Jordan to override the veto were Audrey Edmonson, Eileen Higgins, Daniella Levine Cava, Dennis Moss, Jean Monestime and Xavier Suarez. Joining Souto in voting with Gimenez were Esteban “Steve” Bovo, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Sally Heyman, and Rebeca Sosa.

Last year, Gimenez recused himself from the Formula One matter after a son, C.J. Gimenez, was hired by the Dolphins to lobby for the race when it was trying to use city and county roads to hold the event in downtown Miami. Gimenez voided the recusal in late October as the race faced unexpected opposition from Jordan, who represents the stadium’s home city of Miami Gardens. The Gimenez administration has been negotiating with the Dolphins for a $2.5 million yearly subsidy for bringing F1 to Hard Rock under an existing stadium deal that gives the team up to $5.75 million a year as bonus payments for large events.

The mayor’s office said the race had stopped paying the younger Gimenez in the spring, ending the potential conflict behind the recusal.

Betty Ferguson, the former Miami-Dade commissioner and Miami Gardens resident who has been organizing the fight against the F1 race, said after the vote that she plans to continue causing trouble for elected officials who back the Dolphins.

“We don’t have deep pockets,” she said. “We’re going to show them we have deep votes.”

Miami Herald staff writer Christina Morales contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 3:18 PM.