Miami-Dade mayor: I accepted a Super Bowl ticket from Dolphins owner, paid for 2nd

After staying mum on the subject for three days, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office said Monday he accepted one $4,000 ticket to the Super Bowl from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and bought a second for his wife.

Ross also offered $3,000 tickets to county commissioners ahead of a vote this week on his plan to bring Formula One racing to Hard Rock Stadium. At least one commissioner accepted the offer.

Gimenez’s press secretary, Patricia Abril, released a statement Monday saying the mayor “accepted one ticket for himself, as he had official duties to perform at the event... The mayor wanted his wife to go with him to the event, and he paid for her ticket.” Gimenez’s office said the mayor paid Ross by check for the second ticket for Lourdes Gimenez.

The statement came after el Nuevo Herald obtained a county ethics memo Friday saying Gimenez had accepted an offer from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to get two free tickets worth $4,000 each.

The county’s top ethics lawyer last week cleared Gimenez to accept the Ross tickets, saying the $8,000 gift did not qualify as the kind of “quid pro quo” offer that would trigger a violation of Miami-Dade law.

The Dolphins’ lobbying team is fighting county legislation that would block Ross from bringing Formula One racing to Hard Rock Stadium, and Gimenez is a key ally in that effort. He has already vetoed one anti-F1 ordinance, and another one the mayor opposes is scheduled for a final vote Tuesday.

Last week, Ross also offered free Super Bowl tickets to commissioners who will vote on the F1 proposal, according to an email released Monday by the Ethics Commission. A Ross accountant wrote Gimenez’s office Thursday with details on free tickets from Ross and details needed “to ensure compliance with applicable law.”

The email described a pre-game ceremony to be led by Gimenez celebrating the stadium renovations that led to the Super Bowl’s returning to Miami Gardens. Ross would provide club seats worth $4,000 each for Gimenez, wrote Jessica Rizzo, an accountant at Related Companies, Ross’ New York real estate firm. Hard Rock Stadium’s website shows the Section 246 seats face the 50-yard line.

Club seats listed in end-zone sections and worth $3,000 “would be utilized for any participating Commissioners,” Rizzo wrote to Alex Ferro, Gimenez’s chief of staff.

Gimenez’s office said two commissioners attended the event: Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Sally Heyman. Heyman did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Asked to identify county officials who received free Super Bowl tickets from Ross, Dolphins spokesman Jason Jenkins wrote back that Gimenez, Diaz and Heyman attended the game “in their official capacities.”

Diaz released a statement saying he attended the game “in my official capacity as Commissioner” and was “grateful Stephen Ross personally invited me and a guest to attend.” Diaz cited his role as vice chairman of the county’s Public Safety Committee in describing his visit to the Super Bowl’s command center inside the stadium. Diaz said he planned to disclose the tickets under the rules governing gifts to public officials.

Diaz and Heyman are longtime supporters of the Dolphins on commission matters, and voted in November to uphold a Gimenez veto of legislation trying to keep F1 racing out of Miami Gardens. The Dolphins have negotiated a preliminary agreement with the Gimenez administration to lock in a $2.5 million yearly subsidy for F1 as part of the stadium’s existing deal with Miami-Dade to collect up to $5.75 million annually in bonuses for landing large events.

Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo said he was recently offered free Super Bowl tickets by Dolphins executive Marcus Bach-Armas in connection with the planned ceremony. “He offered. I could not accept them,” said Bovo, a candidate for mayor in 2020 to replace a term-limited Gimenez.

“We’ve got the F1 stuff coming,” Bovo said. “I don’t think it would look very good.”

Ross’ giving away Super Bowl tickets to elected officials first became public Friday evening in the el Nuevo Herald report. Hours later, Gimenez’s office disputed the language in the Ethics Commission memo, saying “the mayor did not accept the tickets prior to the issuance of the ethics opinion.” Gimenez’s office declined to answer questions about the matter throughout the weekend.

Gimenez, a former Miami fire chief, is running in the Republican primary to challenge freshman Democrat Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida’s 26th Congressional district.

Abril said Monday that Gimenez’s entry into Hard Rock Stadium allowed him to meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the Super Bowl returning to Miami-Dade and attend the final security briefing before the game. As mayor of the only Florida county without an elected sheriff, Gimenez oversees the county police department. “Mayor Gimenez would have been the incident commander should anything have gone wrong,” she said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 8:00 PM.