A single email sets off a needless inquisition in Fort Lauderdale | Editorial

News travels fast  — much too fast for Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steven Glassman.

He publicly interrogated several city employees and had another ugly confrontation with a colleague in the unending drama over the city’s fractured relationship with Miami Beckham United, owners of the Inter Miami soccer team that plays home games at DRV PNK stadium.

The city and team have been battling a long time. Apparently not even the much-heralded arrival next weekend of Lionel Messi, widely considered the best soccer player on the planet, will soothe tensions.

In short, Beckham United got a sweetheart deal a few years ago with rent-free use of the stadium site for 50 years, and has dragged its fleet feet over paying city permitting fees and demolition costs and building a promised city park at the site.

It’s another case of the city being overly generous with private use of public land (see One Stop Shop, Bahia Mar, etc). The city could have demanded a deal that included a share of parking and concession revenues at the stadium, but didn’t, and ticket prices are soaring by more than 1,000% in anticipation of Messi’s arrival.

Up until now, the city seems to have all the headaches of a pro sports franchise with few of the benefits.

It can’t even get good publicity out of this one-sided deal. Every news story on the team mentions Miami, not Fort Lauderdale. (A Washington Post story on last weekend’s 2-2 tie with D.C. United mentioned Miami seven times, and a CNN story has Messi coming to “South Beach.”)

A lack of unity

For the sake of taxpayers, Fort Lauderdale should present a united negotiating front with its stubborn soccer partner. But any hope of that fizzled at a July 5 meeting.

Glassman berated Assistant City Attorney Rhonda Montoya Hasan for her strongly worded email of June 21 to Beckham lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker, accusing the team of adding temporary seating at the stadium without city permits.

The city lawyer said she wrote it after conferring with chief building official John Travers, who had sent an inspector to the stadium, only to find no actual work going on.

“The city is in the process of red-tagging the stadium as the new seating is being actively installed in violation of the Florida Building Code,” Hasan wrote. “This is indeed disappointing … Just so we are clear, continuing to work once a stop-work order has been issued can be an arrestable offense.”

The email overstated the case. But this looks like a miscommunication in real time, not a scheme to humiliate Beckham United.

Hasan copied her boss, City Attorney D’Wayne Spence, and Commissioner John Herbst, whose district includes the stadium and is the commission’s consensus appointee to negotiate with the soccer franchise.

Herbst, a hardball negotiator who’s skilled in financial matters, calls the city’s deal with Beckham United “horrible.”

‘Where is this going?’

Left out of the loop, Glassman was angry that he didn’t get copied on the email.

In a tone that sounded like an inquisition, he repeatedly questioned how the email got to the Sun Sentinel’s city reporter, Susannah Bryan, and WPLG Channel 10, so fast. Both quickly posted stories on it, with the station showing a tall crane on stadium grounds, suggesting construction work.

As the questioning went on, Mayor Dean Trantalis interjected: “Where is this going?” The answer: Downhill.

Herbst apologized to attorney Hasan for the “abuse” she received. Then he turned his fire on Glassman.

“You have a habit of trying to tell me what I can do and what I can’t do,” Herbst told Glassman, who cast one of three votes to fire Herbst as city auditor last year. “I no longer work for you. I can do whatever the hell I damn well please.”

“This is not abuse,” Glassman said. “This was a serious breach.”

He said the city’s actions were “untoward” and could risk a lawsuit and that Trantalis and the city attorney, not Herbst, should represent the city in future negotiations with Beckham United.

“You need to be in the room, Mayor,” Glassman told Trantalis. “You’re the mayor.”

Referring to the flap over stadium seating, he said: “It’s almost like there’s an attempt to say ‘Gotcha!’ when we don’t even have proof … Only one of us (Herbst) is being asked for opinions.”

‘Performance art’

Herbst dismissed Glassman’s interrogation as “performance art” and told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board he will keep negotiating, hoping to make a bad deal better.

Glassman publicly attacked the credibility of city staff members in dealing with a vendor represented by the city’s most influential lobbyist, Toothaker, which had to send shock waves through the city work force.

If the goal was to intimidate city employees into thinking twice about questioning Beckham United in the future, it may succeed.

An obvious question is whether Glassman ran interference for Toothaker, a supporter of his, who’s known for her political influence in the city.

“Absolutely not,” Glassman told the editorial board. “I take great pride in my work.” (Even Glassman’s critics concede he does his homework.)

But a residue lingers. Commissioner Pam Beasley-Pittman defended city employees and chastised Glassman for implying a “plot” that didn’t exist.

If this were a soccer match, Glassman could have been issued a yellow card for making excessive or disruptive contact.

This much is certain: The pro soccer season will end long before this dispute will.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, send us an email to letters@sun-sentinel.com.