The Florida Marlins front office thought it was doing the right thing by pledging 15 percent of the construction work on a proposed new ballpark to African-Americans, but the set-asides violate county guidelines — and threaten to scuttle the whole deal.
The Florida Marlins front office thought it was doing the right thing by pledging 15 percent of the construction work on a proposed new ballpark to African-Americans, but the set-asides violate county guidelines — and threaten to scuttle the whole deal.
County Atttorney Robert Cuevas stepped in after the Marlins — on their own, without any input or involvement from the county — and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced a deal targeting African-American construction firms to receive 15 percent of the construction work on the $606-million retractable-roof ballpark.
But Miami-Dade County has a policy against such set-asides after a count held them to be unconstitutional in the late 1990s. This is why Cuevas is concerned: if the ballpark project goes forward with the set-asides, it opens the county to certain liability and lawsuit.
So the solution for now is to craft a new set-aside program that’s really not a set-aside program — that is, targeting minorities for participation but not pledging a specific amount to a specific group.
The Miami City Commission is scheduled to revisit the issue Thursday, while Miami-Dade County is expected to debate the new-ballpark proposal on Monday.
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