Where do local officials stand ahead of nonbinding Rays stadium vote?

Ken Babby, the Tampa Bay Rays’ CEO and stadium-pitch frontman, has tracked the ebbs and flows of negotiations with a makeshift traffic signal. He places pictures of Hillsborough County commissioners and Tampa City Council members on green, yellow or red, depending on how he thinks each elected official will vote on the proposed stadium, Babby told Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano last month.Babby’s theories will soon be put to the test. This week, Hillsborough’s Board of County Commissioners and the Tampa City Council are set to cast back-to-back votes on a stadium agreement. Their votes on a memorandum of understanding with the team will be nonbinding but significant — a first litmus test for the Rays’ Tampa stadium aspirations. The decision has been billed as a way to continue negotiations with the Rays, rather than an end-all, be-all vote on the team’s future in Tampa. At a news conference last week , Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said, “I can’t imagine that any elected official would vote no on this memorandum of understanding.” Here’s a look at where elected officials appear to stand. Green light: Ken HaganHagan has supported bringing the Rays to Tampa for nearly two decades, and he has frequently praised the team’s latest plan. Last week, he appeared alongside Babby and Castor, touting the significance of the nonbinding memorandum and the benefits of the prospective deal.“This is the closest we’ve ever been toward reaching an agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays,” said Hagan, wearing a Rays-branded polo shirt and pin on his lapel. Yellow light: Chris Boles, Harry Cohen, Christine Miller, Gwen MyersThese four could feasibly vote yes, but their ultimate verdict likely will come down to the details of the final deal. At a county workshop last month , Boles said he hopes Hillsborough will be able to find “a path to yes.” Before that, he penned a column arguing that it is too soon to accurately judge the deal because determining the public financing framework is a complex undertaking, one that requires diligence and patience. “Until the final box score is in, let’s keep our eyes on the ball and wait for the full data set to cross the plate,” he wrote.Cohen said last month that he would like to see a deal succeed. But he is far from an unequivocal supporter.“I would love to be able to vote yes on this,” he said at the county workshop. “But I can only vote yes on it if I’m absolutely convinced that it’s the right thing for the community and the taxpayers.”Miller also likely will reserve judgment until the deal’s details are resolved.“The absurd amount of ‘what-ifs’ directed to policymakers before we have a deal to opine on does no one in our community any good,” she told the Times in a statement earlier this month before the release of the nonbinding memorandum that commissioners will consider Wednesday.Myers appears to be the most likely “yes” vote of this group. She has said past public support of professional sports teams has paid off for the county, citing the economic impact of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last month, Myers asked for a legal opinion on whether the Community Investment Tax, the county’s half-cent sales tax, could be used to help pay for a county-owned sports stadium. “I want to be very clear to those of you who are listening,” Myers said in February. “We will support sports.” Red light: Donna Cameron Cepeda, Joshua WostalCameron Cepeda has said little publicly on the team’s stadium proposal, but a vote in its favor would represent a major shift in her voting record. She was the lone no vote when commissioners in October approved spending $17.96 million in tourist taxes to renovate Steinbrenner Field , the New York Yankees’ spring training home.Wostal has maintained for months that he would like to see a Rays deal succeed, and he has proposed a deal built solely around tourism tax dollars. But he is an outspoken opponent of the proposed framework, which includes the Community Investment Tax and money from the county’s rainy day funds — reserves set aside as a cushion against hard times that largely come from property tax dollars. Unless the deal’s structure vastly changes, Wostal is likely to vote in opposition. Green light: Alan ClendeninClendenin, who also serves on the Tampa Sports Authority, has long said he will not decide his vote until “the final document is presented, and I see how the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.” But he has also praised the fast-forming deal. In a column in the Times this week , Clendenin lauded the planned redevelopment of the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough College — the proposed stadium site — and said the project will bring thousands of jobs to the area.“Change can be difficult, but if you look at the project structure and the financial breakdown, you’ll see this is not another ‘stadium deal,’” Clendenin wrote. “This is a city-building deal.” Yellow light: Bill Carlson, Lynn Hurtak, Guido Maniscalco, Luis Viera, Naya YoungMost council members fall into this category, having said little publicly about the deal. Several have asked questions about the funding, timeline and scope of the proposal and have said they are still weighing their votes.Hurtak, who is running for mayor, said in a recent campaign video that she “would love it” if the Rays made their home in Tampa.“But right now,” she said, “people can’t afford gas and groceries. And we’re having a conversation about giving billionaires money to build a baseball stadium.”Carlson, who is also running for mayor, said at a recent city workshop that “we need to make sure we negotiate the best deal, but City Council has not been involved in negotiations at all.”Viera has made public safety a focus in his talks with the Rays and said in a recent interview that there “can be no viable dialogue without a full commitment to our first responders.” He has helped organize meetings between the baseball team and local fire and law enforcement unions. Young, who has not shared her stance on the deal, asked at the city workshop about price and minority business participation.At a recent Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, Maniscalco said he has questions: “How do we do this? Is it feasible? Does it make sense?” Red light: Charlie MirandaMiranda, who is serving his ninth term on the City Council, has long opposed public subsidies for sports stadiums and is almost certain to vote against the proposal.He wore black suits, black shirts and black ties to City Hall for months to mourn “the burial of the taxpayer” when the Bucs’ Raymond James Stadium was built in the 1990s.This year, Miranda has again donned funerary garb in response to the Rays’ nearly billion-dollar ask. “I’ll be wearing black — including black socks and everything — until this is all over,” he told the Times last month.

Where do local officials stand ahead of nonbinding Rays stadium vote?

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Where do local officials stand ahead of nonbinding Rays stadium vote?

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