Homestead City Council members on Wednesday stood by their decision to require La Ley Sports, which leases the city’s baseball stadium, to pay $41,000 in past-due property-insurance premiums.
Councilwoman Judy Waldman replaced by Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough-McCormick in negotiations with La Ley
By Christina Veiga
cveiga@MiamiHerald.com
The company operating Homestead’s baseball stadium still doesn’t want to pay the insurance premiums it agreed to pay in its lease. But Homestead City Council members — for now, at least — still think the company should pay.
The two sides agree on one thing: Their relationship has been strained over the issue. Both agreed to continue meeting in an effort to patch up the relationship.
On Wednesday, the owner of La Ley Sports — Spanish-language TV lawyer John H. Ruiz — once again asked council members to waive his company’s obligation to pay about $10,000 a month in property insurance payments. Council members had already decided against that last month, and on Wednesday, they unanimously stood by their decision. The council also did not support Ruiz’s request that the city simply stop carrying property insurance on the facility.
La Ley Sports owes the city $41,000 in past-due insurance premiums, according to city records.
Ruiz presented his requests to the council again because La Ley representatives were not at the last City Council meeting it was first decided not to temporarily waive the property insurance requirement. Ruiz said company representatives weren’t there because they didn’t know the issue would be decided on, while the city points to an email to Ruiz that includes the meeting date.
Ruiz said children’s programming at the stadium would be affected if his company is required to shell out the extra money for property insurance premiums. He said the company has always carried liability insurance.
“If you tell us, ‘You have to pay the insurance,’ guess who suffers? The kids,” Ruiz said. “There’s some benefit that’s much higher than this monthly payment.”
He added: “If I was making money, I wouldn’t be standing up here.”
A trail of court records suggests Ruiz may be in financial trouble.
One of his Coral Gables mansions is in foreclosure; he has said he stopped paying when the bank stopped disbursing his construction loan. The foreclosure was sent to mediation, according to court records. Ruiz also defaulted on a $64,000 lease for electronic equipment; Ruiz said the equipment was faulty. And he recently had a cigarette boat repossessed after Ruiz said the bank backtracked on an agreement for interest-only payments.
La Ley had also fallen $25,000 behind on utility payments, according to city documents. But the company recently found an overbilling error for trash services and has received a $22,000 credit from the city. Ruiz also is contesting his water bills, but the city has stood by the accuracy of those.
Even though council members reiterated their request that La Ley pay its outstanding insurance bill, they also agreed to continue talking with the company.
“We need to start working together, because right now we’re very adversarial,” said Councilman Stephen Shelley.
Answered Ruiz: “I agree with you 1,000 percent. I think there’s been a big lack of communication.”
During the hour-long back-and-forth between Ruiz and the council, both sides said they had been “offended” by each other. They each laid out grievances.
Shelley questioned why Ruiz hasn’t shown up to meetings.
“If those issues are so important, why weren’t you present?” Shelley asked.
And Ruiz said he had a different “recollection of events” than Councilwoman Judy Waldman. Waldman had been tasked by the mayor with working out a solution with La Ley.
Mayor Steve Bateman on Wednesday assigned Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough-McCormick to continue meeting with La Ley to work out the differences.
For more Homestead news, follow @Cveiga on Twitter.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/19/2759551/homestead-stadium-tenant-still.html#storylink=cpy
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