Tampa City Council Chair Alan Clendenin is pushing to delay a pending Community Redevelopment Agency discussion tied to the Tampa Bay Rays stadium proposal, saying the issue is not ready for a vote as negotiations continue.
Clendenin told Florida Politics he submitted a memo last week asking that the Rays item be deferred until at least July, and possibly longer, rather than being taken up by the Tampa CRA next week as originally planned.
Clendenin’s remarks come after Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal — one of the deal’s most vocal critics — suggested during an appearance on The Ryan Gorman Show that the CRA could move to remove the Rays MOU from its agenda and potentially force a broader renegotiation of the deal.
Clendenin also sharply disputed Wostal’s characterization of where negotiations stand, and clarified that behind-the-scenes talks are still ongoing. He added that recent uncertainty over property tax reform has also added another factor for negotiators to consider.
“I submitted a memo last week requesting that the Rays issue be deferred or continued until the July meeting, and maybe even beyond that, until we have more information,” Clendenin said.
“There’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes. There’s a lot of negotiations happening, and of course with the chaos happening in Tallahassee, until we can all kind of see everything out front, it’s just premature on Thursday to bring it to the table. Josh Wostal has no idea what’s happening. None. Zero.”
The Rays stadium MOU approved by Tampa and Hillsborough County last month includes $80 million from the city of Tampa and another $100 million tied to the Tampa CRA, in addition to other public dollars.
Although he has called to delay the CRA vote, Clendenin pushed back on the idea that the issue has reached a breaking point. He said the financing structure remains under active negotiation and that next week’s discussion would be premature.
Clendenin said the earlier votes by the City Council and County Commission represented support for the general direction of the non-binding MOU, but not final approval of the CRA terms.
Several options remain on the table for the CRA-related portion of the deal, including not using the CRA, creating a different type of district or using another special district structure.
“For the CRA portion, nothing has been agreed to by any party. There’s still negotiations happening behind the scenes,” Clendenin said. “All of the issues, including not using the CRA, including creating a different type of special district. There’s a lot of different options that e have about that portion of the equation. It’s still being negotiated.”
If the CRA item is indeed continued, one of the most scrutinized pieces of the Rays stadium package may remain unresolved for at least another month. Clendenin acknowledged that many details remain behind closed doors, but said that is unavoidable while negotiations are ongoing.
“You don’t negotiate the deal out in public,” Clendenin said. “As soon as I tell Florida Politics or any other media outlet what our cards are, well, the people we’re negotiating with know what the cards are. You don’t do that.”
