Days after the city of Miami Beach terminated a deal for a water taxi service across Biscayne Baymillionairesslot, the boat’s crew members say they haven’t been paid for all of their work and are being stonewalled by the company.
Four workers who helped operate the Poseidon Ferry told the Miami Herald they weren’t paid for any work they did in August, despite the ferry receiving a taxpayer subsidy that its owner said would allow the service between South Beach and downtown Miami to become financially viable.
“It’s a hit that I really cannot take,” said Javier Martinez, a deckhand who says he is owed more than $1,400 for 89 hours of work last month. “This was the last thing I thought was going to happen.”
Martinez, 55, said he has tried contacting the ferry’s owners to no avail. He shared screenshots of messages he sent to Johnathan Silvia, the CEO of Poseidon Ferry LLC, that have not been returned.
“We got ghosted by everybody,” Martinez said. “You’ve got to pay your people.”
David Guthrie, who worked as a captain for Poseidon, said he has been speaking with other employees and believes at least 10 people are owed money.
Guthrie said he is owed for four days of work after he was paid for July and only worked a few days in August. But he said another captain is owed more than $6,000.
“They haven’t paid anyone for the entire month of August,” Guthrie said, adding that those affected include mates and crew members who had no other source of income.
Silvia did not respond to phone calls and messages seeking comment Monday.
Ralph Andrade, a lobbyist for Poseidon, said he wasn’t aware of the employees’ concerns but would seek more information.
In a brief statement, Miami Beach spokesperson Melissa Berthier said the city was aware of the situation and “evaluating our options.”
The ferry was plagued by maintenance problems and low ridership that led the City Commission to nix a one-year, $50,000-per-month pilot program last week, just three months after it had green-lit the program.
The city has already paid Poseidon for its operations in late June and July, Berthier said — about $42,000, prorated to account for service interruptions — but has yet to pay the company about $24,000 for August.
Under their agreement, the city has 45 days to make payments to Poseidon after receiving an invoice from the company at the end of each month. Berthier declined to comment on whether the city could seek to withhold some or all of the August payment based on the stops in service that constituted a breach of the agreement.
READ MORE: Miami Beach ends $50,000-a-month water taxi deal after repeated maintenance failures
Markus Benson, who worked for Poseidon as a first mate on weekends, said he’s owed over $600.
Benson, 21, said employees were initially told they would be paid every two weeks, but the pay schedule shifted to become monthly. Like others, Benson said he hasn’t heard from the owners in weeks.
“I’ve waited and now I’m finally ready to take some action on it,” he said.
Questions about Poseidon’s ability to pay its workers first came up in July, workers said.
Late that month, one of the boat’s captains messaged employees to say the company’s owner had applied for “three different capital loans” and was hoping to pay workers before the city made its July payment sometime in early August. The captain added that the owner was urging the city to make payments to Poseidon on the first of each month.
“I know we all are questioning when is pay day!!” the captain wrote, according to a screenshot of the message. She expressed confidence that everyone would be paid. “I wouldn’t be here working myself if I truly didn’t believe that.”
Employees told the Herald they were ultimately paid for their work in July about two weeks into August.
Hourly departures between Maurice Gibb Memorial Park in Sunset Harbour and Sea Isle Marina in Miami began June 30 but were quickly interrupted because of mechanical issues on July 4 and July 6. Additional mechanical failures led to five straight days without service from July 10 to July 14, followed by two more days of partial service.
The 149-person vessel broke down again from Aug. 7-9. The next day, Poseidon resumed service as its owner struck a deal to use a different boat. But 10 days after that, on Aug. 20, service was suspended indefinitely because the spare boat was no longer available.
Guthrie, the captain, said the Poseidon Ferry was in bad shape when operations began.
“The boat was pretty much dying when we started this,” he said. “Everything was breaking down.”
On days that the water taxi was operational, an average of 43 people boarded it, according to data from the city. The ferry experienced “persistent air conditioning breakdowns” and customer complaints about “the cleanliness and appearance of the vessel,” city officials said.
The ferry had previously operated without public funding in 2020 but stalled because of low ridership. It relaunched in August 2021, then was shuttered again in late 2022.
Miami Beach officials pushed for Poseidon to return with taxpayer help, touting ferry service as one way to address the city’s traffic gridlock.
But Poseidon had faced financial woes and lawsuits for years. The company lost about $500,000 in 2022, a representative said last year. In November, the IRS filed a lien notice that said the company owed almost $114,000 in federal taxes. And in January, the company was sued in Miami-Dade County Court by the Community Fund of North Miami Dade, which claimed Poseidon owed more than $21,000 after failing to repay a loan.
The company also faced a November 2022 federal lawsuit in which a yacht owner claimed a Poseidon Ferry captain “lost control” of the boat while traveling along the Miami River that July, hitting the docked yacht and causing over $44,000 in damage. The case was settled last November.
Martinez, the deckhand, said he is now scrambling to find work. While he hopes to be made whole for his work for Poseidon, he said, his expectations are low.
“I don’t see us getting our moneymillionairesslot,” he said. “We were working. We didn’t get paid. That’s it.”
