There won’t be a vote of the Miami-Dade County Commission Tuesday on a financing plan for a $525 million ballpark for the Marlins, but Marlins President David Samson says the sides are still meeting.

“There’s been great cooperation between the city, county and the team and Major League Baseball acting as interested third party mediator,” Samson said Monday. “The problem is we’re trying to negotiate a deal that cannot exist in a vacuum. There’s a lot of other issues to talk about and until everything can be worked out together, there’s no announcement on a completed deal. It’s not as easy as negotiating a contract with a player or an employee.”

Among the outstanding issues are who will pay for a parking garage and maintenance of the venue. But Samson remains optimistic: “This community has never been closer to having a done deal.”

The longer the delay, however, the more difficult it will be to meet the Marlins deadline of opening a stadium by April 2011. The team has a lease at Dolphin Stadium through the 2010 season.

He would not discuss auto dealer Norman Braman’s lawsuit specifically, but said the tourist dollars that would be used for the stadium cannot be used for general fund projects that aid the poor, kids or elderly. Braman is concerned the public has been cut out of the process and wants the overall plan to transform downtown Miami and help fund a ballpark to be considered by the voters.

“We said from day one in 2002, we would not build a stadium using dollars that could be used to help other issues in this community,” Samson said. “This money cannot be used for anything other than to help build professional sports stadiums or to pay for other buildings like the performing arts center.”