While working on another a project, I came across the mailer that Marty Donovan, Charlie Fairchild and Save Our City mailed out before the 2006 referendum – See it here.
Their misrepresentations of the facts failed to defeat the Maritime Park.
In 2006 – they overstated how much the city was paying from the bonds for the stadium – $16M. Today they say it’s $15M –actually it is $13,107,773 – 32.769 percent.
In 2006 – they tried to confuse the voters about the Maritime Museum not being paid by the $40M net bonds. They were correct – but the Maritime Museum has been the financial responsibility of UWF from day one. Another slick political trick that didn’t work. The City did offer UWF the NMTC funds $12M-$19M, but the university still wasn’t comfortable that it could meet the Dec. 2011 deadline for completion and asked to build it in later phase.
The NMTC funds prove the City did get more money for the project ($13M). All the amenities that SOC worried about in 2006 would be “pushed aside” are now included (here)….except for the lighthouse – which Jack, Charlie and Marty could easily fund and donate to the City.
The $1 per year reference is the agreement with CMPA – the non-profit that the council has put in charge of the Maritime Park. Technically it is the developer, but it is made up of volunteers that don’t benefit personally from the project.