Just got out of the meetings. Let me give you the highlights and will fill you in more later.
Ronald Townsend and Mike DeSorbo were absent. P.C. Wu said that DeSorbo had just gotten out of the hospital and Townsend is in the hospital.
Pate Cold Storage lease amendment failed to get out of the Enterprise Operations Committee, 2-2 vote. Jack Nobles and Marty Donovan voted yes. Mike Wiggins and P.C. Wu voted no. Donovan had argued that it was a wonderful addition to the community in these tough economic times. He emphasized the jobs being created. Wiggins questioned the lower wharfage fees – $281 per ton down to $235 per ton- and the lack of financial reports on Pate’s new partner, Gulf States Cold Storage.
The staff gave the committee an informational report on termination of the airport landscaping contract of Horace J. Shropshire. Shropshire failed to get a surety bond within the required 15 days after the contract was executed. City manager Al Coby had delayed signing the agreement for 60 days to provide Shropshire extra time to get the bond. The City even prepaid him $7700 so that he could pay the premium. However, because he had a bad credit history, Shropshire needed a co-signer. In the end, Coby couldn’t hold off signing the contract any longer and Shropshire could not get the bond. Meanwhile he has been doing the work at the airport on an interim basis.
Wiggins made a motion to give the landscaper another 30 days, but it failed to pass. The contract will be rebid.
Wiggins also made a motion during the Committee of the Whole to have the airport hotel lease examined, reviewed and investigated by the City’s auditor, Saltmarsh, Cleaveland and Gund. He tried to also get the lease with Sandspur Development put on hold until after the investigation, but Coby informed the council that he had already signed the agreement.
Donovan: “We can’t negate a legally binding action executed by both parties. If we do, then our word doesn’t mean squat.”
Nobles: “What kind of integrity will we have if we backdoor an agreement.”
John Jerralds: “I do want a clearly established policy that we have a 30-day review period so all parties are clear with what’s involved.”
Developer Tony Terhaar did get up and speak on Wiggins’ motion: “The process is fundamentally flawed and you have a document (ground lease) that is fundamentally flawed.” According to Terhaar, the flaws include the valuation of the property, who pays property taxes, city’s burden of making improvements and who pays sales taxes on the rent payments. He agreed with Wiggins that the agreement should be held in abeyance.
Councilman-elect Larry Johnson said that he had received many calls on this issue. There was a lot of misinformation on this issue. He, too, supported Wiggins motion for an investigation.
Nobles: “The council acted in good faith based on information from staff. We supported our staff. We did what we needed to do.”
Jeffrey Humbles questioned the hotel deal: “We’ve not adequately considered this deal to make sure it’s right for the citizens. It’s not your money. Maybe we need to put this in abeyance and say, “Whoa!”
“Ten years from now we may be looking back saying why did we do that.”
Wiggins motion for the investigation passed 8-0. However, the agreement stands.
The rest of the committee meetings was pretty tame, except for the discussion of the Gulf Power Transmission Line upgrade.
Gulf Power made a presentation on why E Street was the best location for the upgrade. The poles are eight to ten feet higher and there will be fewer poles – from 63 to 36 poles. Other routes like Palafox and Tarragona were shown in a PowerPoint presentation, but they were ruled out. Missing from the presentation was the original A Street route that was canned after North Hill residents protested.
And that was the problem. E Street residents and African-American leaders questioned why a transmission line that wasn’t okay for A Street residents is now okay for the poorer, African-American community. If both neighborhoods objected, then why has E Street been designated the route, even though it may cost $1 million more to upgrade than the A Street route?
The discussion went on for over an hour. In the end, the council determined it was very little it could do without subjecting itself to legal expenses. Gulf Power representatives said that the company has already begun the work and has one pole installed on the route. The project must be completed by May 2009 because the current line is at 100 percent capacity.
…..The question I have is why didn’t the council deal with this two months ago before Gulf Power began construction. They might have had an impact on the route. Oh, there was an election. Hmmmm, do think that had an impact?
I will give more details tomorrow. There were several good points made. The PNJ will publish some of them in the morning. I will try to fill in the gaps.