The overriding reason for Councilmen Jack Nobles and Marty Donovan to vote in favor of the Rinker/Cemex lease at the Port of Pensacola was that the City already had a lease that went through 2020.
“Whether you like or not,” Nobles said at the Enterprise committee meeting yesterday, “We are in the Port business until 2020.”
Why? Because in 2002, Nobles and his fellow councilmen approved a 20-year lease with Reynolds Ready Mix (which was later assigned to Mexican cement producer Cemex) over the objections of downtown residents and business owners.
Had the city council rejected that lease five years ago, we could be out of the industrial port business in 2012 when the Martin-Marietta lease is up for renewal.
Instead, we perpetuate the madness using the last lease as the reason for another lease. If the City overrules the Enterprise vote – 2 to 3 against the Rinker/Cemex lease – then it will probably also renew the Martin-Marietta lease in 2012 for the same reasons – the Rinker/Cemex leases tie us up to 2020.
And if he is still on the city council, we will hear Jack Nobles say, “Whether you like or not, we are in the Port business .”
Yes, we are. Thanks, Jack.