On January 7, 1994, the first issue of Key West The Newspaper hit the streets. Today's paper marks KWTN's ninth- birthday issue. We've had our detractors over the years. And we still do. But now, at least, after eight years of every-Friday publication, most have finally stopped saying, "They're not going to make it." Our objective in starting a new newspaper in a small market saturated with entertainment guides, press release carriers and semi-monthly magazine-type publications was not only to bring a true weekly newspaper to the island, but also to provide an alternate voice to the don't-rock-the-boat media. Our paper soon evolved to fill the unfilled investigative reporting niche. That attracted the readers. And the readership attracted the advertisers. And the rest is history.
Already on the scene in January 1994 was Island Life, an entertainment-oriented weekly, and Solares Hill. Solares Hill which had been published off-and-on for a number of years, was, at that time, coming out every-other week with a month or so off in the summer.
We created a true weekly paper here, promising to publish every week, 52 weeks a year. We have done that. The others have followed. We also created the first Friday weekly here. Solares Hill and Island Life came out on Thursdays. Apparently, Friday publication was a good idea. Now, that's considered the prime distribution day for weekly newspapers here.
Subsequently, of course, Island Life went belly up and faded from the scene. Solares Hill escaped going belly up when it was absorbed by the daily newspaper.
A former publisher of the daily paper joined the "Paper War" with Island News. You probably know what happened. Belly up.
Celebrate, which targets the gay community, continues to publish. And Charlie Ramos' Morning Star continues to provide the town with a weekly history lesson. But as we enter our ninth year, KWTN is the island's only independent general-interest weekly.
Actually, there was one issue of KWTN before January 7, 1994. A prototype issue appeared on October 22, 1993, as an 8-page political flyer. The flyer supported Attorney Rob Kunkel for City Commission, opposing longtime Commissioner Jimmy Weekley. We also supported George Murphy for mayor, opposing incumbent Dennis Wardlow.
We editorially accused Weekley of violating the State Government-In-the-Sunshine Law by attending dozens of secret meetings to determine how the City should purchase ($18.5 million) and manage the Key West Bight. That made Weekley so mad that he complained to the State Attorney.
But, a few years later, we were able to report exclusively that the State Attorney General had ruled that those meetings had, indeed, violated the law.
In our prototype issue, we also chided Weekley for pretending to be offended by the suggestive slogans on the t-shirts in the windows of some Duval Street shops— while offering for sale at Fausto's, his family's grocery store, a t-shirt emblazoned with "You Can't Beat Our Meat." Needless to say, you can't buy that shirt any more at Fausto's.
Although Kunkel ran a campaign with limited financing, he was able to force Weekley into a runoff.
Also in that prototype issue, we reported that Wardlow's job with the mosquito control agency here had been illegally fixed for him. Subsequently, Key West The Newspaper would be able to play an editorial role in the election of a new Mosquito Control Board majority that "unfixed" the job.
Wardlow won that election but was soon indicted on federal bribery charges. He was acquitted, but the State Ethics Commission found him guilty of the same charges.
It wasn't long before we had our first big story. On January 13, 1994, former City Commissioner Harry Powell freaked out and barricaded himself inside a trailer at the Navy's Peary Court construction site. Reportedly armed with dynamite and gasoline, he demanded that construction be stopped. He had been a longtime opponent of the Navy's plans to build military housing on one of the last large green spaces in the city.
During the standoff, Dane Powell, Harry's wife, holed up with friends in a house near the construction site. While reporters from throughout South Florida spent the day literally beating on the door to get access to Mrs. Powell, KWTN reporter Mike Smith was in the house, phoning in periodic first-person accounts to the newspaper.
During our first year of publication, we also reported the first of what would be many stories over the years in which City Commissioners would try to explain their ineptitude by simply admitting to being "hoodwinked".
Remember the flap over the construction of the "Big Steel Building" at the corner of Front and Duval?
To avoid having to develop an expensive preconstruction Community Impact Assessment Study (CIAS) for a huge structure planned at one of the most historically important locations in the city, Attorney Michael Halpern represented to the Commission that the "tiny little project" would only occupy 8500 square feet. And he pointed out that projects of less than 10,000 square feet didn't need a CIAS.
But in reality, we reported, the developer's own application for a building permit specified a 10,333 square foot building— but that didn't include the underground parking garage. Critics of the project estimated that it might be as large as 18,000 square feet.
When some Commissioners wanted to vote on whether or not the CIAS should be waived, they were told by City Planner Ted Strader and City Attorney Ginny Stones that they had already approved the project. But no commissioner could remember doing that. When Commissioner Joe Pais demanded some documentation that the project had been approved, city staff promised to bring it to the next meeting. That never happened.
Meanwhile the project was sailing through the various permitting steps.
Finally, Strader and Stones admitted to the Commissioners that they, apparently, had mixed up the Big Steel Building project with another project. It had never been approved by the Commission.
"Well, let's vote on it now," Pais suggested.
"Too late," City Attorney Stones told them with a straight face. Because the Commission had taken "no action", the project had been permitted and was going forward— and if the Commissioners now wanted to "go back" and require a CIAS, the developer would probably sue the city and would probably win.
"We were hoodwinked,"" said Commissioner Sally Lewis. Really? Imagine that.
Because of the existence of Key West The Newspaper, the town was able to watch a classic example of how appointed officials— like the City Attorney— can be preselected. But also because of the existence of KWTN, it didn't work this time.
It all started in April 1994 when City Attorney Ginny Stones quit over a pay dispute. The City Commission appointed a committee to screen candidates to replace her. On September 16, we reported to you that Stone's successor had apparently been preselected— Attorney Joseph B. Allen III, who had previously served as City Attorney 1977-86.
Here's the way it worked. The screening committee had eliminated all the local candidates, except Allen, leaving only out-of-town individuals or firms. Then the City Commissioners in on the deal quickly announced that they had no intention of voting for "anyone who doesn't pay taxes and salaries in this town." Get it?
But the fix didn't work this time. At the City Commission meeting on October 11, 1994, Allen got only three votes, one vote short of appointment. Three other Commissioners, apparently determined to vote for anybody other than Allen, voted for Miami law firm Fowler, White, Burnett, Hurley, Banick & Stickroot.
City Commissioner Emery Major was absent, which resulted in a 3-3 tie. No decision.
The following Friday, we reported that Allen had just settled a malpractice lawsuit for $202,000. We also reported that Major had announced that he would be voting for Fowler, White.
Allen withdrew his name from consideration.
Later, Major,— who is black— would tell KWTN that he had been influenced by Florida State Senator Darryl Jones, who is also black. Major said Jones gave him the impression that he was an associate at Fowler, White and that he would be involved with the Key West account. In reality, however, Jones was a "rainmaker" working on commission.
Fowler, White would only last a few months on the job.
In November of our first year, we heard that the FBI was investigating corruption in city government and we reported it. Our source was pretty good: off-the-record information from an FBI agent involved in the investigation.
But we wanted confirmation from City officials, so we talked to Mayor Wardlow. "No one has approached me," he said, "but if they're investigating the city, it's welcomed. If there are problems here, I want to see them solved."
We would, of course, subsequently learn that Wardlow had, indeed, been contacted by the FBI— and that he would be indicted on federal bribery charges.
But, hey, it's not against the law to lie to the press.
We continued to report developments in the FBI investigation story exclusively for 18 weeks. Finally, both the Miami Herald and the Key West Citizen broke the story, with banner headlines, during the first week of March 1995. Better late than never.
Mayor Wardlow came out of the closet on January 6, 1995. In an exclusive interview with KWTN, Wardlow admitted that the FBI had interviewed him back in August or September and that he blamed Police Chief Ray Peterson for calling them in. That interview launched Wardlow's public vendetta against Peterson which would eventually lead to Peterson's being forced out of his job.
On cue, City Manager Felix Cooper called for an investigation of "low morale" in Peterson's police department. There would still be months of treachery to come as Wardlow and his cronies conspired to fire Peterson. But the writing was already on the wall— when Wardlow fired his opening salvo in January 1995 in KWTN.
At first, KWTN was the only newspaper to come to Chief Peterson's defense. In a March 31, 1995, editorial headlined "Cross Your Feet, Chief. We've Only Got 3 Nails," we wrote: "It's time to blow the whistle on those who are trying to crucify Key West Police Chief Ray Peterson. Despite the fact that there has not been one single public allegation of impropriety against the chief, a `citizens' panel' has been convened to look into `problems' within the police department."
In September 1995, Mayor Dennis Wardlow was acquitted of federal bribery charges. But Attorney John Bigler, accused of bribing Wardlow, pled guilty to a reduced charge, gave up his license to practice law and left the country in disgrace. Go figure.
One of the most interesting stories we got involved in during our first couple of years was the revelation that the Key West Chamber of Commerce would not allow its own members to review budget information— and the Chamber's eventual capitulation. At that time, only the Chamber board members were allowed to see the club's financial records— and they reportedly had to hand back the paperwork before leaving the building.
The story started in August 1995 when the Chamber asked the City Commission to pay $26,000 a year for a band to meet cruise ships— a Chamber project. But City Commissioners Joe Pais and Harry Bethel wanted to know why the Chamber people didn't finance the project temselves.
"I've heard that the Chamber has a large reserve fund," Bethel said. "Why don't they use some of that money instead of asking for taspayer dollars?"
Pais went further, demanding an audit.
The Commission voted down the Chamber's request, and Chamber officials hoped that would be the end of it. But that was not to be.
In October, City Manager Felix Cooper wrote a letter formally asking for a copy of the Chamber's operating budget. At that time, the City of Key West was a dues-paying member of the Chamber. Chamber officials ignored Cooper's request.
In November, Acting City Attorney Diane Covan opined that the Chamber financial records were subject to the State Public Records Law. So we here at Key West The Newspaper did what you would expect us to do: We involked the Public Records Law, and formally asked to look at the Chamber's financial records.
A tough-talking Attorney David Paul Horan, representing the Chamber, told us, in essence, where we could stick our request. And he said that, if we didn't like it, we could sue. So we retained former Miami Beach City Attorney Lawrence Feingold to do just that.
Feingold called the case a "no brainer". Horan pretended to be offended. But in the end, Horan— completely outclassed by Feingold— meekly capitulated. Chamber members would be allowed to look at the club's financial records.
"Great!," said Harry Bethel. "The City can send somebody over there and take a look."
"Not so fast," said Chamber officials. Only members can take a peek. And the City was no longer a member. The City of Key West had been kicked out of the Chamber of Commerce. We're not making this up.
Continued next week.