Last month, Key West The Newspaper celebrated its ninth birthday. This is one of a series of commentaries looking back at some of the more significant stories we've covered during our first eight years.
Way back in June of 1996, Key West The Newspaper reported exclusively that City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley had made an unusual request to his fellow Commissioners. He proposed a resolution expressing "strong support" for the efforts of Buquebus, an Argentinean-owned ferry company, to establish a Naples-Key West ferry line.
Like sheep, the other Commissioners went along with Weekley, passing the resolution unanimously.
On the surface, the rationale was that Buquebus was negotiating to rent a large chunk of the City-owned Key West Bight. But what only Weekley knew— and didn't bother to share with the other Commissioners— was that Buquebus was proposing an illegal operation.
You see, there is a federal law, the Jones Act, which prohibits a foreign company from operating a vessel directly between two U.S. ports. The purpose of the law is to protect U.S. shipping interests.
Buquebus, a foreign company, simply could not legally operate a ferry service directly between Key West and Naples. Jimmy Weekley knew that.
To try to get legal, Buquebus officials planned to try to convince members of the Florida congressional delegation to propose to Congress a special waiver to the Jones Act. And Jimmy Weekley was part of the plan. Jimmy's job was to get the City Commission to pass that resolution. Done deal!
Buquebus officials could then take that resolution to Congress to "prove" that their request for a waiver had strong local support.
The quick passage of the resolution by the City Commission with little discussion and few questions prompted one local attorney to ask, "How much does a resolution supporting a business that wants to come to town cost— and who do you pay?"
At least two City Commissioners would later say that they were hoodwinked into voting for the resolution.
"We did not know that this company needed a congressional waiver to deliver what they were promising," said Commissioner Harry Bethel. "We should have been fully informed before we were asked to vote on this matter."
Commissioner Merili McCoy agreed. "I had absolutely no idea that a waiver approved by the U.S. Senate would be required for them to operate in the U.S.," she said.
Weekley would reveal to KWTN in November 1996 that the resolution had, indeed, been sent to Florida Senators Graham and Mack to solicit their support for a waiver. Of course, it is doubtful that our senators were told that none of the City Commissioners, other than Weekley, had a clue why they were voting on that resolution.
But efforts to get a congressional waiver fell flat due, in part, to the efforts of a young Lakeland attorney named Ed Scales. (Yep, the very same Ed Scales who was elected to the Key West City Commission last November.) At that time, Scales represented Florida Cruise & Ferry Service, a Florida company already operating two ferry boats between Key West and the Naples area. Strangely, Jimmy Weekley had never proposed a resolution strongly supporting the efforts of that company.
"I can assure you that we will strongly oppose any request for a congressional waiver that will have an unfavorable impact on American boats and American workers," Scales told KWTN. "And I am puzzled why the City Commission would favor a foreign corporation over American companies. And why would they want to bring more cars into Old Town Key West?"
The Buquebus boat included in the company's initial proposal would have been capable of bringing in 450 passengers and 52 cars each trip— and company officials were promising to run two round trips daily.
For some reason, KWTN was the only newspaper here to expose the Buquebus charade. City officials continued to turn a blind eye to what, it seemed certain, would evolve into a major problem, if not a major scandal. (Would a "we told you so" be appropriate here?)
Meanwhile, the Buquebus people, in an attempt to solve their "foreign owned" problem, set up a Florida Corporation— Buquebus Florida. It didn't work.
In November 1998, Buquebus officials finally admitted that they had a "regulatory problem" and they announced that there would be a delay in the start of service while their Washington lawyers tried to sort it out. What they had "discovered," of course, is that the Jones Act does, indeed, prohibit a foreign-owned company from operating a boat directly between two U.S. ports— and that just creating a Florida corporation with a bunch of Argentineans on the board wasn't going to fool the federal government. Duh!
Another problem for Buquebus company officials was that, because they had assumed that they would be in operation by the end of 1998, they had agreed to a rent increase from $9,000 to $20,000. And when that increase kicked in, they weren't even close to producing any income.
Meanwhile, Buquebus' maritime lawyers had come up with a convoluted plan to try to get around the Jones Act. Buquebus would not officially own the boat (even though they were paying a Connecticut shipyard to build it), nor would Buquebus company employees operate it. An "unrelated" U.S. corporation would own the boat and lease it to a second "unrelated" U.S. corporation. Then, Buquebus Florida would "time charter" the boat for the runs between Key West and Ft. Myers, which had replaced Naples as the other end of the run. And Buquebus would operate the terminals and sell the tickets.
We're not making this up.
But in May 1999, Buquebus officials announced another delay, blaming the Brazilian banking crisis. They didn't explain how that could affect the U.S. corporations that now supposedly "owned" the Florida operation.
On November 19, 1999, our headline read: "Start of Buquebus Ferry Service Delayed Again— This Time `Indefinitely.'" The excuse this time: A dispute with the Connecticut shipyard. The shipyard reportedly wouldn't release the boat unless Buquebus paid for it. Go figure.
But company spokesmen were still promising to start ferry service between Key West and Ft. Myers at some mystery date in the future.
Buquebus' situation continued to deteriorate, however. By October 2000, the company was in default on its rent to the City— even though the City had cut the rent back from $20,000 to $8000. And construction on the terminal had been halted again.
NOTE: This is why the City should not be using our tax dollars to play in the real estate business. Do you think that, if you whined to your landlord that you had fallen on hard times and couldn't pay the rent, he would just cut your monthly obligation by more than half?
City officials tried to broker a bailout deal, attempting to sucker Caterpillar Corporation and a large gambling ship operation into possibly assuming Buquebus' lease and finishing the terminal project. Those negotiations collapsed, however.
Finally, the City Commissioners had to simply bite the bullet. They reluctantly agreed to pay the contractor $350,000 owed by Buquebus, as well as commit $1.6 million to complete the terminal building.
Last Friday, PurrSeaverance, a new ferryboat scheduled to start running to Key West from the Tampa Bay area in the near future, made a test run and docked at the unfinished Buquebus terminal. City officials want to lease the property to Fast Cats Ferry Service, the company that owns PurrSeaverance— or, frankly, anybody.
Maybe now would be the time for Mayor Weekley to propose that the City Commission pass a resolution expressing "strong support" for Fast Cats' efforts to set up a ferry service here. Why not? He did that for Buquebus.