Last week, we told you about a new ferry company coming to town. The $6 million, 100-foot-long, 150-passenger PurrSeaverance is set to start running between Bradenton and Key West in late summer. Company officials say the boat will make the three-hour run twice a day.
So now, do you think the City Commission might pass a resolution "strongly supporting" the efforts of this company to bring ferry service here from Bradenton? Probably not. Out of town businesses come here all the time without any notice at all from the Commission.
But back in June 1996— five years ago— City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley brought such a resolution before the City Commission. The resolution "strongly supported the efforts of Buquebus" to establish a Ft. Myers-to-Key West ferry line. Although the other Commissioners didn't have a clue why Jimmy would bring something like that before them, they all— like sheep— voted for it without even asking any questions.
Only months later did we all learn why Jimmy wanted to push that resolution through. You see, Buquebus is an Argentinean corporation— and U.S. maritime law (the Jones Act) makes it illegal for a foreign company to operate a vessel directly between two U.S. posts. In order to run their ferry service between Key West and Ft. Myers legally, Buquebus officials needed to obtain a waiver from the Congress of the United States.
They enlisted Jimmy Weekley to get them a resolution of support from the City Commission that they could take to the members of the Florida congressional delegation and tell them, "See! The City of Key West strongly supports our efforts."
Of course, they probably didn't bother to tell our senators and representatives that there were already several American ferry companies providing service from Florida's west coast to Key West (companies that never got a resolution of support from our City Commission).
But the members of our congressional delegation are not dummies. They figured it out— and even when confronted with the "power" of Jimmy Weekley's resolution— they rejected Buquebus' request for a waiver.
The purpose of the Jones Act is to protect the interests of American maritime interests. Jimmy knew that when he introduced his resolution to the City Commission. He has yet to explain why he would put the interests of a foreign company over the interests of Americans. And he has yet to explain why he didn't tell the other Commissioners the true purpose of his resolution.
Commissioner Harry Bethel would later say, "We should have been fully informed before being 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 Buquebus to operate in the U.S.," she said.
Weekley's questionable action prompted one local observer to ask, "How much does it cost to get a resolution supporting a business that wants to come to town— and who do you pay?"
In November 1996, Key West The Newspaper broke the story that the Jones Act would prohibit Buquebus' planned direct service between Key West and Ft. Myers. And we alone have been building on that story since that time.
Were we right? In November 1998, red-faced Buquebus officials announced that the start of service (originally planned for the end of that year) would be delayed for at least a year. They said their Washington lawyers had discovered "a potential regulatory problem."
The "potential problem" was apparently so serious that Buquebus had to send their newly-constructed boat— the Ernest Hemingway— into service in South American rather than on the planned Key West- Ft. Myers run.
Well, duh! What really happened was that somebody associated with Buquebus finally read the Jones Act!
Here's how a Buquebus official told us that they planned to get around the law: "Buquebus won't own the boat, nor will we operate it. A U.S. company will own the boat and lease it to a second U.S. company that will operate the boat. Then, Buquebus-Florida will `time charter' the boat for our Key West- Ft. Myers runs. Buquebus will operate the terminal and sell the tickets."
We're not making this up.
It has now been five years since Jimmy Weekley tricked the other City Commissioners into approving a resolution to help Buquebus try to evade U.S. law.
• The original start date for Buquebus' Key West- Ft. Myers service was late 1998.
• In November 1998, after they finally had to admit that they had a "regulatory problem" (a problem KWTN had been telling you about since 1996), Buquebus officials promised a new start date of late summer 1999.
• A year later, pleading financial difficulties, company officials stopped construction of their fancy terminal on City-owned property at the foot of Grinnell Street and delayed the start of ferry service indefinitely.
• Then, City officials suddenly realized that no one on the City's highly-professional negotiating team had asked Buquebus to put up a performance bond to ensure that the terminal would be completed. These are probably the same real estate "experts" who forced the Waterfront Market off the water so they could build those little shop and boutique spaces that are now virtually unrentable.
• So now, Buquebus' unfinished hulk is just sitting there. And guess who now will be required to finance the $1.6 million required to complete it. You know the answer: Key West taxpayers.
• Unbelievably, City officials still want Buquebus to run ferry service out of that terminal.
We have a couple of questions:
1. When is enough enough? Why doesn't someone on the City Commission have the smarts (and the courage) to propose legislation that would prohibit the City from being in the real estate business. It is absolutely ludicrous for bureaucrats who (1) have little or no expertise in this field and (2) don't have to make a profit, to pretend to be managing the taxpayers' real estate holdings. That's why both the Yacht Club and the Chamber of Commerce pay only a few bucks a year in rent for prime City-owned properties!
2. Is no one in City government responsible for the Buquebus fiasco? This is why City Manager Julio Avael's "Trust In Government" campaign is such a crock.
Here's an old analogy that seems appropriate here: "We buy `em books and buy `em books— and all they do is tear out the pages and eat the glue."