At the City Commission meeting Tuesday night, despite a number of unanswered questions, Commissioner Carmen Turner and Mayor Jimmy Weekley rammed through a resolution that gave $2.5 million of public money to the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust (BCCLT). Organizers of the trust say they'll use the money to purchase property for affordable housing.
Efforts by Commissioners Tom Oosterhoudt and Harry Bethel to delay handing the money over until they received more assurances of accountability and open meetings and records were rebuffed by the other five commissioners. Turner termed Ooster-houdt's call for a background check of BCCLT Executive Director Norma Jean Sawyer "offensive."
Of course, this is the same bunch of people who were shocked to learn that, after Buquebus abandoned the construction of its big terminal at the City-owned Key West Bight, no one had bothered to ask the company to post a performance bond— and that it will now cost the City $1.6 million to complete that hulk. But, hey, it's not their money.
We sincerely hope that those running the BCCLT can and will keep their promises concerning affordable housing. That would be a truly wondrous happening on this island of broken promises and failed affordable housing dreams. Look at the City's track record out on the old fairgrounds property.
Regardless of what Commissioner Turner says, it is not inappropriate to ask: What happens if the folks at the BCCLT can't, won't or don't keep their promises? What if, God forbid, somebody runs off with the money? Would Carmen Turner make up the loss— or would she use her standard line when she doesn}t want to deal with an issue: "We don't need to look back; we need to move on!"
We predict that if something unfortunate were to happen to the BCCLT money, those City Commissioners who voted Tuesday to hand over the money— without all those unanswered questions being answered— would do what they always do. They would just shrug their shoulders and mumble that they were "hoodwinked." Can you say "Big Steel Building"? (If you don't know what that means, you haven't lived here long enough.)
Of course, this wouldn't be the first time that failure to do adequate research resulted in abject embarrassment of the City Commission. Does the name "Brandy Group" ring a bell?
One of the speakers strongly supporting the BCCLT last Tuesday night was architect Bert Bender, a member of the BCCLT board. As we watched that meeting, we couldn't help but be reminded of another meeting at Old City Hall back in 1993.
Bender also spoke at that meeting, pushing the City Commission hard to hire the Palm Beach-based Brandy Group to manage the City's newly-purchased Key West Bight. Reportedly, Bender had already been selected by the Brandy Group as the project architect. All that was required for the money to start flowing was the City Commission's awarding the potentially-lucrative contract to the Brandy Group.
A Brandy Group representative had just finished making a slick multi-media presentation, characterizing his company as one of the top marina management firms in the world. One of the slides showed a map of the world with little dots in various countries, showing where the company supposedly managed marinas. It was very impressive!
Several other management companies had also made presentations. But it was no secret that the Brandy Group was Jimmy Weekley's choice— and that the selection of that company was virtually a done deal.
Sure enough, when the commissioners voted, it wasn't even close. Hire the Brandy Group, they told city staff.
But guess what? Somebody "forgot" to check the Brandy Group's references. Imagine that! But a few phone calls by a local voters' group quickly discovered that this company really managed only one marina and had left a trail of unhappy former clients. Oops!
When this deception first came to light, the initial response by Weekley and others was to simply stonewall, to ignore the new information and to continue negotiations with the Brandy Group. Finally, as the scandal continued to grow, the City Manager quietly discontinued negotiations with the Brandy Group.
But, then, what we found especially interesting was that the City Commissioners did not go back and select a management company from the other firms that had made presentations. They simply lost interest.
It was more than obvious that the fix had been in for the Brandy Group— and when that fix fell apart, Weekley and others were, suddenly, no longer interested in hiring a management company for the Bight.
Of course, only a few weeks earlier, Weekley had told us all that rushing this action was of critical importance. You don't thinkhe was fibbing, do you?
Unanswered questions: Did Jimmy Weekley know that the Brandy Group wasn't for real? Did Bert Bender know? We don't know. They won't say.
Back to the BCCLT. We want to emphasize here that we want to see the BCCLT succeed. And we have no reason to believe that anyone associated with the BCCLT is less than sincere and honest. But we have questions and we have the right and the obligation to ask those questions publicly.
For example, we have questions about why Commissioner Turner and others are so opposed to a background check being conducted on Norma Jean Sawyer, who reportedly runs the day-to-day operations of the BCCLT. City Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt was pilloried Tuesday night for daring to suggest suggest that.
Frankly, we can't understand what the fuss is about. It seems to us that, rather than publicly resisting a background check— which might seem suspicious to many of the taxpayers who are providing the money to pay Norma Jean's substantial salary ($60,000?)— she (and Carmen) should welcome the opportunity to cooperate in such a check.
Also, at the City Commission meeting on Tuesday night, the BCCLT's bookkeeper revealed that she had received only one call to look at the BCCLT's financial records— "and they have not followed through,"she said. Well, that one call came from Key West The Newspaper. And rest assured, we plan to give the term "follow through" a whole new meaning.
Stay tuned.