Last week, with the publication of our January 4 issue, Key West The Newspaper entered its ninth year. KWTN was the first true weekly here: Every Friday, 52 weeks a year. Before KWTN, one of the two non-dailies published only every-other-week. Both took a month or so off in the summer. Both have now faded away or have been absorbed by the daily paper.
Today, KWTN is the island's only independent general-interest weekly newspaper. And, of course, we continue to dominate the investigating reporting niche in journalism here.
In our birthday issue last week, we began a multi-part "Look Back" series, reviewing some of the significant stories weve covered over the years.
• We looked back at our coverage of the FBI's 1994-95 investigation of corruption in City government here. We broke that story 18 weeks before the Key West Citizen and the Miami Herald.
• We reprised the Big Steel Building story— how the City Commissioners brush off screw-ups by claiming that they were "hoodwinked" by City staff. But have you noticed that the City staffers who do the hoodwinking never seem to get disciplined?
• We reminded you of how KWTN forced Chamber of Commerce officials to allow their own members to look at the club's budget.
• We told you how we helped prevent the "fixing" of the appointment of a new City Attorney here in 1994. But the result was downright bizarre: The hiring of the highpowered— and expensive— Miami lawfirm of Fowler, White, Burnett, Hurley, Banick & Stickroot to be the City Attorney for the City of Key West.
Fowler, White didn't last long, of course, but when they were fired (or resigned— depending on who you talk to) they left two assistants behind— Attorney Diane Covan and Attorney Bob Tischenkel.
Covan was subsequently named City Attorney, retaining Tischenkel as her assistant. She didnt do a very good job, in our opinion, but when we criticized her performance, she threatened to sue us. She didn't follow through, of course— and we chided her with an editorial headlined "A Law Lesson For Ms. Covan".
In October, 1996, Covan walked off the job in a huff. She would then try to sue the City for breach of contract and sexual harrassment. That threat didn't go anywhere either.
Tischenkel was named City Attorney in November 1996.
On February 2, 1996, KWTN published an exclusive— and explosvie— interview with soon-to-retire City Manager, Felix Cooper. In that interview, Cooper said:
• No locals were qualified to replace him as City Manager. This included homey Paul Cates, the Assistant City Manager. Cooper said Cates didn't have enough experience.
• He opposed Mayor Dennis Wardlow's campaign to fire Police Chief Ray Peterson. "As long as Im City Manager, Ray Peterson will be Chief," Cooper said.
• It was wrong for Mayor Wardlow to accept money as a consultant— and then vote on issues involving his client. (Mayor Wardlow had been indicted — and acquitted— on federal bribery charges. But he would subsequently be found guilty by the State Ethics Commission on the same charges. Wardlow blamed Peterson for calling in the FBI.)
Publication of that interview set off a firestorm of controversy. Within hours, several City Commissioners had called for Cooper's resignation. Within a day he had offered his resignation. It was formally accepted by the City Commission 10 days later.
Paul Cates was named Acting City Manager. Cates was a leader of the give-local-governent-back-to-the-Conchs movement and was generally considered to be the frontrunner.
But not so fast! There were two other candidates for the position: Kathy Rice, the Assistant City Manager in Clearwater, and Conchboy Julio Avael, then County Manager in Douglas County, Nevada.
Reportedly, City Commissioners Harry Bethel, Percy Curry and Mayor Dennis Wardlow wanted Cates. But Commissioner Jimmy Weekley was pushing for Rice. And he thought he had his four votes lined up before the May 30, 1996, meeting— his own vote, plus the votes of Commissioners Sally Lewis, Carmen Turner and Merili McCoy.
But Merili wanted Avael. And she had a plan. When the vote came up to name Paul Cates to the job, she voted "no", making the vote 4-3 against Cates. Then, she nominated Avael. Bethel, Curry and Wardlow fell in line with McCoy, rationalizing that at least Avael's a Conch." Supporters of Kathy Rice were left out in the cold.
Avael brought with him considerable baggage, and we listed that baggage in our June 7, 1996, issue. We reported that when Avael was County Administrator for Lee County on Florida's west coast, the County Commissioners abruptly gave him a choice between resigning and being fired. He resigned, accepting a demotion down to County Human Services Director, a job he held in previous years. Some Commissioners said Avael had too-close links to a local developer.
Avael had also been involved in controversy back in 1991. A county rental assistance program director had committed suicide, leaving a note that accused Human Services Director Avael of pressuring her to do favors for the father of County Commissioner Vicki Lopez-Wolfe. Lopez-Wolfe subsequently resigned and state investigators ordered that the lock on her courthouse office be changed so that she could not remove any records.
The Lee County State Attorney ruled, however, that Avael had not been involved in any criminal wrongdoing.
During Avael's very first week on the job here in Key West, he held a press conference to reveal that his 19-year-old son was in jail back in Nevada on buglary charges. Naturally, the State Department of Children & Families then hired Mrs. Avael— to advise other women on how to raise their children.
In an interview with KWTN before moving to Key West, Avael swore that he was not a "hatchet man", a label hung on him by the Lee County press. But, on the job here, he immediately set out to fire Police Chief Ray Peterson— one of Mayor Wardlow's top priorities.
This was one of the most shameful chapters in Key West history. We'll reprise that story next week.
Also in 1996, KWTN upset an effort by the Tourist Development Council (TDC) to fill the newly-created post of marketing director with a prominent local man who had, several years earlier, been arrested for allegedly performing a lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a minor.
The appointment was a done deal until KWTN published a page one photocopy of the police report.
Some have said that it's too bad the man wasn't a cop here today. Buz Dillon would probably promte him. When the last vacancy for a captain occurred, Dillon promoted an officer who had been fired from the Sheriff's Department for having sex with a minor. The officer had also been suspended for "forgetting" to note on his application to become a Key West cop that he had been fired by the Sheriff.
On April 5, 1996, we published a fictional account of what might happen if an airplane coming in to Key West Internation were to crash into Key West High School. The glidepath for incoming aircraft passes right over school.
Some readers were outraged that we would publish such a piece. We agreed that they should be outraged, but not at us. We suggested that their outrage should be targeted at the County officials who, after World War II, literally gave the U.S. Navy what would have been Key West Municipal Airport on Boca Chica Key and, then, turned around and literally stole property from a group of private developers to build the Key West Airport in its present location.
And we pointed out the obvious: the airport is in the wrong place— and, to explain why, we re-published a heavily-researched piece we had first published back in March 1994. The original article was headlined "County Once Owned Boca Chica Airfield; Navy Broke Wartime Promise To Return It."
Most residents here don't realize that Monroe County once owned the property that is now the big Navy airfield on Boca Chica. In 1941, money had been procured from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to build "Key West Municipal Airport" on Boca Chica and construction was underway.
Of course, there had been a small airport in Key West since 1927, when Palm Beach millionaire Malcolm Meacham loaned a parcel of land— where KWIA is today— to Pan American Airways. Air service to and from the island developed slowly, but became important after a hurricane knocked out the Overseas Railroad in 1935.
By 1940, however, civic leaders here were already aware the the Meacham Field location could never be turned into an adequate airport. The plan to build a new airport on Boca Chica was announced in August of that year.
But, then, the United States entered World War II. This accelerated airport-building all over the country. Under war emergency procedures, local governments leased land to the military to build airfields. These deals called for the CAA to finance construcion of the runways and facilities. Then, the airports would be leased by the locals to the military with the agreement that, six months after the end of the war emergency, the land and all improvements would be returned to the civilian owners.
In Key West, the Navy took over both the county's Boca Chica project and the privately-owned Meacham Field. When the war ended, the Navy returned Meacham Field to its owners— but refused to return the Boca Chica field to the county.
By 1946, a year after the end of the war, county officials were starting to get concerned. They wanted their airport! But rather than give it back, Navy officials offered to pay the County $60,000 for the Boca Chica property, then valued at more than $2 million, and the County took the offer!
Some say that the Navy coerced the Commissioners into selling by threatening to pull out altogether— and, so, the Commissioners may have sold out to keep the Navy payroll.
The end result was this: Key West may be the only community in the country that didn't get its airport back from the military after the war.
Having lost the airport at Boca Chica, County Commissioners then literally stole the little privately-owned Meacham Field— although almost everyone agreed that this airport could never be developed into a modern aviation facility because there was simply not enough room.
We first reported this story on March 25, 1994.
In 1946, right after the war, most of the land above Bertha Street was owned by an investment group headed by William R. "Billy" Porter. That included the airport property which had been acquired from Malcolm Meacham.
Porter threw a momentary monkey wrench into the County's airport takeover plans by asking $135,000 for the property— plus cancellation of a $20,000 tax bill.
"Too much!" County officials squealed. So they set out to condemn the property. City officials also wanted the property and were theatening condemnation.
That was the situation when the Porter group sold all the property between Bertha Street and Stock Island bridge— including Meacham Field— to three Chicago developers for $200,000.
The Chicagoans petitioned the County to remove the airport from the property. They wanted to use it for hotels and homes. But a compromise was worked out. They agreed to lease the airfield to the County for five years to give officials time to find an alternate location.
But every time officials explored a location up the Keys, the Navy rejected it as being too close to Boca Chica. As alternate sites were eliminated one by one, the pressure grew on the Chicagoans to sell the airport to the county.
Finally, they agreed to sell for $150,000. But they, and everyone else, still assumed that the airport would eventually be moved. So they negotiated a "reverter" clause. They or their heirs would be able to buy back the property for the same price (1) if the land were ever to be used for anything other than an airport or (2) when the land was no longer needed for an airport.
The County assumed ownership of Meacham Field in November 1952. Over the next 40 years, efforts continued to find a new site for the airport and/or to convince the Navy to allow joint use of the Boca Chica field— to no avail. The name was changed to Key West Internationa Airport. The property continued to increase in value. And almost everybody forgot about the reverter clause.
What happened then represents another bizarre chapter in Key West history.
In 1991, the heirs of the Chicago developers received notices from the City of Key West ordering them to clean up the canal behind the airport. During a legal search to determine if they were responsible for the waterway, they learned that the County had used the airport property to build a teen center, a highway patrol office and a Public Works facility.
They said this violated the reverter clause because the land was being used for something other than an airport purpose— and they involked the reverter clause, demanding to buy the land back for $150,000!
It was a serious threat. And, indeed, after hours of testimony, Judge Richard Fowler signed an order that would have transferred ownership of the land back to the heirs. Then he left town on vacation.
But before the order was released, County Attorney Randy Ludacer reportedly learned of the judge's ruling. County officials panicked. According to a Miami Herald story on January 13, 1993, Ludacer called Fowler on vacation— without the knowledge of the heirs or their attorneys.
After talking to Ludacer, Judge Fowler apparently decided that he had signed the wrong order and asked his staff to pull the signed order until he returned from vacation. When he returned, he issued a new order, ruling for the County.
The lead of the Miami Herald story describing this bizarre twist read: "A new kink in Monroe County's lawsuit over Key West Internation Airport raised the specter of scandal and left local officials with only one line of defense: A claim of ineptitude."
Continued next week.