May 7, 2001
TO: CITY ATTORNEY BOB TISCHENKEL
Copies: Mayor and City Commissioners
During the City Commission meeting last week, Mayor Jimmy Weekley turned to you and asked that you look at the tenant leases at the Key West Bight with exclusivity clauses and try to find some loopholes to break those leases.
1. Do you consider that an assignment and will you will set out to accomplish it . . . or is a majority vote by the Commission required to instruct you to do something like that?
2. How would you advise the Mayor and Commission? Presumably, both the City and the tenants signed those leases in good faith.
3. Why is the City Commission involved in the setting of rents at the Bight in the first place? As you may or may not know, the City Commission, in passing Resolution 92-400 back in 1992, adopted four "guiding principles" in the ownership and operation of the Key West Bight. These principles were later incorporated into the ordinance that set up the Bight Management Board. These were also the promises that were used to convince the citizens of Key West to vote to buy the Bight:
• Commitment to private management.
• No City involvement in setting rents.
• No use or pledge of City taxes.
• Oversight by an independent board.
The idea of "private management" went down the tubes when the Brandy Group, Jimmy Weekley's hand-picked management company, was caught seriously fibbing on the resume company officials presented to the Commission. And no one would seriously argue today that the Bight Management Board is "independent". Virtually every Board action of any importance is reviewed by the City Commission. And, of course, the Commission is routinely involved in setting rents— a function that appears to be specifically against the law.
Has any formal action ever been taken by the City Commission to change or rescind those four "guiding principles"? If so, can you provide references so that I and others may review those documents? Assuming that such documents do not exist, the following question is seriously begged: Are the Mayor and City Commissioners breaking their own laws every time they get involved in setting rents for a Bight tenant or when they review a decision by the "independent" Bight Board?
Your verbal or written responses to my questions would be appreciated.
Dennis Reeves Cooper
Publisher
NOTE: City Attorney Tischenkel is usually pretty good about answering questions from Key West The Newspaper. But at presstime, he had not responded. Maybe we'll hear from him next week.