Two weeks ago, this was the only newspaper to tell you about another one of Mayor Jimmy Weekley's televised fits of verbal diarrhea. Apparently realizing for the first time that some of the leases at the City-owned Key West Bight include exclusivity clauses— standard real estate clauses in which the landlord agrees not to lease nearby space to a tenant's competitors— Jimmy turned to the City Attorney at the City Commission meeting and told him to look for "loopholes" to bust those leases. City staff had blamed their inability to lease some of the space at the Bight on those exclusivity clauses.
We're not making this up. Jimmy said it. Right on television. But what could he have been thinking?! Why would he even say something like that? If the City adopts what is, apparently, the Mayor's code of business morality and starts going around unilaterally busting leases that were presumably signed in good faith, how comfortable would anybody feel about signing any contract with the City? Geez! Sometimes Jimmy makes President Bush look like a genius.
Fortunately, City Attorney Bob Tischenkel basically ignored Weekley's political incorrectness. Tischenkel said this week: "I have advised the Mayor that if the Commission wishes to change leases at the Bight, we would have to enter into mutual negotiations with the tenants. I do not anticipate that we will be initiating those negotiations."
Yo, Jimmy! Wipe your mouth!