OPINON: You Have the Conch Shell

“It is time for a Clean Slate.”

Ed. Note: The opinions, columns, editorials, and analysis pieces published by Above the Fold represent the views of the individual author and not necessarily those of the publication, its editors, contributors, or partners.

Contributed

Like many tourist cities, Key West faces an affordability crisis, rising taxes, and a deteriorating quality of life for local residents. But unlike other places, we never had to accept it.

Our small community of 26,000 residents’ controls over a billion dollars in rentable commercial real estate — from restaurants along the Key West Historic Seaport and its dockage, to Garrison Bight and acres of submerged land, from Mallory Square to the Coffee Butler Amphitheater to name but just a few.

We are an island rich in history and in freehold commercial assets. Experts estimate our resources and assets should generate at least $45,000,000 to $50,000,000 a year for the city. And yet on far too many occasions we receive only pennies to dimes on the dollar in fair market rent.

One glaring example is Historica Tours of America (HTA).

Across cities like St. Augustine, Washington D.C., Boston, Nashville, Charleston, Savannah and San Diego, HTA earns millions off each of these operations. But here in Key West, it enjoys a virtual monopoly on motorized tours, while the city subsidizes its highly profitable operations by privatizing public parking and streets for its exclusive use — including Wall Street and the west end of Eaton Street. The countless giveaways and special treatment just keep coming for HTA and their other vast commercial land holdings on the island.

Another case is the Key West Yacht Club, a private playground for the well-connected and financially powerful. The club leases its waterfront property from the City for one dollar a year — land that was deeded from the State of Florida explicitly for “public use only.” For decades, the club has ignored that provision, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars that should be public revenue.

The Grand Jury Report describes a “Bubba System” in Key West — a culture of privilege and favoritism still alive and thriving in city hall today. The same insiders keep plundering our city coffers while a bloated and toxic workplace environment in City Hall continues to reek of favoritism, cronyism and overlapping incompetence.

City Manager Brian Barroso and our new mayor boast of over a “50% compliance” with Grand Jury recommendations. In reality, all we get are weak resolutions, toothless reforms, and a refusal to speak with the press by an ill-tempered and inept city manager.

Let’s take back our city from the ethically bankrupt city commission majority “Corrupt Cabal of Four” and their incompetent and over paid underlings. We deserve accountable stewardship of our city coffers. We deserve a city hall governance based on true transparency and dedicated to serving the interest of the whole community not just the special interest of the well-known entitled few.

And to this very end for the first time in the history of the City of Key West, a Political Action Committee was duly formed and registered with the Supervisor of Elections, solely for the purpose of addressing the mayoral and city commission races.

Come join this grassroots, politically unaffiliated citizens’ committee cleanslatekw.com dedicated to ending corruption, favoritism, and cronyism---and committed to restoring trust and honesty in City Hall.

The future of our island and the quality of life on our slice of paradise depend on all of us!

Greg Lloyd

(Co-founder of Protect Our Residential Neighborhoods, former Planning Board Member for 7 years, and retired trial attorney)