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Two words significant advantage for one who already has perks
At least. Two little
words that seem so simple, but can allow so much.
We could say, at least
Key West
commissioners tried to make sure they were getting the best deal for
their great waterfront properties. The city owns the land on which most
of the Key West Bight businesses sit, it owns the land the yacht club
uses at $1 a year, it owns the land the Key West Chamber of Commerce
uses on Wall Street as a visitor's center at $1 a year, it owns
Mallory Square.
And the city owns the
property where Historic Tours of America, founded and expanded by Ed
Swift and Chris Belland (Swift and Belland operate under Old Town Key
West Development, and several other corporations as well), runs the
Shipwreck Historeum, the Key West Aquarium, the Flagler Museum, Mac's
Sea Garden, Tropical Shells and Gifts .... The city owns the streets,
for which HTA has a long-term franchise agreement to operate the Conch
Tour trains and Trolley tours and recently added Bone Island shuttles --
all a virtual monopoly because of provisions set up in the contract.
So we find it ironic
that Commissioner Ed Scales, who is also general counsel for Swift's
conglomerate, sponsored a two-word addition to the city's law guiding
re-signing of lease agreements. Instead of capping the renegotiation
period at 90 days for a long-term lease, the commission changed it to
"at least" 90 days.
Fortunately, they did
put a cap on it.
At least they limited
this "at least" to three years before the expiration of a 10-year lease
and five years before the expiration of a 20-year lease.
The concern here is
competition.
Many in town fret
about some of what they call "sweetheart" leases. While HTA pays the
city for the use of these properties and spends its own money for their
upkeep, these are still prime locations owned by the city -- thus all
taxpayers.
Renegotiating three or
five years before the end of these leases seems to chill competition.
The city needs to work to ensure competition for use of its properties,
and thus proper compensations for their use.
And was it really
appropriate for Scales -- who must recuse himself when the city
commission votes on renewals of HTA leases because of his business
conflicts -- to be the one to introduce a change in the lease
negotiation periods that seems to favor his employer?
On
Congress and air standards:
The Bush
Administration has made things much easier on America's industrial air
polluters. New, relaxed Environmental Protection Agency rules allow
companies to massively update power plants, refineries and other
facilities without installing the costly but readily available modern
pollution-control equipment, as formerly required.
The rules, if allowed
to stand, will make it possible for polluting equipment to stay in use
for decades. This change would mark a huge, if short-sighted, victory
for industry, and a sad defeat for public health and the environment.
It also would be a
retreat from an important principle upheld more than 30 years by
Republican and Democratic administrations alike: It may be economically
impossible to require existing industrial units, even ones that pollute
hideously, to retrofit to new clean-air standards. But when those units
are to be substantially replaced, as opposed to merely maintained, they
should be brought up to par.
Otherwise, immense
amounts of unacceptable pollution will continue indefinitely which is
what will happen if these new standards are not reversed. ...
-- The News-Press,
Fort Myers
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