Venice on the web
A semi-regular column

Count the cost
Police supervisors finally get their raise; city claims FAA investigation is over, FAA says otherwise
-- John Patten, 05/20/03, revised 05/21/03
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Related:
FAA/city decision pending -- celebration of end of dispute with FAA might be just a tad premature
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 05/21/03
Flying lessons -- Venice should learn from bumpy ride with FAA
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/20/03
Venice, FAA agree on golf course lease
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/17/03
 

The cops get their due, sort of, finally
The city council meeting on May 13th was a strange affair. The meetings of late had become increasingly tense, an almost unspoken warlike atmosphere that could be sensed more than seen. Even this meeting was tense on the surface -- a good eight or nine police officers, including several high rankers, roamed the tiny auditorium with furtive looks at the crowd. Granted, council was scheduled to make a final vote to approve the raises for police supervisors, but it was still a seemingly unwarranted heavy police presence.

The police supervisor raise was supposed to be a downhill coast. Pete Walker, a lieutenant in the Venice Police Department, had made an impassioned and logical case for the raise in a piece that had been published in the Gondolier a month or so back (article not available online). Walker is a cop's cop - he's a big guy with a booming voice and a slight southern drawl that belies a quick, decisive mind and a deep sense of fairness. Walker is no showboater though, so his name making an appearance in the Gondolier in an op/ed byline was uncharacteristic and highly surprising; it lent a deep credibility to the cause of bringing local police pay up to state standards. After the piece was published, it didn't seem remotely possible that council could turn down the requested pay hike, especially considering that the raise being voted on still didn't bring the supervisory pay inline with state norms.

One thing Walker didn't mention in his article, but that is key to the entire debate, is that the city has its own pension plan that doesn't participate in the state program. The net effect is that our police, and every other city employee for that matter, are economic hostages to the whims of council -- if city employees don't like the pay, they really can't go anywhere else without losing their vested years in service. It's a rusty and dull two-edged sword: the same pension setup also means that the city can't lure away desirable and qualified candidates from other governmental agencies within the state, as new hires here will lose their vested time in the state system that the state and most other municipalities and counties participate in.

"You think you might not get the vote?" I asked Deputy Chief Dan McGoogan, who was seated at a table in the rear of the auditorium.

"I hope we get it," he replied, low and apprehensively.

When the vote came up, the pay hike passed 6-1, with Burt Brown casting the lone dissenting vote. Brown, in a rant that came across as mean-spirited and cantankerous, decried the fact that with the raise, supervisors would still be eligible for yet other increases in the form of overtime. Seemingly advocating slave labor, Brown sputtered and frothed at the thought of additional recompense for additional hours beyond a 40-hour work week. I hope he never needs the cops in an emergency: the good will he engendered practically guaranteed a two-day response time.

Behind closed doors
And that was about it on the excitement scale. Council broke for yet another "shade meeting," a behind-closed-doors affair under the umbrella of attorney/client privilege to discuss the FAA investigation with the city attorney, leaving the auditorium in the hands of the rabble. The police numbers dwindled, the crowd, what there was of it anyway, dispersed, and a handful remained to see who would say what after the shade meeting.

Taxpayer League prez Herb Levine milled around and then engaged in an animated conversation with Maxine Barrett about her Save The Beach activities. VGA attorney Jeff Boone wandered in and out of council chambers, a cell phone affixed to the side of his head. Earle Kimel of the Herald-Trib hunched over a laptop and furiously tapped away, waving away any would-be distractions without looking up in a reasonable impersonation of the cartoon character Dogbert -- "Not now, I'm on deadline." The Gondolier's Pat Horwell and I killed time by having a lengthy conversation about the positive changes in city government that had taken place recently due to the influence of frosh councilman (and retired judge) John Moore.

Some 45 minutes or so later, the shade meeting was finally over and council filed back in to formally conclude the city council session. Mayor Dean Calamaras led the pack into the hall. Calamaras did not look happy. A bit flushed and with sweat on his brow that he was wiping off with his hand, he had the appearance of a deeply concerned man. His eyes connected with mine and he realized he was back in public view. His facial demeanor changed instantly, he tugged at the lapels of his suit to straighten the shoulder line and suddenly he was the jovial appearing mayor that we normally see. Councilman Jim Myers and City Manager George Hunt entered together, both looking gaunt and ashen as though they had just been told of a death in the family. Moore and the city's attorney, Bob Anderson, followed, conversing cheerfully. The rest of council filed in and took their seats in a quiet and somber processional.

I found myself standing in the aisle, frozen in fascination at this solemn display. Levine had somehow materialized next to me. He was also taken in by the sudden quiet mood change in the room.

"What do you make of that?" I asked Levine, who had also been studying their faces for hints of what had happened in the shade meeting.

"I dunno, but whatever happened, George sure didn't like it."

That much was obvious. Hunt silently climbed into his chair on the raised dais, leaned back and stared at the ceiling, his jaw clenched and his lips pursed in a seeming mixture of hostility and resignation.

"Moore looks upbeat," I noted.

"Yeah, but it's not his butt on the line. He wasn't in office when this FAA mess with the VGA [Venice Golf Association] started. Something major has just happened, and there's a few folks up there who aren't happy."

The investigation is closed open closed open
The public would have to wait a few days to find out exactly what had happened. Phone calls to the FAA in Washington on Thursday and Friday revealed only one thing -- that the investigation was still ongoing and that the city had yet to respond in writing as required.

The news of the content of the shade meeting hit the ground running on Friday afternoon. In e-mailed press releases to the Gondolier and the Herald-Trib, the city announced, seemingly unbelievably, that things had finally smoothed over with the FAA. During the shade meeting on Tuesday, Anderson had reportedly advised council of a tentative agreement that could be struck with the FAA, and council agreed to make the appropriate overtures. Now on Friday, the city was formally announcing that it had decided, with the Papal blessing of the FAA, to charge an annual increase of $20,000 in rent to the VGA, bringing per-annum rent up to $180,000. According to the city, this effectively ended the investigation that the FAA had formally launched, an investigation that included charges of unlawful diversion of funds from the airport into the private coffers of the VGA.

If the VGA doesn't accept the deal, the city is in a bit of a bind. The city would then have the option of paying the additional $20,000 to the airport in order to keep the FAA happy or they can battle it out with the VGA in court. Neither option is particularly appealing, but the city is posturing in anticipation, stating that if the VGA doesn't accept the deal, off to court we will go. It is doubtful that the VGA would risk court intervention, a process that might cause them to fully disclose their ownership, their list of shareholders. Such a disclosure is something that the VGA has gone to great pains to hide from public view.

The news release on Friday did two things. Since the Gondolier only publishes on Wednesdays and Saturdays, it effectively prevented the daily Herald-Trib from scooping the Gondolier. It also caused a mad scramble for local reporters as they tried to get confirmation info from the FAA in Washington before the agency's offices closed up shop for the weekend.

Follow-up calls to city officials and the FAA on Monday revealed somewhat the same story as the city had pitched.

Somewhat.

The FAA, through press officer Marcia Adams, revealed that there have been some new, positive talks with the city, however she reiterated that the city has yet to respond in writing as required in the original Notice of Investigation issued last November.

In sharp contrast to the city's statements that the FAA investigation was effectively over, Adams firmly stated that the investigation remains very much open.

All follow-up questions after that were consistently answered by Adams with, "I cannot comment on that at this time."

"OK, so the city sees to it that the airport gets $180,000 a year for the VGA rent, and they then satisfactorily respond to the NOI [Notice of Investigation] in writing as required. That would end the investigation?"

"I cannot comment on that at this time," Adams replied.

Which is technically true. According to agency rules, she can't. Not while the investigation remains open. Adams wasn't being rude, she just wasn't coughing up the info I wanted.

I wormed around with a few other questions trying to find a crack in the armor, but Adams held her ground. Hey, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

Still, the firmness of the statement that the investigation remains open combined with the impressions gathered from looking at the faces of the shade meeting participants as they reentered council chambers on Tuesday leads me to believe that this story isn't over quite yet.

Deals gone south
For one thing, the fact that the FAA was acknowledging a new positive tone was a bit enlightening. This new positive tone, after more than two solid years of bruising ugliness, comes as George Hunt is being squeezed out of city/FAA dealings. Hunt himself stated a few weeks back that it would be better if he didn't participate in negotiations with the FAA anymore as there was a personality conflict. Instead, the mayor, the city attorney, Public Works head Larry Heath and Deputy City Manager Marty Black all traveled to Washington to undue the damage that Hunt had caused. Even worse: it was damage that Hunt caused and then tried to hide from council and the public.

More recently, Hunt's lease renegotiations with Sharky's Restaurant, which is situated on airport land, went spiraling earthward with both wings blazing as Councilman Moore discovered that the original lease has blank spaces where the dollar amounts are supposed to be.

That was immediately followed by Bogey's Restaurant owner Steve Harner getting a council and media hotfoot for negotiating with Hunt to get an early entry into grabbing a lease for airport land along the intracoastal waterway. Harner had worked with Hunt's office in preparing his plans at a time when council had yet to publicly invite bidders for land use at the location. Again, Hunt was okaying and supporting a deal that council put a hasty kibosh on, one that the FAA would likely never have approved anyway due to planned condominiums in a land area that the FAA would rather not have condominiums placed.

So these new positive negotiations that the FAA acknowledged, combined with information gleaned from city sources and statements from Hunt himself, sends a clear message: Hunt couldn't get approval from the FAA for a Cessna to land at the Venice Airport. He probably couldn't even get approval for the installation of a candy bar vending machine. In any future dealings with the FAA, Hunt is obsolete, a non-entity.

That would explain Hunt's surly demeanor immediately following the shade meeting on Tuesday. It also explains the somber expressions seen on the faces of the mayor and council -- they have a problem, a serious one. They have a city manager who now can no longer reasonably perform a significant portion of his normal job functions. Any future dealings with the FAA now have to be done by doing an end run around Hunt or they risk the possibility of bringing the wrath of the FAA onto the city again.

Count the cost
Still up in the air is whether the raise in rent is retroactive to the signing of the current lease or if the bump starts when the formal agreements are all finally hammered out. It seems that nobody at city hall ever thought to ask that of the FAA, it was glossed over in the new FAA negotiations.

After all is said and done, what did we get? An increase in rent of $20,000 per year and a legal bill for $75,000 (according to the Gondolier) for this latest round. Add in the costs of sending our crew to Washington, the $10,000 we futilely spent on lobbyists and prior legal fees and it's a good bet that we have spent $125,000, maybe more, to fight a battle on behalf of the VGA, a battle that the VGA should have waged on its own.

Uh huh, oh yeah, its a battle that the city should not have ever had to fight or bear the burden of. The VGA should have been waging this fight on its own, not the city on behalf of the VGA. The city should have told the VGA way back when: "This is what the FAA wants, this is what we're gonna do to make the FAA happy, feel free to take on the FAA on your own if you don't agree, and let us know how it goes."

Instead, the city took on the job of advocate for the VGA, defending a dollar amount in the lease that even Gondolier publisher and occasional council cheerleader Bob Vedder referred to as "too low." The unenviable job of advocate for the local citizenry was handed by default to local political activists like Maxine Barrett and Herb Levine. Barrett flourished in the limelight, coming out of nowhere to become a local hero, while Levine was treated to an involuntary tour of our county's fine correctional facilities courtesy of former Public Safety Director Joe Slapp and the county's Heels On Wheels prisoner transport van.

I don't golf. I don't like the game at all, it's always seemed profoundly slow and boring. I've played it, I'm not terrible, but I just don't like the game. I'm much happier in a pickup game on a city basketball court if I want to play a game of ball-in-the-hole. I'm getting old and slow, I've always been short, but I'm still quite enthusiastic. The city basketball courts have never had the stain of scandal, so if and when I play again, I'll do it for the sheer joy of the game. Even if I were to somehow come to enjoy golf, I'd never have the same sheer joy after all of this. I certainly wouldn't have it if I played the VGA course, not after all the hell they and George Hunt have put this city through.