Your emails: Locals are out for blood on airport development
A look at some of the emails to and from city hall on the issue of airport development
-- compiled by John Patten, 04/02/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

Got a comment? Make it here.

This is where the feces makes contact with the rotary oscillator
Below are a sampling of emails to and from city hall on the issue of airport development. While city officials are claiming that the public will be left in the loop, the whole affair seems to be headed for a total public relations meltdown. Whatever reassurances the city is giving out, it is readily apparent that locals aren't buying into them. Due to the wide pool that these sentiments are coming from, it is equally readily apparent that the citizen unrest that has been created is well beyond the capabilities of local watchdog groups to create, despite John Simmonds' recent statement that the unrest was all coming from one neighborhood (Golden Beach) and is the work of one troublemaker (Sue Lang).

City hall created this mess all on its own, although they will attempt to gather and blame the usual suspects.

A couple of things worth noting: there were no emails to city hall (that I could locate) in support of development at the airport. Also, to reiterate as this point is vitally important: this isn't the usual bunch of "aggravators" (a word that the mayor recently used to describe this web site). Aside from editorial writer Larry Evans, whose questions obviously imply some serious doubt in the system, the rest of the emails are from people who have been on the political sidelines until now -- basic electorate types except for one non-resident who City Manager Marty Black summarily dismisses as voiceless due to non-residency status.

One cannot help but wonder if non-resident supporters of the CQG are receivers of the same disdain due to their home mailing address.

03/21/07
Mayor & Members of City Council & City Manager:

Why is their no statements regarding the reported sale of the VGA lease from members of the city government, city manager or any of its spokepersons?

Secrecy has been reported in the paper with no details, no comments and no information regarding control of a property owned not by VGA but by the citizens of the city of Venice.

Questions:
How many members of city council, city manager or responsible officials own shares or have an active interest in the sale of the VGA lease. In the lease with VGA, isn't their sections covering the citizens interests in case of sale of a lease on property owned by its citizens?

Secrecy- how about that it is already been reported that the city council has tentatively agreed to a lease which will exceed 20 years, and agree to many favorable terms to the corporation which this council or its city manager has already been reported approved? When was the vote taken or discussions taken on such actions or are we reverting back to the days of deals made in the dark of night by the city manager to be rubber stamped by the council?

What of the paid memberships city residents had which will not be renewed after Dec for golfing at a public course? Is this now to be a private preserve of motel guests, convention members or the invited guests of this resort owner?

What about the increased corporate jet traffic which would use the airport further causing city residents noise pollution?

What terms and conditions will this company set for its proposed marina? is it a private one which one has to pay a fee set by them to dock your boat? Is consideration given to having a proper launching site for city residents to be able to put their boat in the water, and park their truck/trailer without a fee, after all this is city property?

Lots of questions , so why no comments from any members of the elected officals?

Lawyer Boone's statement about nothing voted on is a fairy tale - the guy who owns 40% of the shares is suppose to have already given his approval, members even know how much each will make on their shares, and bragging about same around the city.

Any replies would be appreciated.

gary budway, venice, fl

[Shortly after this email was sent, the city released a copy of a shareholder list to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The H-T reported that no city officials appeared on the list, while VTL President Herb Levine expressed doubt about the authenticity of the list. For the record, one former Venice public official is on the list of shareholders: Richard O'Shaughnessy, the former police chief. While the city has had this list for a few years, a public records request from Venice Florida! dot com some two years ago for this same list was refused on the grounds that the city had misplaced the list. Our request was based on City Attorney Bob Anderson's recorded comments in the FAA Shade Meetings that he possessed a copy of a list of VGA shareholders. -- ed.]

03/22/07
What do you expect us to say. No member of council has any interest in the VGA except as a place to pay fees and play golf. I don't play any more and I am not aware of any proposals for Council to address. Your implications anger me. You have an honest council and staff so get off of your response to rumers and your sensless allegations. Letters of interest about possible deals on the airport are available to you as they are in the sunshine. To the best of my knowledge none have been accepted by any one connected with the city. No sale of the Golf Course lease has been approved by Council. The lessees are independent business people and can do what ever they want in respect to talking to others about possible sale of their lease.

If such a proposal should come to Council we will address it at that time.

John Simmonds, Venice City Council

03/22/07
Councilman John Simmonds;

First let me say thank you for a least replying to my email but your rightful indignations falls on empty ears from one who has heard all kinds of excuses for lack of information.

 

The gulf course/airport and that area may I remind you belong to the citizens of the City of Venice, not the lessees and they absolutely should not be free to do as they please under the guise of business dealings. That has happened to many times in the past with the taxpayers of Venice footing the bill. 

 

Safeguards should be in any lease that protect the taxpayers of giveaways, transfers and exchanges of any property owned by same. Unless your memory fails you this has not always been the case here if you want to review rents to VGA, and the Sharkey building problems of unauthorized construction on city property.

 

You might consider these allegations as rumor but your imput has always been with the developers/builders so you are not a neutral in any decisions in this area. Your attitude towards any legal questions asked is gruff, and does not answer any questions in the matter before us. I do believe you are the council member on the airport committee and are privy to information concerning these lands.

 

Again, thank you at least for a reply.

 

gary budway, venice,fl

03/28/07
TO: Elected Officials/City Manager, City of Venice
FROM:  Nancy Flinkstrom
RE: Lake Venice Golf Club

As a Venice taxpayer and as a member of the Lake Venice Golf Club, we look to you as our elected representatives to provide  us  with a clear picture as to why it is in the best interest of the City to essentially eliminate a public jewel the 27 hole course and its fragile environs.   All we hear is that the lease has been sold and the membership essentially know nothing why are we as taxpayers and dues paying members kept in the dark??  It is in your political self-interest to brief your constituents as to the status of this now mysterious process; let the light of day clear the fog of rumor and innuendo.

Paradise, better known as the City of Venice, is blessed with remarkable resources: expansive Gulf fronting beaches, hundreds of acres of environmentally fragile coastal dunes/barrier islands,  natural and manmade marine harbors, and the intra-coastal waterway to name just a few. All these resources serve as people magnets, year round and seasonal, contributing to the local economy.

The recent history of this site is fairly well known: a WWII military training base, a transfer of ownership to the City, mandates by the FAA, periodic controversy over lease issues and it now goes on!!

Airport and Golf Club environs are unique and much of it irreplaceable. Venice is blessed and the City has a planning Vision.

Let that Vision shed only light on this current discourse and let Venice continue to show the way here on the Southwest Coast of Florida offering one of the only municipal golf course experiences.

03/29/07
To: Venice City Manager Marty Black
From: Larry Evans, editorial writer, Venice Herald-Tribune, 486-3075

Marty,

The Editorial Board of the Herald-Tribune plans to write an editorial early next week about the process the city government is using to develop open land at Venice Municipal Airport.

We would appreciate the perspective you could provide us by answering the following questions. We want to have your comments in hand before we write our next editorial, so we request that, as your schedule permits, you answer the questions as early in the coming week as possible.

We appreciate your help.

The questions:

1. City officials have said the Airport Master Plan is the  impetus for seeking the six development proposals now under review. Why were plans sought and accepted before the council finished its work on updating the Airport Master Plan?

2. What is your estimate as to when the Airport Master Plan will be updated? Is a public hearing required before the City Council can approve a revised plan?

3. Please describe the level and extent of public involvement in Venice workshops that gave rise to the development proposals the city now has under consideration.

4. In developing vacant land at the airport, what would you say are the five most strategic objectives for the city government?

5. How much of a revenue stream does the city need to generate at the airport in order to satisfy the Federal Aviation Administration?

6. Have discussions been held with FAA officials regarding whether a hotel is a compatible use?

7. Have city officials had any discussions with the FAA or with landowners and/or their attorneys regarding the possibility of moving the airport elsewhere?

8. What process did the city use to solicit proposals?  How and when were solicitations made? What did the requests for propsals say the city was seeking at the airport?

9. Were any proposals received before proposals were solicited? If so, did those submissions accelerate the process now under way to consider and rank the six proposals in hand?

10. Has the city government either pursued or considered a proactive search for prospective companies or project developers for the airport? If not, why not?

11. In your May 16 memo to City Council, you recommended that the four-member committee appointed by council rank the submission on the basis of: strategic objectives and comprehensive and master plan policies; the scope of the proposal; financial and managment compatibility; and compatibility of the concept with the community. Will each of  those objectives be weighted? If so, how?

12. What criteria will be used to judge "compatibility of concept with the community?"

13. What aspects of the master plan and comprehenisve plan will be deemed most important in weighing the proposals?

14. The City Council on Tuesday approved the selection process. Has the council given any other guidance to the four-member committee.

15. Will meetings of the four-member committee be noticed and open to the public? If not, why not?

16. In your March 16 memo to the council, you said "the city has not received a request to consider approval of an assignment of the lease or to commence negotiations of a new lease for the golf course properties" now leased by the Venice Golf Association. Has that changed since March 16?

17. Can land leased to any individual or company at Venice Municipal Airport be sublet? If so, does the city government have any role to play in that decision? Does the city have a policy?

18.  Your memo said several of the development proposals make reference to the proposed use of golf course land? If that's the case, how would the four-member committee weigh that possibility when it ranks the proposals?

18. Is it a concern of either  the FAA or City Council that stockholders in the Venice Golf Association might stand to profit by leasing land leased from the city?

19. What is the role of the Airport Advisory Board in the process under way to consider development proposals?

20. You have said a public charette will be held after the City Council has ranked the development proposals? Why not have public involvement at the front end of the process, too.

Thanks, Larry

03/30/07
I would welcome the opportunity to meet with the editorial board in person to review these and any other questions.  it would be a nice change and I appreciate the offer.  Please feel free to coordinate a time/location with Raeanne.

Thanks!

Marty Black, City Manager

04/01/07
In a recent article in the Herald Tribune it was said that Venice city leaders believe that development of the 451 acres around the airport "just might help put this tiny city - a dwarf compared to Sarasota and Naples - on the map of Florida vacation destinations."

My wife and I have been full time residents of Venice for just over two years and we enjoy the area because it's not like Sarasota and Naples.  Visits to these cities will easily confirm what development has done to them and we do not want this kind of development in Venice to change this wonderful area.

In this case, bigger is not better.

While we understand that the FAA may be insisting that more be done to generate revenues from the airport, we encourage you to not turn the airport area into a major tourist attraction area by adopting one of the grandiose plans being proposed.  Please be conservative when considering the development of the airport area and  keep the charm that Venice still possesses for as long as we can.

Sincerely,
Harold & Barbara Petrie
[xxxx] Monarch Drive
Venice

04/02/07
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Petrie,
Thank you for your thoughts on this matter.  As you know this will be an issue where we must balance the financial sustainability requirements of the airport with the impact on the quality of life we enjoy in Venice.  Your thoughts are most appreciated.

Jim Woods
Venice City Council

04/02/07
Thank you for your comments.  The Venice City Council will carefully consider any proposals for lease of the airport in order to balance our obligations to the aviation and financial sustainability of the airport with community compatibility concerns.  I have forwarded a copy of your email for their consideration. Please note, however, that you do not reside in the city limits but are instead residents of unincorporated Sarasota County based upon the address provided in the St. Andrews East area.

Marty Black, City Manager

04/02/07
Mayor:

Please bring in the head of the FAA from Atlanta for a public question and answer session with the residents; the residents need to hear the truth that the FAA has not and is not pressuring the City of Venice to develop the airport land. Council needs to stop crying that everyone who opposes the city council is a radical. When someone contacts government officials outside of Venice, either county, state, or federal; the response is the same "Venice City government is out of control".

You need to hire a outside firm to survey the residents of Venice on what they think about their city government, because this council has no creditibility. A good example would be when all the pilots were recruited by Watts and Black to come and lobby for low hangers leases; when only twelve percent were Venice residents. Sixty-two percent of the pilots live in Sarasota county and have real estate holdings in excess of $750,000, those leases should be double what they are presently. The pilots do not need a subsidy from the City.

Just for the record, the real estate values came from the county appraisers office. The meeting with Watts is a good example of how poorly managed this city is, it was a no call-no show by Watts. Sixty people were there and didn't even  receive a cell phone call from either Watts or Black who knew that there were people waiting.

When [former City Manager George] Hunt was fired, everyone believed that the city government would get better; well it looks like Hunt must have forgot to take his handbook. It's business as usual in Venice.

Fred Roscoe

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.