The Blueberry Festival lease agreement vote at the City Council meeting on Monday February 6, 2017 began with a warning from city attorneys about two instances that put the City Council body at risk for Sunshine Law violations. In one circumstance, Council Member Joe Bernardini responded to an email in regards to the Blueberry Festival lease agreement. Bernardini read the email aloud “…I will ask you one simple question: Would you do this deal if this were your property?” He continued, “And I responded back, I thought to him, “A simple answer to a simple question is no.” Mr. Bernardini did not realize the citizen’s email had been sent to all council members and he had mistakenly sent his response to all council members as well. Mr. Bernardini apologized profusely and said that he didn’t mean for that to happen.
The other circumstance was a facebook post by Council member Erhard in which Council member Kahler stated she gave her opinion on the agenda item and that of Joe Bernardini’s as well. Council member Erhard denied the incident.
City lawyers advised council to debate both circumstances of possible Sunshine violation before proceeding with a vote on the agenda items in question in order to get the positions on public record. That way the outcome of the vote would not be subject to challenge.
The lawyers spoke with the Ethics Commission, Florida Bar and Attorney General’s office about the incidents.
“Did any one of those three say that this issue should not be of concern,” asked Council member Kemerer.
Jennifer Rey, Hogan Law Firm attorney, representing the City of Brooksville replied that none of the agencies stated that the issues were not of any concern. She reiterated that a public discussion of the potential violations needed to be on record in order to take steps towards “curing” any potential violation.
The Florida Blueberry Festival lease of Tom Varn Park which council members voted on is a $1 per year lease for a 40 year time frame with a 20 year option to renew the lease. The entire lease is 32 pages in length and there was six revisions of the lease agreement.
One stipulation of the lease is that a master site plan must be approved by the Brooksville City Council (not unreasonably withheld) within 3 years and construction must begin within 5 years or the lease can be terminated.
Discussion of the agenda item went on for a number of hours between citizen and council member comments.
Council Member Kahler was in support of the lease agreement since the festival has the ability to finance the project and take the risk; at the same time making improvements to the City.
Council Member Erhard, while stating that she is in support of the festival, she did not approve of the lease agreement because there was no bid process and council “forged ahead” with the lease despite all of the concerns of residents.
William Kemerer stated, “I like Brooksville just the way it is. I like the big oak trees. I like the brick streets. I like the whole environment here… If you think I would do anything to endanger or damage that, then you don’t understand me at all. But there comes a time when cities have to grow to some extent. We have to do smart growth.” He emphasized that the strip between Tom Varn Park is ripe for development and the Blueberry Festival at Tom Varn could pave the way. “To do that, we have to take the first step. We have to be able to come with one public private partnership.” He referred to the Blueberry Festival organizers as visionaries who are willing to make an investment that the city cannot. He complimented the Hogan Law Firm for putting additional protections into the lease. “We don’t really lose control until it’s built, open, operating and successful… The charge we’re giving these people is not an easy one… I think by not doing it, we’d send a signal to the world that this city is closed to business.”
Council member stated that he didn’t want confusion between the festival and the lease. He is in total support of the festival. “Where my problem is the lease,” he said. “It’s all about the leadership… when that leadership changes, you can have bad things happen.” He gave the example of the Quarry Golf Course. There were some people who had a vision to create a nine hole executive golf course and a mining museum. They would teach underprivileged children about how to play golf. Bernardini explained that it worked out well for a time because it was under good leadership. “It was never intended to be a money maker for the City of Brooksville.” Along the way, bad decisions were made and certain issues led to the decline of the facility. Bernardini did not like the lack of Request for Proposals and a marketing study. Additionally, he stated, “The group that wants to lease it has [grossed] over $400,000/year for a 2 day event.”
He stated that the group could potentially bring in millions of dollars if it is used throughout the entire year all for $1 per year.
Mayor Robert Battista stated, I’m happy with what we’ve come up with as far as reserving some real estate for the city for the future, possibility of some expansion with the park system. I’m happy that we kept the front end of the Bud McKethan Park Area… I think this is a typical economic development issue.” Battista referred to the TreeUmph! Zipline Park the county has incentivized to come to Hernando County. “I’m going to vote for this lease,” he said.
The council voted 3-2 in favor of the Blueberry Festival Lease agreement.