NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. This video of the Jan. 12 City Commission meeting shows Bouchelle Island resident Bill Koleszar pressing the elected body for action on the Anglers Club lease. Koleszar is among a small group of political insiders who insist the Anglers' 99-year lease with the city is void. The city and the Anglers are negotiating a sale that may come up for a vote Tuesday night. The 6:30 p.m. meeting is at City Hall Commission Chambers, 205 Sams Ave.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A protracted battle among political insiders as to whether the city's longstanding lease with the Anglers Club of New Smyrna Beach for prime riverfront acreage on the North Causeway is invalid could be resolved Tuesday, if a proposed sale is approved by the City Commission.
One elected official who will not vote on the issue is Mayor Adam Barringer, himself an Angler. Not only will he not vote, but he'll abstain from any discussion, handing the gavel to City Commissioner and Vice Mayor Lynne Plaskett.
"I might even step down from the dais during all of that," said the first-term mayor, elected in November.
That leaves the remaining four commissioners to vote: Plaskett, who has been critical of the lease, Jim Hathaway, Jack Grasty, both ardent supporters, and newcomer Judy Reiker, who has not taken a position, but enjoyed campaign support from the Anglers.
Three votes are needed for a sale to go through.
Here is a synopsis of what is on the table: The Anglers are offering to pay $795,000 at 5 percent interest in monthly payments of $4,105.81 for the remaining 33 years of the lease. The total package would mean $1.7 million for the city, for one of the last vestages of publicly held prime riverfront property in a key location at 2 North Causeway, adjacent to the New Smyrna Beach Marina.
Anglers attorney and spokesman Michael Brewer describes the offer as "generous."
A person close to the negotiations with the city who asked not to be identified, said the amount offered is based on the fact that the Anglers still have 33 years remaining on the lease as well as the added value of the improvements for the site, including refurbishing of the clubhouse and 40-plus boat slips. It's not as if the city can come in and kick out the Anglers and sell the property to the highest bidder, the source said, cerainly not with a valid lease in place that has run its couse since the agreement was inked in 1946.
Cirty Attorney Frank Gummey has informed the commission it is his legal opinion the lease is valid. In a March 5, 2009, written memorandum to then-Mayor Sally Mackay, Gummey wrote in part followed up that opinion: "There is sufficient evidence of consideration supporting the existence of a binding contract."
Gummey's position is contrary to that of outside private counsel Scott Glass of Orlando, who concluded the lease signed in 1944 is not valid because the city didn't have the legal authority to enter into such an agreement at the time.
The city didn't have jurisdiction to do so for another 13 years, concluded Glass of the Orlando law firm of Shutts and Bowen, and by then, the city did not ratify the earlier 99-year agreement, making it null and void at that point.
"It appears that under the Florida Constitution of 1885, the City Charter and case law in effect at the time, the City did not have lawful authority to enter into the 1944 lease, nor did it have lawful authority to enter into prior and subsequent leases as hereafter discussed," Glass wrote in a memorandum dated July 10 to New Smyrna Beach city officials.
Glass added in his memorandum: "The City did not gain clear legal authority to lease public property to a private entity for a private purpose until 1957. Even then, such a lease was required to serve at least some incidental public purpose."
The most telling aspects that may give city officials reason to pause in entering litigation to try and re-take the property are one, that it cannot recoup any lost back taxes, and two, Glass stated: "If this matter ends up being litigated, it will be very expensive for both sides."
The commission hired Glass for$20,000 to render an opinion as to the validity of the lease, but he ended up charging an additional $8,000 and was paid a total of $28,000.
Prior to the November elections, the commission voted 4-1 to have Gummey enter into negotiations with the Anglers on a settlement that would avert potential litigation.
Then-Mayor Mackay, along with Grasty, Hathaway and Plaskett voted in favor of negotiating a settlement. The lone vote was cast by then-Commissioner Randy Richnberg, who lost in the subsequent election to Reiker, and Mackay lost to Barringer. It was Richenberg, Mackay and Plaskett who turned to Glass after not liking what Gummey's stance was on the lease.
Plaskett has been an outspoken critic of the Anglers because of its all-male membership that does not include blacks or women. Her husband is African American, but never sought membership with the Anglers.
The club members have said they do not discriminate and there are no documented cases of anyone being denied membership based on race or gender, though during segregation, discrimination was common not only among the Anglers but in New Smyrna Beach society in general, including public schools and employment.
Several watchdog residents like Bill Koleszar have seized on ther opportunity to make the Anglers their personal platform, claiming they are looking out for the taxpayers.
Koleszar, who in the past has threatened to recall elected officials in public forum, refuses to speak directly to NSBNEWS.net on the matter.
Koleszar has claimed he is aided by a "citizen" he identifies as Harvey T.R. Mitchell, who submitted a "white paper" or treatise on the woes of the Anglers through Koleszar that led the commission by a 3-2 vote, with Grasty and Hathaway the negative votes, to pay for the outside counsel. Mitchell's existence has been called into question.