Dear Editor,
With the passage of the new cruise ship resolution at last week’s city commission meeting, we are at the beginning of the end regarding the long cruise ship debate in Key West. Or are we?
It is clear from Arlo Haskell’s letter in last week’s Keys Weekly that the Safer Cleaner Ships (SCS) directors mean to continue inflicting pain on the community.
Never in my experience in Key West has an issue resulted in such resentment, community division and economic suffering as the cruise ship referendums initiated by SCS.
The referenda, founded in emotional falsehoods and deliberate misinformation, did indeed pass the Key West electorate. Voters in the Lower Keys, many employed in cruise-related businesses, were not allowed a voice in that election. The referenda were deemed so damaging to the local and state economies, the state legislature passed a pre-emption bill that overturned them. Now, the city commission has finally found a path to mediating the controversy that will give a little victory to each side. As Mr. Haskell publicly said at last week’s meeting, “compromise is the name of the game.”
However, Mr. Haskell’s recent letter outlined, in mind-numbing detail, SCS’s latest strategy for stretching out the anguish they have wrought on the community. His assertion that the city has the right to control all cruise ship activity in the port has been proven false. Last summer, City Attorney Shawn Smith advised the commission that the Pier B development agreement was inviolate and firm. SCS also said the agreement could not be amended unless both parties agreed. After the agreement was reviewed by Special Counsel Ed Pozzuoli, he concurred entirely with the city attorney’s assessment. Here we have two well-regarded, astute lawyers saying the agreement is firm and inviolate. Even Joe Jacquot, SCS’s own attorney, now agrees with that opinion, after he finally was given access to the agreement. But SCS say they know better and are trying to derail the ongoing mediation process between the city and Pier B.
Why would they do this? Perhaps they finally recognize the failure of all of SCS’s disinformation regarding cruise ships’ harm to the environment, the proliferation of small ships and their condescending advice for impacted family businesses to “get a new business plan.” Perhaps by trying to restart the controversy at the 11th hour, Safer Cleaner Ships is merely trying to avert their imminent irrelevancy.
In truth, Mr. Haskell and I have a few things in common. We were both born in Key West and have a love for the marine environment. Like me, he sees how much Key West has changed in recent decades – for better or worse. Unlike me, he sees himself as the sole arbiter of truth and seer of the way forward.
So, I propose that Mr. Haskell and I meet someday on Mallory Pier and shake hands over the establishment of the Mallory Cruiseport Corals Nursery and Sanctuary. It is now public record that Mallory Pier, after decades of cruise ship traffic in the harbor, is a resource for viable and healthy stony corals suitable for transplant onto stressed reef sites. We should all support the superb endeavors of Mote Marine Laboratory in those exact efforts. Pier B has proposed to donate substantial funds to Mote Marine for reef rehabilitation. Will SCS do the same? Reimagine that.
Sincerely,
John E. Wells, ships’ agent
