Truth And Trusting, Tukey Style
Tom Tukey had been telling many Annex residents back in December that he and Bill Verge were virtually in agreement on a plan to resolve the Southard street dispute. His plan at that time was for he and Verge to agree. Then they'd get Shawn Smith (the City Attorney) on board and he'd talk to the Commissioners. Then there would be a closed (secret) session of the Commissioners who would take up the matter and (presumably) give it the O.K. -- or at least that's what Tukey was saying to TAMPOA members he spoke to. (That O.K. would have had to come, obviously, in open session, one would think. How, if this was the plan, it was going to be kept secret is beyond us.)
The plan was so idiotic that when we heard about it, we thought Tukey was joking. A number of people we know thought so too and advised Tukey the plan wasn't going to work. This advice, like other advice Tukey was given, was ignored.
Now "the proposed agreement" is all over the Citizen and out in the open. The fallout is just beginning. Shawn Smith and Bill Verge who were supposed to be in on the deal (according to Tukey) didn't see any future in taking it to the Commissioners.
The proposal itself was such a brainless idea, some are saying it could only have been suggested by TAMPOA Attorney, Bill Andersen. On the other hand, what is more likely is that Verge took it to Shawn Smith who effectively said, 'you've got to be kidding' and then Verge back tracked and said, yeah you're right. In any case, once again, TAMPOA appears to have been taken and looks stupid.
What Annex residents should be concerned about is whether the TAMPOA Board and its President were leveling with the residents when he was opining that he and Verge were close to a deal. Either that was not true or Tukey is one of the most naive and trusting people on the planet. At what point will he get it (having been told by many he has asked that his ideas for a settlement and that Verge could be trusted were totally crazy)?
All this should make for interesting discussions at the TAMPOA Annual Meeting on January 29. The fact that such an idiotic proposal would actually be put forth raises questions about the efficacy of Tukey's leadership as President of TAMPOA and certainly his effectiveness as a negotiator. It is probably time for him to step down as President and let new leadership take over.
The plan was so idiotic that when we heard about it, we thought Tukey was joking. A number of people we know thought so too and advised Tukey the plan wasn't going to work. This advice, like other advice Tukey was given, was ignored.
Now "the proposed agreement" is all over the Citizen and out in the open. The fallout is just beginning. Shawn Smith and Bill Verge who were supposed to be in on the deal (according to Tukey) didn't see any future in taking it to the Commissioners.
The proposal itself was such a brainless idea, some are saying it could only have been suggested by TAMPOA Attorney, Bill Andersen. On the other hand, what is more likely is that Verge took it to Shawn Smith who effectively said, 'you've got to be kidding' and then Verge back tracked and said, yeah you're right. In any case, once again, TAMPOA appears to have been taken and looks stupid.
What Annex residents should be concerned about is whether the TAMPOA Board and its President were leveling with the residents when he was opining that he and Verge were close to a deal. Either that was not true or Tukey is one of the most naive and trusting people on the planet. At what point will he get it (having been told by many he has asked that his ideas for a settlement and that Verge could be trusted were totally crazy)?
All this should make for interesting discussions at the TAMPOA Annual Meeting on January 29. The fact that such an idiotic proposal would actually be put forth raises questions about the efficacy of Tukey's leadership as President of TAMPOA and certainly his effectiveness as a negotiator. It is probably time for him to step down as President and let new leadership take over.
posted by Conchette at 11:51 PM
4 Comments:
When I read the paper this morning I thought to myself, "why would TAMPOA offer to lease the street to the city?". What about the traffic issue? And how about the ironclad ownership that they have claimed? To me it sounded like TAMPOA/Tukey was grasping at straw. I feel bad for the Truman Annex residents...their leadership is becoming unglued. And I'm not so sure about Verge either.
Conchette - I've actually been a supporter of yours until now. Doing the agreement with Verge was the only good thing Tukey has done on this. You're wrong about the "secret meeting" scenario. I heard the talk too. Verge and tukey had agreed. I went to a town meeting woth Verge where Verge said that he and Tukey were 98% there. Verge said that he was going to talk to Shawn and then ask for an executive session of the commission. Then the commission would take it to a City Commission meeting for a discussion and vote. You're wrong aboout the secret part. the reason I can't back ou any more Conchette is that now the commission is just being stupid. I saw in the paper today that for $20,000 the city can get full two way access to the park. Tukey finally gave the city a really reasonalble deal. Why don't you like that deal Conchette? Have you seen how bad the pavers are torn up on Southard? We will have a lot of expenses to pay when there's full two way traffic. The xity is still not going to maintain the street for us. The $20,000 seems small for the city. Don't bash Tukey for this one Conchette. now I think Bethel and Rossi and a few others are just being stupid and hard headed.
How can you believe what is written in the citizen by Tim O'Hara?
Again thinking and publishing without enough of the facts to make any reasonable conclusions.
Maybe you should apply for work at The Citizen. You know "birds of a feather".
I live in the Annex and I appreciate what Conchette has done with this blog. I get good information. I don't like the hateful, nasty things though. Give us more facts Conchette. Saying hateful things pushes people away from you. It doesn't solve anything. That being said, some of my rich neighbors are friends with Swift and some of them are on the board of the assisted living facility. I don't know if you've seen the new map. I don't have my own copy of the map because I'm not "in" with that "in" crowd but I have seen it and looked at it. What I heard is that people are trying to keep it secret from Bahama Village and they are living in fear that Last Stand will find out. I also heard that one of the other blogs is run by Swift and he's supporting it there but I don't know the name of it. I don't think it's the Bahama Village group becase that wouldn't make sense. The new map has the assisted living facility taking twice as much space on the ground. It's now got about 50% more units. The medical part has been removed "for liability reasons". So how can they even csll it assisted living any more? Now it's just exepensive condos with maid service and a restautant. No nurses or anything. Supposedly it should be voted on by referendum of all voters in Key West because a 99 year lease is like selling the land. Last Octiber we all voted that the City can't sell land without a referendum. They are trying to get around that with a 99 year lease. It's cheating if you ask me. Also they want a "donation" from the City of about 145 ROGO units. Those things cost a lot of money! Free land, free ROGO, no medical component, twice as big and they want to sneak it by without a voter referendum. This is incredible. If I can get a copy of the map, I'll try to paste it into your web site but I'm not sure I can get one. Please work on gettig the facts out on this one Conchette.
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