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Burton Wiand, the attorney appointed by a federal judge to act as receiver for Art Nadel and the Venice Jet Center, claims that he has a buyer for the Venice Jet Center.
In a letter faxed to the city earlier today (2 pages, PDF), Wiand attacked the city's offer to purchase the center as "disingenuous."
"Given this situation, it is my conclusion that the City has never made any proposals in good faith or had any good faith discussions with me.... For months the city has had every opportunity to negotiate in good faith it [sic] there was any genuine interest in the Jet Center... The city's lack of good faith in this matter and the continued sending of self-serving disingenuous letters has not been persuasive and will not move this matter forward. I have reached agreement in principle with a purchaser for the Jet Center and that purchase agreement will be presented to the United States District Court in the immediate future...."
Wiand concluded his rant on a particularly snarky note: "Thank you for your letter of October 26."
Reached by phone, Mayor Ed Martin called the letter "offensive and not an accurate portrayal."
"[City Manager Isaac] Turner and Tom Devine [an attorney hired by the city to handle Wiand's Part 16 complaint] met with Wiand. Turner laid out very specifically that we would approve the hangars if they agreed to move them out to the area designated for hangar development, and we in turn would pay the cost for moving utilities to that site.
"Turner also told him [that] we would give them $130,000 in back rent to replace the rent they had paid on the portion that they had not developed. We anticipated he [Wiand] would get back to us. We never heard from him. Then in the part 16 proceedings, he claims that we had not bargained in good faith."
Wiand's description of a "sub-rosa meeting," meaning, apparently, a secret meeting that Wiand had been invited to and that he had attended (eh?), was cause for further ire from the mayor: "I don't know why he would describe a meeting with him as secret. Turner had the attorney present so if there were any details that needed to be negotiated, they could be discussed and brought back before council with the attorney's recommendations. Wiand has never given us the courtesy of replying until now and Mr. Turner had since called him at least twice to get his reactions and had received no reply."
At the last council meeting on October 26, council had discussed that they had been waiting for some time a response from Wiand on the city's offer to purchase the Jet Center. Councilman John Simmonds stated factually that he knew that Wiand would turn down the city's offer as Wiand felt that the city was taking too long on some issues.
Martin stated that nobody could read the man's mind, then asked Simmonds if he had talked to Wiand. Simmonds stumbled a bit, then denied having any contact with Wiand.
Nevertheless, Simmonds, apparently by psychic powers, correctly predicted almost exactly what Wiand's response would be.
Martin stated he would meet with Turner and the city attorney to see what options are still available to the city.
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Don't count the city out yet. This is posturing, and the newspapers (as well as their readers) should not be so gullible. Wiand made more than a few false statements in his letter, and they won't be that hard to point out to a judge. Up until this point, Wiand has been very cagey, but he may have overstpped his authority.
ReplyDeleteSomething else is going on here that's darned strange. John Simmonds had advance knowledge of what Wiand was going to write and he said as much at the last council meeting -- Simmonds has the Boones as his attorney and the Boones are working with Wiand, so Simmonds gets to play both sides of the fence.
When the mayor asked Simmonds how he knew what the receiver was going to say, Simmonds just shrugged and mumbled something about a guess. When asked if Simmonds had spoken with Wiand, Simmonds took a huge pregnant pause before denying communicating with him ex parte.
Still, one has to wonder where, exactly, did Simmonds acquire his prodigious psychic powers.
City attorney, city manager, all were negotiating with Wiand, they all thought Wiand would react positively. Now Wiand claims that some of those negotiations never happened, others were in bad faith.
That's a huge WTF moment right there.
The Boones are in the middle of this, as Wiand brought Dan Boone on board. I wouldn't trust any deal that Dan Boone has his fingers in, he's screwed the city and the airport so many times in the past.
If you can't smell a dead rat here, you ain't a big fan of normal respiration.
Wiand is all of a sudden being very blatant about not playing fair here, but don't expect the Herald-Trib to notice.