Damaging documents, regarding the City’s approval of the controversial plan to develop Bahia Mar into a Rental Village of 651 apartments, are raising serious questions about: 1. the Lessee’s ability to perform the terms of the Lease; 2. the troubling lack of due diligence by the City Commission before approving the Proposal, and; 3. the City’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty by failing to enforce the Lease. A “Schedule of Revenue Projections” was sent to the City Auditor by the Lessee, Jimmie Tate, only days before the City Commission Hearing to decide whether to approve the Lessee’s Development Proposal. The City Auditor then wrote to the Mayor and City Commissioners, the day before the Commission Meeting, alerting them to the Lessee’s inadequate “Revenue Projections” and the Jimmie Tate “CYA” letter. Also leaked to the Public were last minute advisory legal opinions seemingly squeezed out of the City Attorney, immediately prior to the Commission meeting. The City Attorney’s faulty and contrived legal reasoning also raises questions about the credibility of the City’s diligence before approving the controversial land-use Proposal by a slim 3-2 margin. The “Revenue Projections” were submitted by the Lessee and were only submitted after a formal request from the City Auditor! The Auditor put the Mayor and Commissioners on notice of numerous red flags: - the 11th hour timing of the receipt of these projections; - the Lessee’s lack of a Business Plan; - an apparent lack of any other supporting documentation; - the Lessee’s caveats and disclaimers admitting that the data provided were “not accurate or binding”, and; - the Auditor’s inability to perform any Audit activity because of inadequate information. Tate’s “Revenue Projections” were described by an nationally expert industry analyst as “amateurish and laughable and wouldn’t even pass as a poor executive summary. If Tate presented this report to the Board of Directors of a legitimate corporation or Pension Fund Board he would probably be fired”. But the Lessee presents it to the City Commission and he is given a blank check and the keys to the City without questions. Is the form and substance of the report, itself, evidence of the Lessee’s lack of “business skill and ability”? Does the lack of any Business Plan, given that the Lessee has had months, if not years, to formulate a Business Plan, and considerating the 11th hour submission of critical information to the City, demonstrates an inability to “perform all obligations” as required under the Lease? Without a written business plan, including customized business sub-plans, for each component of the proposed development, the projections are ‎unsupportable. The Lessee should have included a Business Plan to the City and the City Commissioners (still) have a fiduciary duty to demand it. This failure, it could be argued, constitutes a breach of the Lease Agreement. Are the City Commissioners ignoring this breach and are they being complicit? Section 6 of the Bahia Mar Lease states: “The LESSEE represents and warrants unto the LESSOR that it has adequate financial capacity and technical and business skill and ability to perform all obligations herein imposed upon the LESSEE to diligently, skillfully and successfully operate the lease premises in order that the same may be operated in its greatest potential revenue producing capacity.” The Lessee has not, to our knowledge, presented any evidence that it has “adequate financial capacity...to successfully operate the leased premises” much less develop and operate the proposed operation. The City Commission is negligent In not enforcing Section 6. Where, for example, are the quarterly and annual reports of operations since the Lessee acquired the Bahia Mar lease from Blackstone? (In another update we will further define the elements of sound Business Plan and the management reporting that the City should have been demanding before voting on the Lessee’s Proposal). This Bahia Mar Fiasco is the biggest Public Land Grab in the history of Fort Lauderdale. An investigation needs to be conducted and all parties need to be held to account to the Public. An injunction must be filed to Save Bahia Mar from the irreparable harm that will be caused by this Proposal. If allowed, tearing down a revenue producing and publicly owned hotel asset, threatening the viability of the Marina and jeopardizing the existence of the Boat Show, are events that can not be reversed and there are no adequate remedies that would compensate for these losses. There is a high probability that the underlying case would prevail, based on a plain reading of the Lease which clearly has always provided for a hotel resort marina. The Lease never contemplated a 651 unit rental apartment complex. SOS.