Your Opinion: Stewardship for Jekyll Island

On Nov. 10, 2009, I sent a letter to the Jekyll Island Authority board urging its members to take advantage of any contractual opportunities that would allow for the termination of the Revitalization Partnering Agreement between the JIA and Linger Longer Communities on the grounds that it includes a number of provisions that are inconsistent with sound financial stewardship for Jekyll Island State Park, the crown jewel of Georgia’s coast.

In the absence of a response from the JIA, I feel obligated, as the Senator whose district includes Jekyll Island, to make public my concern that the RPA is not in the best interests of Jekyll Island State Park. Among the RPA’s deficiencies, three stand out:

A series of upfront payments and financial incentives for Linger Longer totaling millions of dollars — financial incentives to build on prime oceanfront land make little, if any, fiscal sense.

A 99 to 1 split in revenue sharing from the Jekyll time-share project — the oceanfront public land on which the time-shares will be built accounts for more than half of their market value, yet the JIA is settling for a penny on the dollar.

Fifty million dollars in state bonds to pay for the infrastructure for Linger Longer’s town center project — the bulk of those costs should have been covered by Linger Longer in return for the privilege of developing beachfront public land without having to pay for it.

The financial terms of the RPA are even more questionable when considering that they are the same, or in some cases worse, than the ones in the Linger Longer proposal rejected by the JIA in August 2007 during the private partner bid contest. Referring to the original Linger Longer financial proposal, the JIA’s negotiators said that, “We could not recommend the financial return to Jekyll Island Authority’s Board as sound financial stewardship for the future of Jekyll Island.” Linger Longer responded by sweetening its offer and was later selected as the JIA’s private partner, yet the rejected financial terms are now in the RPA.

The JIA has attempted to defend the RPA by claiming that Linger Longer’s Jekyll town center will yield a net return of $20 million over its first 15 years, but that figure does not take into account the repayment of the $50 million bond debt that has been taken on to fund the town center’s infrastructure. When all costs are considered, and the bottom line becomes clear, the financial terms of the project simply don’t make sense.

The task of renovating Jekyll Island State Park could be accomplished best if the JIA were to opt out of the lopsided RPA and move forward with the state park’s improvement by bidding out each development project separately. Competitive bidding is a core principle of the free market system and, if followed, would allow the JIA to obtain the best product at the lowest price and for the highest net gain. Doling out exclusive rights to Linger Longer for the next 25 years, as the JIA has done, disrespects free enterprise values, disadvantages other developers and invites further abuse of public trust.

If revenue generated by the Jekyll town center project were to be shared fairly, the JIA would be in a position to accomplish the park’s renovation without incurring public debt and would have the resources to make park improvements over the long haul, provide hundreds of permanent jobs and enhance the quality of the visitor experience.

I am asking people across the state to advise their legislators and Governor Perdue to urge the JIA to terminate the RPA. I’m hoping that they will join me in calling for fiscal responsibility on the part of the JIA and for a Jekyll redevelopment plan that is consistent with sound financial stewardship for Jekyll Island State Park and is good for the people of Georgia.



Sen. Mark Chapman

Brunswick

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