Maitland City Talk

Tuesday, February 16, 2011 was a day that has special if not historical significance to Florida. That was the day Gov. Rick Scott prematurely rejected high-speed rail without fully vetting the potential opportunities that it offered. I, along with my fellow Maitland City Council members Vice Mayor Linda Frosch and Councilman Phil Bonus, happened to be in Washington, D.C., that day meeting with our legislators on Maitland’s funding priorities. However, after the governor’s announcement, everyone we met with had only one focus — how to continue to pursue Florida’s high-speed rail until all the payment options were fully established.

I understand that there were some very good reasons for the governor to be skeptical of the initial high-speed rail proposal. The 10 percent cost of the project to be paid by our state, the possibility of construction cost overruns and covering the possible operating cost deficits, all of which Florida, with it’s present $3.7 billion budget deficit, can ill afford. However, there were other options that were being considered to take care of the above costs. This was confirmed at the recent U.S House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Field Hearing held at the Maitland Civic Center on Monday, March 14. One of the witnesses at that hearing was Richard P. Lawless, president and CEO of U.S.-Japan High-Speed Rail, whose company was one of eight private contractors bidding to construct and operate the high-speed rail system. He said that the decision to reject high-speed rail was premature as all the studies and research had not been completed. Depending on the results of those studies and research, the private contractors would have evaluated their options and possibly proposed alternative ways of funding, which would have alleviated some, if not all, of the remaining costs.

To further confirm the governor’s untimely decision, on March 9, a state study was released projecting the rail system would be a money-maker from Day One. If after reviewing all of those possible options, if any of the above cost items were not to be paid for and/or guaranteed by outside sources, I would have agreed 100 percent with Gov. Scott’s decision. But, to reject it without first thoroughly analyzing all the potential opportunities that were discussed along with the possible safe guards being proposed is something that I cannot comprehend. Here is my understanding of the potential deal on high-speed rail that Florida may have been able to negotiate with the known fact the we would receive 90 percent of the project cost ($2.4 billion) from the federal government:

• The remaining 10 percent of the project cost ($300 million) would have possibly been paid by private contractors who would have bid to build and operate the train.

• These same private contractors might have agreed to pay any cost overruns when building the train as well as all the costs of its operation for the next 20 to 30 years.

Why would these private contractors agree to pay these costs? Because of the success of high-speed rail in other parts of the world, it would enable them to get their foot in the door on high-speed rail in our country allowing them to pursue more lucrative routes in the future as the technology takes off. Taking a possible early loss in Central Florida might be an acceptable risk given the potential profits down the road. In addition, the biggest cost of running the train would be making the mortgage payments of which there would be none.

Furthermore, with the present condition of the economy and our current unemployment rate of 12 percent, our governor should not have been so quick to turn down such a significant job-producing project. Especially since in his “Lets Get to Work” election campaign, he promised to create 700,000 new jobs. According to FDOT and the Florida High Speed Rail Association, the construction of the high-speed rail line would have created an estimated 75,000 construction jobs as well as numerous permanent jobs to operate the system once it was in place. Not to mention the future potential job creation that would occur from development around the rail stations that was certain to happen if they were built.

If after thorough analysis, Florida had had to pay for and/or guarantee any part of this project, I would have understood and supported Gov. Scott’s decision. However, with all the potential opportunities that high-speed rail offered to Florida, not to fully evaluate all our options before making such an important decision is irresponsible. Hopefully our governor, in the future, will be more thorough in his decision-making process. The future of our state depends upon it.

City Council Meeting of Monday, March 14

The Maitland City Council met on March 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. Below is a synopsis of that meeting.

Special Presentations:

• Verl Emrick, Community Redevelopment Director, updated the Council on the progress of the development of the Pattern Book for the CRA District.

• Brian Dierks, city arborist, presented the National Arborist Association’s Tree City USA Award to the city.

Consent Agenda:

• The Council minutes of the Feb. 28 were approved as presented and are now available on the city web page. Other minutes were also approved.

• A resolution was passed to update the City of Maitland Flexible Benefits Plan. The Plan ensures that the city has the most up-to-date documents and is in compliance with all IRS rules.

Decision Items:

• Council appointed five residents to the Senior Citizens Advisory Board and four residents to the Fiscal Advisory Board.

The next regular scheduled Council meeting will be held on Monday, March 28. For updates, please check our website, www.itsmymaitland.com