Georgia State Senator Jeff Chapman has been a busy guy. Not only has he introduced 3 bills that would protect Jekyll Island State Park, referred to as "Georgia's Jewel," from inappropriate development- he did a lot of homework.
The Jekyll Island Authority has been painting a sad picture of this beautiful state park by claiming that since visitation has dropped 47% and the JIA is barely scraping by, private developer Linger Longer is needed to step in and save the island by plopping 3 hotels, hundreds of condos and a town center along the main public beach- for starters.
But that 47% claim has always been a little squishy. Looking at the raw numbers, it's easy to be skeptical. Senator Chapman, who heard his constituents vocally oppose this blatant give away of a cherished state park, dug a little deeper. And guess what he found?
“We have long been told,” Sen. Chapman stated, “that the JIA has been struggling to keep its financial nose above water. After comparing the recent State audit with the Authority’s public documents, we discovered that the Authority has underreported its revenue by $11,330,368 over the past ten years in its Annual Consolidated Statement of Earnings.”
What?
Not only were the visitation numbers fudged (obviously)- the actual public financial reports of the JIA don't match State audit reports by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts. Over the last ten years. Starting in '97. Which happens to coincide with the distorted visitation claims:
The vast majority of the alleged drop, according to Dr. Ken Cordell, a nationally recognized authority on methods of monitoring public land visitation, must have been a change in the JIA’s traffic-count method in 1997 – a change that gave the appearance of a 1.5 million drop in visitors for that year alone... As a comparison, records kept by the Department of Audits reveal that parking fee revenues from 1996 to 1997 barely changed at all. Hotel room nights for 1997 are also consistent with the previous year, which seems to make it impossible that Jekyll could have experienced a 1.5 million drop in visitors, as the JIA claims.
Senator Chapman is a Republican in a very Republican state. The current crop of fellow Repubs are very pro-business. He lead the legislative charge in 2007 and saved the public soccer fields and the 4-H center on the island from being handed to developers. It's taken a lot of courage from Chapman to stand up to his own party and stand for his constituents. There's even a Republican challenger to his seat- who just happens to be a developer (seriously, how many developers ARE there in Georgia?). Which leads me to believe he's pretty damn sure of his numbers.
"Watch out for your wallets, your wives and daughters, and Jekyll Island. The Georgia Legislature is in session."
That's long been a semi-serious joke in Georgia. Developers want the state park, politicians wants more money, the neighboring inland areas want to feed off tourists. Only 35% of the park can be developed and it's supposed to be kept available for the "ordinary citizen." But every few years there's another fight.
Chapman was skeptical of the JIA before the partnership with LLC because of another development deal which took place last year. Dallas-based Trammel Crow (who lost out on the bigger deal to LLC) was controversially awarded a 10-year rent abatement on its development, Canopy Bluff, at a time when another development group (already invested in a well-run and profitable property on the island) had been put through the wringer. Their development, btw, has garnered no protest, proving yet again that "revitalization" doesn't bother people when done correctly.
When Chapman responded to public outcry over the proposed LLC development by issuing a resolutionto protect public interest and the island, LLC spokesman Jim Langford- though not a legislator- issued his own resolution relying heavily on the disputed visitation numbers and the argument that "Georgians have voted with their wallets" to bolster his claim.
But... what if the visitation drop wasn't 47%? What if it was much less? And what if the JIA didn't "barely stay afloat" or actually lose money? What if they made money and didn't publicly say so?
Without public disclosure of all revenue, JIA has given the distorted impression that it was on the brink of financial insolvency. This dismal fiscal picture thus provided much of the justification for the massive development project offered by Linger Longer, supposedly needed to bring the State Park back to fiscal health. As one example of its financial accounting methods, Jekyll Island State Park revenues were so understated in 2006 that the Authority reported in its original report that it was operating in the red in the amount of $210,575 when, in fact, it was in the black that year with a profit of $1,950,081, which is a difference of $2,160,656. As of the recent 2007 report, released in January 2008, the JIA has revised its public reporting and eliminated the hidden reserve account, thus reflecting different figures for 2006 from its original annual report, but JIA still does not explain past practices or make any mention that the reporting method changed in 2007.
What if numbers really don't justify the involvement or plans of Linger Longer at all? More importantly, what if they never did and the JIA knew it?