10. Mayoral candidate Adam Barringer: 'I am an Angler'

Originally posted Sat, 2009-09-12 09:34

NSBNEWS.net photo by Henry Frederick. Adam Barringer, candidate for mayor, attends the Aug. 19 City Commission meeting on the Angler's Yacht Club. Neither Barringer nor several other members of the Angler's in attendance that night addressed the commission as attorneys for both sides spoke about the repercussions of litigation should the city try and invalidate a 99-year lease the club signed with the city in 1944 for exclusive rights to prime riverfront acreage on the North Causeway for $25 annually. The commission that night voted 4-1 to negotiate with the Angler's on a revised lease.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Mayoral candidate Adam Barringer makes no bones about his boating hobby: "I am an Angler. I will continue to be an Angler. "

Barringer has made no secret of his membership in the exclusive Anglers Yacht Club, whose 89 members, control 43 slips on prime riverfront acreage on the North Causeway, thanks to a 1944 lease with the city that gives them exclusive rights to the property for 99 years for a paltry $25 annually.

Last month, the city agreed to meet with the Angler's Club through their attorneys to try and negotiate a new lease that would avert possible litigation. The city hired outside counsel, which recommended against legal action, even though the attorney believed the lease was not legitimate to begin with, a position not shared by counsel for the Anglers.

Barringer, who has not publicly acknowledged his involvement with the Anglers except in media interviews, was asked his opinion of the lease situation at a candidates debate last month and said it was his understanding attorneys for both sides would negotiate and he left it at that.

Fellow mayoral candidate Marilee Walters said she believes Barringer would not be an effective mayor because of his inherent conflict as a member of the Anglers. "He shouldn't even be a candidate in the first place because of this issue," Walters insisted. "How can he vote on contracts and even other leases when he has such a conflict of interest."

Both she and the incumbent labeled Barringer a one-issue candidate.

First-term Mayor Sally Mackay stopped short of saying Barringer shouldn't be in the race, but she, too, questioned his effectiveness as mayor with his Anglers association.

"He would have to abstain on voting," she said. Barringer agreed he would have to abstain on votes regarding the Angler's Club, but dismisses the notion of his opponents that this makes him a one-issue candidate.

"It's a waste of tax payer money to challenge the lease yet again—let us use the time, energy and money in a more productive manner, such as economic growth and job creation," Barringer wrote on his Web site. "With that being said, these are extraordinary economic times that require extraordinary actions, there is a compromise to be found."

Barringer asked: "If it's so big a deal then how come they didn't bring it up at the last debate?"

Walters said she was nervous and Mackay didn't think it was appropriate to be seen as negative, though both jumped on the issue in the second debate Saturday morning.

Barringer said he joined the club nine months ago because he enjoys boating with his father, Ron Barringer, a member since the early 1990s.

"It's an emotionally charged issue being negotiated between the club and the city," Barringer said, adding his priorities in his campaign for mayor are economic development, job growth and the city getting a handle on spending.