A Hillsborough County circuit judge has dismissed a Weekly Planet lawsuit seeking a document that might reveal how much businessman Richard A. Corbett is making off a sweetheart deal at Tampa International Airport.
Judge Sam D. Pendino ruled July 16 that the document wasn't a public record. Pendino ruled that Corbett and the county aviation authority, which operates the airport, don't have to turn over the document to the newspaper. The document, known as a lease-arrangement agreement, was signed in 1994. Around that time, the authority gave Corbett permission to build a shopping mall on airport land where he had tried and failed for 15 years to erect offices.
International Plaza, an upscale mall, is set to open on a portion of the property in September.
Corbett's lease with the aviation authority has been criticized by federal auditors, a rival mall owner and others for undervaluing the money-making potential of the site. A taxpayer group estimates the airport will lose more than $500-million over the remaining 80 years of the lease.
Under the criticism, Corbett and his mall developers recently agreed to pay a slightly higher rent, starting in another 15 years or so.
The lease arrangement is between Corbett and a partnership that includes him and the mall developers. The document may contain information about how much Corbett is profiting from the mall after his rock-bottom rental payments for the land.
The authority has only excerpts from the document. Before Pendino, airport lawyer Richard A. Harrison argued that the Planet was stretching the definition of a public record to include the entire lease-arrangement agreement.
Planet attorney David M. Snyder contends that the document governs the use of public land, was created in concert with Corbett winning airport approval for the mall, and therefore must be a public record.
Snyder said the situation is analogous to a newspaper lawsuit that forced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to disclose how much corporations and wealthy fans pay for luxury suites at taxpayer-funded Raymond James Stadium.
Unlike the Bucs litigation, where county officials assisted the St. Petersburg Times against the football team, the aviation authority is siding with Corbett against the Planet, Snyder noted. Corbett has enjoyed business and personal relationships with several airport officials over the years. Harrison said the lease-arrangement agreement is between two private entities. It is none of the airport's business — and, by extension, the public's — what happens to the airport land once a development agreement is reached, Harrison said. Using Snyder's logic, Harrison claimed the guest register at a hotel inside the airport terminal would be public. Pendino readily agreed with Harrison. Guy W. Spicola, a former chief circuit judge in Tampa, and David M. Mechanik attended the hearing as legal counsel for the Corbett entities. Neither spoke and Spicola, in un-lawyerly fashion, came without a briefcase.
The Planet lawsuit is the second time that Pendino has heard a case involving the lease-arrangement agreement. He presided over a lawsuit filed by the operator of West Shore Plaza, a potential competitor for Corbett's retail developers, for 18 months without issuing a final ruling before the mall operator abandoned the suit.
Ben Eason, president of Planet corporate parent Creative Loafing Inc., said the newspaper will appeal Pendino's decision.
"We believe the public should know what goes on with public funds and with those who are supposed to uphold the public trust," Eason said. "Ultimately, I think we'll find a court that believes that too."
—Francis X. Gilpin
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2001.