Mayport waterfront group loses more clout

092008 neshorelines 2 drew.dixon@shorelines.com MAYPORT - After Mayport Naval Station announced this week that it is withdrawing from the Mayport Waterfront Partnership, the board is left wondering about its future status.--> http://www.jacksonville.com/images/mdControlled/cms/2007/12/15/203509481.jpg--> Last modified 9/18/2008 - 10:19 pm
Originally created 092008
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The naval station is leaving the partnership, says Navy can't take sides on the issues.

By DREW DIXON, Shorelines

MAYPORT - After Mayport Naval Station announced this week that it is withdrawing from the Mayport Waterfront Partnership, the board is left wondering about its future status.

The partnership, which advises Jacksonville City Hall on Mayport issues, has also lost board members recently from the Beaches and Jacksonville.

Most of the departures followed the partnership's opposition to the Jacksonville Port Authority's plans for a cruise ship terminal along Mayport's waterfront.

"They have a strong desire for the Navy to take sides on this issue. I know we cannot take a position," Capt. Aaron Bowman, the base commanding officer, said this week. He had written a letter to the partnership announcing the base's withdrawal from the board, saying the Navy could not become involved in local politics.

The base's departure renders the board powerless, said Atlantic Beach Mayor John Meserve, the founding chairman of the partnership in 1997, who resigned two years ago. Meserve was also the commanding officer of the former Mayport Naval Air Station.

"I love the village to death, I worked that issue for 10 years," Meserve said. "The partnership has become de facto, just Mayport residents."

Meserve said most of the board is now represented by Mayport Civic Association members who sued Jacksonville and the JPA to stop the cruise terminal, a case that is ongoing. The civic association is a separate group representing homeowners in the historic fishing village.

Meserve said the partnership was initially established as part of a statewide system designed to protect working waterfronts. It's called a "partnership" because it was supposed to serve as a coalition between residents, Jacksonville and Atlantic Beach, along with other governments, including Neptune Beach, which also has no representative.

Meserve said he's not surprised Mayport Naval Station left, that the unyielding opposition from the partnership to the cruise terminal leaves little room for government compromise.

"They [the partnership] have become negative, not big-picture people anymore," Meserve said. "At the end of the day, that creates its own problems.

Jacksonville reassigned its partnership liaison, Ed Lukacovic, in April, leaving the board with no link to the city. Atlantic Beach City Commissioner Paul Parsons resigned as chairman in February and left the board, mainly because of the cruise ship terminal issue. Meserve resigned because he was serving as an unpaid adviser to Vestcor Co., which owned property in the village that was eventually sold to JPA for the cruise terminal.

David Fisher, the current chairman, said Tuesday, "It's only a matter of time before the Coast Guard follows suit."

Some partnership members did not want to accept Bowman's termination letter; they suggested the base could provide an unofficial "liaison" to the board.

"I don't think we have to take any action," Fisher said. "They bailed."

Partnership board member Carroll Huffines said, "It's wrong. They have not been asked to engage in any political activity whatsoever. This is misled advice coming from someone else to the base commander."

But Bowman said Tuesday there was "absolutely no" influence from any other governmental entity on the decision to terminate partnership membership. It was an individual command decision.

"There was no pressure brought to bear on my office," Bowman said. "I was getting very uncomfortable with the Waterfront Partnership focusing on one particular issue, the cruise terminal."

Bowman cited the November partnership meeting where several board members attempted to convince him to oppose the cruise ship terminal; they argued it could threaten operations on the base, which is just east of the Mayport waterfront. Bowman reiterated this week the terminal issue does not affect the base.

Meserve said the board is left powerless in part because "we, in the leadership, allowed the organization to be taken over by just people in the village. By the end of the day, most of the people who don't live in the village quit."

So partnership members are struggling to define their identity.

"Won't the city of Jacksonville think that we're just a civic association or political group?" Huffines asked.

"We're a self-sufficient advisory group now," partnership Vice Chairman Gary Crumley said. "But we will continue to maintain liaisons with the city of Jacksonville."

Drew Dixon can also be reached at (904) 249-4947, ext. 6313.