ASG and McDonald's cancel Utulei Beach lease (Victory...)

The close to one acre of land on Utulei Beach that was leased by the government to McDonald's American Samoa for its second restaurant is no more, after both parties mutually agreed to cancel the less than 10-year lease.

Acting Governor Ipulasi A. Sunia sent a letter to the Acting Territorial Registrar on Thursday, Jan. 18 informing the office that the lease has been canceled.

This was also revealed yesterday morning by government attorneys at the High Court during a hearing on the Senate's case against American Samoa 2000 Inc., McDonald's parent company, and the Executive Branch over the lease.

"Governor Togiola Tulafono and Representative Agaoleatu Charlie Tautolo, CEO of McDonald's American Samoa have agreed to a mutual cancellation of the current Utulei Beach property lease between the American Samoa Government and the American Samoa 2000, Inc," said a joint statement from the parties yesterday.

The statement said that both parties considered the cancellation of the lease to be "in the best interest of both parties and will allow the government to resolve issues involving the United States National Parks Service."

"The American Samoa Government and McDonald's American Samoa remain committed to the sustainable economic development of the territory and will continue dialogue on mutually beneficial projects at an appropriate time in the future," the statement said.

In High Court yesterday, a hearing was held regarding the Senate's motion for summary judgment in their case against McDonald's and the Executive Branch. The Senate wants the court to order the Executive Branch to bring the lease to the Fono for review.

The government made known yesterday that the lease has been canceled, which makes the Senate's case moot because the controversy about the lease is no longer there.

However, Jeff Waller of Roy J.D. Hall Jr. and Associates, representing the Senate, sought a ruling on the issue in lieu of an outright dismissal citing that the issue can happen again or "capable of repetition" if another lease comes up or involving other separate leases of government land.

The lease had required McDonald's to pay a little over $5,000 to ASG every month for a period of 9 years and 11 months. The lease also provided that McDonald's had the option to renew the lease for a preiod of 25 years.

The National Park Service (NPS), a division of the Interior Department that oversees public parks including Utulei Beach, had advised the government to find other suitable locations for McDonald's restaurant after the lease was signed in 2005. NPS contended that the lease violated ASG's agreement to protect Utulei Beach for recreational use in perpetuity.

After much debate, an agreement was reached in June last year between ASG and NPS whereby ASG would look for land to replace the land leased to McDonald's. The replacement had to be of equal or greater recreational and dollar value for public use.

The government said last year it was proposing lands in Tafuna and Vaitogi to be converted into protected park lands to replace the land leased to McDonald's. After that, nothing was heard about the proposal.

NPS and Congressman Faleomavaega, who have been against the lease from the get-go, have said that the requirements for replacement lands is quite high.

This may be the last and final post in regards to the McDonald's/American Samoa Governor's attempt to commercialize American Samoa's largest, most publicly accessible beach park for pittance price.

Anybody who feels moved to come to the defense of the AS governor and/or McDonald's should read up on the background situation before posting a response. This isn't a case of the public punishing a corporation, or of the Federal government interfering in territorial matters that are outside the scope of its jurisdiction.

What occurred here in American Samoa was an attempt by the local Governor to grab and lease public lands for cheap to a private corporation. The lease of the property in question was not put up for bid, nor was it made public until after the intention to lease the land to McDonald's was announced. The odd lease terms of 9 years and 11 months was an attempt to circumnavigate the rule that leases over 10 years must be reviewed by the legislature.

There was public outcry locally against the conversion of the park to private commercial lease. A building, which qualified for historical preservation funding, that was on the disputed site, burned down under mysterious circumstances, clearing one more obstacle for the lease. As sad as that was, the resulting clearing in the park has been beneficial to park use, as is evidenced by the weekend park goers who play soccer, football, and frisbee on the now clear section. The view of the ocean has also been cleared of the building's obstruction, and this has been beneficial. In my opinion, the mysterious fire, however it may have been intended, had the beneficial side effect of removing an eyesore, and increasing the usable space in the park for recreation.

All that aside, the defeat of the lease is a victory for the territory as a whole. The governor (a Democrat) has multiple delusions of grandeur, and has stated that the purpose of the legislature is to rubber stamp any legislation that he submits.

Here's another kicker. The governor frequently uses Line-Item Veto powers on appropriations legislation to remove earmarks from funds, while keeping the funds. This allows him to spend the money as he pleases, without regard to the original intent of the legislature to make sure that the monies are spent on the specific programs and projects they had been earmarked for.

The McDonald's Utulei Beach Park lease deal was only one of those strangely shady, underhanded projects undertaken by the governor. Don't laugh, but one of his justifications for the lease includes the argument that government employees needed someplace closer to the Executive Office Building at which to eat their lunch, because so many of them were taking multi-hour lunches, or not returning to work after going on lunch. For the record, there are multiple places near the EOB where government workers can obtain lunch. The Tax Office, in the EOB, occupies the space originally intended for a cafeteria, including a covered, outdoor area for picnic tables. The proper solution would've been to fire government employees who take off during work hours, or who take long lunch breaks. The justification given by the governor made no sense logically, and was clearly bogus.

So how much revenue is the land going to generate now?

If you've been keeping up on the story of American Samoa's exemption from U.S. Federal minimum wage levels, you'll realize how important our beach parks are to the future development of American Samoa's economy. Without our beach parks, our few beaches, and our tropical rain forests (National Parks) our islands have nothing really to offer in the way of attracting outside investment for non-fishery related industries.

There is also the public benefit of not having one acre of an already small beach park leased out to McDonald's. And if we are going to privatize our beach park, I'd expect that the land for lease be placed up for public bid, and that all the formalities of obtaining a release from the National Park Service, and local Parks & Recreation departments, as well as legislation approving the privatization of the parks to be done.

What the governor attempted to do, is what he's been trying to do since he came into office. He's trying to acquire broad legislative and executive powers. He's attacked Hawaiian Airlines (wrongly), frequently used the race card, suggested that white people are immoral and a bad influence on us brown folk, and he's even tried to set up his own little army under the guise of a National Guard unit, which would not be trained by the regular U.S. Army, but by his own people, on a base on foreign soil.

And before you start saying that American Samoa should be kicked out of the U.S., or some other stupid, inane, ignorant somesuch, I suggest you consider the fact that American Samoa contributes one of the highest rates of enlistment to the Armed Forces of any other minority ethnic group. Most of our people are patriotic Americans, and their opinions and beliefs are not represented by our governor, his cronies, or by the large number of easily manipulated people that remain behind in the territory.

Our territory has suffered from the lack of attention, and the lack of Federal prosecution of corruption given to us since it became politically incorrect to call any brown skinned thief a thief. The degree of corruption, and its institutionalization over one whole generation of local government mismanagement has ballooned the problem to a degree that makes it impossible to deal with as a purely local matter. Even officials prosecuted and imprisoned by the Federal government return to find cushy, government jobs waiting for them when they are released. And you won't be surprised to discover that the ruling party in American Samoa are Democrats. I've had arguments with the ranking Republican here over the lack of focus on local politics, but they're more interested in trying to win the Congressional seat, rather than winning the local legislature and governorship.

Believe me, when I say the whole issue of American Samoa is very complicated. We are an extremely conservative, almost insular territory, with strange land laws, and probably the highest number of churches per capita outside of the Vatican. Given all that, we are in a position to either become more like the followers of the NAACP, or we can become the bastion of conservative politics in the Republican minority wing. At the moment, the Democrats/Liberals are succeeding in their drive to make us into welfare wards of the state, don't help them.

Well, hopefully, soccer, football, and frisbee will make the whole plot worthwhile.

I think it does. Few enough places on this island where people can enjoy themselves out of doors, in a clear, easily accessible, open park with facilities. A McDonald's would require not just the space the building will occupy, but a large parking lot, which would mean paving over a considerable amount of the one acre he tried to lease out. The Governor was talking about closing down the Yacht Club to make more space available, which would mean shutting down the only organization that organizes and promotes water sports in the territory.

The whole thing is complicated when described. You'd be best to Google for pictures of the property in question. It is a very small park by most standards, and it is our best park in the entire island. If that gives you any idea of the cost to the community private development of the park will mean. Especially given that there are plenty of other properties McDonald's could go after, although they'd have to pay more than the pittance they were going to pay for the beach front property. And you have to also keep in mind that the deal was struck behind closed doors, and there was no open bidding for the property. What does it usually mean when a government official (the governor) secretly negotiates with a private entity to lease out public land for less than the market value?

Some of us knee-jerk to anti-capitalist posts, that's all.

It wasn't an anti-capitalist post. The local franchise owner the McDonald's is in real tight with the governor and his friends. The whole deal was done secretly, and then the governor tried to ramrod it through. If not for the local Senate, the deal would've gone unopposed long enough for construction to have begun so as to make any Federal objections a moot point.

Our territory is highly corrupt, with a lot of collusion between government officials and a small number of corrupt businessmen. I believe the local McDonald's franchise has even managed to swing a tax exemption, which isn't even available to most local businesses, giving them an even more unfair advantage over local competition.

What I'm getting at is, aside from the governor's attempt to coopt the park without proper legislative, and Federal permissions and legislation; my posts on this matter are an example of rampant corruption and blatant disregard by a Democrat governor of democratic principles.

As for statehood, I'm in favor of it. I think our territory needs to make up its mind in regards to full statehood or independence. Since we can't even consider hacking it as an independent nation, or only real option for a future is as a state. I wouldn't necessarily count on us becoming a Democratic stronghold though. If the Republican National Committee would dedicate the resources to recruiting Samoan veterans who have exercised their G.I. Bills to get educations, and who have serious and sincere conservative, American beliefs, there's no telling how much of a difference the Republican Party can make before statehood becomes viable. And I've read and studied some about Hawaii prior to statehood, and they didn't have much going for them. Statehood revitalized Hawaii, and continues to alter and change that state for the better. If only Hawaii was less inclined to ignorance and stupidity when it comes to the politics of their elected representatives to Congress...

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