8. "I'LL BUY THE ENTIRE CEMETERY"

The City of Melbourne, Florida, as do many cities, has a Municipal Cemetery. It became a City property when the original planters took the money and ran, the graves and headstones were taken over by weeds, and the citizens whose ancestors were buried there demanded that the City "do something". So, the City took over the private default, attempted to keep the grave sites mowed and presentable, and tried to sort out the jumble of ownerships of plots and of recorded and unrecorded burials.

A Languishing Problem. Since I had greater problems on which to concentrate at the time, the City Cemetery pretty much languished in the background of municipal activities. We budgeted minimally for its maintenance, and that was pretty much all. Periodically the City Commission (as the elected governing body was called in Florida), or one or two Commission members, would suggest that we "sell" the Cemetery, or contract it out, or "do something" to prevent the City from having to support it with tax monies.

Then another of the ubiquitous "Florida businessmen" showed up, which people invariably regularly present themselves to City Commissioners with "solutions to City problems", especially in those days in Central Florida, due to the growth induced by the Space program. There even was a prevalent saying of these heady days on the "Space Coast": "Here, everyone and everything is either for sale or for rent." And, from what I observed, the saying wasn't far from the truth, unfortunately, for this was far in advance of the current Florida "Sunshine Law" requiring deals and transactions to be presented and adopted in public. This "deal" had just been sprung.

A Real Estate Deal. This particular businessman had offered to "buy the entire Cemetery from the City", according to a City Commissioner, who also happened to be a real estate agent. He presented the proposal to the Commission and moved to accept it. The motion was seconded and appeared to be headed for unanimous adoption, five zip.

It was all I could do to get into the motion sideways and head it off. I quickly suggested that maybe staff should examine the offer, determine the amount of the purchase price and, especially, determine just what was meant by the "entire Cemetery", and how the gravesites would be maintained to the satisfaction of the local citizens who had ancestors buried there.

A Delay in "A Good Business Deal". Reluctantly, the City Commission agreed to a two week delay, somewhat angered by the "new" City Manager's "brass" at wanting to stop a "good business deal".

First, I put the City Engineer onto the property records and to conduct a survey based on them, and to determine exactly what was "the entire Cemetery". We had to know just what we owned and what would be conveyed to the "buyer", even if the City Commission ultimately did decide to go ahead with the proffered "deal".

The property records were jumbled as to who owned what burial plots, and just who was planted where, but there was no such confusion about the outer boundaries of what the City had secured title to as a result of the decades-ago default, foreclosure and assumption.

A Triangular Parcel? The Cemetery appeared to be triangular in shape, with one apex of the triangle at the intersection of the Florida East Coast Railway and U.S. Highway 1. The balance of the property -- at least that occupied by burial plots -- appeared to be a triangular parcel running about a quarter mile westerly from the railroad/highway intersection, and comprising about 30 acres.

But the survey presented to me by the City Engineer showed something considerably different than what was apparent on the ground. It seemed that the property consisted of around 130 acres, not 30, and was oblong, with the long side being frontage on the railroad and, just across that, U.S. Highway 1. In other words, the apex was not that at all, but just a corner of a 4,000' property line paralleling the railroad. The other side was 1,400 feet fronting on a street, which frontage was filled with burial plots.

A 100 Acre "Bonus". Thus, had the purchase offer been accepted, the buyer would have secured 100 acres of railroad and highway frontage which, while starting at a depth of around ten feet in burial plots, gradually increased to a depth of around 1,400' at the upper end. The purchaser could well have afforded to set up a trust fund with which to finance the perpetual maintenance of the 30 acre true burial plot portion of "the Cemetery", funded from the sale or lease proceeds of the other 100 acres he would have acquired. But the City Commission members had not known this fact and had not put any such requirement onto the prospective "Cemetery buyer".

The real estate deal of the century was thereby aborted when I reported the findings to the City Commissioners. The Realtor member of the Commission, who had brought the "deal" to us, was clearly disappointed by my public report.

A "Sunshine Law"? At that time the current Florida "Sunshine Law" requiring open public meetings was not yet even thought of, and all the really significant items of City business were conducted in and I received all my "orders" in closed, private sessions of the five Commissioners. These private sessions were held each two weeks in the afternoon prior to the evening City Commission meeting. All the latter was for was to ratify, for the record, some of those decisions which had been made in the afternoon meeting, or at least those decisions that required some sort of public ratification. Thus most of the afternoon Commission "decisions and orders" were not recorded, not known by the public and not publicized. But they were orders to me, as City Manager.

Not "Good Form". It was not considered good form for the City Manager to make such a report as the "Cemetery Purchase Report" at only the public meeting. It merely was my place to carry out the wishes of the Commission, as expressed in private, without showing any initiative. Clearly, I had violated the "understanding" that at that time was the basis of most Florida local governance.

So, at the next afternoon session each member of the Commission expressed their displeasure at my making of such a report at the public meeting only; that such a procedure had made it more difficult for them to accept the offer for the purchase of the Cemetery and to "unload such a financial drain". Apparently, my public report had scotched what now appeared to have been an already-decided real estate transaction. So the "sale" never happened.

Use of the Excess Land. Not too many years later the property in question was bisected by right-of-way for an Airport Terminal access Parkway and developed into a first class commercial area and industrial park. Since such development took place after my departure from Melbourne, I am not privy to its details. But at least the property wasn't "stolen" from the City through ignorance of either its size or value, or greed, or through a "deal", at least during my tenure.

A City Manager's personal satisfaction comes from such tiny "victories" which, cumulatively, make one aware that the City is far better off for him/her having been there than if he/she hadn't been.

© copyright by Douglas W. Ayres 1999

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