Councilman Disputes Land Leases by the City

Valdez Star Continued: "Councilman Disputes Land Leases by the City
By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star
CITY HALL- Council Member Rich Long is questioning whether the City of Valdez should be leasing land in the city's holding rather than selling it outright to the public. To drive his point home, he was the lone dissenter in a routine vote taken by the council Monday night in the transfer of a land lease held by former Valdez residents David and Holly Johnson to their son and his wife, Jeff Johnson and Linda Brandenberg. 'It has nothing to do with the names on it,' said Long, 'I have a problem with long term land leases.'
Currently, the city leases land to people and businesses under certain conditions, including clauses on what the land can be used for and the lessees must pay property taxes on improvements to the land. Under current rules in place, the city can only lease land for five years at a time, but still there are still several leases in effect for that were signed for up to 25 years, which is the case with the Johnson lease.
'This is one you can't mess with,' said Council Member Connie Stephens, when it was brought up that in this case, the lease assignment was within a family, and even if the transfer was not approved by the council, the lease to the elder Johnson's would still be in effect. 'It's not family to me,' said Long, 'To me its two citizens.'
When asked by other member of the council what he was asking for in his dissent, he stated that he felt the city had no business leasing land instead of selling land outright. 'Basically its broke and we need to fix it,' he said vehemently.
Under current code, city owned lands that are not currently in use by the city can be leased by individuals or businesses, with approval by the City Council. Rent charges are supposed to be at fair market value at t"