A Key West city commissioner wants to know exactly how much money the city receives from its franchise agreements with Historic Tours of America, and was frustrated that no one seemed to know the answer at a recent meeting.

"Why the hell don't we know what they're paying us?" Teri Johnston asked The Citizen on Friday, referring to the company commonly referred to as HTA.

She was referring to the curtain of confusion that descended over the Nov. 4 City Commission meeting, when HTA officials repeatedly said each of its two tour companies -- Conch Tour Train and Old Town Trolley -- is required to pay the city 5 percent of its gross revenue or an annual minimum of $210,000, whichever is greater. That would translate to a combined annual minimum of $420,000.

But representatives from CityView Trolley, which wants to compete with HTA, insisted HTA's total required minimum payment is only $210,000, or $105,000 from each company. CityView Vice President Greg Wythe pointed to HTA documents that show the company paid less than $420,000 in four of the last 10 years.

Several commissioners wondered why HTA didn't pay the minimum for 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2007. Swift did not have an answer, but told the commission, "Audit us. That is within your right."

Three days after the contentious meeting, HTA attorney Ed Scales admitted in an e-mail to the commission that he and HTA owners had been wrong about the minimum as discussed at the Nov. 4 meeting.

"As I've come to find out," Scales wrote. "HTA's finance department ... along with city staff ... have historically interpreted the language in Section 9 of the two franchises as creating a cumulative minimum of $210,000 for both train and trolley operations."

He apologized for his error, and that of Swift and HTA CEO Chris Belland, both of whom repeatedly insisted the company is required to pay a $420,000 annual minimum.

Motives questioned

Wythe on Friday accused HTA of only now inflating its minimum payment to convince the City Commission to require CityView to pay the same.

"I find it humorous that I know more about how HTA is run than Ed Swift and Ed Scales," he said. "If you're telling me that Ed Swift, a very intelligent man, doesn't know where every penny of his money is going, I don't believe it."

Wythe has a vested interest in HTA's required minimum payment because he is in the midst of negotiating his own franchise agreement with the city, and he wants it to be comparable to HTA's franchise agreement. In other words, Wythe said, it would not be fair for his company to have a higher minimum requirement than that of HTA.

"They're submitting documents to suit their needs," Wythe said. "But at least now they've heard it from the horse's mouth. We just want an equal deal."

Scales on Friday emphasized there was no intentional misleading of the commission or the public.

"There is no villain here, there is no shadiness here," Scales said, adding that HTA typically does not pay the required minimum anyway, but 5 percent of its gross revenue because that figure is greater.

"We know what we pay to the city," Scales said. "But Commissioner Johnston has a valid point in asking about the confusion over the minimum payment."

The confusion stems from a clause in the agreement that says for each dollar contributed by one company, either the train or trolley, the other gets a dollar credit toward its own minimum payment.

"In other words," Wythe said, "if the Conch Tour Train pays the city $200,000, then the trolley gets $200,000 credit and only has to pay the city $10,000, bringing the total that the city would receive to $210,000."

Commissioners Johnston and Mark Rossi have been adamant in examining HTA's franchise agreement and payments to the city. Johnston has asked City Manager Jim Scholl for "an accurate accounting for all monies paid by HTA to the city per our franchise agreement, coinciding with their fiscal year."

She wants the information available before the City Commission meeting on Tuesday, when commissioners will again try to hash out a franchise agreement with Wythe.

mbolen@keysnews.com