The three-member Civil Society Group, comprising Bishop Errol Brooks, Rev. Dr. Clifton Niles and Mr. Sutcliffe Hodge, have recommended that a new Memorandum of Understanding should be drawn up between Mr. Charles Hickox and the Anguilla Government to allow Cap Juluca to reopen as a matter of urgency.
The group succeeded in getting Chief Minister Hubert Hughes to set aside a motion, in the House of Assembly on August 27, to begin the process of acquiring Cap Juluca and offered to mediate in the dispute between the Hickox and Brilla Group. Shortly afterwards, however, they announced that they had officially withdrawn from the matter stating that there was no level playing field for negotiation, as they thought the Brilla Group was favoured by Government.
Despite their official withdrawal, however, the Civil Society Group returned to the bargaining table and held a number of informal meetings with the Brilla and Hickox Groups and several stakeholders including Chief Minister Hughes, Governor Alistair Harrison and Counsel for the disputing parties. They met with Executive Council on Monday this week, September 10, and submitted their findings and recommendations for consideration.
The mediators’ recommendations, based on their findings, are as follows:
• That the motion before the House for the compulsory acquisition of Cap Juluca be withdrawn;
• That Mr.Hickox be given a fair chance to demonstrate his abilityto restore and operate Cap Juluca as a five-star luxury resort andthe “flagship” ofAnguilla;
• That all outstanding procedural issues between Mr.Hickox andthe Government of Anguilla be speedily resolved, so that the right atmosphere for the development of business confidence can be created;
• That the Government of Anguilla publicly affirms Mr.Hickox asthe legitimate owner of 73% of the resort in accordance with the outcome of the auction sale and the court decision andtherefore bona fide to do business in Anguilla;
• That a new MOU between Mr.Hickox and the Government of Anguilla be speedily agreed to which includes (i) a clear andreasonable timetable for renovation and expansion, givenmarket realities; (ii) a penalty clause for failure to performin accordance with the timetable, and (iii) clear and reasonable monitoring guidelines;
• Until the new MOU is agreed to with Mr.Hickox, the MOU with Mr.Aron be grandfathered to enable all action to facilitate the opening of the hotel for the next season;
• That necessary efforts be made to restore confidence and trustbetween the Government of Anguilla and Mr.Hickox;
• That Government use whatever means are at its disposal to recover from Mr. Adam Aron those outstanding monies which should have been paid over to the Government of Anguilla.
In arriving at their recommendations, the Civil Society Group listed their findings as follows:
1) The application process for Mr. and Mrs.Hickox that would allow them to have full rights to the property at Cap Juluca, excluding the four and a half villas owned by the Brilla Group, is incomplete.
2) The application for Mr. and Mrs.Hickox is delayed as they are waiting to have an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) signed by Government. A draft of the NDA was submitted to the Government of Anguilla on August 24th 2012, but no response to date.
3) Mr. and Mrs.Hickox are prepared to cooperate with the Government of Anguilla to comply with Government’s request once their right to privacy can be respected.
4) There appears to be strong support from the Government of Anguilla (administrative and executive) for the Brilla Group to take over Cap Juluca. This is our conclusion from most interviews and conversations that we have had with the administrative and executive members of the Government.
5) The Brilla Group’s main argument is that Mr. and Mrs.Hickox have not satisfied their obligations to Government and that they owe the Government of Anguilla inexcess of $10 million dollars. A matter for the Government of Anguilla and Mr. and Mrs.Hickox to resolve.
6) The Brilla Group further contend that they are in a better position to own and operate Cap Juluca, and that Mr. & Mrs. Hickox don’t have the finances to meet their financial obligations, run the operations and to build out the property with additional villas. This again is a matter for the Government of Anguilla to determine – not the Brilla Group.
7) The Brilla Group appear to be very keen on taking over Cap Juluca and expanding it. They appear to be quite confident of their ability to do so.
8) The Brilla Group are of the view that they don’t have an obligation to have their villas become part of the rental pool at Cap Juluca as a result of a sublease that was agreed with LIR (Leeward Islands Resort). Mr.&Mrs.Hickox did not sign the sublease and as such were not party to this arrangement.
9) The Government ofAnguilla’s decision to acquire Cap Juluca appears to be merely an exercise that would allow the Brilla Group to buy Cap Juluca.
10) The Government ofAnguilla, at both executive level and the administrative level, appear to favour the Brilla Group ownership of Cap Juluca over the ownership of the property by Mr.&Mrs.Hickox. This is hampering the Brilla Group and Mr.&Mrs.Hickox from finding a workable solution.
11) Mr.&Mrs.Hickox are prepared to open Cap Juluca and operate it in the absence of having access to the four and a half villas owned by the Brilla Group. However, they would prefer if the Brilla Group’s villas were part of the rental pool.
12) The Brilla Group have expressed a willingness to work with any entity that the Government of Anguilla recognises as bona fide.
13) The staff at Cap Juluca are polarised over the current impasse and some of the staff fear losing their job depending on which side ends up operating Cap Juluca. The mediating team raised this matter during the discussions and have cautioned against victimisation and that if it is warranted the same mediating team would be willing to support the staff.
The Civil Society mediators listed six concerns they have: the uncertainty of the reopening of Cap Juluca; if the hotel remained closed for an extended period, it could result in tremendous hardship for the unemployed workers, banking and business on a whole; there is a strong possibility that crime will escalate; the deadline for accepting deposits on declining reservations for the 2012/2013 season is September 15, 2012; the decision to acquire could result in the loss of investor confidence; and the closeness that seems to exist between personsin Administration and Executive and the Brilla Group.
The Executive Council was still in session after the Civil Society Group left the chambers for a press conference outside. The mediators are now awaiting a response to their recommendations.
