Thanks to Folio Weekly for years of excellent reporting on St. Johns County, including the current cover story on our local government officials' workplace preaching.
It explains why controversial Election Supervisor Penny Halyburton wastes our money giving "donations" to churches. Why, two- thirds of our St. Johns County polling places are in churches, which are admittedly paid "donations" by Supervisor Halyburton's office. St. Johns County is blessed with dozens of government buildings, including some Taj Mahals.
Why can't we vote there? We'd save money and avoid excessive entanglements with churches, avoiding possible First Amendment violations.
St. Johns County resembles a cross between Old Florida, Kennebunkport, Malibu, the Wild West, Levittown, and the movie "Chinatown."
Local officials deserve even more scrutiny. This is a place where St. Augustine City Commissioners voted that only government flags may be flown on our Bridge of Lions (after Gays won a federal court order requiring Rainbow flags be flown in 2005). Yet 2/3 of our polling places are in churches, not government buildings.
Does that make sense to you? As photojournalist J.D. Pleasant says, "they'll say and do anything."
See my November Out in the City column.
Pray for the St. Johns County political machine, whose grasp on reality (and power) is waning.
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
471-7023
Saturday, November 03, 2007
In politics there are talkers and doers -
In politics there are talkers and doers -
John Mica is a doer."
President George W. Bush
During a visit to Daytona Beach,
January 30, 2002
John Mica is a doer."
President George W. Bush
During a visit to Daytona Beach,
January 30, 2002
BUSH'S LAPDOG ON THE DEFENSIVE: VOTING AGAINST CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE, OUR OUT-OF-TOUCH U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN MICA NEEDS REPLACING
Our 7th Congressional District requires a watchdog, not a lapdog.As Richard Hebert's letter suggests (see below), U.S. Rep. John Mica is George Bush's lapdog. His vote against SCHIP is a disgrace. He claims to be "pro-family," but that's just a slogan he got from George Bush and Karl Rove. Has Big Oil's Rep. Mica ever had an original idea? Tell us.
Representative John Mica claims he voted no on children's health care bill because of 'flawed' financing plan
Mica voted no on insurance bill because of 'flawed' financing plan
U.S. Rep John Mica
Winter Park
Publication Date: 11/03/07
I wanted to respond to recent letters of Oct. 15 and Oct. 30 to The Record regarding my vote on legislation to provide access to health care for children of low-income families.When the U.S. House of Representatives originally passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997, I supported that measure. Unfortunately recent attempts to expand coverage for our neediest children became mired in controversy when the new Democratic Majority in the House first proposed paying the cost of the increased SCHIP coverage through cuts in Medicare. When that was wisely rejected they chose to attempt to pay for the increased costs by reliance on new taxes that would require millions of new smokers to finance the expansion. I objected to that flawed method of financing. Additionally, I found several other controversial provisions objectionable. These included weakening current citizenship verification provisions that would provide federally funded health care to illegal aliens, elimination of a state's ability to consider family income and expansion of the program to include those up to 300 percent above the federal poverty level increasing income level eligibility in some states to cover families making well over $100,000. I continue to support a reasonable increase in the SCHIP program, and will vote to increase both funding and eligibility. I care about children and adults who do not have access to quality health care. As a college student I dropped out of school to help my family cover expenses because my family did not have health insurance when my father was hospitalized. That experience has always reminded me of the need to work to ensure that every American has access to quality health care. Working in a bipartisan manner, Congress can do better in helping those who truly need health care assistance. Those who know my record in Congress and in our congressional district know that no one has been a stronger advocate in expanding health care and medical services to our veterans, senior citizens, and rural residents.
John Mica's District 7 congressional district includes St. Johns County. He's a Republican and lives in Winter Park. He has an office in St. Johns County at 3000 North Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Suite 1, St. Augustine, FL 32084-8600. The number is 810-5048; fax 810-5091.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/110307/opinions_033.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
U.S. Rep John Mica
Winter Park
Publication Date: 11/03/07
I wanted to respond to recent letters of Oct. 15 and Oct. 30 to The Record regarding my vote on legislation to provide access to health care for children of low-income families.When the U.S. House of Representatives originally passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997, I supported that measure. Unfortunately recent attempts to expand coverage for our neediest children became mired in controversy when the new Democratic Majority in the House first proposed paying the cost of the increased SCHIP coverage through cuts in Medicare. When that was wisely rejected they chose to attempt to pay for the increased costs by reliance on new taxes that would require millions of new smokers to finance the expansion. I objected to that flawed method of financing. Additionally, I found several other controversial provisions objectionable. These included weakening current citizenship verification provisions that would provide federally funded health care to illegal aliens, elimination of a state's ability to consider family income and expansion of the program to include those up to 300 percent above the federal poverty level increasing income level eligibility in some states to cover families making well over $100,000. I continue to support a reasonable increase in the SCHIP program, and will vote to increase both funding and eligibility. I care about children and adults who do not have access to quality health care. As a college student I dropped out of school to help my family cover expenses because my family did not have health insurance when my father was hospitalized. That experience has always reminded me of the need to work to ensure that every American has access to quality health care. Working in a bipartisan manner, Congress can do better in helping those who truly need health care assistance. Those who know my record in Congress and in our congressional district know that no one has been a stronger advocate in expanding health care and medical services to our veterans, senior citizens, and rural residents.
John Mica's District 7 congressional district includes St. Johns County. He's a Republican and lives in Winter Park. He has an office in St. Johns County at 3000 North Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Suite 1, St. Augustine, FL 32084-8600. The number is 810-5048; fax 810-5091.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/110307/opinions_033.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Letter: Children's insurance deserves Mica support
Letter: Children's insurance deserves Mica support
Richard Hebert
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/30/07
Editor: What is it about kids' health that U.S. Rep. John Mica doesn't get?We know neo-Crusader George Bush has this knee-jerk reaction to anything that smacks of 21st Century enlightenment, but is Mica merely his lapdog? How can he explain his refusal to override the Bush veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program's expansion? Perhaps he thinks (like Bush) it should only be for poor kids. Wrong. The poor have Medicaid. This was meant to help struggling middle class families who can't afford to insure their kids. Maybe he thinks it's socialized medicine. Last time I checked, it was a Republican-dominated Congress that created the program. Or maybe he doesn't want to raise taxes? The cigarette tax, which is the only one to be raised to pay for the expanded program, is the best and most popular tax we have. It's a win-win game. Raising taxes on cigarettes increases their costs and, according to every study I've seen, lowers the number of kids who take up the filthy, life-threatening practice of sucking on coffin nails. Fewer cigarettes in kids' mouths and more kids getting health insurance mean more healthy kids. The only ones likely to suffer: the purveyors of cigarettes, Big Tobacco. Is Mica in their hip pocket? Maybe this time next year voters will remember his abominable vote against kids' health.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/103007/opinions_033.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Richard Hebert
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/30/07
Editor: What is it about kids' health that U.S. Rep. John Mica doesn't get?We know neo-Crusader George Bush has this knee-jerk reaction to anything that smacks of 21st Century enlightenment, but is Mica merely his lapdog? How can he explain his refusal to override the Bush veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program's expansion? Perhaps he thinks (like Bush) it should only be for poor kids. Wrong. The poor have Medicaid. This was meant to help struggling middle class families who can't afford to insure their kids. Maybe he thinks it's socialized medicine. Last time I checked, it was a Republican-dominated Congress that created the program. Or maybe he doesn't want to raise taxes? The cigarette tax, which is the only one to be raised to pay for the expanded program, is the best and most popular tax we have. It's a win-win game. Raising taxes on cigarettes increases their costs and, according to every study I've seen, lowers the number of kids who take up the filthy, life-threatening practice of sucking on coffin nails. Fewer cigarettes in kids' mouths and more kids getting health insurance mean more healthy kids. The only ones likely to suffer: the purveyors of cigarettes, Big Tobacco. Is Mica in their hip pocket? Maybe this time next year voters will remember his abominable vote against kids' health.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/103007/opinions_033.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Letter: Congress should override Bush's insurance veto
Letter: Congress should override Bush's insurance veto
Terry Kelley
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/19/07
Editor: This is in regard to a letter published in Monday's Record, "Children's insurance deserved better," concerning the unfairness of Bush's veto of increased funding for the State's Children's Health Insurance Program. It failed to outline a method whereby your readers can successfully make an impact on Congress to urge an override of President Bush's veto of funding of Congress's proposed increased SCHIP funding. Increased funding is needed to serve working families who cannot pay for decent housing, food, and clothing, and also pay for gasoline and other car expenses to get to their places of work.
The current Congress, composed of mostly Democrats and a vigorous Republican minority, is going to decide whether to override the president's veto. Contact U.S. Rep. John Mica and our senators quickly, if you want your voice heard on this issue.
Terry Kelley
St. Augustine
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/101907/opinions_news_34B.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Terry Kelley
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/19/07
Editor: This is in regard to a letter published in Monday's Record, "Children's insurance deserved better," concerning the unfairness of Bush's veto of increased funding for the State's Children's Health Insurance Program. It failed to outline a method whereby your readers can successfully make an impact on Congress to urge an override of President Bush's veto of funding of Congress's proposed increased SCHIP funding. Increased funding is needed to serve working families who cannot pay for decent housing, food, and clothing, and also pay for gasoline and other car expenses to get to their places of work.
The current Congress, composed of mostly Democrats and a vigorous Republican minority, is going to decide whether to override the president's veto. Contact U.S. Rep. John Mica and our senators quickly, if you want your voice heard on this issue.
Terry Kelley
St. Augustine
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/101907/opinions_news_34B.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
REP. JOHN MICA's Rabidly Anti-Environmental Record
Anti-environmental Congressman John Mica had a 2005 League of Conservation Voters rating of 9%. In 2006 the rating was 0%. Enough. This beautiful place needs a congressperson who will protect us from offshore oil drilling and environmental devastation.
Letter: Mica's vote wrong on Endangered Species Act
Letter: Mica's vote wrong on Endangered Species Act
Andrea Conover
Ponte Vedra Beach
Publication Date: 10/09/05
Editor: On Sept. 24 U.S. Rep. John Mica participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Education Center at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM ERR) which protects, studies and celebrates wildlife. What a great photo opportunity!
Just five days later Mica voted against really protecting the animals.
He voted for HR 3824, the so-called Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act, which actually weakens protection for many of the animals in the GTM NERR, including sea turtles, whales, manatees and many others.
The original Endangered Species Act has protected plants and animals for 33 years. Only nine of the 1,800 endangered animals listed under ESA have become extinct. That's a pretty good track record!
The House of Representatives also voted against the bipartisan substitute version of this bill which would have strengthened the Endangered Species Act.
Hopefully, clearer heads in the U.S. Senate will vote against this legislation so the U.S. can keep protecting its precious wildlife.
Congressman Mica has disappointed his constituents again. But what else would we expect? The League of Conservation voters has scored his voting record on environmental issues a dismal 9 percent.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/100905/opi_kr007997.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Andrea Conover
Ponte Vedra Beach
Publication Date: 10/09/05
Editor: On Sept. 24 U.S. Rep. John Mica participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Education Center at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM ERR) which protects, studies and celebrates wildlife. What a great photo opportunity!
Just five days later Mica voted against really protecting the animals.
He voted for HR 3824, the so-called Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act, which actually weakens protection for many of the animals in the GTM NERR, including sea turtles, whales, manatees and many others.
The original Endangered Species Act has protected plants and animals for 33 years. Only nine of the 1,800 endangered animals listed under ESA have become extinct. That's a pretty good track record!
The House of Representatives also voted against the bipartisan substitute version of this bill which would have strengthened the Endangered Species Act.
Hopefully, clearer heads in the U.S. Senate will vote against this legislation so the U.S. can keep protecting its precious wildlife.
Congressman Mica has disappointed his constituents again. But what else would we expect? The League of Conservation voters has scored his voting record on environmental issues a dismal 9 percent.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/100905/opi_kr007997.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Race pitting Hogan, Mica turning into war of words
Race pitting Hogan, Mica turning into war of words
By KEN LEWIS
Staff Writer
Publication Date: 11/02/02
The congressional race for District 7 is one of stark political contrasts.
A conservative Republican and former businessman faces a liberal Democrat, an attorney famed for his lawsuits against businesses.
Incumbent congressman John Mica, a friend of President Bush and a Capitol insider, runs against storied Jacksonville attorney Wayne Hogan. Hogan earned tens of millions after Florida's 1997 $17-billion suit against big tobacco and has emphasized his independence. He refuses to take money from Washington lobbyists and political action committees, but remains one of the biggest soft-money contributors in Florida. And as of Oct. 24, he had donated almost $2.8 million of his own money to his own campaign.
Mica, on the other hand, had accepted $495,346 from political action committees this year, but had not reported spending any of his own cash on the race.
It's like night and day.
Redistricting made Mica the local incumbent, though the Winter Park 59-year-old was elected to represent areas near Orlando. Hogan, 55, announced his candidacy in July.
Since then, the campaigns have grown increasingly aggressive. Mica toured the area with powerful figures like the national drug czar John P. Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy. Also coming to St. Johns County recently in Mica's company were former President Bush, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Woodie Woodward, associate administrator for airports for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Mica is supported by President Bush, who turned to him to draft anti-terrorism legislation to help secure airports after Sept. 11.
But Hogan is not much of a Mica fan.
Hogan accused Mica of ducking out of two debates this month.
In August, he said Mica fell for the "manipulation" of insurance companies when Mica voted in favor of a House bill to cap pain and suffering damages awarded to victims in medical malpractice lawsuits. The idea of the bill is to ultimately decrease malpractice insurance rates for doctors, though insurance companies made no promises that rates would drop. Hogan said the representatives in favor of the bill didn't understand the real problem. Mica blamed the problem on windfall lawsuits produced by lawyers like Hogan.
Hogan denounced him as the "PAC-man" of American politics.
But Hogan's support has seemed comparatively slight.
That started to change last week, after Mica and the National Republican Congressional Committee aired two television advertisements berating him for taking millions from Floridians after the tobacco suit.
Hogan's team says the ads just aren't true: his paycheck came from the tobacco companies. The ad was chided by two big-name Democrats: Rhea Chiles, the widow of former Gov. Lawton Chiles, and Florida's Attorney General, Bob Butterworth. Chiles was Florida's first lady when Hogan and Butterworth beat tobacco.
Until last week, those were the major Florida Democrats who spoke in favor of Hogan to a local audience. State Rep. Doug Wiles of St. Augustine since published a letter of support in The Record on Friday. And on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham called The Record to lend his support to Hogan. The call followed questions from The Record about why ranking Florida Democrats had not been stumping for Hogan in the area.
Hogan said he wanted his campaign to be about people in the district and not celebrities.
Mica and Hogan vie for a seat that lasts two years and paid $145,100 in 2001 and $150,000 in 2002.
District 7 includes all of St. Johns and Flagler counties, as well as parts of Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Putnam counties.
The platforms
Mica said his focuses are these: National and homeland security; economic development and job creation; transportation and infrastructure; affordable health care for all Americans.
Hogan said his focus will be on these: Education; affordable health care for seniors and veterans; economy; restoring investor confidence; creating sustained growth without manipulating debts; fiscal responsibility.
Both said they favor giving President Bush authority to determine the nation's course of action regarding threats of war against Iraq.
The money
The biggest difference between the candidates is money. It's blatant in some ways and subtle in others.
After refusing political action committees' money, Hogan stressed his independence.
Meanwhile, Mica stressed the strength of his Washington connections.
The difference underscores the sides that each candidate accuses the other of playing for.
Mica says Hogan runs on money earned from lawsuits that ultimately manipulate policy and hurt businesses. Hogan says Mica runs on money donated from special interest groups that ultimately manipulate policy and hurt individuals.
According to the candidates' descriptions of each other, Hogan wants to buy the seat, and Mica is bought by interests that want him in the seat.
Campaign receipt and endorsement reports from the Federal Election Commission bolster the candidates' statements. Hogan is wealthy enough to donate almost $2.8 million to his own campaign. And since July, he apparently had no problem accepting at least $70,000 in donations from Florida attorneys and their spouses.
The attorneys' donations are worth noting because Mica has said that trial attorneys are their own special interest group and Hogan supports them and is supported by them. Hogan is a former president of the Academy of Florida Trial lawyers.
Mica's money trail speaks volumes as well.
As of Oct. 24, he hadn't recorded spending any of his own money on the campaign, despite receiving about $1 million in contributions. Of that, $512,323 came from individuals and $495,346 from groups like political action committees. The Republican Party gave him $9,500.
Some of Mica's PAC-contributors are curious.
There's $15,000 in donations from Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds tobacco companies. Which is no surprise, given Hogan's history. Mica also accepted tens of thousands of dollars from nearly every major airline company in the nation, and thousands from oil, train and automobile companies. It makes sense. Mica is the highest ranking Florida member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee.
He also received thousands from insurance companies.
He even got $2,000 between 1997 and 2000 from the recently disintegrated Enron Corporation.
St. Johns County
The candidates shared a few ideas concerning local issues that could be addressed federally. Both said they would work to improve transportation and infrastructure. Both vowed to continue maintaining the coast, especially the parts affected by St. Augustine Beach's multi-million dollar beach renourishment plan.
But Mica said his seniority in the U.S. House leaves him in a better position to help St. Johns County and all of Northeast Florida.
"As a businessman, I support lower taxes and more efficiency from the government," Mica said.
Hogan said he was concerned that St. Augustine had not received sufficient federal attention for its historic treasures. He said he would pursue federal dollars for local landmarks. He also has said that he will instigate investigations of the practices of insurance companies. Many companies have closed or left the state in the last year, as the stock market stumbled, rates rose, and profits dropped. An investigation could make sure there's not "another Enron" in Florida, Hogan said.
Mica points to his history in the Orlando area, where he said he attained funding for two new veteran's clinics and a new nursing home. He cites his 10 years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, and his 10 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also the former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Paula Hawkins, from 1980 to 1985.
Hogan said he will push for real prescription drug benefits through Medicare. He also has discussed creating a Patients' Bill of Rights.
According to Mica, a patient's bill of rights would produce nothing but bureaucratic red tape.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/110202/new_1093974.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
By KEN LEWIS
Staff Writer
Publication Date: 11/02/02
The congressional race for District 7 is one of stark political contrasts.
A conservative Republican and former businessman faces a liberal Democrat, an attorney famed for his lawsuits against businesses.
Incumbent congressman John Mica, a friend of President Bush and a Capitol insider, runs against storied Jacksonville attorney Wayne Hogan. Hogan earned tens of millions after Florida's 1997 $17-billion suit against big tobacco and has emphasized his independence. He refuses to take money from Washington lobbyists and political action committees, but remains one of the biggest soft-money contributors in Florida. And as of Oct. 24, he had donated almost $2.8 million of his own money to his own campaign.
Mica, on the other hand, had accepted $495,346 from political action committees this year, but had not reported spending any of his own cash on the race.
It's like night and day.
Redistricting made Mica the local incumbent, though the Winter Park 59-year-old was elected to represent areas near Orlando. Hogan, 55, announced his candidacy in July.
Since then, the campaigns have grown increasingly aggressive. Mica toured the area with powerful figures like the national drug czar John P. Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy. Also coming to St. Johns County recently in Mica's company were former President Bush, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Woodie Woodward, associate administrator for airports for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Mica is supported by President Bush, who turned to him to draft anti-terrorism legislation to help secure airports after Sept. 11.
But Hogan is not much of a Mica fan.
Hogan accused Mica of ducking out of two debates this month.
In August, he said Mica fell for the "manipulation" of insurance companies when Mica voted in favor of a House bill to cap pain and suffering damages awarded to victims in medical malpractice lawsuits. The idea of the bill is to ultimately decrease malpractice insurance rates for doctors, though insurance companies made no promises that rates would drop. Hogan said the representatives in favor of the bill didn't understand the real problem. Mica blamed the problem on windfall lawsuits produced by lawyers like Hogan.
Hogan denounced him as the "PAC-man" of American politics.
But Hogan's support has seemed comparatively slight.
That started to change last week, after Mica and the National Republican Congressional Committee aired two television advertisements berating him for taking millions from Floridians after the tobacco suit.
Hogan's team says the ads just aren't true: his paycheck came from the tobacco companies. The ad was chided by two big-name Democrats: Rhea Chiles, the widow of former Gov. Lawton Chiles, and Florida's Attorney General, Bob Butterworth. Chiles was Florida's first lady when Hogan and Butterworth beat tobacco.
Until last week, those were the major Florida Democrats who spoke in favor of Hogan to a local audience. State Rep. Doug Wiles of St. Augustine since published a letter of support in The Record on Friday. And on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham called The Record to lend his support to Hogan. The call followed questions from The Record about why ranking Florida Democrats had not been stumping for Hogan in the area.
Hogan said he wanted his campaign to be about people in the district and not celebrities.
Mica and Hogan vie for a seat that lasts two years and paid $145,100 in 2001 and $150,000 in 2002.
District 7 includes all of St. Johns and Flagler counties, as well as parts of Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Putnam counties.
The platforms
Mica said his focuses are these: National and homeland security; economic development and job creation; transportation and infrastructure; affordable health care for all Americans.
Hogan said his focus will be on these: Education; affordable health care for seniors and veterans; economy; restoring investor confidence; creating sustained growth without manipulating debts; fiscal responsibility.
Both said they favor giving President Bush authority to determine the nation's course of action regarding threats of war against Iraq.
The money
The biggest difference between the candidates is money. It's blatant in some ways and subtle in others.
After refusing political action committees' money, Hogan stressed his independence.
Meanwhile, Mica stressed the strength of his Washington connections.
The difference underscores the sides that each candidate accuses the other of playing for.
Mica says Hogan runs on money earned from lawsuits that ultimately manipulate policy and hurt businesses. Hogan says Mica runs on money donated from special interest groups that ultimately manipulate policy and hurt individuals.
According to the candidates' descriptions of each other, Hogan wants to buy the seat, and Mica is bought by interests that want him in the seat.
Campaign receipt and endorsement reports from the Federal Election Commission bolster the candidates' statements. Hogan is wealthy enough to donate almost $2.8 million to his own campaign. And since July, he apparently had no problem accepting at least $70,000 in donations from Florida attorneys and their spouses.
The attorneys' donations are worth noting because Mica has said that trial attorneys are their own special interest group and Hogan supports them and is supported by them. Hogan is a former president of the Academy of Florida Trial lawyers.
Mica's money trail speaks volumes as well.
As of Oct. 24, he hadn't recorded spending any of his own money on the campaign, despite receiving about $1 million in contributions. Of that, $512,323 came from individuals and $495,346 from groups like political action committees. The Republican Party gave him $9,500.
Some of Mica's PAC-contributors are curious.
There's $15,000 in donations from Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds tobacco companies. Which is no surprise, given Hogan's history. Mica also accepted tens of thousands of dollars from nearly every major airline company in the nation, and thousands from oil, train and automobile companies. It makes sense. Mica is the highest ranking Florida member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee.
He also received thousands from insurance companies.
He even got $2,000 between 1997 and 2000 from the recently disintegrated Enron Corporation.
St. Johns County
The candidates shared a few ideas concerning local issues that could be addressed federally. Both said they would work to improve transportation and infrastructure. Both vowed to continue maintaining the coast, especially the parts affected by St. Augustine Beach's multi-million dollar beach renourishment plan.
But Mica said his seniority in the U.S. House leaves him in a better position to help St. Johns County and all of Northeast Florida.
"As a businessman, I support lower taxes and more efficiency from the government," Mica said.
Hogan said he was concerned that St. Augustine had not received sufficient federal attention for its historic treasures. He said he would pursue federal dollars for local landmarks. He also has said that he will instigate investigations of the practices of insurance companies. Many companies have closed or left the state in the last year, as the stock market stumbled, rates rose, and profits dropped. An investigation could make sure there's not "another Enron" in Florida, Hogan said.
Mica points to his history in the Orlando area, where he said he attained funding for two new veteran's clinics and a new nursing home. He cites his 10 years as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, and his 10 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also the former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Paula Hawkins, from 1980 to 1985.
Hogan said he will push for real prescription drug benefits through Medicare. He also has discussed creating a Patients' Bill of Rights.
According to Mica, a patient's bill of rights would produce nothing but bureaucratic red tape.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/110202/new_1093974.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Thursday, November 01, 2007
FLORIDA TREND MAGAZINE RE: HISTORY OF PBS&K
Culture of Trust
By Cynthia Barnett - 3/1/2007
FLORIDA TREND MAGAZINE
In 1959, Howard M. "Budd" Post, a young engineer with the Florida road department, was offered a chance to help create Miami Lakes, the state's first master-planned community.
Putting up $500 each, Post and three fellow engineers formed a company that grew as quickly and dynamically as Florida itself.
Along with managing design and construction of Miami Lakes, the young men who made up what became Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan engineered the 65-mile Card Sound Bridge that connected the mainland to the Florida Keys. They designed the first reverse-osmosis water treatment plant in Florida, Aquarina, and created the Orlando Easterly Wetlands, one of the biggest wetlands for wastewater treatment.
By the 1980s, the Miami-based firm, now known as PBS&J, was on its way to becoming the Florida Department of Transportation's largest engineering consultant. It was named general engineering consultant to the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in 1981 and to Florida's Turnpike Authority in 1988.
But when Florida tumbled into recession in the early 1990s, then-Chairman Bill Randolph decided that PBS&J needed to focus growth outside the state. Acquiring firms from here to California, he doubled PBS&J's size by the turn of the century. Between 2000 and 2005, the current chairman, John B. Zumwalt III, doubled it again -- to more than half a billion in annual revenue.
Zumwalt was particularly proud of preserving PBS&J's trusting, small-firm culture as the company grew to 4,000 employees in 75 offices in 24 states and Puerto Rico. But he and the rest of PBS&J's engineer-dominated leadership also made some key miscalculations. The biggest: As the employee-owned firm grew -- it posted $540 million in revenue last year -- it was slow to institute the kind of basic accounting procedures that are standard in large companies. "The firm grew far more rapidly," Zumwalt acknowledges, "than our internal-control system."
Suspicious invoices
What grew into a $36-million embezzlement scheme began very small, as is typical in fraud cases. In the early 1990s, according to prosecutors and auditors, two women who'd worked in PBS&J's finance department since 1978, Maria Garcia and Rosario Licata, began identifying old vendor invoices, issuing checks in those amounts, cashing the checks themselves and splitting the proceeds. Later they began to write checks to family and friends, paying for services that had never been rendered.
Their boss, William Scott DeLoach, PBS&J's controller and an up-and-comer in the company, soon called them on the suspicious invoices. But when he discovered what Garcia and Licata were doing, he decided to join the two rather than expose them.
From 1999 to 2003, Licata, as an accounts payable supervisor, would issue checks to DeLoach from one of the company's major bill-paying accounts. To avoid calling attention to either the number of checks or the amounts, DeLoach deposited them in various personal accounts he'd opened throughout Miami. In turn, DeLoach wrote checks to Garcia and Licata.
Along the way, DeLoach remained one of the most-trusted members of the firm's close-knit senior management team, which Zumwalt kept spread around the nation so managers could work "shoulder-to-shoulder" with employees. DeLoach was in Miami, Zumwalt in Tampa, the anointed fourth-generation leader, company President Todd J. Kenner, in Las Vegas.
In 2002, DeLoach was named to the firm's board of directors. In 2003, he was tapped as board treasurer. That same year, he, Garcia and Licata began to divert money from PBS&J's medical benefits account. Licata opened secret bank accounts and created what auditors describe as a phantom political action committee, "PBSJ PAC." The signatory on the secret accounts was DeLoach, who over two years transferred in millions of dollars from the medical benefits account.
The scheme could not have worked without all three: They collaborated to post unsupported journal entries in the company's ledger and then manipulated the bank reconciliations. Sometimes, they simply deleted fraudulent checks from the statements; at others, they added false deposits to inflate account balances.
Meanwhile, DeLoach continued to climb the corporate ladder. In January 2004, he was named CFO.
In addition to bilking their fellow employees, DeLoach, Garcia and Licata embezzled from clients, including Florida taxpayers. To make up what they were taking out the back door, they created bogus expenses and billed them to clients using general and administrative (G&A) accounts, which charge for project management, administration and overhead. Their manipulation of G&A accounts inflated overhead rates for government contracts.
Prosecutors say the three misappropriated some $36 million. Garcia bought sleek sports cars, Rolex watches and an interest in a local restaurant. Licata bought real estate in Florida and Nicaragua and engaged in high-stakes gambling. DeLoach had a multimillion-dollar home in Aventura and another in the Keys, sports cars and a yacht. His checks written from the phony PBSJ PAC account include more than $125,000 to ProPlayer Stadium, $92,000 to pay his American Express card and $38,000 to Neiman Marcus. He even gave $10,000 to Wake Forest University, where he'd earned his bachelor's degree in accounting.
"They were very generous people," says Cecil Bragg, inspector general for the Florida DOT. "It's easy to be generous with other people's money."
Fessing up
The generosity ended after the employee-owned company began a voluntary effort to comply with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the federal law passed in response to major corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. The act, which only public companies must follow, requires among other measures a corporate audit committee with independent members and internal audit personnel.
PBS&J's internal auditor was 35-year-old Melissa Eubanks. In January 2005, she couldn't get a satisfactory answer about a bank reconciliation of $804,223. The reconciliation noted, "less check voided to wrong bank code."
Eubanks went to the audit committee, which hired a team of securities lawyers from Holland & Knight. They in turn brought in forensic auditors, who found significant differences between original bank statements and the statements that DeLoach and the others had put in PBS&J's files.
Part of the fraud was decidedly low-tech: Using white correction fluid, someone had wiped thousands of dollars off statements with a few brushstrokes -- in one instance, $52,362.86 became $362.86. "This was not a complicated scheme at all," says Bragg.
As soon as he knew a forensic audit was under way, a remorseful DeLoach fessed up. He brought his lawyer, Jane Moscowitz, to work, admitted everything and turned over all his assets, including his homestead residence, 401(k) and marital assets. "It's the most extraordinary remorse I've seen in 30 years of practice," says Moscowitz. "He was in way, way over his head for his job." DeLoach, Garcia and Licata pleaded guilty to mail fraud in a deal with prosecutors and were to be sentenced last month.
Zumwalt decided to immediately disclose everything -- to the SEC, PBS&J's employee-shareholders and clients, including the two largest, the Florida and Texas transportation departments. "From day one, I made the decision that we would be totally transparent with everyone," says Zumwalt. PBS&J retained Holland & Knight and two top accounting firms for an internal investigation that took nearly two years. Financial sleuths pored over company records, investigated employees and scoured hard drives to determine the extent of the fraud and make sure it was limited to three people. Rod Bell, head of H&K's securities group in south Florida, says he's confident the scheme stopped with DeLoach, Garcia and Licata.
The cost to figure out the fraud and to calculate how much PBS&J owes its clients has reached $20 million, Zumwalt says.
The scandal also cost PBS&J a significant amount of business. The company was suspended by the Texas transportation department and voluntarily stopped pursuing Florida DOT jobs as the agencies conducted their own investigations. Lowell R. Clary, assistant secretary for finance and administration at Florida's DOT, says the agency pegged its loss at $12 million. PBS&J has repaid in full and is back in business with DOT, where it is program manager to five of the eight districts.
Other Florida governments overbilled included the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and Orange and Polk counties. The company has either repaid or is in the process of repaying those agencies. In January, it paid $6.4 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve overstated overhead rates on hundreds of contracts with more than a dozen federal agencies.
In November, with outside auditors digging into its own books, OOCEA decided to put longtime monopoly contracts out to bid, including the PBS&J contract that has earned the firm more than $82 million over the past quarter-century.
But overall, Clary and others say the quality of the firm's work and the trust it earned over nearly 50 years in business helped maintain goodwill with clients. The company also has been able to weather the financial blow, in large part thanks to the no-debt business philosophy carried forward from Budd Post, John Buckley, Bob Schuh and Alex Jernigan. "They always made sure they could pay the bills, even if it meant personal sacrifice," says Phillip Searcy, an independent board member who worked for PBS&J from 1972 until his retirement in 2001. The firm had in reserve accounts the nearly $60 million required to pay its lawyers and accountants and repay clients.
The biggest question mark that remains for PBS&J, its employees and clients is an ongoing FBI investigation into illegal campaign contributions at the firm that was sparked by the embezzlement probe. Federal officials found DeLoach illegally contributed to U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's campaign in 2004 and asked four PBS&J employees to do the same. Employees and their spouses made contributions totaling $11,000, and DeLoach reimbursed them courtesy of PBS&J. Zumwalt says the practice is strictly forbidden at the firm and was part of the fraud. The FBI has declined to comment on its investigation.
While the damage to the firm's reputation and finances has been painful, PBS&J employees say the blow to the firm's culture hurt the worst. After becoming president in 2000, Zumwalt had redoubled efforts to keep the company close and community-oriented as it grew, with efforts such as "Leadership PBS&J" modeled after the Leadership Florida program. DeLoach was a graduate, and Zumwalt held him up as a model of the firm's commitment to succession planning and promoting from within.
Zumwalt also had opened the company's employee-ownership program to all full-time employees. The 45% who owned a piece of their workplace have watched their equity shrink in the wake of the embezzlement. "This was a very family-oriented company, where everybody knew everybody, and everybody was close," says Scott Lawson, senior vice president and national service director in PBS&J's Atlanta office. "It was just like finding out your own brother had done something to destroy the family."
"The way I see it is that we were in Camelot," says Zumwalt. "Now we are coming out of Camelot, and the real world is upon us."
Fresh start
While the embezzlement rudely booted the firm from Camelot, it hasn't swayed Zumwalt and other company leaders from their goal of becoming a $1-billion firm -- "the only $1-billion firm with a culture," Zumwalt likes to say. The company is focusing on the transportation, water and facilities markets. It's also targeting the fast-growing applied technologies services market, which includes risk and emergency management and high-tech mapping and surveying.
Ironically, just as the firm goes global, it also is returning to its Florida roots -- pulling all senior managers to Tampa, where it moved its headquarters last year in an effort to "make a fresh start, a different way of going forward," says Zumwalt.
In addition to gathering its senior managers under one roof and strengthening its accounting and audit procedures, the firm has hired an ethics officer and recruited an outsider with public-company experience as CFO. Donald Vrana was the chief accounting officer, controller and treasurer at Omaha-based Sitel Corp., where he oversaw implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley internal controls. Lawson, the national service director, says with employees, clients and the government all clamoring for tighter controls, "now it's like the pendulum has swung in the other direction, where our processes and controls are better than anyone else's in the field because everything we do from now on has to be beyond question. There's a general attitude that we'll all be smarter and stronger because of this. But it's been tough."
Kenner, PBS&J's 45-year-old president who has worked for the company in Las Vegas since a 1992 acquisition, relocated to Tampa last June and is expected to take the reins from Zumwalt someday. PBS&J's trusting culture may have led to its greatest crisis, Kenner says. But he also predicts it's what will pull the firm through. "I hope we never lose that deep-founded trust in each other," says Kenner, a marathoner with his eye on the long run. "That doesn't preclude us from verifying, from really challenging each other, which is what we didn't do as
effectively as we should have.
"But we have to keep the commitment to our culture, to the sense of purpose and cause we feel personally and professionally," Kenner says. "I really don't see it as worthwhile without that."
High-Ranking
Engineering News-Record ranks PBS&J 22 among top U.S. design firms based on 2005 revenue. Here's how the company ranks in specific categories:
Category Industry Rank
Transmission lines and aqueducts 4
"Pure design" 5
Multiunit residential 8
Sanitary/storm sewers 8
Highways 8
Transportation 9
Bridges 12
Mass transit and rail 14
Airports 9
Sewer/solid waste 11
Wastewater treatment 16
Water supply 13
Water treatment/desalination plants 14
Retail 22
Source: Engineering News-Record, June 2006
PBS&J Projects
Significant PBS&J projects outside the Sunshine State:
» Sacramento, Calif.: For the largest infill project in the U.S., PBS&J is preparing the environmental impact report that will reshape Sacramento's decades-old rail yards into a multiuse complex.
» Fort Belvoir, Va.: PBS&J is part of the team selected to oversee the high-profile, complex task of preparing Fort Belvoir to address Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.
» Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: PBS&J provided engineering services and construction documents for site preparation and paving and lighting of the new fifth runway.
» Central Texas: The company has a contract with the Texas Department of Transportation's Austin District for Highway 45, Loop 1 and Highway 130, part of which opened ahead of schedule in 2006.
» Washington, D.C.: PBS&J is designing protective perimeter security systems at the Russell Senate Office Building, Ford House Office Building and the Capitol Power Plant.
» Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta: PBS&J was recently awarded a five-year, $1.5-million contract and a three-year, $1.2-million contract by the CDC Health and Environmental Safety Division for hazardous waste management and environmental management technical assistance.
» California: The firm is mapping more than 13,000 miles of levees, canals and flood-control features, setting the stage for advanced analysis and risk assessment.
» Las Vegas.: PBS&J is providing environmental, permitting, land surveying and right-of-way services for the conveyance system that will remove highly treated effluent from a water body known as the Las Vegas Wash directly into Lake Mead.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2007 Florida Trend All rights Reserved.
By Cynthia Barnett - 3/1/2007
FLORIDA TREND MAGAZINE
In 1959, Howard M. "Budd" Post, a young engineer with the Florida road department, was offered a chance to help create Miami Lakes, the state's first master-planned community.
Putting up $500 each, Post and three fellow engineers formed a company that grew as quickly and dynamically as Florida itself.
Along with managing design and construction of Miami Lakes, the young men who made up what became Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan engineered the 65-mile Card Sound Bridge that connected the mainland to the Florida Keys. They designed the first reverse-osmosis water treatment plant in Florida, Aquarina, and created the Orlando Easterly Wetlands, one of the biggest wetlands for wastewater treatment.
By the 1980s, the Miami-based firm, now known as PBS&J, was on its way to becoming the Florida Department of Transportation's largest engineering consultant. It was named general engineering consultant to the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in 1981 and to Florida's Turnpike Authority in 1988.
But when Florida tumbled into recession in the early 1990s, then-Chairman Bill Randolph decided that PBS&J needed to focus growth outside the state. Acquiring firms from here to California, he doubled PBS&J's size by the turn of the century. Between 2000 and 2005, the current chairman, John B. Zumwalt III, doubled it again -- to more than half a billion in annual revenue.
Zumwalt was particularly proud of preserving PBS&J's trusting, small-firm culture as the company grew to 4,000 employees in 75 offices in 24 states and Puerto Rico. But he and the rest of PBS&J's engineer-dominated leadership also made some key miscalculations. The biggest: As the employee-owned firm grew -- it posted $540 million in revenue last year -- it was slow to institute the kind of basic accounting procedures that are standard in large companies. "The firm grew far more rapidly," Zumwalt acknowledges, "than our internal-control system."
Suspicious invoices
What grew into a $36-million embezzlement scheme began very small, as is typical in fraud cases. In the early 1990s, according to prosecutors and auditors, two women who'd worked in PBS&J's finance department since 1978, Maria Garcia and Rosario Licata, began identifying old vendor invoices, issuing checks in those amounts, cashing the checks themselves and splitting the proceeds. Later they began to write checks to family and friends, paying for services that had never been rendered.
Their boss, William Scott DeLoach, PBS&J's controller and an up-and-comer in the company, soon called them on the suspicious invoices. But when he discovered what Garcia and Licata were doing, he decided to join the two rather than expose them.
From 1999 to 2003, Licata, as an accounts payable supervisor, would issue checks to DeLoach from one of the company's major bill-paying accounts. To avoid calling attention to either the number of checks or the amounts, DeLoach deposited them in various personal accounts he'd opened throughout Miami. In turn, DeLoach wrote checks to Garcia and Licata.
Along the way, DeLoach remained one of the most-trusted members of the firm's close-knit senior management team, which Zumwalt kept spread around the nation so managers could work "shoulder-to-shoulder" with employees. DeLoach was in Miami, Zumwalt in Tampa, the anointed fourth-generation leader, company President Todd J. Kenner, in Las Vegas.
In 2002, DeLoach was named to the firm's board of directors. In 2003, he was tapped as board treasurer. That same year, he, Garcia and Licata began to divert money from PBS&J's medical benefits account. Licata opened secret bank accounts and created what auditors describe as a phantom political action committee, "PBSJ PAC." The signatory on the secret accounts was DeLoach, who over two years transferred in millions of dollars from the medical benefits account.
The scheme could not have worked without all three: They collaborated to post unsupported journal entries in the company's ledger and then manipulated the bank reconciliations. Sometimes, they simply deleted fraudulent checks from the statements; at others, they added false deposits to inflate account balances.
Meanwhile, DeLoach continued to climb the corporate ladder. In January 2004, he was named CFO.
In addition to bilking their fellow employees, DeLoach, Garcia and Licata embezzled from clients, including Florida taxpayers. To make up what they were taking out the back door, they created bogus expenses and billed them to clients using general and administrative (G&A) accounts, which charge for project management, administration and overhead. Their manipulation of G&A accounts inflated overhead rates for government contracts.
Prosecutors say the three misappropriated some $36 million. Garcia bought sleek sports cars, Rolex watches and an interest in a local restaurant. Licata bought real estate in Florida and Nicaragua and engaged in high-stakes gambling. DeLoach had a multimillion-dollar home in Aventura and another in the Keys, sports cars and a yacht. His checks written from the phony PBSJ PAC account include more than $125,000 to ProPlayer Stadium, $92,000 to pay his American Express card and $38,000 to Neiman Marcus. He even gave $10,000 to Wake Forest University, where he'd earned his bachelor's degree in accounting.
"They were very generous people," says Cecil Bragg, inspector general for the Florida DOT. "It's easy to be generous with other people's money."
Fessing up
The generosity ended after the employee-owned company began a voluntary effort to comply with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the federal law passed in response to major corporate and accounting scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. The act, which only public companies must follow, requires among other measures a corporate audit committee with independent members and internal audit personnel.
PBS&J's internal auditor was 35-year-old Melissa Eubanks. In January 2005, she couldn't get a satisfactory answer about a bank reconciliation of $804,223. The reconciliation noted, "less check voided to wrong bank code."
Eubanks went to the audit committee, which hired a team of securities lawyers from Holland & Knight. They in turn brought in forensic auditors, who found significant differences between original bank statements and the statements that DeLoach and the others had put in PBS&J's files.
Part of the fraud was decidedly low-tech: Using white correction fluid, someone had wiped thousands of dollars off statements with a few brushstrokes -- in one instance, $52,362.86 became $362.86. "This was not a complicated scheme at all," says Bragg.
As soon as he knew a forensic audit was under way, a remorseful DeLoach fessed up. He brought his lawyer, Jane Moscowitz, to work, admitted everything and turned over all his assets, including his homestead residence, 401(k) and marital assets. "It's the most extraordinary remorse I've seen in 30 years of practice," says Moscowitz. "He was in way, way over his head for his job." DeLoach, Garcia and Licata pleaded guilty to mail fraud in a deal with prosecutors and were to be sentenced last month.
Zumwalt decided to immediately disclose everything -- to the SEC, PBS&J's employee-shareholders and clients, including the two largest, the Florida and Texas transportation departments. "From day one, I made the decision that we would be totally transparent with everyone," says Zumwalt. PBS&J retained Holland & Knight and two top accounting firms for an internal investigation that took nearly two years. Financial sleuths pored over company records, investigated employees and scoured hard drives to determine the extent of the fraud and make sure it was limited to three people. Rod Bell, head of H&K's securities group in south Florida, says he's confident the scheme stopped with DeLoach, Garcia and Licata.
The cost to figure out the fraud and to calculate how much PBS&J owes its clients has reached $20 million, Zumwalt says.
The scandal also cost PBS&J a significant amount of business. The company was suspended by the Texas transportation department and voluntarily stopped pursuing Florida DOT jobs as the agencies conducted their own investigations. Lowell R. Clary, assistant secretary for finance and administration at Florida's DOT, says the agency pegged its loss at $12 million. PBS&J has repaid in full and is back in business with DOT, where it is program manager to five of the eight districts.
Other Florida governments overbilled included the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and Orange and Polk counties. The company has either repaid or is in the process of repaying those agencies. In January, it paid $6.4 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve overstated overhead rates on hundreds of contracts with more than a dozen federal agencies.
In November, with outside auditors digging into its own books, OOCEA decided to put longtime monopoly contracts out to bid, including the PBS&J contract that has earned the firm more than $82 million over the past quarter-century.
But overall, Clary and others say the quality of the firm's work and the trust it earned over nearly 50 years in business helped maintain goodwill with clients. The company also has been able to weather the financial blow, in large part thanks to the no-debt business philosophy carried forward from Budd Post, John Buckley, Bob Schuh and Alex Jernigan. "They always made sure they could pay the bills, even if it meant personal sacrifice," says Phillip Searcy, an independent board member who worked for PBS&J from 1972 until his retirement in 2001. The firm had in reserve accounts the nearly $60 million required to pay its lawyers and accountants and repay clients.
The biggest question mark that remains for PBS&J, its employees and clients is an ongoing FBI investigation into illegal campaign contributions at the firm that was sparked by the embezzlement probe. Federal officials found DeLoach illegally contributed to U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's campaign in 2004 and asked four PBS&J employees to do the same. Employees and their spouses made contributions totaling $11,000, and DeLoach reimbursed them courtesy of PBS&J. Zumwalt says the practice is strictly forbidden at the firm and was part of the fraud. The FBI has declined to comment on its investigation.
While the damage to the firm's reputation and finances has been painful, PBS&J employees say the blow to the firm's culture hurt the worst. After becoming president in 2000, Zumwalt had redoubled efforts to keep the company close and community-oriented as it grew, with efforts such as "Leadership PBS&J" modeled after the Leadership Florida program. DeLoach was a graduate, and Zumwalt held him up as a model of the firm's commitment to succession planning and promoting from within.
Zumwalt also had opened the company's employee-ownership program to all full-time employees. The 45% who owned a piece of their workplace have watched their equity shrink in the wake of the embezzlement. "This was a very family-oriented company, where everybody knew everybody, and everybody was close," says Scott Lawson, senior vice president and national service director in PBS&J's Atlanta office. "It was just like finding out your own brother had done something to destroy the family."
"The way I see it is that we were in Camelot," says Zumwalt. "Now we are coming out of Camelot, and the real world is upon us."
Fresh start
While the embezzlement rudely booted the firm from Camelot, it hasn't swayed Zumwalt and other company leaders from their goal of becoming a $1-billion firm -- "the only $1-billion firm with a culture," Zumwalt likes to say. The company is focusing on the transportation, water and facilities markets. It's also targeting the fast-growing applied technologies services market, which includes risk and emergency management and high-tech mapping and surveying.
Ironically, just as the firm goes global, it also is returning to its Florida roots -- pulling all senior managers to Tampa, where it moved its headquarters last year in an effort to "make a fresh start, a different way of going forward," says Zumwalt.
In addition to gathering its senior managers under one roof and strengthening its accounting and audit procedures, the firm has hired an ethics officer and recruited an outsider with public-company experience as CFO. Donald Vrana was the chief accounting officer, controller and treasurer at Omaha-based Sitel Corp., where he oversaw implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley internal controls. Lawson, the national service director, says with employees, clients and the government all clamoring for tighter controls, "now it's like the pendulum has swung in the other direction, where our processes and controls are better than anyone else's in the field because everything we do from now on has to be beyond question. There's a general attitude that we'll all be smarter and stronger because of this. But it's been tough."
Kenner, PBS&J's 45-year-old president who has worked for the company in Las Vegas since a 1992 acquisition, relocated to Tampa last June and is expected to take the reins from Zumwalt someday. PBS&J's trusting culture may have led to its greatest crisis, Kenner says. But he also predicts it's what will pull the firm through. "I hope we never lose that deep-founded trust in each other," says Kenner, a marathoner with his eye on the long run. "That doesn't preclude us from verifying, from really challenging each other, which is what we didn't do as
effectively as we should have.
"But we have to keep the commitment to our culture, to the sense of purpose and cause we feel personally and professionally," Kenner says. "I really don't see it as worthwhile without that."
High-Ranking
Engineering News-Record ranks PBS&J 22 among top U.S. design firms based on 2005 revenue. Here's how the company ranks in specific categories:
Category Industry Rank
Transmission lines and aqueducts 4
"Pure design" 5
Multiunit residential 8
Sanitary/storm sewers 8
Highways 8
Transportation 9
Bridges 12
Mass transit and rail 14
Airports 9
Sewer/solid waste 11
Wastewater treatment 16
Water supply 13
Water treatment/desalination plants 14
Retail 22
Source: Engineering News-Record, June 2006
PBS&J Projects
Significant PBS&J projects outside the Sunshine State:
» Sacramento, Calif.: For the largest infill project in the U.S., PBS&J is preparing the environmental impact report that will reshape Sacramento's decades-old rail yards into a multiuse complex.
» Fort Belvoir, Va.: PBS&J is part of the team selected to oversee the high-profile, complex task of preparing Fort Belvoir to address Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.
» Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: PBS&J provided engineering services and construction documents for site preparation and paving and lighting of the new fifth runway.
» Central Texas: The company has a contract with the Texas Department of Transportation's Austin District for Highway 45, Loop 1 and Highway 130, part of which opened ahead of schedule in 2006.
» Washington, D.C.: PBS&J is designing protective perimeter security systems at the Russell Senate Office Building, Ford House Office Building and the Capitol Power Plant.
» Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta: PBS&J was recently awarded a five-year, $1.5-million contract and a three-year, $1.2-million contract by the CDC Health and Environmental Safety Division for hazardous waste management and environmental management technical assistance.
» California: The firm is mapping more than 13,000 miles of levees, canals and flood-control features, setting the stage for advanced analysis and risk assessment.
» Las Vegas.: PBS&J is providing environmental, permitting, land surveying and right-of-way services for the conveyance system that will remove highly treated effluent from a water body known as the Las Vegas Wash directly into Lake Mead.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2007 Florida Trend All rights Reserved.
Orlando Sentinel: Grand jury raps X-way on political fundraising
Orlando Sentinel: Grand jury raps X-way on political fundraising
No one charged -- but changes urged
Christopher Sherman
Dan Tracy and Jay Hamburg, Sentinel Staff Writers
October 10, 2007
An Orange County grand jury filed a sealed report Tuesday criticizing political fundraising that went on within the region's toll-road agency, but the panel did not issue any criminal indictments.
"There are some changes that need to happen at the expressway authority," said Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar, who would not discuss specifics of the filing.
Lamar said he hoped that "this will get some sort of an ethical ball rolling" in Florida. Developers, he said, have too much influence in the political system, and closer attention must be paid to the relationship between donors and those who vote on their projects.
"We can't run the state on a good-ol'-boy network forever," Lamar said.
Tuesday's secret document comes six months after the release of sworn testimony alleging that former expressway Chairman Allan Keen pressured consultants working for the agency to raise money for political candidates he backed.
The grand jury's filing, known as a presentment, is the latest in a string of controversies involving the inner workings of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. The Orange County Comptroller's Office is about to finish an audit expected to criticize the agency's financial record-keeping, awarding of contracts and business culture.
The presentment will remain sealed for 15 days after all of those named in it are notified. They will have the opportunity to object and request that it remain sealed or be modified. If unsuccessful, copies will be made public.
According to the testimony released in April, Keen allegedly used his expressway influence to support Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty's re-election bid in 2006. Crotty later replaced Keen as chairman of the authority.
On Tuesday, the mayor denied any wrongdoing.
"I did not make many direct fundraising calls myself," Crotty said. "I never used my position as mayor or a member of the expressway authority to raise campaign" donations.
As for other authority members who raised money via expressway-panel ties, Crotty said that would seem appropriate -- so long as they were legal and not coerced in any way.
"You kind of go to your own contact list," Crotty said.
Criticism 'always welcome'
Keen's attorney, Robert Leventhal, said it was difficult to comment because he did not know what was in the sealed record.
"Allan Keen has stated, and I state, that constructive criticism of any public activity of the authority, whether from the period when he was chairman, now or in the future, is always welcome," Leventhal said.
Expressway-authority Director Mike Snyder said he was surprised by the grand jury's suggestion of political favoritism.
"I've never had a board member -- either directly or indirectly -- say, 'I want you to consider this firm,' or 'You need to give this company special consideration,' " he said. "I don't think there ever should be such influence. It needs to be apolitical."
Snyder served as an expressway-board member from December 1999 to March 2004 by virtue of his former position as district secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation. He left that position to take the executive director's post.
Keen, a longtime GOP fundraiser, was Snyder's first boss at the agency.
Keen also was one of numerous individuals with expressway contacts and ties who were top contributors and fundraisers for Crotty's successful mayoral campaign.
They included former Winter Park marketing consultant Ron Pecora; the agency's former lead attorney, Ken Wright; and the influential former agency right-of-way attorney C. David Brown.
$737,076 for Crotty's run
All told, the 200-plus finance-team leaders helped Crotty amass $737,076 in contributions, county records show. Crotty easily won re-election last year against two lesser-known and underfunded candidates.
Crotty previously told the Orlando Sentinel that Keen brought $20,000 of the $100,000 that Crotty was credited with raising for the 2004 campaign of President Bush.
Bryan Douglas, a former authority employee who once worked for Pecora, testified that it would be hard to find a consultant at the expressway authority who wasn't involved in political fundraising.
Another former Pecora employee specifically mentioned Wright's law firm, Shutts & Bowen, and PBS&J, the agency's general engineering contractor, as consultants whom Keen approached for money.
Pecora would not comment Wednesday. Wright, Brown and Douglas could not be reached. A PBS&J spokeswoman previously told the Sentinel in an e-mail that her company "did not feel any pressure" to give from Keen.
Douglas resigned as the authority's marketing director last year. Along with Pecora and others, Douglas was interviewed under oath by investigators and attorneys working for Lamar and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Areas still under inquiry
The report indicates that, although investigators found areas of concern, they did not have evidence to support formal charges.
Lamar said there are still areas related to the authority that are being investigated and could be brought to a future grand jury.
David Damron of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361. Dan Tracy can be reached at dtracy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5444. Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5673.
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-xway1007oct10,0,1403835.story
Copyright © 2007, Orlando Sentinel
No one charged -- but changes urged
Christopher Sherman
Dan Tracy and Jay Hamburg, Sentinel Staff Writers
October 10, 2007
An Orange County grand jury filed a sealed report Tuesday criticizing political fundraising that went on within the region's toll-road agency, but the panel did not issue any criminal indictments.
"There are some changes that need to happen at the expressway authority," said Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar, who would not discuss specifics of the filing.
Lamar said he hoped that "this will get some sort of an ethical ball rolling" in Florida. Developers, he said, have too much influence in the political system, and closer attention must be paid to the relationship between donors and those who vote on their projects.
"We can't run the state on a good-ol'-boy network forever," Lamar said.
Tuesday's secret document comes six months after the release of sworn testimony alleging that former expressway Chairman Allan Keen pressured consultants working for the agency to raise money for political candidates he backed.
The grand jury's filing, known as a presentment, is the latest in a string of controversies involving the inner workings of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. The Orange County Comptroller's Office is about to finish an audit expected to criticize the agency's financial record-keeping, awarding of contracts and business culture.
The presentment will remain sealed for 15 days after all of those named in it are notified. They will have the opportunity to object and request that it remain sealed or be modified. If unsuccessful, copies will be made public.
According to the testimony released in April, Keen allegedly used his expressway influence to support Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty's re-election bid in 2006. Crotty later replaced Keen as chairman of the authority.
On Tuesday, the mayor denied any wrongdoing.
"I did not make many direct fundraising calls myself," Crotty said. "I never used my position as mayor or a member of the expressway authority to raise campaign" donations.
As for other authority members who raised money via expressway-panel ties, Crotty said that would seem appropriate -- so long as they were legal and not coerced in any way.
"You kind of go to your own contact list," Crotty said.
Criticism 'always welcome'
Keen's attorney, Robert Leventhal, said it was difficult to comment because he did not know what was in the sealed record.
"Allan Keen has stated, and I state, that constructive criticism of any public activity of the authority, whether from the period when he was chairman, now or in the future, is always welcome," Leventhal said.
Expressway-authority Director Mike Snyder said he was surprised by the grand jury's suggestion of political favoritism.
"I've never had a board member -- either directly or indirectly -- say, 'I want you to consider this firm,' or 'You need to give this company special consideration,' " he said. "I don't think there ever should be such influence. It needs to be apolitical."
Snyder served as an expressway-board member from December 1999 to March 2004 by virtue of his former position as district secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation. He left that position to take the executive director's post.
Keen, a longtime GOP fundraiser, was Snyder's first boss at the agency.
Keen also was one of numerous individuals with expressway contacts and ties who were top contributors and fundraisers for Crotty's successful mayoral campaign.
They included former Winter Park marketing consultant Ron Pecora; the agency's former lead attorney, Ken Wright; and the influential former agency right-of-way attorney C. David Brown.
$737,076 for Crotty's run
All told, the 200-plus finance-team leaders helped Crotty amass $737,076 in contributions, county records show. Crotty easily won re-election last year against two lesser-known and underfunded candidates.
Crotty previously told the Orlando Sentinel that Keen brought $20,000 of the $100,000 that Crotty was credited with raising for the 2004 campaign of President Bush.
Bryan Douglas, a former authority employee who once worked for Pecora, testified that it would be hard to find a consultant at the expressway authority who wasn't involved in political fundraising.
Another former Pecora employee specifically mentioned Wright's law firm, Shutts & Bowen, and PBS&J, the agency's general engineering contractor, as consultants whom Keen approached for money.
Pecora would not comment Wednesday. Wright, Brown and Douglas could not be reached. A PBS&J spokeswoman previously told the Sentinel in an e-mail that her company "did not feel any pressure" to give from Keen.
Douglas resigned as the authority's marketing director last year. Along with Pecora and others, Douglas was interviewed under oath by investigators and attorneys working for Lamar and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Areas still under inquiry
The report indicates that, although investigators found areas of concern, they did not have evidence to support formal charges.
Lamar said there are still areas related to the authority that are being investigated and could be brought to a future grand jury.
David Damron of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361. Dan Tracy can be reached at dtracy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5444. Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5673.
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-xway1007oct10,0,1403835.story
Copyright © 2007, Orlando Sentinel
Editorial: Let the public speak early
Editorial: Let the public speak early
From Staff
Publication Date: 10/28/07
The St. Augustine City Commission insists it is not trying to squelch general public comment at its meetings but sometimes actions speak louder than words.
The City Commission recently endorsed the move of general public comment from the beginning of the meeting to near the end to make way for earlier public hearings.
Mayor Joe Boles instigated the later general comment period for two reasons: to make public hearings more accessible for people coming to
them and to answer concerns of City Commissioner Errol Jones that public hearings kept being moved around confusing people on the night of the hearings.
Boles says he moved them up because of the crowds.
"I just don't like seeing all those people outside on benches watching us on television until it's their turn to speak at a public hearing because there's no room inside." he said.
So he's tweaking the order of business so that public hearings will go ahead of everything else on the agenda except the opening, invocation and awards and presentations. That way, most people will leave when
their issue is over opening up more seats inside the meeting room for others with other interests.
The perception though, is that the commission wants certain public speakers to go away, hoping that by placing general public comment at the end of the meeting, they will just leave.
Every local government has its gadflies. They won't go away regardless of where public comment ends up.
We encourage the public to speak up at public meetings offering new ideas or reminding commissioners of their previous comments and concerns.
We asked Boles if he perceives that general public comment speakers are interested in "open mic" and television "face time" early in a meeting to push their own agendas to a wider audience.
Boles said that's not his concern. "I get calls all the time from people criticizing what we do or offering suggestions. I want people to speak out."
Florida's open government laws guarantee the public's right of access to government. Unfortunately the laws don't mandate when general public comment is heard. The St. Johns County Commission, the St.
Johns County School Board and St. Augustine Beach City Commission have early public comment periods like the St. Augustine used to have.
Our advice to the St. Augustine City Commission is to let the public speak on anything they desire as early as possible in the meetings. Earlier is better than later so that everyone, including the commission, is fresh rather than tired and hungry. It just seems to be common sense.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102807/opinions_001.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
From Staff
Publication Date: 10/28/07
The St. Augustine City Commission insists it is not trying to squelch general public comment at its meetings but sometimes actions speak louder than words.
The City Commission recently endorsed the move of general public comment from the beginning of the meeting to near the end to make way for earlier public hearings.
Mayor Joe Boles instigated the later general comment period for two reasons: to make public hearings more accessible for people coming to
them and to answer concerns of City Commissioner Errol Jones that public hearings kept being moved around confusing people on the night of the hearings.
Boles says he moved them up because of the crowds.
"I just don't like seeing all those people outside on benches watching us on television until it's their turn to speak at a public hearing because there's no room inside." he said.
So he's tweaking the order of business so that public hearings will go ahead of everything else on the agenda except the opening, invocation and awards and presentations. That way, most people will leave when
their issue is over opening up more seats inside the meeting room for others with other interests.
The perception though, is that the commission wants certain public speakers to go away, hoping that by placing general public comment at the end of the meeting, they will just leave.
Every local government has its gadflies. They won't go away regardless of where public comment ends up.
We encourage the public to speak up at public meetings offering new ideas or reminding commissioners of their previous comments and concerns.
We asked Boles if he perceives that general public comment speakers are interested in "open mic" and television "face time" early in a meeting to push their own agendas to a wider audience.
Boles said that's not his concern. "I get calls all the time from people criticizing what we do or offering suggestions. I want people to speak out."
Florida's open government laws guarantee the public's right of access to government. Unfortunately the laws don't mandate when general public comment is heard. The St. Johns County Commission, the St.
Johns County School Board and St. Augustine Beach City Commission have early public comment periods like the St. Augustine used to have.
Our advice to the St. Augustine City Commission is to let the public speak on anything they desire as early as possible in the meetings. Earlier is better than later so that everyone, including the commission, is fresh rather than tired and hungry. It just seems to be common sense.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102807/opinions_001.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Letter: City's public comment time too late for most
Letter: City's public comment time too late for most
Nancy Powell
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/28/07
Editor: Very little shocks an 82-year-old retired newsperson. Do you think the St. Augustine City Commission has proved me wrong? They voted 3-2 to move time set aside for public comment on their proposed actions from first to last on the agenda.
In my day there were lots of little old ladies in tennis shoes and one or two in wheelchairs who came to almost every meeting and all were given time to speak and still get home before their bedtimes.
Regardless of age, people resent having to wait until midnight and sometimes the wee hours of the morning to speak only a few minutes. Not all are physically able. Who among the spectators is going to hang around three or four hours to hear what concerns their neighbors? How will this change in time affect the news media? Will their employers pay overtime?
How bad is this going to get? Will taxpayers be forced to attend public hearings at midnight?
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102807/opinions_letter2.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Nancy Powell
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 10/28/07
Editor: Very little shocks an 82-year-old retired newsperson. Do you think the St. Augustine City Commission has proved me wrong? They voted 3-2 to move time set aside for public comment on their proposed actions from first to last on the agenda.
In my day there were lots of little old ladies in tennis shoes and one or two in wheelchairs who came to almost every meeting and all were given time to speak and still get home before their bedtimes.
Regardless of age, people resent having to wait until midnight and sometimes the wee hours of the morning to speak only a few minutes. Not all are physically able. Who among the spectators is going to hang around three or four hours to hear what concerns their neighbors? How will this change in time affect the news media? Will their employers pay overtime?
How bad is this going to get? Will taxpayers be forced to attend public hearings at midnight?
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102807/opinions_letter2.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
"INCOMPETENCE" OR WILLFUL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES BY YOUR CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE "CITY MANGLER" (f/k/a MANAGER) WILLIAM B. HARRISS & CO.?
"INCOMPETENCE" OR WILLFUL ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES BY YOUR CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE "CITY MANGLER" (f/k/a MANAGER) WILLIAM B. HARRISS & CO.?
Seldom do top government officials confess to "incompetence" on the front page.
Ours finally did last week. This has been an exciting time in St. Augustine's history -- the Emperor has no clothes. HARRISS also has no more public support.
No one now says that WILLIAM HARRISS is doing a great job and should be City- Manager-for-Life.
October 23, 2007 was the day when St. Augustinians awoke to read on the front page of the Record that our City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS, pled "incompetence" as a defense to the environmental crimes the State of Florida refused to prosecute. HARRISS finally admitted it was wrong to dump the contents of the old city dump into the old city Reservoir.
Does being WILLIAM B. HARRISS mean never having to say you're sorry?
Yes.
WILLIAM B. HARRISS did not apologize.
WILLIAM B. HARRISS did not explain.
Instead, HARRISS bashed, blacklisted and blasted as "incompetent" two licensed Professional Engineers who (until last year) both worked for our City.
Was HARRISS "incompetent" for hiring them?
Were City Managers incompetent for hiring HARRISS?
Why does HARRIS claim the two scapegoats were "incompetent?" For giving HARRISS bum legal advice. Of course, the two Professional Engineers whom HARRISS lambastes were not just any Professional Engineers. Both were Managers -- Masters of the Universe in City Hall -- part of HARRISS' all-white, all-male Inner Circle.
Like every other employee in City Hall, the two P.E./Managers served at HARRIS' "pleasure." One was over Utilities and the other was over Public Works. Both were respected, hard-working civil servants. Both probably never did anything without HARRISS's approval.
Both feared HARRISS' disapproval, down to something so insignificant as to which street gets a speed hump. HARRISS reminds me of former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton said, "there's politics in everything I do." Yet HARRISS pushes Commissioners not to do "political" things (like honoring U.S. soldiers by flying a flag or endorsing the scrub jay as state bird).
HARRISS's contention about relying on Professional Engineers for legal advice is poppycock.
Neither P.E. is a licensed attorney, so blaming them for their legal advice is a bit weak (like a quarterback blaming a sports writer for suggesting bad plays). City Mangler (f/k/a City Manager) WILLIAM B. HARRISS, had a full- time City Attorney, a full-time Assistant City Attorney and a paralegal working on the same floor as him.
If HARRISS was confused about orders not to dump without a permit, HARRISS had only to ask them.
HARRISS also had on- call WILLIAM PENCE, an environmental attorney with Akerman, Senterfitt, biggest corporate law firm in the State of Florida (pictured infra wearing colonial finery).
Were Akerman Senterfitt and the St. Augustine City Attorney and Assistant City Attorney ever consulted? Or did HARRISS keep these three lawyers kept out of the loop intentionally, preferring to save money than ask the right questions?
HARRISS does not say.
HARRISS has not criticized any of his attorneys. HARRISS signals that his own "defense" is bunk.
Of course HARRISS did not tell the attorneys he was planning to dump in violation of SJRWMD orders. HARRISS claims/admits relying on legal advice from two Professional Engineers (but not a third, still with the City, the City's Chief Operating Officer, and presumably also kept out of the loop).
What makes WILLIAM B. HARRISS think that it was in his job description to ask two Professional Engineers whether something is legal when our City of St. Augustine has a City Attorney? What part of the City Charter says to call upon P.E.s for legal advice? We have a City Attorney, appointed by the Commissioners. His office is right down the hall from HARRISS's office.
Who asks P.E.s for legal advice (unless they also happen to be lawyers)?
If HARRISS ever really thought the two P.E.s "incompetent," did HARRISS report them to state licensing officials?
Has HARRISS committed the tort of libel against the two Professional Engineers? Read HARRISS' latest hick City Mangler tricks (below). HARRISS' is so typical bad bosses everywhere -- like a Dilbert cartoon -- one who uses subordinate managers as bullets in his gun, as fallguys, as designated javelin-catchers.
Not only does City Mangler WILLIAM HARRISS blame the two Professional Engineers. HARRISS blames me. (see below). HARRISS obsesses upon me, saying I just want HARRISS to be charged with a crime and that I'm the only one who's "not happy" with the incompetence defense and coverup.
We'll just see about that. I wear HARRISS' scorn as a badge of honor. I have since first attending a City meeting in April 2005 (over 4.5 years after we moved here).
Of course, HARRISS has threatened me and other activists with criminal prosecution, sometimes on attending the first meeting (he did it to me).
HARRISS takes credit for every good thing that happens in our City and is noted for being a hands-on manager (whose face is never carried on television and whose voice is unidentified in City Commission meetings).
HARRISS is the go-to guy whom all the Commissioners fear.
Has HARRISS played fast and loose with the truth, once again?
Yes.
You've really got to hand it to City of St. Augustine City Mangler WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
He was hired without Sunshine notice on April 13, 1998. He's never had a performance appraisal as City Manager. Not once in nearly ten years. Commissioners voted in 1998 not to give him performance appraisals. Other public officials, from School Superintendents to Mosquito Control Commissioners, receive performance appraisals. HARRISS is exempt. He's special.
HARRISS works not for you and me, but for five Commissioners and
land-raping, wetland- killing foreign investors and their local shills. HARRISS insults his own former top aides as "incompetent." Wonder why the position of Public Works Director has been open for so long? Would you want to take the job of one of the two Professional Engineers, knowing you could lose your license from being asked to commit illegal acts like filling in the Old City Reservoir, then thrown under the bus?
Off-camera, HARRISS makes dismissively condescending wicked hand gestures at City staff who are speaking to City Commissioners.
HARRISS thinks he hung the moon. HARRISS should hang his head in shame.
Dumping the entire contents of the old city dump into the Old City Reservoir was wicked, not merely stupid.
What a bully.
HARRISS and his captivated City Commissioners ran the artists and entertainers off St. George Street, insulting the ACLU and protesters for bringing dishonor on our city.
HARRISS helped orchestrate refund of a $15,000 tree-killing fine against tree-killing speculator ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD.
In secret, from December 2005 through February 2006, HARRISS had our Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City dump 30,000,000 cubic yards of contaminated dump contents into our Old City Reservoir -- enough stuff to fill in six Olympic sized swimming pools to a depth of six feet or to cover a football field to a depth of 11.2 feet.
Don't call HARRISS a "good ole boy." "Good ole boys" like to hunt and fish. HARRISS destroyed a prime bass fishing spot.
HARRISS has never explained why HARRISS thought the toxic contents of the old city dump would be better disturbed, trucked and removed to the Old City Reservoir, a prime- bass-fishing spot, a place where generations had fished and swam for years, a manmade coquina pit lake that is a "an open sore going right down to the aquifer," according to former EPA Region 4 Regional Administrator John Henry Hankinson, a former The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) official.
SJRWMD warned HARRISS not to dump and HARRISS had no permits to dump. SJRWMD told HARRISS not to dump.
HARRISS dumped anyway. That's not "incompetence." That's arrogance, with a heaping dose of the "criminal intent" that HARRISS demurely claims not to have had (see below).
"Willful blindness" is enough to trigger criminal prosecution under environmental laws. See EPA’s policy statement published in the Federal Register, Voluntary Environmental Self-Policing and Self-Disclosure, 60 Fed. Reg. at 66,711 (1995) about how EPA may refrain from criminal referral IF violations are not due to willful blindness or official complicity. See also, William S. Duffey, Jr. & Phyllis B. Sumner, Collective Knowledge and Willful Blindness New Liability Under Old Law, South Carolina Lawyer, Jan./Feb. 1994, at 32. Even Bushites know what "willful blindness" is and have used the term. See also statement of Vice President Cheney about willful blindness in Elizabeth Bumiller & James Dao, Cheney Says Peril of a Nuclear Iraq Justifies Attack, NY Times, August 26, 2002.
Under that standard, City Commissioners might be prosecuted, too.
The City of St. Augustine's mandatory duty to obey SJRWMD orders and DEP and EPA laws was violated.
City Commissioners have been indifferent to it.
That duty to obey environmental laws cannot be passed off to top managers who worked directly for HARRISS & Co. HARRISS must resign or be fired. HARRISS's actions took place after Clay County's illegal dumping. It's not as if HARRISS didn't know HARRISS could not dump without a permit. HARRISS did it anyway. Upon learning of his actions, City Commissioners gave HARRISS a plaque, public praise and conferred pariah status on those questioning their illegal dumping. Then-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER told me February 24th that only "clean fill" was being dumped into the Old City Reservoir. HARRISS lied to GARDNER and Commissioners.
Commissioners behaved weirdly when publicly asked about illegal dumping, recently moving to revoke retroactively my city residency and to revoke citizens' rights to public comment at the beginning of meetings. Commissioners and HARRISS can't handle the truth about their illegal dumping and want any questions to be after 10 PM.
In a Commission meeting last year, then- Mayor
GARDNER asked me if there was "lint" in my "pocket."
Commissioner ERROL JONES said he was tired of me "whipping" Commissioners and HARRISS. Commissioner SUSAN BURK displayed a "Flat Elmo" and said it was "better behaved" than unruly citizens (e.g., those asking about St. Augustine's contempt for the rule of law).
Commissioner JOE BOLES (now our Archie Bunker-like Mayor) showed more solicitude for our City's "$30,000 podium" than for the fact that coquina pits rapidly spread contaminants due to porosity of the material.
Using the St. Augustine Record's Talk of the Town website as a platform, government employees lambasted and personally attacked those questioning our City's polluting and developer-coddling.
Our City and FDEP have fiddled since February 2006 -- 20 months.
DEP coverup artists,
City Manager HARRISS and City Commissioners must be investigated by the FBI and a Federal Grand Jury for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit environmental crimes.
Otherwise, every government polluter will feel free to dump anytime, anywhere.
Will those who let us down be protected by Governor Crist and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)(my friend David Thundershield Queen says DEP stands for "Don't Expect Protection").
Will the DEP Inspector General and the Chief Inspector General get to the bottom of DEP's coverup?
Will this case be fixed?
Seldom do top government officials confess to "incompetence" on the front page.
Ours finally did last week. This has been an exciting time in St. Augustine's history -- the Emperor has no clothes. HARRISS also has no more public support.
No one now says that WILLIAM HARRISS is doing a great job and should be City- Manager-for-Life.
October 23, 2007 was the day when St. Augustinians awoke to read on the front page of the Record that our City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS, pled "incompetence" as a defense to the environmental crimes the State of Florida refused to prosecute. HARRISS finally admitted it was wrong to dump the contents of the old city dump into the old city Reservoir.
Does being WILLIAM B. HARRISS mean never having to say you're sorry?
Yes.
WILLIAM B. HARRISS did not apologize.
WILLIAM B. HARRISS did not explain.
Instead, HARRISS bashed, blacklisted and blasted as "incompetent" two licensed Professional Engineers who (until last year) both worked for our City.
Was HARRISS "incompetent" for hiring them?
Were City Managers incompetent for hiring HARRISS?
Why does HARRIS claim the two scapegoats were "incompetent?" For giving HARRISS bum legal advice. Of course, the two Professional Engineers whom HARRISS lambastes were not just any Professional Engineers. Both were Managers -- Masters of the Universe in City Hall -- part of HARRISS' all-white, all-male Inner Circle.
Like every other employee in City Hall, the two P.E./Managers served at HARRIS' "pleasure." One was over Utilities and the other was over Public Works. Both were respected, hard-working civil servants. Both probably never did anything without HARRISS's approval.
Both feared HARRISS' disapproval, down to something so insignificant as to which street gets a speed hump. HARRISS reminds me of former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton said, "there's politics in everything I do." Yet HARRISS pushes Commissioners not to do "political" things (like honoring U.S. soldiers by flying a flag or endorsing the scrub jay as state bird).
HARRISS's contention about relying on Professional Engineers for legal advice is poppycock.
Neither P.E. is a licensed attorney, so blaming them for their legal advice is a bit weak (like a quarterback blaming a sports writer for suggesting bad plays). City Mangler (f/k/a City Manager) WILLIAM B. HARRISS, had a full- time City Attorney, a full-time Assistant City Attorney and a paralegal working on the same floor as him.
If HARRISS was confused about orders not to dump without a permit, HARRISS had only to ask them.
HARRISS also had on- call WILLIAM PENCE, an environmental attorney with Akerman, Senterfitt, biggest corporate law firm in the State of Florida (pictured infra wearing colonial finery).
Were Akerman Senterfitt and the St. Augustine City Attorney and Assistant City Attorney ever consulted? Or did HARRISS keep these three lawyers kept out of the loop intentionally, preferring to save money than ask the right questions?
HARRISS does not say.
HARRISS has not criticized any of his attorneys. HARRISS signals that his own "defense" is bunk.
Of course HARRISS did not tell the attorneys he was planning to dump in violation of SJRWMD orders. HARRISS claims/admits relying on legal advice from two Professional Engineers (but not a third, still with the City, the City's Chief Operating Officer, and presumably also kept out of the loop).
What makes WILLIAM B. HARRISS think that it was in his job description to ask two Professional Engineers whether something is legal when our City of St. Augustine has a City Attorney? What part of the City Charter says to call upon P.E.s for legal advice? We have a City Attorney, appointed by the Commissioners. His office is right down the hall from HARRISS's office.
Who asks P.E.s for legal advice (unless they also happen to be lawyers)?
If HARRISS ever really thought the two P.E.s "incompetent," did HARRISS report them to state licensing officials?
Has HARRISS committed the tort of libel against the two Professional Engineers? Read HARRISS' latest hick City Mangler tricks (below). HARRISS' is so typical bad bosses everywhere -- like a Dilbert cartoon -- one who uses subordinate managers as bullets in his gun, as fallguys, as designated javelin-catchers.
Not only does City Mangler WILLIAM HARRISS blame the two Professional Engineers. HARRISS blames me. (see below). HARRISS obsesses upon me, saying I just want HARRISS to be charged with a crime and that I'm the only one who's "not happy" with the incompetence defense and coverup.
We'll just see about that. I wear HARRISS' scorn as a badge of honor. I have since first attending a City meeting in April 2005 (over 4.5 years after we moved here).
Of course, HARRISS has threatened me and other activists with criminal prosecution, sometimes on attending the first meeting (he did it to me).
HARRISS takes credit for every good thing that happens in our City and is noted for being a hands-on manager (whose face is never carried on television and whose voice is unidentified in City Commission meetings).
HARRISS is the go-to guy whom all the Commissioners fear.
Has HARRISS played fast and loose with the truth, once again?
Yes.
You've really got to hand it to City of St. Augustine City Mangler WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
He was hired without Sunshine notice on April 13, 1998. He's never had a performance appraisal as City Manager. Not once in nearly ten years. Commissioners voted in 1998 not to give him performance appraisals. Other public officials, from School Superintendents to Mosquito Control Commissioners, receive performance appraisals. HARRISS is exempt. He's special.
HARRISS works not for you and me, but for five Commissioners and
land-raping, wetland- killing foreign investors and their local shills. HARRISS insults his own former top aides as "incompetent." Wonder why the position of Public Works Director has been open for so long? Would you want to take the job of one of the two Professional Engineers, knowing you could lose your license from being asked to commit illegal acts like filling in the Old City Reservoir, then thrown under the bus?
Off-camera, HARRISS makes dismissively condescending wicked hand gestures at City staff who are speaking to City Commissioners.
HARRISS thinks he hung the moon. HARRISS should hang his head in shame.
Dumping the entire contents of the old city dump into the Old City Reservoir was wicked, not merely stupid.
What a bully.
HARRISS and his captivated City Commissioners ran the artists and entertainers off St. George Street, insulting the ACLU and protesters for bringing dishonor on our city.
HARRISS helped orchestrate refund of a $15,000 tree-killing fine against tree-killing speculator ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD.
In secret, from December 2005 through February 2006, HARRISS had our Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City dump 30,000,000 cubic yards of contaminated dump contents into our Old City Reservoir -- enough stuff to fill in six Olympic sized swimming pools to a depth of six feet or to cover a football field to a depth of 11.2 feet.
Don't call HARRISS a "good ole boy." "Good ole boys" like to hunt and fish. HARRISS destroyed a prime bass fishing spot.
HARRISS has never explained why HARRISS thought the toxic contents of the old city dump would be better disturbed, trucked and removed to the Old City Reservoir, a prime- bass-fishing spot, a place where generations had fished and swam for years, a manmade coquina pit lake that is a "an open sore going right down to the aquifer," according to former EPA Region 4 Regional Administrator John Henry Hankinson, a former The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) official.
SJRWMD warned HARRISS not to dump and HARRISS had no permits to dump. SJRWMD told HARRISS not to dump.
HARRISS dumped anyway. That's not "incompetence." That's arrogance, with a heaping dose of the "criminal intent" that HARRISS demurely claims not to have had (see below).
"Willful blindness" is enough to trigger criminal prosecution under environmental laws. See EPA’s policy statement published in the Federal Register, Voluntary Environmental Self-Policing and Self-Disclosure, 60 Fed. Reg. at 66,711 (1995) about how EPA may refrain from criminal referral IF violations are not due to willful blindness or official complicity. See also, William S. Duffey, Jr. & Phyllis B. Sumner, Collective Knowledge and Willful Blindness New Liability Under Old Law, South Carolina Lawyer, Jan./Feb. 1994, at 32. Even Bushites know what "willful blindness" is and have used the term. See also statement of Vice President Cheney about willful blindness in Elizabeth Bumiller & James Dao, Cheney Says Peril of a Nuclear Iraq Justifies Attack, NY Times, August 26, 2002.
Under that standard, City Commissioners might be prosecuted, too.
The City of St. Augustine's mandatory duty to obey SJRWMD orders and DEP and EPA laws was violated.
City Commissioners have been indifferent to it.
That duty to obey environmental laws cannot be passed off to top managers who worked directly for HARRISS & Co. HARRISS must resign or be fired. HARRISS's actions took place after Clay County's illegal dumping. It's not as if HARRISS didn't know HARRISS could not dump without a permit. HARRISS did it anyway. Upon learning of his actions, City Commissioners gave HARRISS a plaque, public praise and conferred pariah status on those questioning their illegal dumping. Then-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER told me February 24th that only "clean fill" was being dumped into the Old City Reservoir. HARRISS lied to GARDNER and Commissioners.
Commissioners behaved weirdly when publicly asked about illegal dumping, recently moving to revoke retroactively my city residency and to revoke citizens' rights to public comment at the beginning of meetings. Commissioners and HARRISS can't handle the truth about their illegal dumping and want any questions to be after 10 PM.
In a Commission meeting last year, then- Mayor
GARDNER asked me if there was "lint" in my "pocket."
Commissioner ERROL JONES said he was tired of me "whipping" Commissioners and HARRISS. Commissioner SUSAN BURK displayed a "Flat Elmo" and said it was "better behaved" than unruly citizens (e.g., those asking about St. Augustine's contempt for the rule of law).
Commissioner JOE BOLES (now our Archie Bunker-like Mayor) showed more solicitude for our City's "$30,000 podium" than for the fact that coquina pits rapidly spread contaminants due to porosity of the material.
Using the St. Augustine Record's Talk of the Town website as a platform, government employees lambasted and personally attacked those questioning our City's polluting and developer-coddling.
Our City and FDEP have fiddled since February 2006 -- 20 months.
DEP coverup artists,
City Manager HARRISS and City Commissioners must be investigated by the FBI and a Federal Grand Jury for obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit environmental crimes.
Otherwise, every government polluter will feel free to dump anytime, anywhere.
Will those who let us down be protected by Governor Crist and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)(my friend David Thundershield Queen says DEP stands for "Don't Expect Protection").
Will the DEP Inspector General and the Chief Inspector General get to the bottom of DEP's coverup?
Will this case be fixed?
City negotiating on dumping violation
City negotiating on dumping violation
PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 10/23/07
A draft Department of Environmental Protection order would levy a $33,698 fine to the city of St. Augustine for moving dirt from an old Riberia Street landfill to a water-filled borrow pit off North Holmes Boulevard.
The draft order also would require the city to complete a series of corrective measures, with possible fines of $200 per day for some requirements not met and $1,000 per day for others.
City Manager Bill Harriss said Monday that the order is a draft that must be approved by the City Commission before any mitigation or cleanup begins.
"We're very close to finishing it," Harriss said. "We just wanted to know exactly what's going to happen."
The fine proposed now is lower than the $46,000 fine earlier proposed by the DEP.
St. Augustine resident Ed Slavin, who reported the dumping to the National Response Center in 2006, now calls the proposed response a "cover-up" because no one was criminally prosecuted.
"FDEP never interviewed our city manager, our mayor, vice mayor and commissioners," Slavin wrote in a letter to The Record. "Our city manager ordered and authorized the illegal dumping (and) refused to answer my questions about the illegal dumping."
Harris said he was interviewed by DEP and the agency found that the dumping was recommended by two city engineers who did not carefully read the law before making a recommendation. The engineers are no longer working for the city, Harriss said.
"There was incompetence, but not criminal intent," he said. "Professional engineers said we were allowed to do this. Slavin just wants to prosecute me personally."
Slavin believes the city ruled that he was no longer a resident so he wouldn't have legal standing to appeal any DEP order.
"(This order is) one that should make every land-raping, wetland-destroying carpet-bagging foreign investor jump for joy and uncork the champagne," Slavin said. "This is a dark day indeed for enforcement of Florida's environmental laws. Polluter-coddling FDEP has no sincere interest in encouraging citizens to report, detect, deter and punish illegal governmental environmental depredations."
He said the city polluted the water off Holmes Boulevard with "arsenic, sewage, bedsprings and other illegal dumping."
Other DEP-mandated corrective measures in the draft said the city must:
Immediately stop removal of dirt from the Riberia landfill.
Remove within 60 days the thousands of tons of lime sludge and street sweepings dumped into the North Holmes borrow pit.
Remove within 475 days all dirt taken from the Riberia site and return it there.
Cover the returned dirt with clean fill and vegetation within 60 days.
Turn over within 45 days all bills or manifests documenting the excavation and transportation of the fill to Riberia.
Within 90 days turn in a report that, among other things, requires analysis of the soil and surface water on Holmes Boulevard, plus the results from three monitoring wells.
Provide drinking water within seven days and a safe drinking water supply within 180 days for any potable water well contaminated by chemicals from the dumping.
Harriss said no work will begin until the agreement is signed with DEP.
"We're going to take the stuff and put it back," he said of the moved waste material. "Through incompetence, this turned out to be a bad thing. But Slavin's the only one not happy."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102307/news_stories_015.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 10/23/07
A draft Department of Environmental Protection order would levy a $33,698 fine to the city of St. Augustine for moving dirt from an old Riberia Street landfill to a water-filled borrow pit off North Holmes Boulevard.
The draft order also would require the city to complete a series of corrective measures, with possible fines of $200 per day for some requirements not met and $1,000 per day for others.
City Manager Bill Harriss said Monday that the order is a draft that must be approved by the City Commission before any mitigation or cleanup begins.
"We're very close to finishing it," Harriss said. "We just wanted to know exactly what's going to happen."
The fine proposed now is lower than the $46,000 fine earlier proposed by the DEP.
St. Augustine resident Ed Slavin, who reported the dumping to the National Response Center in 2006, now calls the proposed response a "cover-up" because no one was criminally prosecuted.
"FDEP never interviewed our city manager, our mayor, vice mayor and commissioners," Slavin wrote in a letter to The Record. "Our city manager ordered and authorized the illegal dumping (and) refused to answer my questions about the illegal dumping."
Harris said he was interviewed by DEP and the agency found that the dumping was recommended by two city engineers who did not carefully read the law before making a recommendation. The engineers are no longer working for the city, Harriss said.
"There was incompetence, but not criminal intent," he said. "Professional engineers said we were allowed to do this. Slavin just wants to prosecute me personally."
Slavin believes the city ruled that he was no longer a resident so he wouldn't have legal standing to appeal any DEP order.
"(This order is) one that should make every land-raping, wetland-destroying carpet-bagging foreign investor jump for joy and uncork the champagne," Slavin said. "This is a dark day indeed for enforcement of Florida's environmental laws. Polluter-coddling FDEP has no sincere interest in encouraging citizens to report, detect, deter and punish illegal governmental environmental depredations."
He said the city polluted the water off Holmes Boulevard with "arsenic, sewage, bedsprings and other illegal dumping."
Other DEP-mandated corrective measures in the draft said the city must:
Immediately stop removal of dirt from the Riberia landfill.
Remove within 60 days the thousands of tons of lime sludge and street sweepings dumped into the North Holmes borrow pit.
Remove within 475 days all dirt taken from the Riberia site and return it there.
Cover the returned dirt with clean fill and vegetation within 60 days.
Turn over within 45 days all bills or manifests documenting the excavation and transportation of the fill to Riberia.
Within 90 days turn in a report that, among other things, requires analysis of the soil and surface water on Holmes Boulevard, plus the results from three monitoring wells.
Provide drinking water within seven days and a safe drinking water supply within 180 days for any potable water well contaminated by chemicals from the dumping.
Harriss said no work will begin until the agreement is signed with DEP.
"We're going to take the stuff and put it back," he said of the moved waste material. "Through incompetence, this turned out to be a bad thing. But Slavin's the only one not happy."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/102307/news_stories_015.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)