Commission supports Inauguration Day viewing
By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/13/09
City Commissioners on Monday supported a celebration for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, saying it showed St. Augustine has come a long way from its 1964 Civil Rights struggle.
Resident Dee Lovell, along with members of many other citizen organizations, is spearheading a community gathering to watch the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. The group will meet in the downtown plaza, and Lovell asked the commission to waive the city's permit fee of $150 to hold the event.
Mayor Joe Boles said they couldn't do that, but he offered a solution.
"Well, if we (waive the fee) for one group, then we have to do it for everyone. So, we just can't do that," he said. "But if you can't find anyone to pay for it, I'll pay for the permit."
The commission also agreed to create a city proclamation supporting the event.
Boles emphasized that the city was backing the event because of its historic importance, with Obama being the first black president. But, he said, the city is non-partisan and is not supporting one particular party.
City resident Barbara Allen is also working with Lovell to plan the event. She lived in St. Augustine when white and black residents were segregated, and she was a part of the group that Martin Luther King Jr. rallied to fight for equal rights in St. Augustine.
She told the City Commission the inauguration event would unite the community.
"I was arrested in 1964 (during the Civil Rights)," Allen said. "I never thought I see an African American president."
Lovell also asked the city to provide free parking for the event. City Manager Bill Harriss said he couldn't do that, again because the city would have to do the same for other community events.
However, Harriss said the city would allow parking at the Special Events Field, adjacent to the Visitor Information Center parking garage, and then a trolley train company will shuttle people to the event for free.
The event will be held Jan. 20 from 11-2 p.m. Televisions will be set up to watch the inauguration. Residents are asked to bring their own chairs.
Commissioner Errol Jones, the only black City Commissioner, thanked his fellow commissioners for supporting the event. He, too, grew up in St. Augustine during the Civil Rights period, and he's going to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration.
"Although we may differ on issues, we're still one," he said. "We're one city, we're one nation, and this (community celebration shows that)."
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© The St. Augustine Record
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Our New St. Augustine Beach Neighbor, Senator George McGovern On Why Bush Must Go
Why I Believe Bush Must Go
Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse.
By George McGovern
Washington Post,
Sunday, January 6, 2008; B01
As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.
After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.
Today I have made a different choice.
Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising.
But what are the facts?
Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard.
From the beginning, the Bush-Cheney team's assumption of power was the product of questionable elections that probably should have been officially challenged -- perhaps even by a congressional investigation.
In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history.
All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?
How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?
It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks -- another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson's observation: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world -- more than a billion people.
Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus.
Although the president was advised by the intelligence agencies last August that Iran had no program to develop nuclear weapons, he continued to lie to the country and the world. This is the same strategy of deception that brought us into war in the Arabian Desert and could lead us into an unjustified invasion of Iran. I can say with some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the crucial Middle East for decades.
Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies -- especially the war in Iraq -- have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. Consider the difference between the policies of the first President Bush and those of his son. When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others.
Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In addition to the shocking breakdown of presidential legal and moral responsibility, there is the scandalous neglect and mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The veteran CNN commentator Jack Cafferty condenses it to a sentence: "I have never ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans." Any impeachment proceeding must include a careful and critical look at the collapse of presidential leadership in response to perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.
As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors."
I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won't be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I'd like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin.
There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.
Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse.
By George McGovern
Washington Post,
Sunday, January 6, 2008; B01
As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.
After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.
Today I have made a different choice.
Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising.
But what are the facts?
Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard.
From the beginning, the Bush-Cheney team's assumption of power was the product of questionable elections that probably should have been officially challenged -- perhaps even by a congressional investigation.
In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history.
All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?
How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?
It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks -- another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson's observation: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world -- more than a billion people.
Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus.
Although the president was advised by the intelligence agencies last August that Iran had no program to develop nuclear weapons, he continued to lie to the country and the world. This is the same strategy of deception that brought us into war in the Arabian Desert and could lead us into an unjustified invasion of Iran. I can say with some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the crucial Middle East for decades.
Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies -- especially the war in Iraq -- have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. Consider the difference between the policies of the first President Bush and those of his son. When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others.
Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In addition to the shocking breakdown of presidential legal and moral responsibility, there is the scandalous neglect and mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The veteran CNN commentator Jack Cafferty condenses it to a sentence: "I have never ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans." Any impeachment proceeding must include a careful and critical look at the collapse of presidential leadership in response to perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.
As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors."
I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won't be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I'd like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin.
There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.
TVA and CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE HAVE MUCH IN COMMON
I first started investigating TVA coal procurement on a Fund for Investigative Journalism grant at age 21, as an undergraduate at Georgetown. I've been to the Kingston powerplant. See earlier posts, below.
TVA badly needs accountability, just like our City Manager here in St. Augustine, who dumped 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir and is still on the job.
Both St. Augustine City Manager HARRISS and TVA officials need to be investigated and prosecuted for environmental "crimes against nature."
See posts below.
TVA badly needs accountability, just like our City Manager here in St. Augustine, who dumped 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in our Old City Reservoir and is still on the job.
Both St. Augustine City Manager HARRISS and TVA officials need to be investigated and prosecuted for environmental "crimes against nature."
See posts below.
HUFFINGTON POST: ERIN BROCKOVICH AND ROBIN GREENWALD ON TVA'S COAL ASH DISASTER
TVA Disaster Spreads Far and Wide
As a result of a 1.1 billion gallon spill of contaminated fly ash, there has been discussion, press reportage and blogging about the environmental disaster in eastern Tennessee Most of us have seen the pictures -- a 300+ acre area strewn with black and brown muck as far as the eye can see. Houses lifted off their foundations and thrown across the road, yards filled so high with ash that people can't leave their homes without stepping in it, roadways littered with the ash from trucks going to and from the site, and an eerie still where active life once existed. While this story continues to unfold -- as more samples are taken that delineate the true toxicity of this mess, as TVA makes plans to contain and abate the disaster -- there is a story that has not been told. It is a story that must be told. And that story is the lives of innocent bystanders that have been turned upside down by this avoidable disaster.
I learned of this disaster on the news just as we all did. Usually I receive an email from someone in the community where there has been an environmental problem. At first, it was all quiet. About 10 days after the tragedy I got the first email, then another one and another one and another one, and they kept coming. I also started receiving anonymous tips. It occurred to me that maybe more was going on than what I could gather from the news. With an invitation from the community, I decided to make the trip.
Let's be honest. Usually when I am called into an environmental disaster, I anticipate that industry isn't going to step up to the plate and do what's right by the people. Lawsuits almost always ensue; it would be foolish for me to walk into a situation like this without an attorney. Besides, I consult with two law firms in the United States: Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles and Weitz & Luxenberg in New York. I traveled to the area with an attorney, Robin Greenwald from Weitz and Luxenberg, along with some experts. In many instances such as this disaster, government agencies are absent due to lack of funds and can only rely on the information that industry gives them; and industry generally operates under concealment.
When I first arrived on the site, I was pretty quiet. It took a while to absorb what I was looking at. I knew there was a lake but an entire area was gone. I kept wondering "Where did the water go?" I couldn't decide if it looked more like a tornado had gone through, a mudslide, landslide, maybe a volcano erupted or a tidal wave. It is now a "moonscape." The landscape has completely changed. It is almost unidentifiable.
Watching TV never gives you an idea of the extent of damage. It's only when you stand there that you can actually feel the magnitude.
It struck me that I had an unusual taste on my lips and in my mouth. I asked others if they noticed that, and they did. Some experienced scratchy throats, respiratory problems, itchy and burning eyes and tasted what one expert believed to be sulfuric acid. If we were experiencing this much discomfort after a few minutes, what on earth are the people who live here feeling?
The other thing that stood out in my mind was how fortunate it was that this event took place when it did.
What would it have been like had this occurred in the summer during the middle of the day? Hundreds of people boat on this lake. Children swim and play in these waters. I was struck by the number of deaths that might have occurred but didn't.
This corner of Roane County Tennessee is off the beaten path. It is remote, distant from any main street and city noise. It is easy to see the beauty of rolling mountains, lakes, rivers, comfortable family homes. It is serene, a piece of heaven on earth. This was a safe place to raise kids, to teach them to fish and swim, to enjoy family and have barbecues or sit quietly to watch the sunset on warm summer nights. I could see why people live there. Over the past couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to speak with people about life both before December 22. Life in the Kingston/Harriman area was idyllic. It was a place people chose as their home. It was a place that, even if jobs took people away in their youth, they awaited the day they could return and did so as soon as possible. It is a beautiful place, with water bodies everywhere. There are green meadows laced among the waters. These shared memories come to life in the "before" photographs that residents showed us. The pictures show children diving from docks into the lake, people canoeing along the rivers, families tubing in the hot summer sun and children and their dogs walking along the shore. A favorite scene of many residents is the sunset over the water, with the soft nighttime colors glistening on the lake. It went from pristine to profaned overnight.
The "after" picture is nothing but a sludge-filled lake, dead fish and miles and miles of contamination flowing out of control. And what cannot be captured by photographs is the human toll of this disaster. The child who wakes up nightly with nightmares; the woman whose cough is so severe she can hardly speak and has been diagnosed with acute asthma from the ash spill; the tri-athlete who can no longer train in his environs; the families scared to death to go outside for fear they breathe in the toxic ash in the air; people realizing that TVA's recommendation to boil their water before drinking it in the wake of the disaster was a false comfort and bottled water, at their own expense, is the only solution for drinking; and the couple who lives downwind of the disaster who, following walking their dog on a hilltop on a windy night, suffered severe nose bleeds. This is a very frightening time for the people of this community. This community is incredibly brave, but it is also rightfully fearful -- they love their community, their homes, their environment and they don't want to leave, but they also don't want to stay at the risk of their health. They want answers and they can't get them. Many people have the same tale: they call the TVA hotline for answers and help but no one answers or returns their calls. Why does this happen? What did they do to deserve such treatment? I can only imagine the sadness of the families. The whole area looks like a wound on the land. To heal it, it's going to take more than a band-aid and a squirt of Bactine.
The next day of my visit we did a fly over of the site, which showed the big picture. Extending for at least 5 to 6 miles downstream, we could see a plume of this toxic ash floating down the river, resting on the banks. We saw the remaining refrigerator and patch of roof where the now demolished house once stood. We saw a child's trampoline, once in someone's backyard, now buried in TVA's toxic sludge. We saw miles of ash, still traveling down river, contaminating riverbanks along the way. In truth, there are no words to describe the scenes of devastation from this disaster. The pictures are powerful, but they simply cannot capture the panorama of devastation. This was a sludge tsunami -- but one caused by corporate neglect, not natural occurrences. And what it left behind from this tsunami are mounds of toxic rubble where a lake once existed, where rivers flow and where children used to play.
We all wonder what will happen to the ecosystem: the fish and wildlife. The human life. How far reaching is this event? What does the future hold for the public health and safety? Overnight a whole community's lifestyle is gone.
It is bad enough that TVA mismanaged this 50+ year old waste pile of coal ash. But to put salt in the wounds of its neighbors by failing to provide critically important answers and aid is incomprehensible. TVA should have mobilized hundreds of medical experts to go to peoples' homes and answer their questions. They need to be honest and transparent about their knowledge of the make-up of the sludge, what they plan to do with it and how they intend to return life to what it used to be, if that is even possible. TVA should have a hotline that is manned sufficiently so that no one is ever put on hold or, worse yet, not answered at all. The residents of this community deserve to be treated with honesty and respect, and that is not happening. Even local elected officials are letting residents down, spending their time telling residents not to work with attorneys instead of camping outside TVA's doors demanding honest and fast answers to critically important health questions. As you know, we work on the legal side. While we cannot fully appreciate the pain and fear of those who are living the fall out of this disaster on a daily basis, we saw and heard enough to understand that our presence and our voice is critically important to ensure that this community is treated fairly and provided the truth about the present situation and their future. We will continue to aid this community as it struggles through the haze that TVA has created and continues to fuel.
So many questions come to mind but there aren't any answers. My motto has become "Prevention rather than Rescue."
Hindsight always shows how these tragedies could have been prevented. If history teaches us anything, it shows us that yesterday is our "crystal ball." In the now famous case, Pacific Gas and Electric knew that their contamination was affecting innocent people yet did nothing but try to convince people that the poison was good for them.
If TVA knew of leaks years before this disaster and sat and waited, is "oops" we're sorry" going to be enough?
The infrastructure handling coal fly ash in the U.S. is old and needs to be replaced. Can we worry about the cost of replacing the old with the new when health and safety and the environment depends on it? We can see that contamination moves through air, land and water. Can we sit back and wait for communities to get sick when we can prevent it now?
Science usually lags behind the law. But in this case, law lags behind science because coal fly ash handling is not regulated as it should be. And we have a pretty good grasp on the fact that Coal Fly Ash is not healthy.
A poison is a poison. It certainly can't be good for you. Does anyone believe that the arsenic in the fly ash along with other heavy metals won't leech into the groundwater? 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic compounds unleashed into the garden. We don't need a crystal ball to see the rough road ahead.
As a result of a 1.1 billion gallon spill of contaminated fly ash, there has been discussion, press reportage and blogging about the environmental disaster in eastern Tennessee Most of us have seen the pictures -- a 300+ acre area strewn with black and brown muck as far as the eye can see. Houses lifted off their foundations and thrown across the road, yards filled so high with ash that people can't leave their homes without stepping in it, roadways littered with the ash from trucks going to and from the site, and an eerie still where active life once existed. While this story continues to unfold -- as more samples are taken that delineate the true toxicity of this mess, as TVA makes plans to contain and abate the disaster -- there is a story that has not been told. It is a story that must be told. And that story is the lives of innocent bystanders that have been turned upside down by this avoidable disaster.
I learned of this disaster on the news just as we all did. Usually I receive an email from someone in the community where there has been an environmental problem. At first, it was all quiet. About 10 days after the tragedy I got the first email, then another one and another one and another one, and they kept coming. I also started receiving anonymous tips. It occurred to me that maybe more was going on than what I could gather from the news. With an invitation from the community, I decided to make the trip.
Let's be honest. Usually when I am called into an environmental disaster, I anticipate that industry isn't going to step up to the plate and do what's right by the people. Lawsuits almost always ensue; it would be foolish for me to walk into a situation like this without an attorney. Besides, I consult with two law firms in the United States: Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles and Weitz & Luxenberg in New York. I traveled to the area with an attorney, Robin Greenwald from Weitz and Luxenberg, along with some experts. In many instances such as this disaster, government agencies are absent due to lack of funds and can only rely on the information that industry gives them; and industry generally operates under concealment.
When I first arrived on the site, I was pretty quiet. It took a while to absorb what I was looking at. I knew there was a lake but an entire area was gone. I kept wondering "Where did the water go?" I couldn't decide if it looked more like a tornado had gone through, a mudslide, landslide, maybe a volcano erupted or a tidal wave. It is now a "moonscape." The landscape has completely changed. It is almost unidentifiable.
Watching TV never gives you an idea of the extent of damage. It's only when you stand there that you can actually feel the magnitude.
It struck me that I had an unusual taste on my lips and in my mouth. I asked others if they noticed that, and they did. Some experienced scratchy throats, respiratory problems, itchy and burning eyes and tasted what one expert believed to be sulfuric acid. If we were experiencing this much discomfort after a few minutes, what on earth are the people who live here feeling?
The other thing that stood out in my mind was how fortunate it was that this event took place when it did.
What would it have been like had this occurred in the summer during the middle of the day? Hundreds of people boat on this lake. Children swim and play in these waters. I was struck by the number of deaths that might have occurred but didn't.
This corner of Roane County Tennessee is off the beaten path. It is remote, distant from any main street and city noise. It is easy to see the beauty of rolling mountains, lakes, rivers, comfortable family homes. It is serene, a piece of heaven on earth. This was a safe place to raise kids, to teach them to fish and swim, to enjoy family and have barbecues or sit quietly to watch the sunset on warm summer nights. I could see why people live there. Over the past couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to speak with people about life both before December 22. Life in the Kingston/Harriman area was idyllic. It was a place people chose as their home. It was a place that, even if jobs took people away in their youth, they awaited the day they could return and did so as soon as possible. It is a beautiful place, with water bodies everywhere. There are green meadows laced among the waters. These shared memories come to life in the "before" photographs that residents showed us. The pictures show children diving from docks into the lake, people canoeing along the rivers, families tubing in the hot summer sun and children and their dogs walking along the shore. A favorite scene of many residents is the sunset over the water, with the soft nighttime colors glistening on the lake. It went from pristine to profaned overnight.
The "after" picture is nothing but a sludge-filled lake, dead fish and miles and miles of contamination flowing out of control. And what cannot be captured by photographs is the human toll of this disaster. The child who wakes up nightly with nightmares; the woman whose cough is so severe she can hardly speak and has been diagnosed with acute asthma from the ash spill; the tri-athlete who can no longer train in his environs; the families scared to death to go outside for fear they breathe in the toxic ash in the air; people realizing that TVA's recommendation to boil their water before drinking it in the wake of the disaster was a false comfort and bottled water, at their own expense, is the only solution for drinking; and the couple who lives downwind of the disaster who, following walking their dog on a hilltop on a windy night, suffered severe nose bleeds. This is a very frightening time for the people of this community. This community is incredibly brave, but it is also rightfully fearful -- they love their community, their homes, their environment and they don't want to leave, but they also don't want to stay at the risk of their health. They want answers and they can't get them. Many people have the same tale: they call the TVA hotline for answers and help but no one answers or returns their calls. Why does this happen? What did they do to deserve such treatment? I can only imagine the sadness of the families. The whole area looks like a wound on the land. To heal it, it's going to take more than a band-aid and a squirt of Bactine.
The next day of my visit we did a fly over of the site, which showed the big picture. Extending for at least 5 to 6 miles downstream, we could see a plume of this toxic ash floating down the river, resting on the banks. We saw the remaining refrigerator and patch of roof where the now demolished house once stood. We saw a child's trampoline, once in someone's backyard, now buried in TVA's toxic sludge. We saw miles of ash, still traveling down river, contaminating riverbanks along the way. In truth, there are no words to describe the scenes of devastation from this disaster. The pictures are powerful, but they simply cannot capture the panorama of devastation. This was a sludge tsunami -- but one caused by corporate neglect, not natural occurrences. And what it left behind from this tsunami are mounds of toxic rubble where a lake once existed, where rivers flow and where children used to play.
We all wonder what will happen to the ecosystem: the fish and wildlife. The human life. How far reaching is this event? What does the future hold for the public health and safety? Overnight a whole community's lifestyle is gone.
It is bad enough that TVA mismanaged this 50+ year old waste pile of coal ash. But to put salt in the wounds of its neighbors by failing to provide critically important answers and aid is incomprehensible. TVA should have mobilized hundreds of medical experts to go to peoples' homes and answer their questions. They need to be honest and transparent about their knowledge of the make-up of the sludge, what they plan to do with it and how they intend to return life to what it used to be, if that is even possible. TVA should have a hotline that is manned sufficiently so that no one is ever put on hold or, worse yet, not answered at all. The residents of this community deserve to be treated with honesty and respect, and that is not happening. Even local elected officials are letting residents down, spending their time telling residents not to work with attorneys instead of camping outside TVA's doors demanding honest and fast answers to critically important health questions. As you know, we work on the legal side. While we cannot fully appreciate the pain and fear of those who are living the fall out of this disaster on a daily basis, we saw and heard enough to understand that our presence and our voice is critically important to ensure that this community is treated fairly and provided the truth about the present situation and their future. We will continue to aid this community as it struggles through the haze that TVA has created and continues to fuel.
So many questions come to mind but there aren't any answers. My motto has become "Prevention rather than Rescue."
Hindsight always shows how these tragedies could have been prevented. If history teaches us anything, it shows us that yesterday is our "crystal ball." In the now famous case, Pacific Gas and Electric knew that their contamination was affecting innocent people yet did nothing but try to convince people that the poison was good for them.
If TVA knew of leaks years before this disaster and sat and waited, is "oops" we're sorry" going to be enough?
The infrastructure handling coal fly ash in the U.S. is old and needs to be replaced. Can we worry about the cost of replacing the old with the new when health and safety and the environment depends on it? We can see that contamination moves through air, land and water. Can we sit back and wait for communities to get sick when we can prevent it now?
Science usually lags behind the law. But in this case, law lags behind science because coal fly ash handling is not regulated as it should be. And we have a pretty good grasp on the fact that Coal Fly Ash is not healthy.
A poison is a poison. It certainly can't be good for you. Does anyone believe that the arsenic in the fly ash along with other heavy metals won't leech into the groundwater? 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic compounds unleashed into the garden. We don't need a crystal ball to see the rough road ahead.
Orlando Sentinel: CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA Pushed Colorado Railcar, Now Bellyup, Potentially Putting SunRail At Risk
orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/growth/orl-train1409jan14,0,2772281.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Is company's demise a setback for SunRail? Backers say no
Dan Tracy
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 14, 2009
The commuter train that is supposed to run 61 miles through Central Florida may not be as sleek, eco-friendly and futuristic as promised.
The Colorado builder of the state-of-the art commuter-rail cars that were to be the centerpiece of the $1.2 billion venture linking DeLand with Poinciana has gone out of business. The company was the only U.S. manufacturer of the self-propelled cars.
That means the proposed system -- recently dubbed SunRail -- will rely largely on components basic to railroads since their inception: a locomotive pulling or pushing a string of cars.
SunRail officials downplayed the loss of the self-propelled cars, known as diesel multiple units, or DMUs.
They say the project remains on schedule for a 2011 startup, and the traditional locomotives and cars eventually purchased will run as efficiently as the DMUs.
"Does it set us back? No," said Tawny Olore, SunRail project manager for the state Department of Transportation.
Critics are not so sure.
Retired electrical engineer George McClure, who follows the project closely, contends SunRail is engaged in a bit of "bait and switch" because the system will not rely solely on DMUs, as has been advertised.
He also speculated that SunRail may have to purchase refurbished locomotives to stay on schedule because ordering new, more-efficient engines might take too long. In that case, "you're going back to 1970s technology," said McClure, a member of the now-disbanded Winter Park rail task force that studied the commuter-rail plan.
Rebuilt locomotives, he said, burn at least twice as much fuel as the DMUs, making them more expensive to operate and more polluting.
Olore said SunRail intends to buy new locomotives that will be as efficient as the DMUs. If rebuilt engines are purchased, she said, they will meet the same environmental standards as new ones.
SunRail's Web site prominently features a DMU rendering, and the system's circular logo plays off its slick, rounded look. Two years ago, U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, brought two DMU cars to town as he and other officials were drumming up support for the project.
As it now stands, SunRail will have two, or possibly three, DMU two-car sets, all now on loan to South Florida's commuter-rail system. But the majority of SunRail's rolling stock would be more traditional: five locomotives and 10 coach and cab cars, which are not motorized but house the engine's controls.
SunRail is seeking train providers now and expects to review proposals in February. The anticipated cost of the equipment is $52 million.
Mica, a leading proponent of the proposed train, was a big backer of the DMUs and secured federal money to buy the ones now in South Florida. A motorized DMU costs about $4.2 million, compared to $2 million to $3 million for a locomotive.
"It's kind of sad," Mica said about the demise of the DMU maker, Colorado Railcar. "But it is reflective of the economy and downturn of manufacturing in the U.S."
The SunRail trains are slated to run on existing CSX tracks from DeLand in Volusia County to Poinciana in Osceola County. The first 31 miles, from south Volusia to Sand Lake Road in Orange, are supposed to start running in 2011, with the remainder open in 2013.
Dan Tracy can be reached at 407-420-5444 or dtracy@orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS -- It's Time for Him to Go
CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE CITY MANAGER WILLIAM B. HARRISS, hired April 13, 1998, has never had one (1) performance appraisal in all of that time.
He fancies himself Republican lord of all he surveys, dumping solid waste in our Old City Reservoir and thinking it was cute, kicking artists and enterainers off S. George Street, repeatedly found to be violating First Amendment rights.
It's time for WILLIAM B. HARRISS to go.
Letter: City shows deterioration
Letter: City shows deterioration
Suzanne Forrester
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Editor: I am very disappointed about the state of our downtown area. Upon visiting St. George Street and the Plaza de la Constitucion; my husband and I could not believe how filthy everything was.
St. George Street itself was littered with trash and cigarette butts everywhere.
Our daughter needed to use the public rest room beside the Toques Place parking lot. It was so disgusting and appeared to have never been cleaned, not to mention the foul smell. The mirrors were so dirty you could not see your reflection.
How can we expect locals to shop locally when it is not only a nightmare to park, but filthy as well?
This town has been home for my family for more than 65 years. I never thought it would ever be anything but beautiful. It is very sad to see the deterioration. Who is being held accountable for the integrity of this town; and where does all this money go from the outrageous parking fees? The future of our quaint village is not looking so beautiful.
Suzanne Forrester
St. Augustine
Suzanne Forrester
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Editor: I am very disappointed about the state of our downtown area. Upon visiting St. George Street and the Plaza de la Constitucion; my husband and I could not believe how filthy everything was.
St. George Street itself was littered with trash and cigarette butts everywhere.
Our daughter needed to use the public rest room beside the Toques Place parking lot. It was so disgusting and appeared to have never been cleaned, not to mention the foul smell. The mirrors were so dirty you could not see your reflection.
How can we expect locals to shop locally when it is not only a nightmare to park, but filthy as well?
This town has been home for my family for more than 65 years. I never thought it would ever be anything but beautiful. It is very sad to see the deterioration. Who is being held accountable for the integrity of this town; and where does all this money go from the outrageous parking fees? The future of our quaint village is not looking so beautiful.
Suzanne Forrester
St. Augustine
Board urged to stop arts cuts
Board urged to stop arts cuts
By MARCIA LANE
marcia.lane@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Money and how to save it once again headlined the St. Johns School Board meeting on Tuesday. So did the need for support for education from voters.
Two groups -- one representing business, the other the arts -- stepped up to the plate.
St. Augustine St. Johns Chamber of Commerce President Don Wallis said the Chamber would be taking the case for education to state legislators when they meet with them.
"And we have 1,200 members," Wallis said.
School Superintendent Joe Joyner has said everything is up for consideration when it comes to saving money.
Phil McDaniel with the St. Johns County Cultural Council doesn't want to see that include the arts, music and physical education as Duval County has suggested.
"Our reply is four words: 'Thanks, but no thanks.' ... These are savings we simply cannot afford in St. Johns County," McDaniel told the board, noting a strong arts curriculum helps make for a strong education process.
The message his group wants to send to legislators is "Do not cut funding for education. Our children are far too important."
Board members unanimously backed a proposal for a four-week school week during the summer that is expected to save at least $1 million. Most of those savings will come through energy cuts including closing schools and centralizing administration at high schools for the summer.
"Why are we doing this?" asked Joyner. He answered his own question with, "To save money. ... Anytime we do something like this it saves a teacher's job."
District 1 member Bev Slough said Volusia County commissioners are saying they'll be putting all their legislative emphasis on saving education funding.
"I was told they're saying, if education falls, everything else falls," said Slough, who heads the Florida School Boards Association.
That sentiment drew agreement from Board Chair Tommy Allen.
"We've got to have more of that kind of thinking ... and direct support in dealing with the Legislature," Allen said. "Our democracy can't succeed without education."
Allen called voter support vital in dealing with the Legislature, pointing out too many people expect local elected officials to lead the fight.
"There are only six votes up here," Allen said, pointing out legislators need to hear from the public.
Slough said that was happening at least during the current Legislative Special Session. The school district has kept the public informed. Slough has sent out numerous e-mails letting residents know about the cuts and asking residents to contact legislators.
The public has responded.
"(Legislators) are asking why they're getting all these calls and e-mails. They're not very appreciative, and that's okay," Slough said.
Legislators ended up not cutting education as severely as expected despite a shortfall in revenue. Cuts for the rest of this school year will be about 2 percent, which in St. Johns County translates to about $4 million.
"That's about the best we can expect," Slough said.
St. Johns school officials have the reserves to meet those cuts, at least for this year. They're still looking for ways to meet an expected $20 million state cut for the 2009-10 school year.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/011409/news_0114_018.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
By MARCIA LANE
marcia.lane@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Money and how to save it once again headlined the St. Johns School Board meeting on Tuesday. So did the need for support for education from voters.
Two groups -- one representing business, the other the arts -- stepped up to the plate.
St. Augustine St. Johns Chamber of Commerce President Don Wallis said the Chamber would be taking the case for education to state legislators when they meet with them.
"And we have 1,200 members," Wallis said.
School Superintendent Joe Joyner has said everything is up for consideration when it comes to saving money.
Phil McDaniel with the St. Johns County Cultural Council doesn't want to see that include the arts, music and physical education as Duval County has suggested.
"Our reply is four words: 'Thanks, but no thanks.' ... These are savings we simply cannot afford in St. Johns County," McDaniel told the board, noting a strong arts curriculum helps make for a strong education process.
The message his group wants to send to legislators is "Do not cut funding for education. Our children are far too important."
Board members unanimously backed a proposal for a four-week school week during the summer that is expected to save at least $1 million. Most of those savings will come through energy cuts including closing schools and centralizing administration at high schools for the summer.
"Why are we doing this?" asked Joyner. He answered his own question with, "To save money. ... Anytime we do something like this it saves a teacher's job."
District 1 member Bev Slough said Volusia County commissioners are saying they'll be putting all their legislative emphasis on saving education funding.
"I was told they're saying, if education falls, everything else falls," said Slough, who heads the Florida School Boards Association.
That sentiment drew agreement from Board Chair Tommy Allen.
"We've got to have more of that kind of thinking ... and direct support in dealing with the Legislature," Allen said. "Our democracy can't succeed without education."
Allen called voter support vital in dealing with the Legislature, pointing out too many people expect local elected officials to lead the fight.
"There are only six votes up here," Allen said, pointing out legislators need to hear from the public.
Slough said that was happening at least during the current Legislative Special Session. The school district has kept the public informed. Slough has sent out numerous e-mails letting residents know about the cuts and asking residents to contact legislators.
The public has responded.
"(Legislators) are asking why they're getting all these calls and e-mails. They're not very appreciative, and that's okay," Slough said.
Legislators ended up not cutting education as severely as expected despite a shortfall in revenue. Cuts for the rest of this school year will be about 2 percent, which in St. Johns County translates to about $4 million.
"That's about the best we can expect," Slough said.
St. Johns school officials have the reserves to meet those cuts, at least for this year. They're still looking for ways to meet an expected $20 million state cut for the 2009-10 school year.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/011409/news_0114_018.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Ruling OKs St. Johns withdrawals
Ruling OKs St. Johns withdrawals
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Neal Armingeon of the St. Johns Riverkeeper said Tuesday that a state judge's decision to allow Seminole County to withdraw 5.5 million gallons per day out of the St. Johns could cost the river much more water than that.
"Seminole is building a 50 million gallon capacity structure to treat water," Armingeon said. "They spent $2.6 million to fight this case."
A trial in October lasted 10 days and pitted the Riverkeeper, St. Johns County and Jacksonville against the district.
Administrative Judge J. Lawrence Johnston released an order Monday recommending that St. Johns River Water Management District issue a permit for the withdrawals.
The district board will make its decision at its March meeting in Palatka.
Armingeon said, "As an organization, we made a commitment to the community and the river. We're going to turn out a mess of people at the district hearing. We believe in our hearts we will prevail."
Patrick McCormack, the attorney who argued the case for St. Johns County, said Tuesday that the litigation caused the district to "provide much more in-depth evidence and assurance that there will not be environmental damage. Such information was not in place prior to the litigation."
McCormack added a caution, however, saying that 5.5 million gallons per day is only 2 to 3 percent of all the water that is being sought by communities along the river.
The St. Johns County Commission has not yet made a decision on what to do next.
Environmentalists say that there are requests from several cities to take up to 262 million gallons per day from the St. Johns and Oklawaha rivers, with the biggest user to be Orlando.
At the October hearing, Seminole County presented the testimony of dozens of hydrogeologists, biologists, environmental engineering, water supply planners, wastewater treatment experts and marine scientists.
The Riverkeeper presented experts in the fields of ecology, hydrology, marine biology and water supply engineering, while Jacksonville presented biologists and engineers, and St. Johns County offered its Environmental Planner Jan Brewer, a recognized expert in biology and environmental management.
Armingeon said he was "deeply disappointed" by the final ruling.
"But we knew when we took on this struggle that the administrative hearing process is often biased toward the water management districts. We believe we presented a compelling case," he said.
St. Johns County spent about $10,000, Jacksonville about $300,000 and the Riverkeeper about $2,000.
Armingeon said he found it ironic that the trial was held right around a corner from a museum that closed because Seminole County couldn't pay its staff.
"They will use more than 1 million gallons a day to water people's lawns," Armingeon said. "We should find that offensive. I do. This is an issue that's not going away."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/011409/news_0114_022.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/14/09
Neal Armingeon of the St. Johns Riverkeeper said Tuesday that a state judge's decision to allow Seminole County to withdraw 5.5 million gallons per day out of the St. Johns could cost the river much more water than that.
"Seminole is building a 50 million gallon capacity structure to treat water," Armingeon said. "They spent $2.6 million to fight this case."
A trial in October lasted 10 days and pitted the Riverkeeper, St. Johns County and Jacksonville against the district.
Administrative Judge J. Lawrence Johnston released an order Monday recommending that St. Johns River Water Management District issue a permit for the withdrawals.
The district board will make its decision at its March meeting in Palatka.
Armingeon said, "As an organization, we made a commitment to the community and the river. We're going to turn out a mess of people at the district hearing. We believe in our hearts we will prevail."
Patrick McCormack, the attorney who argued the case for St. Johns County, said Tuesday that the litigation caused the district to "provide much more in-depth evidence and assurance that there will not be environmental damage. Such information was not in place prior to the litigation."
McCormack added a caution, however, saying that 5.5 million gallons per day is only 2 to 3 percent of all the water that is being sought by communities along the river.
The St. Johns County Commission has not yet made a decision on what to do next.
Environmentalists say that there are requests from several cities to take up to 262 million gallons per day from the St. Johns and Oklawaha rivers, with the biggest user to be Orlando.
At the October hearing, Seminole County presented the testimony of dozens of hydrogeologists, biologists, environmental engineering, water supply planners, wastewater treatment experts and marine scientists.
The Riverkeeper presented experts in the fields of ecology, hydrology, marine biology and water supply engineering, while Jacksonville presented biologists and engineers, and St. Johns County offered its Environmental Planner Jan Brewer, a recognized expert in biology and environmental management.
Armingeon said he was "deeply disappointed" by the final ruling.
"But we knew when we took on this struggle that the administrative hearing process is often biased toward the water management districts. We believe we presented a compelling case," he said.
St. Johns County spent about $10,000, Jacksonville about $300,000 and the Riverkeeper about $2,000.
Armingeon said he found it ironic that the trial was held right around a corner from a museum that closed because Seminole County couldn't pay its staff.
"They will use more than 1 million gallons a day to water people's lawns," Armingeon said. "We should find that offensive. I do. This is an issue that's not going away."
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http://staugustine.com/stories/011409/news_0114_022.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
City economy is hurting
As indicated by the revenue stream from the franchise fees on trolleys and tour trains, see below, our City of St. Augustine has been rocked by the Republicans' wretched recession. We need a St. Augustine National HIstorical Park, National Seashore and National Scenice Coastal Highway. No more casusitry, please, from our Mayor and Vice Mayor, who won't even read the draft legislation, with ERROL JONES a/k/a/ ERRONEOUS JONES saying "I don't want a national park."
City OKs trolley train rate hike
City OKs trolley train rate hike
From Staff
Publication Date: 01/14/09
St. Augustine's two trolley train companies are raising their rates, and the city approved the increase.
The companies, Old Town Trolley Trains and St. Augustine Sightseeing Trains, are pushing up rates from $21 to $24 for adults and $8 to $11 for children.
Mark Litzinger, city comptroller, said the last time the companies raised their rates was in 2005.
He said the companies have a franchise with the city and needed the City Commission to approve the new rates.
Litzinger and city staff suggested the commission also raise the franchise fee from 2.5 percent of the trolley trains' gross sales to 3 percent. Under the franchise agreement, the city can increase the fee every three years by a half percent, Litzinger said.
Mayor Joe Boles said Monday at the City Commission meeting that he would not vote in favor of boosting the franchise fee without further research from city staff.
The issue will come before the commission again on Feb. 9.
Litzinger said the city brings in $121,000 a year from the trolley train companies' franchise fees. The bump up in the fee would give the city another $25,000.
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© The St. Augustine Record
From Staff
Publication Date: 01/14/09
St. Augustine's two trolley train companies are raising their rates, and the city approved the increase.
The companies, Old Town Trolley Trains and St. Augustine Sightseeing Trains, are pushing up rates from $21 to $24 for adults and $8 to $11 for children.
Mark Litzinger, city comptroller, said the last time the companies raised their rates was in 2005.
He said the companies have a franchise with the city and needed the City Commission to approve the new rates.
Litzinger and city staff suggested the commission also raise the franchise fee from 2.5 percent of the trolley trains' gross sales to 3 percent. Under the franchise agreement, the city can increase the fee every three years by a half percent, Litzinger said.
Mayor Joe Boles said Monday at the City Commission meeting that he would not vote in favor of boosting the franchise fee without further research from city staff.
The issue will come before the commission again on Feb. 9.
Litzinger said the city brings in $121,000 a year from the trolley train companies' franchise fees. The bump up in the fee would give the city another $25,000.
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© The St. Augustine Record
Florida Times-Union: Water district ready to act on Seminole water issue
Water district ready to act on Seminole water issue
County win judge's approval to withdraw water from St. Johns River
By Steve Patterson
PALATKA — Blessed by a judge’s ruling, state officials on Tuesday set a March date to decide a long-running feud over releasing St. Johns River water to a Central Florida utility.
But the decision of the St. Johns River Water Management District is already largely dictated by the conclusions the judge announced Monday.
And unlike most issues that reach the management district’s governing board, there are severe legal limits on how much board members can consider the concerns and ideas of ordinary citizens, a lawyer for the agency said Tuesday.
A weeks-long hearing that Administrative Law Judge J. Lawrence Johnston held in October spelled out all the evidence the board is supposed to consider when it acts on Seminole County’s request to take up to 5.5 million gallons daily from the river for lawn-watering and drinking water.
The St. Johns Riverkeeper group and Jacksonville City Hall and St. Johns County all challenged that request through an administrative lawsuit that ended with Johnston saying the withdrawals should be permitted.
People who weren’t part of that case legally can’t introduce new evidence now, said Stan Niego, an agency senior assistant general counsel.
They can make arguments about what the board should do, but the only arguments the board can consider would be about how the permit affects the agency’s policies, Niego said.
In effect, the lawsuit and the hearing that decided it replaced most of the hearing that would normally be done at the management district.
“We’re relying on that process in the case for the outcome to be as fair as possible” said district Chairwoman Susan Hughes, a JEA executive. “They had their day in court, so to speak. … The opportunity to present their evidence was fully vetted.”
The board is scheduled to act on the permit request March 10 during a meeting in Palatka.
Johnston’s ruling spelled out findings that board members are supposed to treat as facts provided there is evidence in the hearing records to support the findings, Niego said.
Opponents of the withdrawal plan argued Seminole County was just the first in a series of Central Florida communities who could eventually pull up to 262 million gallons daily from the St. Johns and its main tributary, the Ocklawaha River.
Critics said that downstream parts of the river, which enters the ocean at Mayport, would become saltier as fresh water was taken from the river’s mid-section. They argued the withdrawals would affect plants and animals.
Seminole County Public Works Director John Cirello released an e-mailed statement Tuesday saying Johnston’s ruling “supported science” and recognized the withdrawals wouldn’t hurt the river. He described the withdrawals as being so small as to be “immeasurable” in the river.
“Our plan is to protect the quality of life of our community and Central Florida,” Cirello added. “That means, among many other things, protecting the environment, providing affordable water of good quality and cooperating with our neighbors.”
Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon said his group was still reviewing the 66-page ruling to decide how best to respond before the Palatka meeting.
“We’re obviously going to go down there and probably will encourage people who are against the project to go down there,” he said.
steve.patterson@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4263
WJXT-TV: Judge OKs Water Withdrawal From St. Johns -- Water Management District Sets March 10 Vote On Permit
Judge OKs Water Withdrawal From St. Johns -- Water Management District Sets March 10 Vote On Permit
WJXT-TV
updated 12:46 a.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 14, 2009
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida administrative law judge has recommended that the St. Johns River Water Management District approve Seminole County's plan to withdraw 5.5 million gallons daily from the river.
The permit for diverting the surface water for use in Seminole County's water supply was challenged by several entities, including the the city of Jacksonville, St. Johns County and the St. Johns Riverkeeper.
Judge J. Lawrence Johnston's 66-page ruling was released on Monday. The water management district announced Tuesday its governing board would hold a public hearing on Seminole County's permit request at its March 10 meeting and then hold a vote.
Seminole County's plan is the first of what the water management district says could be 200 million of gallons to be taken every day from the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers for use as potable water by communities in the Orlando area.
Environmentalists and officials across northeast Florida are concerned the withdrawals would destroy the balance of saltwater and freshwater needed to preserve biological habitat and submerged vegetation in the river.
Water-management officials said that Melbourne has been using water from the St. Johns for drinking water for decades and Cocoa and Sanford began withdrawing water from the river in 1999. A Seminole County utility expert told the judge that that the river's daily flow is about 2 billion gallons at the point where the new withdrawals would be made and taking 50 million gallons should have no measurable effect on the river.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon told Channel 4 he is "deeply disappointed" by the judge's ruling, but the fight to project the river is not over.
"The administrative hearing process is often biased toward the water management districts," Armingeon said in a statement. "However, we firmly believe that we presented a compelling case and were able to clearly demonstrate that Seminole County does not need to remove water from the St. Johns River to meet its future needs, and that water conservation is the most environmentally sensible and economically viable alternative."
On The Net:SJRWMD.com: The St. Johns River As A Drinking Water Source
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28640075/
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Daytona News-Journal: Ruling paves way for St. Johns water withdrawal permit
January 14, 2009
Ruling paves way for St. Johns water withdrawal permit
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER
Environment Writer
A state administrative hearing judge has ruled Seminole County may pull water from the St. Johns River to provide additional fresh water to its residents and supplement its reclaimed-water supply.
The proposal is considered the first step in a plan that would eventually bring a plant to turn river water into drinking water for cities and counties throughout Central Florida, including DeLand and Volusia County.
St. Johns River Water Management District staff members proposed approval of the county's permit in March, but the Riverkeeper -- a river advocacy group -- the city of Jacksonville and St. Johns County filed a request for an administrative hearing to block the district's approval.
The Riverkeeper issued a statement Tuesday saying it's "deeply disappointed" in the judge's decision.
The state judge presided over a nearly two-week-long hearing last fall and ruled Monday the district can approve the permit for a 5.5 million-gallon-per-day plant on the river. The plant would be built at the county's Yankee Lake wastewater treatment plant, near DeBary.
Opponents fear the request will open a floodgate of requests to use the St. Johns that could harm water quality in the river. They say Seminole County should, instead, require its residents to reduce their water use and lawn irrigation. Per capita water use in the northern part of the county is among the highest in the state.
The district plans to consider the permit at its March 10 meeting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2008 News-Journal Corporation. ® www.news-journalonline.com.
Orlando Sentienel: Hearing officer sides with Seminole County in its quest to take water from St. Johns River
orlandosentinel.com/orl-seminole-county-johns-river-011309,0,4041558.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Hearing officer sides with Seminole County in its quest to take water from St. Johns River
Kevin Spear
Sentinel Staff Writer
10:48 AM EST, January 13, 2009
A state hearing officer has sided with Seminole County in its controversial quest to take water from the St. Johns River.
Ending a year-long legal review, Administrative Law Judge J. Lawrence Johnston of Tallahassee recommended late Monday that state water authorities grant the county's request to withdraw 5.5 million gallons of river water daily.
Environmentalists and North Florida local government officials are trying to stop Seminole County and other Central Florida utilities from turning to the St. Johns River as a major supply of water for population growth.
"I hope that other utilities are not naïve enough to think this is the end of the issue," said Neil Armingeon, a leader of the St. Johns Riverkeeper group in Jacksonville. "We're not going to tuck our tails and run because we've had a setback."
Armingeon said his group will try to organize a heavy turnout when the St. Johns River Water Management District -- led by governor-appointed board members -- meets to make a decision on Seminole County's application for a water-withdrawal permit.
District officials have not set a date for that meeting.
Also in the works is a likely attempt by the Riverkeeper group to fight Seminole County in a state appeals court, Armingeon said.
A Seminole County spokeswoman said Tuesday morning that county officials are pleased by the hearing judge's ruling but have not had time to analyze its contents. Overshadowing the legal drama is the economy's slowdown, which, combined with a decline in population growth leaves unclear how pressed the region is to supplement its traditional supply of well water with river water.
Kevin Spear can be reached at kspear@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5062.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
A Little More than Six More Days of George W. Bush As President
Q. How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None. The light bulb chose to burn out. It needs to take responsibility for changing itself.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
USDOJ Press Release: U.S. ARMY PRIVATE ARRESTED FOR TAKING BRIBES RELATED TO DUTIES AT TUCSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Office of the United States Attorney
District of Arizona
For Information Contact Public Affairs
SANDY RAYNOR
Telephone: (602) 514-7625
Cell: (602) 525-2681
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 8, 2009
U.S. ARMY PRIVATE ARRESTED FOR TAKING BRIBES RELATED TO DUTIES AT TUCSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
TUCSON , Ariz.—U.S. Army Private First Class Christina M. Swenson, 39, of Tucson, was arrested today by the FBI and was charged by federal criminal complaint with Bribery of a Public Official. She is currently in federal custody and will have her initial appearance tomorrow, January 9, 2009, at 2 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Glenda E. Edmonds in Tucson.
The criminal complaint alleges that Swenson, while acting in her official duty, accepted four bribes totaling $3,500. Swenson is assigned to the USO Lounge at the Tucson International Airport (TIA) where her primary official duty is to assist U.S. Army soldiers arriving at TIA to obtain transportation to Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The FBI obtained information that Swenson was soliciting bribes to steer military personnel to transportation companies of her choice. According to the complaint, the owner of one of the shuttle services agreed to cooperate in the investigation and record conversations and meetings with Swenson.
In November and December 2008, the cooperating individual met with Swenson and provided her with $700, $1,000, $800 and $1000 in U.S. Currency at her residence in Tucson on four separate dates. The cooperating individual and Swenson discussed on several occasions that the money was in exchange for Swenson giving the cooperating individual "all the soldiers" to transport. Today, FBI Special Agents arrested Swenson without incident after she received a fifth bribe payment of $1,000.
A conviction for bribery of a public official carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. In determining an actual sentence, the U.S. District Court Judge will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
A criminal complaint is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. The prosecution is being handled by Mary Sue Feldmeier, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson.
CASE NUMBER: Mag. No. 09-03031M (GEE)
RELEASE NUMBER: 2009-009(Swenson)
# # #
For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/az/
District of Arizona
For Information Contact Public Affairs
SANDY RAYNOR
Telephone: (602) 514-7625
Cell: (602) 525-2681
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 8, 2009
U.S. ARMY PRIVATE ARRESTED FOR TAKING BRIBES RELATED TO DUTIES AT TUCSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
TUCSON , Ariz.—U.S. Army Private First Class Christina M. Swenson, 39, of Tucson, was arrested today by the FBI and was charged by federal criminal complaint with Bribery of a Public Official. She is currently in federal custody and will have her initial appearance tomorrow, January 9, 2009, at 2 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Glenda E. Edmonds in Tucson.
The criminal complaint alleges that Swenson, while acting in her official duty, accepted four bribes totaling $3,500. Swenson is assigned to the USO Lounge at the Tucson International Airport (TIA) where her primary official duty is to assist U.S. Army soldiers arriving at TIA to obtain transportation to Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The FBI obtained information that Swenson was soliciting bribes to steer military personnel to transportation companies of her choice. According to the complaint, the owner of one of the shuttle services agreed to cooperate in the investigation and record conversations and meetings with Swenson.
In November and December 2008, the cooperating individual met with Swenson and provided her with $700, $1,000, $800 and $1000 in U.S. Currency at her residence in Tucson on four separate dates. The cooperating individual and Swenson discussed on several occasions that the money was in exchange for Swenson giving the cooperating individual "all the soldiers" to transport. Today, FBI Special Agents arrested Swenson without incident after she received a fifth bribe payment of $1,000.
A conviction for bribery of a public official carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. In determining an actual sentence, the U.S. District Court Judge will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
A criminal complaint is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. The prosecution is being handled by Mary Sue Feldmeier, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson.
CASE NUMBER: Mag. No. 09-03031M (GEE)
RELEASE NUMBER: 2009-009(Swenson)
# # #
For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/az/
USDOJ Press Release: FORMER CITY OF MIAMI POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN JAIL
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Southern District of Florida
99 N.E. 4 Street,
Miami, FL 33132
(305)961-9001
January 8, 2009
NEWS RELEASE:
FORMER CITY OF MIAMI POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN JAIL
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and John Timoney, Chief of the City of Miami Police Department, announced that former City of Miami Police Officer Jorge Hernandez was sentenced today on a charge of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846, for his role in protecting what he believed was the delivery of a multi-kilogram shipment of cocaine. Hernandez and fellow officer Geovani Nunez previously pled guilty to this charge, which arose from an eight-month undercover investigation jointly conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the cooperation and assistance of the City of Miami Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.
In this morning’s hearing in Miami, Judge Patricia A. Seitz sentenced Hernandez to 108 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. His co-defendant, Geovani Nunez, was previously sentenced by Judge Seitz to 135 months in prison.
As shown in the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, during the course of this investigation, Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the City of Miami Police Department, worked with his co-defendant Nunez to provide a variety of illegal services to an individual who represented himself as having a trucking business involved in transporting stolen merchandise and narcotics. During the course of his criminal activities, Hernandez used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of what he was told were two separate large loads of stolen merchandise, including computers. He also used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of a purported six kilograms of cocaine. In reality, the purported criminal activities were all staged operations done as part of this investigation. The defendants were paid in cash at the conclusion of each criminal episode that they participated in, with Hernandez receiving approximately $10,000 in cash for his criminal services.
Mr. Acosta commended the efforts of the numerous special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and City of Miami Internal Affairs officers who have been working on this investigation. The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Edward N. Stamm.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
United States Attorney
Southern District of Florida
99 N.E. 4 Street,
Miami, FL 33132
(305)961-9001
January 8, 2009
NEWS RELEASE:
FORMER CITY OF MIAMI POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN JAIL
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and John Timoney, Chief of the City of Miami Police Department, announced that former City of Miami Police Officer Jorge Hernandez was sentenced today on a charge of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846, for his role in protecting what he believed was the delivery of a multi-kilogram shipment of cocaine. Hernandez and fellow officer Geovani Nunez previously pled guilty to this charge, which arose from an eight-month undercover investigation jointly conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the cooperation and assistance of the City of Miami Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.
In this morning’s hearing in Miami, Judge Patricia A. Seitz sentenced Hernandez to 108 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. His co-defendant, Geovani Nunez, was previously sentenced by Judge Seitz to 135 months in prison.
As shown in the guilty plea and sentencing proceedings, during the course of this investigation, Hernandez, a 13-year veteran of the City of Miami Police Department, worked with his co-defendant Nunez to provide a variety of illegal services to an individual who represented himself as having a trucking business involved in transporting stolen merchandise and narcotics. During the course of his criminal activities, Hernandez used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of what he was told were two separate large loads of stolen merchandise, including computers. He also used his unmarked police car to protect the delivery of a purported six kilograms of cocaine. In reality, the purported criminal activities were all staged operations done as part of this investigation. The defendants were paid in cash at the conclusion of each criminal episode that they participated in, with Hernandez receiving approximately $10,000 in cash for his criminal services.
Mr. Acosta commended the efforts of the numerous special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and City of Miami Internal Affairs officers who have been working on this investigation. The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Edward N. Stamm.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
USDOJ Press Release: DOJ Sues to Recover Foreign Bribes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 9, 2009 (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888
Department of Justice Seeks to Recover Approximately $3 Million in Illegal Proceeds from Foreign Bribe Payments
WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice has filed a forfeiture action against accounts worth nearly $3 million that are alleged to be the proceeds of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bribe public officials in Bangladesh and their family members in connection with various public work projects, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division announced today.
The forfeiture action was filed Jan. 8, 2009 , in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia against funds located in Singapore held by multiple account holders. The forfeiture complaint relates primarily to alleged bribes paid to Arafat "Koko" Rahman, the son of the former prime minister of Bangladesh , in connection with public works projects awarded by the government of Bangladesh to Siemens AG and China Harbor Engineering Company. According to the forfeiture complaint, the majority of funds in Koko’s account are traceable to bribes allegedly received in connection with the China Harbor project, which was a project to build a new mooring containment terminal at the port in Chittagong , Bangladesh .
"This action shows the lengths to which U.S. law enforcement will go to recover the proceeds of foreign corruption, including acts of bribery and money laundering," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich. "Not only will the Department, for example, prosecute companies and executives who violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, we will also use our forfeiture laws to recapture the illicit facilitating payments often used in such schemes."
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (Siemens AG), a German corporation, and three of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty on Dec. 15, 2008 , to violations of and charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Specifically, Siemens Bangladesh admitted that from May 2001 to August 2006, it caused corrupt payments of at least $5,319,839 to be made through purported business consultants to various Bangladeshi officials in exchange for favorable treatment during the bidding process on a mobile telephone project. At least one payment to each of these purported consultants was paid from a U.S. bank account.
According to the forfeiture complaint, the bribe payments from Siemens AG and China Harbor Engineering Company were made in U.S. dollars, and the illicit funds flowed through financial institutions in the United States before they were deposited in accounts in Singapore , thereby subjecting them to U.S. jurisdiction. Money laundering laws in the United States cover financial transactions that flow through the United States involving proceeds of foreign offenses, including foreign bribery and extortion.
In August 2006, the President announced a National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy to fight high-level corruption around the world. This strategy combines the policy and law enforcement tools of several federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Treasury, State and Homeland Security.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Linda Samuel and Trial Attorney Frederick Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Additional assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office in cooperation with Bangladeshi law enforcement.
Friday, January 9, 2009 (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888
Department of Justice Seeks to Recover Approximately $3 Million in Illegal Proceeds from Foreign Bribe Payments
WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice has filed a forfeiture action against accounts worth nearly $3 million that are alleged to be the proceeds of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bribe public officials in Bangladesh and their family members in connection with various public work projects, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division announced today.
The forfeiture action was filed Jan. 8, 2009 , in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia against funds located in Singapore held by multiple account holders. The forfeiture complaint relates primarily to alleged bribes paid to Arafat "Koko" Rahman, the son of the former prime minister of Bangladesh , in connection with public works projects awarded by the government of Bangladesh to Siemens AG and China Harbor Engineering Company. According to the forfeiture complaint, the majority of funds in Koko’s account are traceable to bribes allegedly received in connection with the China Harbor project, which was a project to build a new mooring containment terminal at the port in Chittagong , Bangladesh .
"This action shows the lengths to which U.S. law enforcement will go to recover the proceeds of foreign corruption, including acts of bribery and money laundering," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich. "Not only will the Department, for example, prosecute companies and executives who violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, we will also use our forfeiture laws to recapture the illicit facilitating payments often used in such schemes."
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (Siemens AG), a German corporation, and three of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty on Dec. 15, 2008 , to violations of and charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Specifically, Siemens Bangladesh admitted that from May 2001 to August 2006, it caused corrupt payments of at least $5,319,839 to be made through purported business consultants to various Bangladeshi officials in exchange for favorable treatment during the bidding process on a mobile telephone project. At least one payment to each of these purported consultants was paid from a U.S. bank account.
According to the forfeiture complaint, the bribe payments from Siemens AG and China Harbor Engineering Company were made in U.S. dollars, and the illicit funds flowed through financial institutions in the United States before they were deposited in accounts in Singapore , thereby subjecting them to U.S. jurisdiction. Money laundering laws in the United States cover financial transactions that flow through the United States involving proceeds of foreign offenses, including foreign bribery and extortion.
In August 2006, the President announced a National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy to fight high-level corruption around the world. This strategy combines the policy and law enforcement tools of several federal agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Treasury, State and Homeland Security.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Linda Samuel and Trial Attorney Frederick Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Additional assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office in cooperation with Bangladeshi law enforcement.
CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA PUSHED EARMARKS FOR COLORADO RAILCAR, WHICH IS NOW OUT OF BUSINESS
Commuter Rail Falters Again As Supplier Fails
By LINDSAY PETERSON
lpeterson@tampatrib.com
When Florida Department of Transportation officials chose a Colorado company early last year to build 10 railcars for its new Orlando commuter system, they knew the company was in financial trouble.
Nevertheless, the department moved forward with the $45 million contract, and is having to scramble now that Colorado Railcar went out of business at the end of the year. The state had to rewrite the railcar proposal to get new companies to bid.
The last-minute change is one more stumble in the state's controversial efforts to bring commuter rail to Orlando. Last May, state lawmakers rejected an agreement with CSX Transportation, the company planning to sell tracks to the state for the $1.2 billion, 61-mile system. The agreement would have freed CSX from responsibility if one of its trains caused a commuter accident while using the tracks.
State DOT officials are working on getting the CSX track purchase approved this year. They said they didn't realize how serious Colorado Railcar's problems were until October, when the company failed to provide the performance bond the state required.
The state originally advertised the railcar bid invitation in February. It was so narrowly written that Colorado Railcar was the only company that qualified. In a Tampa Tribune story about the purchase, state officials said the company produced precisely the kind of railcar it wanted for the Orlando system. It's a fuel-efficient vehicle that combines the engine and seating in one unit but is also sturdy enough to withstand a collision with a freight train. The revised bid is for the more traditional locomotive-hauled train.
One of Colorado Railcar's proponents is U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, also a major supporter of the Orlando commuter rail system. Mica helped Florida get federal grants in 2003 and 2004 to buy six Colorado Railcar vehicles for South Florida's commuter rail system - with plans that the railcars be moved to Orlando later. They cost $20 million, which included money from the state.
Florida is still waiting for one of its six cars, said Bonnie Arnold, of South Florida's TriRail. "At last report, it was in Texas, on its way to us." But it's unfinished. It still needs interior modifications, including electrical work, she said.
Arnold is also concerned about how the specially built cars will be maintained, with the company out of business. She said five Colorado Railcar maintenance workers based in South Florida will likely be kept on as employees either of TriRail or the state DOT.
Mica defended his support for Colorado Railcar in an earlier Tribune story, saying it had created an innovative fuel-efficient vehicle. He knew the company was having business problems but didn't know the details, he said.
The company's founder, Tom Rader, gave Mica's political campaigns a total of $3,000 in 2004 and 2005. Mica said the contributions had nothing to do with his support for the company.
Florida's DOT was the first transportation agency to buy commuter rail vehicles from Colorado Railcar. A Portland, Ore., agency, TriMet, followed with a $17 million order for four cars. But it learned in mid-2007 that the company was behind schedule and having trouble paying suppliers, said Tuck Wilson, TriMet's special counsel managing the project.
In early 2008 problems at Colorado Railcar were so bad, TriMet took over the company's finances to ensure the completion of its order. Wilson said he notified Florida officials and asked whether they wanted to join the receivership, but the state declined.
TriMet ended up getting all its railcars, but it cost the agency an additional $5.5 million.
Tampa Bay Tribune: CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA Pushed Contract for Colorado Railcar Company
Railcar Deal Missing Key Component: The Tracks
By LINDSAY PETERSON
The Tampa Tribune
Florida plans to spend $45 million to buy commuter railcars from a company whose investors ousted its president recently amid production problems at its manufacturing plant.
The company, Colorado Railcar Manufacturing of Fort Lupton, Colo., is a year late completing an order for South Florida's Tri-Rail commuter system. Nevertheless, Florida officials say they plan to order 10 more vehicles to start up the state's commuter rail project in the Orlando area - with an option to get 14 more later.
The Orlando commuter system doesn't exist yet. The project stumbled this spring when state lawmakers rejected a key component of the state's agreement to buy railroad tracks from CSX Transportation. But state Department of Transportation officials said they are working on getting the deal through next year and plan to go ahead with the railcar purchase.
Colorado Railcar was the only bidder for the contract advertised in February. That's because the state wrote the solicitation narrowly, and no other company qualified.
One of Colorado Railcar's most ardent supporters is U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park. Mica is also a major proponent of the Orlando area commuter system.
DOT officials said they plan to award the $45 million contract to Colorado Railcar in October, though they will evaluate the company's financial standing and production capacity first.
The railcar bid request was not written for the purpose of giving the contract to Colorado Railcar, said DOT spokesman Dick Kane. The company happens to produce the kind of trains the Orlando system is being designed to use - trains that can use short platforms but carry thousands of passengers a day on tracks shared by freight trains.
With a conventional commuter train, a locomotive pulls the passenger cars. They are popular because they meet federal requirements for passenger trains on active freight lines. They must be able to withstand a collision with a freight train.
Colorado Railcar builds what is known as a diesel multiple unit, or DMU. It combines a diesel engine and passenger seating in one car, so its trains are shorter and get better mileage. But unlike other DMUs, the Colorado Railcars are sturdy enough to meet federal crash requirements.
The way the state is planning the Orlando system, its trains will share tracks with CSX freight trains for several hours a day.
Mica began promoting Colorado Railcar six years ago. It had just announced production of its new, crash-resistant DMU but hadn't sold one. A longtime member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mica took credit for getting a $4 million congressional earmark in 2003 that helped the company sell that first vehicle - to South Florida's Tri-Rail.
An earmark is a provision in a bill that directs money to be spent on a specific project. The 2003 bill with the railcar earmark didn't name Colorado Railcar, but it required that the money be used for DMUs that were manufactured in the United States and could run on tracks with freight trains. At the time, only Colorado Railcar met the criteria.
Congress approved a second earmark in 2004 for $5 million, after Colorado Railcar hired the lobbying and law firm Greenberg, Traurig. The Florida Department of Transportation pitched in $11 million in state tax money so it could buy six cars.
Now, the state plans to pay Colorado Railcar $4.5 million apiece for the 10 vehicles.
Mica said that although he supported Colorado Railcar, he did not talk to DOT officials about giving the company the state contract.
'Efficiency Difficulties'
Tom Rader founded Colorado Railcar and was removed as its president this year. Since 2003, Rader and his company have reported spending nearly $300,000 on lobbyists and federal campaign contributions. Rader gave Mica's political campaigns a total of $3,000 for 2004 and 2005.
Mica angrily denied that lobbying or campaign contributions had anything to do with his position. "My relationship with the company has been nothing but above the board," he said. The company spent its own money developing a new kind of fuel-efficient railcar and deserves government help, Mica said.
The new Colorado Railcar president, Larry Salci, took over for Rader in April. Colorado Railcar's primary lenders had retained him a month earlier to analyze the company's finances and operations.
"They said they had a company with efficiency difficulties," Salci said.
He said he is focused on producing railcars and knows nothing about the company's political activities under Rader.
Salci has 30 years' experience with railcar manufacturing and is "very bullish" on Colorado Railcar's vehicles, he said.
But production has been a challenge for the company. In addition to Florida's TriRail, an Oregon transit agency, TriMet, has had problems with Colorado Railcar's delivery schedules.
TriMet learned last year that the company would be late delivering the first of four cars TriMet had ordered. The first car arrived in mid-June, about six months late, but not until the agency sent someone to the Fort Lupton plant to monitor the production process full time. The other cars are due later this summer.
The company was trying to recapitalize and having trouble with supplies, said Thomas Helig, TriMet manager.
Rader had problems in Florida 10 years ago while involved with a venture called the Florida Fun Train. It carried tourists and local partiers between South Florida and Orlando in railcars that had been turned into lounges, a video arcade, even a tiki bar with a disco.
The trains were beautiful, said one of the enterprise's presidents, Ray Monteleone. But production problems at the company, then called Rader Railcar II, led to the Fun Train's failure two years after it began, Monteleone said.
Rader's "imagination and vision was right on," he said. "But he had a hard time with delivery."
Salci's role at Colorado Railcar is to recapitalize the company and bring "discipline" to the manufacturing process, he said. He wouldn't go into detail about the company's problems, nor would he name the investors who hired him.
"This is a privately held company. I'm not at liberty to say that," he said.
Rader is now focused on running one of his other companies, called Grandluxe Rail Journeys, which operates luxury rail tours. He did not return phone calls.
Since Colorado Railcar announced production of its new vehicle in 2002, only three transit agencies - in Florida, Oregon and Alaska - have purchased any.
They're expensive, said Paul Dyson, president of the Passenger Rail Association of California and Nevada. They cost about twice as much as the locomotive-passenger car combination.
And although they use less fuel than the locomotive train, they use more fuel than other DMUs. That's because Colorado Railcar had to beef up its vehicles to meet the federal crash standards.
"If I were a Florida taxpayer, I'd be asking the state if they've looked at every alternative," Dyson said.
DOT's Kane said the state decided early on that it wanted to use DMUs, finding them to be superior to locomotive-hauled passenger trains. And the state had to use a heavier, crash-resistant DMU because of the deal with CSX. It doesn't give the state the option of scheduling passenger and freight trains at different times, as some commuter systems have done so they can use lightweight DMUs.
Economy and safety concerns dictated the state's choice, Kane said. But the bid request it issued this year contained the same requirements of the congressional earmark that Mica helped obtain for the company in 2003.
Choosing Colorado Railcar
Mica began promoting a passenger rail system in Orlando in the late 1990s and set up a demonstration of a lightweight DMU made by Siemens Transportation Systems. At the time, Orlando area transit officials were planning to build a light-rail system, but the plan failed.
By 2002, Mica was pushing a new plan to use existing CSX freight tracks - and Colorado Railcar vehicles.
The railcars weren't in service, but Mica had met Rader and was intrigued by his efforts to build a new kind of railcar. He can't recall where he met Rader.
A September 2002 news release on Mica's Web site announced that he "had secured $8 million for ... a national demonstration of a new commuter rail technology." It said he planned to show off an example of that technology, a Colorado Railcar DMU, in Orlando the next month.
The amount was down to $4 million by the time the transportation bill with the earmark passed in early 2003.
In August 2003, after Congress approved the railcar earmark, the law firm Greenberg, Traurig registered to lobby for Colorado Railcar.
One of the Colorado Railcar lobbyists was Duane Gibson, former chief aid to U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who was chairman of the House Transportation Committee from 2001 to 2007. Gibson continued to represent the company after he left the law firm.
Mica said he was never approached by any lobbyist about the company. If anything, Mica said, he approached Gibson after Gibson left the transportation committee.
"I spoke to Duane about Colorado Railcar," Mica said. "I can't remember if they were looking for someone to represent them or what." He also can't remember precisely when it was, but he said he is sure Gibson was not at Greenberg, Traurig at the time.
In late 2003, the federal government picked the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority to carry out the demonstration project described in the congressional earmark. The authority then picked Colorado Railcar to provide the vehicles.
Despite being credited for setting up the Colorado Railcar project in South Florida, Mica now says his role was only to encourage the House Appropriations Committee to pursue the DMU technology. He said he did not ask for money for any individual company. Nevertheless, he was happy that Colorado Railcar was eventually selected, he said.
"I was encouraging that Colorado Railcar be demonstrated anywhere in the United States," Mica said.
In 2006, when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, CSX officials and Mica announced the plans to buy 61 miles of CSX tracks for the Orlando area commuter system, the group rode a Colorado Railcar DMU into Orlando.
DOT officials say several companies were interested in the $45 million state contract advertised in February, though in the end only Colorado Railcar submitted a bid.
One of the potential bidders was a Korean company, Rotem, that designs crash-worthy DMUs and has a U.S. plant. It was planning to build cars for the Raleigh, N.C., commuter system until federal funding for that project fell through. Its cars, however, have only one level, and Florida officials said they need bilevel cars for the Orlando system.
Another company, Siemens, was also interested and proposed scheduling freight and commuter trains at different times so the state could use the company's lighter DMU. But the state said no, said Siemens' Frank Guzzo.
"There could have been other ways to approach the project. We had offered an alternative," Guzzo said. But the state "was fixated on this one approach."
Guest Column: Press must get tough on city leaders
Guest Column: Press must get tough on city leaders
DAVID BRIAN WALLACE
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 01/14/07
We sincerely appreciate improvements in the St. Augustine Record and hope it continues to improve. Increased news coverage is deserved of lawbreaking by city of St. Augustine officials.
St. Augustine city government's lawbreaking continued three days before Christmas. City Commission broke the Sunshine law (again) by voting Dec. 22 to ban venders from the Plaza de la Constitucion and to hire Ron Brown as permanent city attorney. The special meeting notice said it was solely to enact tax breaks for low-income elderly. St. Augustine city officials cared not for public rights to notice and an opportunity to speak.
City commissioners violated the Sunshine law on Oct. 13 when they hired Ron Brown as temporary city attorney, with no advance notice. City officials must be investigated by grand jurors.
Why do city officials always have to be picking on someone, and holding illegal meetings? Are disgruntled city officials only happy when they are making someone else unhappy? Do they think their "gotcha" government wins friends?
Our city government created the homelessness problem. Remember the buskers, artists, entertainers and musicians along St. George Street? Though buskers were popular with tourists, our misguided City Manager, William B. Harriss, and Commission (Commissioner Susan Burk dissenting), banned buskers from St. George Street. The city promised they could use the public market in the Plaza. Now panhandlers have replaced St. George Street buskers. Venders are being kicked out of the Plaza.
Homelessness is a predictable result of governments neglecting responsibilities and corporations' shipping our jobs overseas ñ Lou Dobbs' "Race to the Bottom."
We need investigative reporting, not government and corporate apologists.
Too often, press and politicians forget they work for the people.
Legislating against buskers, musicians, artists, entertainers, the homeless and venders will not make anyone happier or wealthier.
"Blaming the victims" of poverty is a wretched excuse for public policy or journalism.
The Record must continue to improve its coverage during 2007, shining the searchlight of investigative reporting, empowered by Florida's Sunshine law, on corrupt, dysfunctional local organizations.
St. Augustine city officials must be held accountable by the people, prosecutors, the courts and Gov. Charlie Crist (who has created an office of Government Openness, which sounds promising). Let's persist in exposing wrongdoing and demanding that public meetings and records be open and understood, eliminating wasteful spending.
Like good diplomats, we must not take "no" for an answer. City of St. Augustine pollution, Sunshine and open records violations must be remedied/stopped. Dumping the contents of St. Augustine's old city dump into the Old City Reservoir was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg in local governments' involvement in environmental crimes. We must investigate and prosecute environmental crimes (including bald eagle nest-tree cutters, clear-cutters, polluters and wetland-destroyers).
Let's solve environmental and historic preservation problems creatively, graciously.
Let's ask Congress and the president to enact a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" for everyone. I agree with Ed Slavin's idea, first shared at the Nov. 13, 2006, City Commission meeting. There's no principled reason for St. Augustine not to share federal park dollars spent liberally elsewhere. St. Augustine deserves an actual "National Park" (not just the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas, both "National Monuments").
The National Park Service (NPS) is America's most trusted, favorite federal agency, with long experience/expertise.
Let's combine historic city streets, the Anastasia State Park and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (formerly Guana River State Park), Red House Bluff, and other local history/nature into one world-class tourist destination, administered by NPS, inspired by Cape Cod, New Bedford and Philadelphia national parks/seashores. Let's preserve history/nature and culture, earning more national and international tourists' time (not just daytrips from nearby neighbors).
We're blessed with an opportunity of a lifetime: voters' righteous revulsion against wholesale history/nature destruction (and current real estate market). Let's unite our diverse community, working to preserve what makes St. Augustine and St. Johns County great, unique, enjoyable. Future generations will thank us and praise our leaders' vision. St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore:
Let's get it done. It's up to us.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/011407/opinions_4311095.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
DAVID BRIAN WALLACE
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 01/14/07
We sincerely appreciate improvements in the St. Augustine Record and hope it continues to improve. Increased news coverage is deserved of lawbreaking by city of St. Augustine officials.
St. Augustine city government's lawbreaking continued three days before Christmas. City Commission broke the Sunshine law (again) by voting Dec. 22 to ban venders from the Plaza de la Constitucion and to hire Ron Brown as permanent city attorney. The special meeting notice said it was solely to enact tax breaks for low-income elderly. St. Augustine city officials cared not for public rights to notice and an opportunity to speak.
City commissioners violated the Sunshine law on Oct. 13 when they hired Ron Brown as temporary city attorney, with no advance notice. City officials must be investigated by grand jurors.
Why do city officials always have to be picking on someone, and holding illegal meetings? Are disgruntled city officials only happy when they are making someone else unhappy? Do they think their "gotcha" government wins friends?
Our city government created the homelessness problem. Remember the buskers, artists, entertainers and musicians along St. George Street? Though buskers were popular with tourists, our misguided City Manager, William B. Harriss, and Commission (Commissioner Susan Burk dissenting), banned buskers from St. George Street. The city promised they could use the public market in the Plaza. Now panhandlers have replaced St. George Street buskers. Venders are being kicked out of the Plaza.
Homelessness is a predictable result of governments neglecting responsibilities and corporations' shipping our jobs overseas ñ Lou Dobbs' "Race to the Bottom."
We need investigative reporting, not government and corporate apologists.
Too often, press and politicians forget they work for the people.
Legislating against buskers, musicians, artists, entertainers, the homeless and venders will not make anyone happier or wealthier.
"Blaming the victims" of poverty is a wretched excuse for public policy or journalism.
The Record must continue to improve its coverage during 2007, shining the searchlight of investigative reporting, empowered by Florida's Sunshine law, on corrupt, dysfunctional local organizations.
St. Augustine city officials must be held accountable by the people, prosecutors, the courts and Gov. Charlie Crist (who has created an office of Government Openness, which sounds promising). Let's persist in exposing wrongdoing and demanding that public meetings and records be open and understood, eliminating wasteful spending.
Like good diplomats, we must not take "no" for an answer. City of St. Augustine pollution, Sunshine and open records violations must be remedied/stopped. Dumping the contents of St. Augustine's old city dump into the Old City Reservoir was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg in local governments' involvement in environmental crimes. We must investigate and prosecute environmental crimes (including bald eagle nest-tree cutters, clear-cutters, polluters and wetland-destroyers).
Let's solve environmental and historic preservation problems creatively, graciously.
Let's ask Congress and the president to enact a "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" for everyone. I agree with Ed Slavin's idea, first shared at the Nov. 13, 2006, City Commission meeting. There's no principled reason for St. Augustine not to share federal park dollars spent liberally elsewhere. St. Augustine deserves an actual "National Park" (not just the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas, both "National Monuments").
The National Park Service (NPS) is America's most trusted, favorite federal agency, with long experience/expertise.
Let's combine historic city streets, the Anastasia State Park and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (formerly Guana River State Park), Red House Bluff, and other local history/nature into one world-class tourist destination, administered by NPS, inspired by Cape Cod, New Bedford and Philadelphia national parks/seashores. Let's preserve history/nature and culture, earning more national and international tourists' time (not just daytrips from nearby neighbors).
We're blessed with an opportunity of a lifetime: voters' righteous revulsion against wholesale history/nature destruction (and current real estate market). Let's unite our diverse community, working to preserve what makes St. Augustine and St. Johns County great, unique, enjoyable. Future generations will thank us and praise our leaders' vision. St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore:
Let's get it done. It's up to us.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/011407/opinions_4311095.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act of 2009
The draft legislation is written, with many supportive comments. It's time to have an open public debate about the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway Act of 2009.
Our tourist economy is hurting. Small businesses are closing. We need more "economic stimulus" than just a seawall.
Let's celebrate the 500th Anniverary of Florida (and 450th anniversary of St. Augustine) with something more than cupcakes.
Let's celebrate 11,000 years of history!
Let's have a National Civil Rights Museum worthy of the Foot Soldiers who made history here.
I’ve gone ahead and drafted federal legislation to set up a national historical park, seashore and scenic coastal highway here.
Our Nation’s Oldest City survived being burnt to the ground by the British, pirates, wars, genocide, epidemics and economic disasters.
Our Nation’s Oldest City can likewise survive the current economic recession, uglifying "developers"and have a national park by 2013/2015 (500th anniversary of Spanish explorers and 450th anniversary of St. Augustine’s founding, respectively), preserving our nature and history and honoring Native-American, African-American, Spanish, British, French, Civil War, Civil Rights and American history here.
I’m optimistic that, working together, we can get Congress to create a national park here. See below. I’ve gotten positive feedback from citizens and elected officials since I first proposed it on November 13, 2006.
Please share comments here on this blog or with Ed Slavin, EASlavin@aol.com. Here’s the draft below:
-----------------------
111th Congress, 1st Session,
S. _____
A BILL
St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act of 2009
A BILL to amend Title 16, United States Code, to establishing the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway and associated Advisory Commission, authorizing donations and purchase of land, authorizing appropriations and for other purposes.
Section 1: Short Title. This Act may be cited as the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act.
Section 2: Title 16, United States Code Section 410 is amended by adding a new section at the end thereof, as follows:
410______ St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway
(a) Findings and purposes
(1) Findings
The Congress finds that—
(A) the St. Augustine National Historic District and associated historic sites, including those described in subsection (c)(2) of this section, are National Historic Landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as historic sites associated with the history of our Nation’s Oldest continually-occupied European-founded city;
(B) the City of St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565 and retains significant archaeological, architectural features, archival materials, and museum collections illustrative of the Spanish, Minorcan, Greek and British colonial periods;
(C) St. Augustine’s historic resources provide unique opportunities for illustrating and interpreting indigenous (Native-American), African-American, Spanish, Minorcan, Greek, British, American colonial, Civil War and Civil Rights history and Northeast Florida’s contribution to the economic, social, and environmental history of the United States and provide opportunities for public use and enjoyment;
(D) The year 2013 marks the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Spanish explorers and colonists on these shores and 2015 marks the 450th anniversary of the City of St. Augustine; and
(E) the National Park System presently contains only two small National Monuments associated with one part of St. Augustine’s 11,000 years of human history.
(F) St. Augustine and St. Johns County are imbued and blessed with great natural beauty and biodiversity, including threatened and endangered species, including beach mice, butterflies, bald eagles and manatees.
(G) The St. Augustine area’s precious environmental, historic and cultural heritage is in danger of destruction due to large-scale, rapid development and a lack of planning for parklands, preservation and public transportation.
(H) Several significant properties have been lost to development forever and more are imperiled.
(I) Roads are clogged and the enjoyment of the area’s beauty is marred by lack of public transportation
(J) There is an urgent need for action on the part of the federal government to preserve the history and beauty of the area and to provide public transportation to serve the millions of visitors annually, while relieving local residents from traffic congestion, air pollution and energy waste associated with rapid development.
(2) Purposes
The purposes of this section are—
(A) to help preserve, protect, and interpret the resources within the areas described in subsection (c)(2) of this section, including architecture, seashores, vistas, settings, and associated archival and museum collections;
(B) to collaborate with the cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach and the government of St. Johns County, Florida and with associated historical, cultural, environmental, tourism and preservation organizations to further the purposes of the park established under this section;
(C) to provide opportunities for the inspirational benefit and education of the American people; and
(D) to preserve St. Augustine’s history and natural beauty for future generations.
(b) Definitions
For the purposes of this section—
(1) the term "park" means the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway established by subsection (c) of this section; and
(2) the term "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Interior.
(c) St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway
(1) Establishment
In order to preserve for the benefit and inspiration of the people of the United States as a national historical park certain districts, structures, lands, waters and relics located in and near St. Augustine, Florida, and associated with the history of indigenous (Native-American), African-American, Spanish, Minorcan, Greek, British and colonial peoples and related social and economic themes in America, there is established the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway.
(2) Boundaries
(A) The boundaries of the park shall be those generally depicted on the map numbered _____and dated _____. Such map shall be on file and available for public inspection in the appropriate offices of the National Park Service. In case of any conflict between the descriptions set forth in clauses (i) through (xx) and such map, such map shall govern. The park shall include the following:
(i) The area included within the City of St. Augustine Historic Preservation Districts;
(ii) Anastasia State Park;
(iii) Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and the associated Cubo Line and St. Augustine City Gates sites;
(iv) Fort Matanzas National Monument;
(v) Plaza de la Constitución (Slave Market Square);
(vi) Deep Creek State Forest;
(vii) Faver-Dykes State Park;
(viii) Fort Mosé State Park;
(ix) Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR);
(x) Watson Island State Forest;
(xi) St. Johns River Water Management District’s Twelve Mile Swamp, Deep Creek, Matanzas Marsh Moses Creek and Stokes Landing reservations located in St. Johns County, Florida;
(xii) Designated portions of the seashore owned by St. Johns County, Florida between the Duval and Flagler County lines;
(xiii) Designated portions of U.S. Route A1A between the Duval County and Flagler County lines;
(xiv) Designated portions of U.S. Route 1 between the Duval County and Flagler County lines;
(xv) The former Ponce de León Golf Course, Red House Bluff, Magnolia Avenue and other indigenous (Native-American) sites set forth in the map labeled as ______ and dated _________;
(xvi) Matanzas River between the Matanzas Inlet and its headwaters, including submerged lands and underwater artifacts
(xvii) St. Augustine Seawall;
(xviii) State-owned historic buildings deeded to the University of Florida;
(xix) beaches, submerged lands, marshes and other areas that are owned by the cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach and by the State of Florida in trust for the people of Florida, including marshes, reefs, shorelines and underwater archaeological artifacts;
(xx) Marineland, operated by the University of Florida;
(xxi) Such other areas and sites as Congress may in the future designate by legislation.
(B) In addition to the sites, areas, and relics referred to in subparagraph (A), the Secretary may assist in the interpretation and preservation of each of the following:
(i) Government House;
(ii) Spanish Quarter Village Living History Museum;
(iii) Lincolnville Historic District;
(iv) Designated Civil Rights sites;
(v) Lightner Museum and City Hall (former Alcazar Hotel);
(vi) Old St. Johns County Jail;
(vii) Alligator Farm Zoological Park;
(viii) Old St. Augustine Village;
(ix) St. Augustine Historical Society and Research Library;
(x) St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum and the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP);
(xi) Ximinez-Fatio House;
(xii) St. Photios National Shrine;
(xiii) Mission de Nombre de Dios;
(xiv) Fountain of Youth Historical Park;
(xv) Gonzalez-Alvarez House (Oldest House);
(xvi) Oldest School House;
(xvii) Ponce de León Hotel (now part of Flagler College);
(xviii) Excelsior School Historical Museum;
(xix) Bridge of Lions;
(xx) St. Augustine Cathedral-Basilica;
(xxi) Grace United Methodist Church;
(xxii) Trinity Episcopal Church;
(xxiii) Ancient City Baptist Church;
(xxiv) Sons of Israel Congregation;
(xxv) Florida School for the Deaf and Blind;
(xxvi) National Guard Headquarters (former Franciscan Monastery or Priory);
(xxvii) St. Augustine National Cemetery and other historic cemeteries, including but not limited to the Huguenot, Tolomato, Evergreen, San Sebastian, Pinehurst, Woodlawn and other historic cemeteries;
(xxviii) Zorayda Castle;
(xxix) Casa Monica Hotel and other Henry Flagler era sites; and
(xxx) Flagler Model Land Community.
(d) Related facilities
To ensure that the contribution of all people in St. Augustine’s history, including indigenous (Native-American) and of African-American people, are fully recognized, the Secretary shall provide—
(1) financial and other assistance to establish links between the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Parkway and local organizations.
(2) appropriate assistance and funding to establish a St. Augustine National Civil Rights Museum and a St. Augustine Indigenous Tribal Cultural Center.
(3) suitable off-site locations for park vehicles, trolley cars, maintenance facilities, warehouses and offices.
(4) suitable locations for archives, to make them available to scholars, researchers, genealogists and the general public at a suitable hurricane-resistant location in St. Augustine or St. Johns County, Florida.
(5) a reliable source of coquina for repairs to the Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas and other historic properties, trolley car routes, right-of-way features, roadbuilding, sidewalks and landscaping consistent with historic preservation principles.
(6) educational programs in conjunction with the University of Florida to provide cooperative educational arrangements for graduate students to work and live in the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and provide archaeological and interpretation services on a continuing basis.
(e) Administration of park
(1) In general
The park shall be administered by the Secretary in accordance with this section and the provisions of law generally applicable to units of the National Park System, including sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 461 to 467 of this title.
(2) Cooperative agreements
(A) The Secretary may consult and enter into cooperative agreements with interested entities and individuals to provide for the preservation, development, interpretation, and use of the park.
(B) Any payment made by the Secretary pursuant to a cooperative agreement under this paragraph shall be subject to an agreement that conversion, use, or disposal of the project so assisted for purposes contrary to the purposes of this section, as determined by the Secretary, shall result in a right of the United States to reimbursement of all funds made available to such project or the proportion of the increased value of the project attributable to such funds as determined at the time of such conversion, use, or disposal, whichever is greater.
(3) Non-Federal matching requirements
(A) Funds authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for the purposes of—
(i) cooperative agreements under paragraph (2) shall be expended in the ratio of one dollar of Federal funds for each four dollars of funds contributed by non-Federal sources; and
(ii) sustainable, carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly construction, restoration, and rehabilitation of visitors and interpretive facilities (other than annual operation and maintenance costs) shall be expended in the ratio of one dollar of Federal funds for each one dollar of funds contributed by non-Federal sources.
(B) For the purposes of this paragraph, the Secretary is authorized to accept from non-Federal sources, and to utilize for purposes of this section, any money so contributed. With the approval of the Secretary, any donation of property, services, or goods from a non-Federal source may be considered as a contribution of funds from a non-Federal source for the purposes of this paragraph.
(4) Acquisition of real property
For the purposes of the park, the Secretary may acquire by donation or purchase from a willing seller such lands, interests in lands, and improvements thereon within the park boundaries as are needed for historical and environmental preservation and essential visitor contact and interpretive facilities. The Secretary may acquire land or structures through condemnation if necessary to preserve them from destruction.
(5) Other property, funds, and services
The Secretary may accept donated funds, property, and services to carry out this section.
(f) General management plan
Not later than October 1, 2008, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a general management plan for the park, in consultation with the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Advisory Commission created in subsection (g), and shall implement such plan as soon as practically possible. The plan shall include a cost-effective, sustainable, carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly means of transporting visitors and residents to and through the park’s locations, using trolley cars resembling those in use in St. Augustine, Florida in 1928, with the goal of reducing hydrocarbon consumption, traffic congestion, air pollution and damage to historic structures. The plan shall be prepared in accordance with section 1a–7 (b) of this title and other applicable laws and may include suitable recommendations to Congress for modifications of the approved park boundaries and this Act.
(g) St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Advisory Commission
(1) Establishment; termination
There is established a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Advisory Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Commission"), to be governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. Appendix 2, with a fairly balanced membership and open meetings and financial disclosures as required by FACA. The Commission shall terminate October 1, 2019.
(2) Membership; term
The Commission shall have a fairly balanced membership, embracing diverse persons knowledgeable of history, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, mass transit and trolley car systems and tourism and shall include a balanced group of residents, scholars, environmental, civil rights and civic activists and businesspeople, and will be composed of twelve diverse members, each of whom shall be appointed without regard to political affiliations or beliefs for a term of two years by the Secretary as follows:
(A) Two members to be appointed from recommendations made by the City of St. Augustine, Florida, City Commission;
(B) Two members to be appointed from recommendations made by the City of St. Augustine Beach, Florida, City Commission;
(C) One member to be appointed from recommendations made by the City of Palatka, Florida and the Town of Hastings, Florida, City Commissions;
(D) Two members to be appointed from recommendations of the Board of County Commissioners of St. Johns County, State of Florida;
(E) Two members to be appointed from recommendations of the Governor of the State of Florida;
(F) Two members to be appointed from recommendations by the President of the University of Florida; and
(G) Two members to be designated by the Secretary.
(3) Chair; vacancies
The Secretary shall designate one member to be Chair. Any vacancy in the Commission shall be filled in the same manner in which the original appointment was made.
(4) Compensation and expenses
A member of the Commission shall serve without compensation as such. The Secretary is authorized to pay the expenses reasonably incurred by the Commission in carrying out its responsibilities upon vouchers signed by the Chair.
(5) Majority vote
The Commission established by this section shall act and advise by affirmative vote of a majority of the members thereof.
(6) Consultation of Secretary with Commission
The Secretary or his designee shall, from time to time, consult with the members of the Commission with respect to the plan required in subsection (f) and all matters relating to the creation and preservation of St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway and shall consult with the members with respect to carrying out the provisions of sections ____ of this title.
(7) Advice of Commission for commercial or industrial use permits and establishment of public use areas for recreational activities
No permit for the commercial or industrial use of property located within the seashore area of the park shall be issued by the Secretary, nor shall any public use area for recreational activity be established by the Secretary within the seashore area of the park, without the advice of the Commission.
(h) Authorization of appropriations
(1) In general
Except as provided in paragraph (2), there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out annual operations and maintenance with respect to the park and to carry out the activities under subsection (d) of this section.
(2) Exceptions
In carrying out this section—
(A) not more than $35,000,000 may be appropriated for construction, restoration, and rehabilitation of visitor and interpretive facilities, and directional and visitor orientation signage;
(B) none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this section may be used for construction of any new building on Avenida Menéndez across from the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. A central St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Visitor Center shall be built in one or more historic or restored buildings along or adjacent to St. George Street; and
(C) not more than $2,000,000 annually of Federal funds may be used for interpretive and education programs pursuant to cooperative agreements under subsection (e)(2) of this section.
Section 3: Effective Date. This Act shall take effect within 30 days of the date of enactment.
Section 4: Severability Clause: In the event that any portion of this Act is held unenforceable, it shall be severed from the rest of this Act.
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