Florida Chamber's Directors - asleep at the switch?

Mark Wilson, Pres. and CEO of the Florida Chamber wrote a 742-word Op-ed piece for the Tampa Bay Times today.  In it, he states unequivocally that the Chamber is an “environmental advocate.” 

That’s absurd.  Here’s about 1400 words why.

For the last four years of Scotts reign, the Florida Chamber has supported and promoted an endless stream of laws and policies designed purely to weaken the state’s ability to protect Florida’s wilting, withering and wasting natural environment. To be effective, the Chamber has one of the most powerful lobbying contingents operating in Tallahassee, a virtual army of high paid influence peddlers fighting for its agenda which emphatically does not include protection of anything environmental. In 2009, the Chamber boasted having 29 lobbyists on its legislative “team.” 

Why is Wilson trying to make this case when everyone in Tallahassee knows it isn’t a fact?  Maybe the Chamber’s Board members got a little more than miffed when it was revealed that the Chamber had a role in the demise of the so-called Springs Protection Bill (SB 1576) even though the Board was told, and apparently continues to be told, the Chamber supported it.

The Chamber board, you’ll recall, consists of such companies as Florida Power and Light (Eric Silagy), Beall’s, Inc. ( Steve M. Knopik), Tampa Port Authority (Paul Anderson), Broward College (J. David Armstrong, Jr.), GAC Contractors (Allan G. Bense), Gulf Power Company (Stan W. Connally, Jr.), Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (Anthony J. Connelly), Waste Management of Florida (Charles Dees), Regions Bank (Don DeFosset), A Duda and Sons (Tracy Duda Chapman), Auto Nation (Jonathan P. Ferrando, Esq.), Duke Energy (Alex Glenn), Bank of America (Mike M. Fields), Shands Hospital (Timothy M. Goldfarb), Charter Schools USA (Jon Hage), Seaworld Parks and Entertainment (Dave Hammer), Ron Jon Surf Shop of Florida (Debra Harvey), TECO Energy (Charles O. Hinson III), Publix Super Markets, Inc. (John T. Hrabusa), CSX Transportation (Quintin C. Kendall), Florida Southern College (Anne B. Kerr Ph.D.), Suntrust Bank (Dan W. Mahurin), Darden Restaurants (Robert S. McAdam), State Farm Insurance (Allen McGlynn), General Electric (Trey H. Paris), Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce (Bob Rohrlack), and Allstate Insurance (Mike Sheely).

http://skyshadowphotography.blogspot.com/

 

For the complete list of the members of the Florida Chamber Board of Directors, tap HERE.

(See Special Interests win again and Florida’s Springs lose … again)

These are all companies whose best interests demand them to be seen by the public as at least supportive of environmental values if not being actual advocates, such as Disney or Publix might wish to claim.  It is certainly not in any of their best business interests to be on the side of stark anti-environmentalism.  Green is in. Today’s public is smart and, generally speaking, have grown more fully appreciative of the true importance of healthy natural systems to their everyday lives and that of their children.  Who wants to breathe choking, polluted air, drink unhealthy contaminated water, visit filthy beaches, or swim in scum-filled springs which have become discharge sites for agricultural and urban wastes? 

Shands Hospital certainly wouldn’t want you to be doing this, one would think.  So how is it that this nationally respected teaching hospital is a dues-paying member of an organization that doesn’t seem to get it and continues to act with strategic disdain for natural systems, all under the flag of regulatory freedom for businesses?  The Chamber continues this despite warnings from virtually everyone that if it succeeds, the state’s economy will be sucked right down the economic toilet, and many of the chambers’ visitor-oriented businesses will be sucked right down with it?  Seems the Chamber’s board members are asleep at the switch, and while being so they are becoming complicit with the Chamber’s actions by association.  They need to wake up.

From behind-the-scenes manipulation of Scott’s transition teams, to relentlessly pushing and pulling legislators every session to do its bidding, the Florida Chamber has proven over and again that it does not care for Florida’s natural environment because protecting it constrains businesses from destroying it.

The Florida Chamber does not concern itself with sustaining Florida’s natural environment because its profit-minded members look only at the bottom line, which they endlessly declare government does not (which, of course, is true because government doesn’t have one).  The Chamber’s position is that regulations are an anathema to private enterprise.  It is the right of the private business sector in a country founded on the principles of free enterprise to be free of any governmental constraint on an opportunity to make a profit – protection for public interests be damned.

Wilson claims the Chamber understands the importance of a healthy and sustainable natural environment to Florida’s future but its actions historically decry this truism.  Its claims are a fraud upon the public and the public needs to let its board members know they are being duped by this same fraud.

The Chamber touts a “Six Pillars” strategic plan for taking Florida into the future.  These pillars are:

• Talent Supply & Education
• Innovation & Economic Development
• Infrastructure & Growth Leadership
• Business Climate & Competitiveness
• Civic & Governance Systems
• Quality of Life & Quality Places

Nowhere is there a reference to protecting Florida’s fragile environment from the expected monstrous growth the Chamber believes is coming.  (According to data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and the Florida Office of Economic and Data Research, Florida’s population of 19.5 million is expected to increase to approximately 24-26 million residents by 2030). 

The last pillar, Quality of life & Quality Places, only refers to

• Vibrant & Sustainable Communities
• Health & Wellness
• Equality & Diversity

Admirable goals but totally devoid of concerns for natural systems even though they are indispensible to the state’s future quality of life.

If it doesn’t concern you that the Florida Chamber is planning Florida’s future for you with a 20-year plan instead of the state’s elected officials, it should.  Again, ask yourself whose interests the Chamber serves.  It isn’t the general public’s and it’s not your grand kids. 

There was a time when the governor’s office was involved in Florida’s long term planning as it should be.  No longer.  The legislature dismantled the state’s planning arm and relegated what’s left of it to meaningless obscurity somewhere in the Department of Transportation.  The state has no effective long term plan and no working strategic plan to get it there.  It has abandoned the task, leaving it to the disparate decisional chaos of 67 county commissions and innumerable city councils.

This is the work of those who will profit from not having to conform their private business plans to the public’s plans for the future.  And, who leads the pack in Tallahassee?  The Florida Chamber.

There was a time when water management districts could identify the problems within their jurisdictions and raise enough money to pay for fixing them.  There was a time when the districts had the regulatory authority to manage water and natural systems based upon local familiarity with what was needed and objective science provided by a competent technical staff.  No more. Now district governing boards meet to carry out the political whims and will of Tallahassee operatives, unable to make a decision without authorization from Herschel Vinyard or some other Rick Scott minion like Jeff Littlejohn. Now they meet to muse ineffectively over how they’re going to pay for critical water programs and how to further weaken the districts’ regulatory authority over private sector projects that affect the state’s fragile natural resources.

This is the work of those who will profit from less regulation without regard for the impact on the future of Florida.  The likes of the Florida Chamber.

Mark Wilson writes a carefully worded defense of the Chamber’s views toward the role of Florida’s natural systems in the state’s future.  But carefully read, it’s clear the Chamber’s only concern is that which serves the interests of its members, not the environment or the public's concern for the environment.  After all, that is not its purpose, is it?  So, why should it be concerned?  Because it is destructively myopic not to be.

Only the Chambers board members who risk suffering the wrath of a public that rues the loss of their state’s unique natural character can bring about the cultural shift needed within the Florida Chamber.  The Chamber must rethink its view of the environment and truly embrace its fundamental importance to the state’s economic future, the very values the Chamber holds so dear. 

We all want sustained economic viability for our State and understand that a degree of sustained growth will be necessary to achieve it.  But we must never think that included in that formula is an inevitable and unavoidable necessity to exploit Florida’s natural resources to the point of total ruination or loss.  Should we be foolish enough to do so, we will destroy the very foundation for any successful economic condition we and our progeny might be fortunate enough to enjoy.  Wilson’s letter seems to support this but the Chamber’s continued covert disdain for natural Florida simply does not.

DEP Secretary Vinyard removes John Moran's Greeways and Trails photos from agency website

Hard hitting editor of Gainesville Sun, Nathan Crabbe, tells it like it is. Rick Scott and DEP Secretary, Herschel Vinyard, are now trying to silence criticism instead of doing the right thing. Read, please,  Crabbe's editorial here: 

 http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140518/columnists/140519718

Special Interests win again and Florida’s Springs lose … again

It’s frustrating and I’m angry.  All of us who care about our state and what’s left of its wondrous natural beauty are feeling like we’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake, and the slithering deliverers of the venom are the selfish interests of those who freely exploit natural Florida for profit without regard for its future.

You know how unique the state’s springs are.  There have been hundreds of thousands of words and photos describing them, hundreds of editorials lamenting what’s happening to them, and thousands of people shouting for Tallahassee to take urgent and effective action to stop their pending demise if nothing’s done very soon.  And yet … nothing.

Once again, we find ourselves at the end of a legislative session that started with promise only to end with thinly hidden obfuscation and deceit.  The actual events that took place resulting in the failure of the valiant bill, SB 1576, that would have been critically beneficial to the Springs will eventually be revealed, I guess.  But until then, we are left only with quickly dissipating smoke trails of the perpetrators and having to watch with disgust the spins of those most probably responsible already claiming it was the right thing to do.

So, who are we talking about? Apart from the legislative lemmings in the House lead by chief puppeteer, Will Weatherford (son-in-law of the right wing powerbroker and former House Speaker, Allan Bense, who put him there), there are the special interests.  If you want to know the real why and how of anything happening in Tallahassee, as everybody knows, just follow the money … and the money comes from special interests.

In this case, the money to fund the army of lobbyists that crawled from the cracks to defeat the bill came, not surprisingly, from business and agriculture, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Yes, the Florida Chamber was openly involved in lobbying the House not to spend even one minute of committee time to consider the bill after it was passed unanimously out of every Senate committee and even the full Senate.  

So who is the Florida Chamber?  You can tap HERE to see a complete list of its Board members or, here’s a list of some that may surprise you and whom you’ll quickly recognize: Florida Power and Light (Eric Silagy), Beall’s, Inc. ( Steve M. Knopik), Tampa Port Authority (Paul Anderson), Broward College (J. David Armstrong, Jr.), GAC Contractors (Allan G. Bense), Gulf Power Company (Stan W. Connally, Jr.), Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (Anthony J. Connelly), Waste Management of Florida (Charles Dees), Regions Bank (Don DeFosset), A Duda and Sons (Tracy Duda Chapman), Auto Nation (Jonathan P. Ferrando, Esq.), Duke Energy (Alex Glenn), Bank of America (Mike M. Fields), Shands Hospital (Timothy M. Goldfarb), Charter Schools USA (Jon Hage), Seaworld Parks and Entertainment (Dave Hammer), Ron Jon Surf Shop of Florida (Debra Harvey), TECO Energy (Charles O. Hinson III), Publix Super Markets, Inc. (John T. Hrabusa), CSX Transportation (Quintin C. Kendall), Florida Southern College (Anne B. Kerr Ph.D.), Suntrust Bank (Dan W. Mahurin), Darden Restaurants (Robert S. McAdam), State Farm Insurance (Allen McGlynn), General Electric (Trey H. Paris), Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce (Bob Rohrlack), and Allstate Insurance (Mike Sheely),

If you are frustrated and angry like me, you will want to learn what in the world these businesses are thinking.  Why don’t you send them a letter, avoid their services or products, tell your friends, ask them to tell their friends, start a blog, or all the above.  The point is, these companies and their executives who serve as directors on the Florida Chamber’s Board are the culprits who by their membership, direction and support of what the Florida Chamber is shamelessly doing, are complicit in the destruction of natural Florida, all in the name of “progress,” commonly known as higher profits.  You can follow links by tapping a name.  You’ll see who these people are and find another link that will take you to their company’s site where there will likely be contact information.

Don’t get me wrong, economic progress and profit-making is a good thing, but not at the shortsighted expense of one of the most economically significant ecosystems on the planet.  Why in the world would the arguably largest tourist-dependent businesses in the country play a significant part in stopping a critical effort to protect and restore one of the state’s most important and signature natural characteristics?  I mean Disney World and SeaWorld, of course.  Are they so arrogant that they can contemplate the destruction of Florida’s environment and still have tourists flocking to their entertainment venues?  Don’t they realize they are jeopardizing their own futures by jeopardizing Florida’s

I hope you’ll sit down right now and write a bunch of letters.  Send them to the companies, of course, but also to the media demanding to know why these companies are participating in the destruction of Florida’s natural springs.

Thank you, Senator Latvala, for saving the Florida Retirement System

If you work for the State of Florida, or its school system, or one of many counties, cities, or special districts like a water management district, you should send a note of thanks to Senator Jack Latvala.  Why?  Because he stopped both the Speaker of the Florida House, Will Weatherford, and Senate President, Don Gaetz, (and the puppeteers at the Florida Chamber of Commerce) from ending the pension programs now offered to public workers by these organizations.  It takes courage and a strong belief in what’s right to buck the current power structure and do what he did for you, and he should be thanked.

In short, Weatherford wanted to dismantle the state’s defined benefit program of which you are likely a current member in favor of having you gamble that the stock market will provide a retirement stipend for you.  They’re view is that if the private sector employees do it this way, why not public employees?  Here’s what’s wrong with that idea:

• Private employees always have the potential to generate substantial personal wealth.  They can self employ, they can become real estate magnates, they can become used car sales giants, they can sell stocks and bonds.  But the public employee will never become wealthy through public service.  Their pay will always be at the bottom tier and they will never be able to build a nest egg substantial enough to support themselves after they can no longer work. Their commitment is to public service not themselves.  It is only fitting that after a career of what amounts to personal sacrifice, in return, the public might provide them with a reasonable, defined pension when they retire and can no longer serve.
• Suggesting that the average public employee will be sophisticated enough to be able to grow a pitiful monthly investment in the stock market to any size is a ruse and a fraud.  It simply will not happen.  The complexities of stock and bond investing are legendary and many investor geniuses have lost fortunes trying to make it work for them.  It is also unrealistic to think that such small investment amounts would ever amount enough in size to generate dividends adequate to live on.  If invested conservatively, this would most certainly be the case, and if invested in high risk arenas, it would likely just be lost entirely.
• The only true reason the Tallahassee manipulators want public employees investing in the stock market is because, collectively, it would generate a huge windfall of other people’s money from which the stock and bond brokers and similar Wall Street shysters could suck fees. As it stands now, the retirement funds of public workers are managed by professional money managers who spend their working lives growing and protecting huge pension fund amounts.  They negotiate that protection and growth from positions of strength and professional training as managers of billions of dollars, not $50 a month.
• The Weatherford people in Tallahassee would also have you believe that the current retirement program could bankrupt the state.  The kernel of truth in this claim is so small that the real truth is that it’s a lie.  Studies have consistently shown that the Florida Retirement System is one of the most well managed and healthy public retirement systems in the country and that the only way it could fail is if 86% of all state employees were to retire at the same time.  It would have to be a kind of “zombie apocalypse,” as described by Senator Darren Soto (D-Orlando), and simply too remote to be even theoretically possible.

What ultimately happened in Tallahassee is that Weatherly couldn’t get enough support for the bill from his House and Gaetz couldn’t get much from the Senate either, even though Senator Wilton Simpson tried to water it down to make it less objectionable.  The last try was a legislative maneuver by Gaetz that would have brought the proposal to the Senate floor were it not for the good Senator, Jack Latvala, who objected and pointed out that it would be a breach of Senate rules.  That’s where it died.  Thanks, Senator.