Florida Conservation Coalition Alert; Read and heed, lest frustration and anger bring darkness to your heart

Please read this carefully and let your outrage move you to action.  Go ahead.  It’ll be healthy for your psyche and for the future of Florida.  But you must make the calls and send the emails quickly, lest frustration and anger bring darkness to your heart.

Here’s the “alert” in full:

Dear FCC Members,

This alert is for all who care about Florida's environment and believe we elect our Representatives and Senators who to go to Tallahassee should fight for our interests, not sell out to the highest bidder. If you are insulted by legislation that panders to special interests, such as Senate Bill 1684 and its twin, House Bill 999, read on, for these are the worst examples of legislation that you will see.

These bills do not represent the public interest; they are for the fortunate few who can afford lobbyists to do their bidding.  Line by line, and dollar for dollar, these bills were written for those who wish to exploit our environment for personal gain.

Consider the section of the bill that nullifies a lawsuit by a conservation organization that rightfully argues that 30 year (more than a generation), no-bid leases of public land in the Everglades to the sugar industry is not in the interest of restoring the Everglades. What kind of message does this send to those who care about restoring the Glades? And what message does it send to those who believe they can tarnish our natural wonders with impunity?

Consider the section that prohibits local governments from enforcing wetland regulations in water control districts. There are scores of these districts scattered across Florida - comprising over a hundred thousand acres – which were initially permitted as long as fifty years ago and now believe they should be exempt from any further regulations. Should the legislature keep on stomping our local governments for trying to protect the environment, exercise their authority to govern and speak for their local constituents? Should companies with powerful lobbyists be able to degrade wetlands and waters from South Florida to the Panhandle?   Maybe some of our legislators should attend city and county commission meetings more often, and listen to people’s concerns about the environment that surrounds them and their quality of life.

Now, there is a 6 page amendment ready for the House floor vote on Tuesday that would preempt local governments from enacting restrictions on fertilizers; as our springs, rivers, lakes, and all the plants and wildlife that depend on them, choke on algae. Do you want this legislature taking over our local governments so fertilizer companies can protect their profits at the expense of our waters?

This is not all. These bills have many more parts, all of which are part of the special interest Christmas tree/train/smorgasbord bills that fail even the most basic tests for decent legislation in the public interest.

If you have higher principles call or email Senator Altman (850-487-5016)and Representative Patronis (850-717-5006) and write an email to the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee ...........................tell them that "we the people count too,”

Sincerely,

FCC

Please act now.  Make those calls and emails.

Sandspur

Legislature returning Florida to the pre-1970's:Unconstrained growth and no vision for the future



Florida legacy at risk

My general impression of this legislative session is that there has never been such blatant servitude to moneyed interests and self interests.  Despite a growing discomfort by Joe and Jane Public, Tallahassee seems driven to dismantle all the carefully and thoughtfully constructed protections that were generated on behalf of this state's natural wellbeing by a lot of very bright people.  It seems to be their mission, their instructions, if you will, to return us to the pre-1970's when we first began to understand that rampant, visionless economic growth had an ugly, self-destructive downside.  While we need and want economic growth, if left to its own devices, it will destroy the very things that make it possible.  This and recent legislatures have lost all the painful lessons that were learned over the years and it is my sense that we are doomed to learn those lessons all over again - only this time desirable outcomes will be exponentially more difficult and costly to achieve.  In some cases it may already be too late and Florida’s unique natural character, as we have known it, may already be headed for extinction.

Tallahassee "Train" Will Wreck Florida

We all regret how the business of government gets transacted in Tallahassee.  It’s not just ugly.  It’s dangerous, and throws into question such simple things that most of us strive for in this great country of ours as fairness, truth, honesty, and just doing the right thing.  Well, it’s happening again, right now, and you need to know about it, be disgusted and outraged about it, and be juiced up enough to do something you might not otherwise do, like call your legislators and let them know how you feel.  It’s time. 

There’s a Tallahassee phenomenon that has seemingly become legislative protocol, i.e., culturally imbedded. It’s a terrible thing called a “train.”

A train is when

“ … a compendium of every lobbyist's dream amendments, all strung together as if they were one real piece of solid legislation, comes barreling into Tallahassee as an “environmental train” bill. Pressure builds for passage as each lobbyist gets their special little amendment onboard the train….and it gathers steam. The problem with these runaway bills is that each of the components represents a serious issue, and should be heard as separate bills in their proper committees. By combining these issues into a single train it is nearly impossible for public interest groups to be experts on and properly address the wide array of concerns. This years' train, sponsored by Representative Patronis and Senator Altman, is leaving the station …” (FCC publication) 

This year’s “train bills” are SB 1684 and HB 999 and, if passed, they will have a devastating impact on this state’s ability to effectively manage and protect what’s left of its natural environment and related water resources. 

This is not internet hyperbole.  It is happening and only you can do something about it. Here was the situation as of April 1^st as described by the FCC: 

Senate Bill 1684 by Senator Thad Altman is a smorgasbord of proposed legislation that would weaken current environmental law in many ways and diminish environmental protections.  The House companion bill, HB 999 by Representative Jimmy Patronis was recently amended and is even worse than SB 1684.  

SB 1684 is very long with over 18 sections, all bad.  Here is a brief summary of the bill: 

·        This is an environmentally insensitive bill that creates, amends, and deletes environmental permitting regulations across a wide spectrum of areas.

·        Contains sections which

o   restrict County and City requests for additional information for development permits,

o   eliminates the requirement that public marinas attain Clean Program Marina status in order to be exempt from review as developments of regional impact,

o   instructs water management district (WMD) governing boards on how to rule in cases of competing Consumptive Use Permits (CUP),

o   prohibits WMD from reducing an existing CUP because of the availability of water from a desalination plant,

o   eliminates the ability of counties to regulate water wells,

o   restricts sampling and testing for water quality standards,

o   rescinds the ability of DEP and WMD to require that applications and other technical work be produced under the seal of a licensed professional, and

o   provides for expedited permitting for projects to construct natural gas pipelines. 

o   both HB 999 and SB 1684 are inconsistent with the outcome of stakeholder negotiations on Senate Bill 948, the agricultural water supply planning bill.

On April 2, SB 1684, was heard and passed unanimously out of the Senate’s Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee.  Please note that Charlie Dean from Citrus County is the committee chair and Jack Latvala, a prominent senate leader from Pinellas County, voted for the bill (See a list of all Senators on the committee HERE).  For a while, I thought these two guys just might be on the side of natural Florida.  That notion appears to have been premature.  True colors are bleeding through.

On April 5, the FCC issued an alert summarizing the bills and asking for people concerned about Florida and its future to take action: 

We need your help. The terrible “environmental train” we wrote you about earlier this week has gotten even worse. These Bills, moving quickly through the House and Senate, seek to change over 25 environmental regulations affecting water management, air quality, environmental resource permitting, development permitting and more.

·        This week, not only was Senate Bill 1684 amended to incorporate many of the worst parts of House Bill 999, including a new amendment that strikes a major blow against sound resource management and water conservation.  

This new amendment to the Senate Bill, eliminates the existing authority of water management districts and the Department of Environmental Protection to reduce groundwater allocations because of the availability of water from a drought resistance source (such as desalination, reclaimed water, aquifer storage and recovery, etc.) ; unwisely restricting their ability to review and modify permits to assure that water continues to be used in the public interest. The result would allow those wealthier counties and landowners who can afford to build desalination plants or reservoirs to "bank" natural sources of water and become the major suppliers in their areas.  Conservation of precious groundwater continues to be ignored. The FCC will continue to vigorously protest these blatant attempts at privatization. These changes go against the result of months of work by stakeholder groups on related subjects during the Department of Environmental Protections Consumptive Use rulemaking. We have heard that the Department is trying to "negotiate" this one.  We must also let them know that this will not do, they should hold their ground. 

·        Another of the most harmful of the many special interest giveaways in these bills is a section restricting the ability of the Department of Environmental Protection to regulate waters courses and wetlands as part of environmental resource permitting.

By defining “mean annual flood line” in a way that excludes currently regulated areas this section, being pushed by a major phosphate mining company, would reduce the area covered under environmental resource permits, leading to unmitigated habitat damage in and around our precious wetlands. 

This action is nothing more than a continuation of the mindless servitude the legislature and governor gleefully pay to the monied special interests who are shamelessly and arrogantly pouring tens of millions into re-election coffers even as these bills are being considered.  If this isn’t blatant political graft by our elected leaders to proffer their votes, nothing is. 

Now, please get on the phone and email (both) and let your legislators and governor know how much you abhor what they are doing and how they are doing it.

You can find how to reach your Senator HERE and your Representative HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

The Morning Hunt

 

It was a dark brown spot at edge of the open field below that caught his eye as he made long soaring turns at 200 feet in and out of the morning updrafts. The sun had been bright for some time now and he had been searching since first light for breakfast. Just about anything that looked like a meal was getting a second, closer look. This time, with a potential meal in sight, he started a slow gliding turn, moving his fully extended wings almost imperceptibly as he slipped off the cusp of a warm rising current. He raised his head and slightly lowered his legs, increasing the relative angle of his body against the ambient wind. His heart rate quickened. As his forward speed slowed, the feathers atop his wings began to flip loosely in the stalling air. He came to a stationary hover, flutterring his wings rapidly in order to retarget his prey. The trajectory he would need to follow was instinctive, automatic, without error. Then, he rolled and dropped almost 100 feet vertically from a liquid clear sky toward the small lump nibbling in the tall grass, unaware. The attack, executed with instinctive precision, was silent, sudden and violent. There was no time for an alarm or even a shriek as three talons, two from one side, one from the other, pierced the heart of the unsuspecting animal, ripping him, dead, in a stir of dust and sand from the earth where he had lived. We called them chickenhawks when we were kids and believed firmly that all nearby chickens were in grave danger anytime their distinctive screeching was heard. Looking back, though, I can’t really remember even one of them ever showing the slightest interest in chickens. …ah, the rich juice of childhood legends.

It was a dark brown spot at edge of the open field below that caught his eye as he made long soaring turns at 200 feet in and out of the morning updrafts. The sun had been bright for some time now and he had been searching since first light for breakfast. Just about anything that looked like a meal was getting a second, closer look. This time, with a potential meal in sight, he started a slow gliding turn, moving his fully extended wings almost imperceptibly as he slipped off the cusp of a warm rising current. He raised his head and slightly lowered his legs, increasing the relative angle of his body against the ambient wind. His heart rate quickened. As his forward speed slowed, the feathers atop his wings began to flip loosely in the stalling air. He came to a stationary hover, flutterring his wings rapidly in order to retarget his prey. The trajectory he would need to follow was instinctive, automatic, without error. Then, he rolled and dropped almost 100 feet vertically from a liquid clear sky toward the small lump nibbling in the tall grass, unaware. The attack, executed with instinctive precision, was silent, sudden and violent. There was no time for an alarm or even a shriek as three talons, two from one side, one from the other, pierced the heart of the unsuspecting animal, ripping him, dead, in a stir of dust and sand from the earth where he had lived. We called them chickenhawks when we were kids and believed firmly that all nearby chickens were in grave danger anytime their distinctive screeching was heard. Looking back, though, I can’t really remember even one of them ever showing the slightest interest in chickens. …ah, the rich juice of childhood legends.

Coopers Hawk
(Double click to enlarge)

It was the dark shadow at edge of the field below that caught her eye as she made long soaring turns at 200 feet in and out of the morning updrafts. She had been hunting since first light without success and now the sun was bright making any prey more wary and skittish.  Her hunger was growing.  There was little time left until the morning heat would reduce the prospects of a successful hunt to zero.  Anything that looked like food was now getting a closer second look.

 

The dark figure was next to a decaying log.  It moved. She began a slow gliding turn angling her fully extended wings imperceptibly as she slipped off the cusp of warm rising air that held her aloft.  She raised her head and slightly lowered her legs, increasing the relative angle of her body to the horizon. Her heart quickened as her forward speed slowed high above the field. 

 

The feathers atop her powerful wings began to flip loosely in the stalling air. Reaching a near stationary hover, she fluttered her wings slightly to steady her position as she retargeted her prey.  The attack would be innate, automatic and precise.

 

Her plan complete, she tucked her wings and dropped vertically nearly 100 feet from a liquid clear blue sky toward the small furry lump nibbling in the grass at the field’s edge. The attack was out of the sun, silent, sudden and violent, executed with absolute precision.

 

There was no alarm or even a shriek as three talons, two from one side, one from the other, pierced the heart of the unsuspecting animal, ripping it, dead, in a stir of dust and dirt from the earth where it had lived.

 

The morning hunt would not go unrewarded.  

 

Sandspur

2013-03-30

 

SWFWMD Employee Survey: 71% say morale is poor; over 300 say why

There was a time at the Southwest Florida Water Management District when staff members were valued, and whether or not they felt good about their jobs was believed to be strategically important to how well they did them.  It is now as clear as Florida’s blue skies after a summer rainstorm, however, that this fundamental management principle is no longer in play.

And, based upon the ample whispers from under the blanket of fear that now swaddles virtually all of Florida’s environmental regulatory agencies, SWFWMD is not the only public workplace where this abhorrent situation is stifling productivity and motivating some of the best environmental scientists in the world to abandon their public careers for better pay, security and professional satisfaction elsewhere.

It is as if this was the goal of Rick Scott and his henchman, Herschel Vineyard, all along:  to dismantle, discourage, weaken and essentially render regulatory agencies incapable of doing what they were established, authorized and mandated to do by a number of carefully structured Florida laws passed over the last four decades.

It is no wonder that the remaining staffers, though wanting to stay dedicated to what they believe are the higher purposes of their governmental responsibilities, are struggling to find something as fundamental as trust in the new hand-picked Tallahassee minions they now work for.  But after hundreds of firings, no pay increases for years, seeing odd hiring and promotion practices that seem more political than deserved, their faith is clearly waning.  This is a disastrous thing to be happening for any organization, public or private, and especially for organizations that are so strategically important to the future of Florida.

Virtually all of the water management executive directors I have known believed it a personal responsible to build a positive relationship with their staff members.  Staff meetings, employee recognition programs that gave kudos for excellence, and social events like sponsored picnics and other outings (on days off and paid for by volunteer staff contributions) were all considered important team-building exercises that helped keep the complex machinery of a water management district turning.  This is just fundamental management 101. 

I would personally attend meetings with the entire staff of the district at least every quarter at the district’s headquarters in Brooksville and each of its field offices in Tampa, Bartow and Sarasota.  There were many other face to face meetings with the staff, of course, at all levels where I would go with the primary supervisor to answer as well as ask questions of the staff.  If there were rumors that needed to be put to rest, we’d get them out on the table and discuss them straight up.  These were in addition to the normal coordination meetings where supervisors developed and managed teams of scientists working on hundreds of programs and projects directed by the governing board and all in accordance with statutory directives.

It wasn’t always an easy thing to do.  There were times when the questions were uncomfortable for everyone but the staff never hesitated to ask them that I know of and the ED was clearly expected to answer them as forthrightly as possible.  I never saw any hesitation out of fear of retribution to bring up an issue that was important and I know with virtual certainty no one was ever fired for doing so.

With over 700 employees and a monthly governing board agenda of over 70 items that required specific board dispensation, water management is a daunting task where laws are translated into policy and science-based decisions are carried out within a stringent legal framework of rules and legal procedure.  It is daunting also because the decisions could potentially have devastating impacts for private individuals or companies if wrong. 

But all those days are gone it seems.  In a recent survey distributed around the end of January by the management at SWFWMD, a variety of questions were asked of the staff that most, normally I would think, could have been gleaned by supervisors simply talking with their staff directly.  Instead, they put out this survey asking such questions as: How can we improve internal communications?  How often do you receive feedback about your performance from your supervisor?  If the District periodically recognized employees for outstanding work, what would be an appropriate form of recognition?  Where would you prefer to be recognized? What type of Employee Appreciation food activity do you prefer?

I mean are these really questions for an employee survey? Seems to me, any first line supervisor who works with his folks every day would already know these things. And what in the world is Employee Appreciation food activity?

Nevertheless, best I can tell, the survey asked about 40 questions and had over 430 responders. A summary of the responses was provided in a comprehensive 124-page report that revealed what, I’m certain, the ED already suspected but now likely wishes he had tried some other way to verify.

Then in the middle of all this arcane stuff they provide on page 13 a summary of 403 responses to the question, “How would you rate District morale?” Keeping in mind that the total number employees at the district is now down to somewhere around 600, 100 of the respondents (24.8%) said it was “very poor.” 186 (46.2%) said it was “poor” and 87 (21.6%) said it was “adequate.” Of over 430 respondents to the survey, only 28 said it was “good” and 2 said it was “very good.” In other words, over 70% of those who responded are saying morale is poor or very poor.

I’m no statistician and it’s an understatement at best but it sure looks to me like morale at SWFWMD is in the toilet. Is there any other way to look at it? And, given the staff’s reasons as indicated by their other obviously heartfelt responses, it is reasonable to assume the situation can be similarly found across the board within all the other districts and DEP.

When asked, “What is the primary reason for this state of the morale?” staffers gave 307 very specific responses, all of which are detailed on pages 68 through 99 of the report, some 31 sad pages that reveal a staff that is fearful of anything they say, their jobs, executive management, the governing board and the future of water management itself. It reflects an agency in severe decline and the cause can be placed squarely at the feet of a governor who has no regard for natural Florida, has carried out and/or supported massive and damaging actions that are destroying the state’s very ability to assure future generations the legacy of a clean and healthy natural environment.

­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Note!

The survey on which this post was based can be found at this link: https://sites.google.com/site/swfwmdref/. 

When there, open the document titled:  2013-03-10 SWFWMD Morale Survey Responses FINAL.pdf 

Since this was posted, a “final” final version was received.  It’s title is 2013-03-10 Employee-Opinion-Survey-2013-Report.pdf and can now also be found at https://sites.google.com/site/swfwmdref/.   

There should be no differences in the data between the two versions but the presentation of it is substantially “cleaner” and “condensed” in the later version.