by Ed Ryan
At the end of a four-and-a-half-hour meeting last night the net result for Gateway residents in the Wetland 47 debacle is that we'll be getting $20,000 from the Gateway Golf & Country Club. It's $5,000 more than their original offer but you get the picture. The club won and you lost.
It's a far cry from what the Supervisors were saying they were going to ask for when they were huffing and puffing and acting all tough. Our spending on this issue will be well over $100,000. To say the end result for Gateway residents is frustrating would be the understatement of the year. By the end of the meeting last night Country Club members were laughing at the Board of Supervisors and, fittingly, one Country Club member leaned over to another and said "I would never be part of this board....they have no idea what they are doing". Thank you sir may I have another.
TAKE OUR NEW POLL ABOUT LAST NIGHTS MEETING - TO THE LEFT
The Country Club subtly and successfully painted the G.S.D. Board of Supervisors as incompetent at every step of the way. And it seemed to me that after hour four the Supervisors were just plain beaten down, willing to take whatever they could get. At one point the Ed Sichel asked for a check for $39,000. Somehow during that negotiation Supervisor Margaret Fineberg said "I'd be happy with $20,000. Huh? Did she just ask for less? Yup! Now that's tough negotiation. Club President Dennis Mitchell practically climbed over the table to accept that offer and make his nightmare go away. When Sichel tried to go back to the numbers one Country Club board member properly pointed out: "hey, this ($20,000) was your offer. let's be clear about that". The Supervisors voted 3-1 to accept the peanuts. Sichel voted no. Nielson, well he's a completley different animal.
Both sides will try to razzle dazzle you with dollar amounts the club will be spending on plants, exotic removal and future maintenance of the wetland. And, that we should look at that as part of the equation. Blah, blah, blah. Don't be fooled by that black magic. If it were not for one piece of paper that designates the district the permitee holder, the Country Club would be fixing all of this all by themselves. They own the property and they did the work that generated the fine. They admit they've been doing the work for decades. The residents, because of that piece of paper, bailed them out.
Club representatives repeated over and over again that there was never a violation indicating the residents got bad advice from attorney Tony Pires and staff to pay the $11,500 fine. It was such an irrelevant point because the fine was issued and paid. Despite what they say, it WAS a violation. Friendly Fire, under the direction of the club, violated the wetland. Plain and simple. Country Club attorney Charles Mann tried to lawyer-speak the Supervisors to sleep claiming some "technicality" in the law. "This work was not a violation. Friendly Fire did nothing wrong". His argument was laughable. It should not have even been a topic for discussion, but it was, and it set the tone for the club's relentless pounding of the Supervisors.
A Country Club board member then accused G.S.D. Operations Manager Bill Knight of not having a plan for any of the wetlands in Gateway. His point harkens back to Ed Tinkle's original argument that the Country Club was maintaining the wetlands because the district wasn't. Another irrelevant point, sidetracking the group from the violation cited and fine paid. As if that's justification to run a tractor through a restricted area. Not once during the entire marathon session did a single member of the club admit or apologize for causing this hardship on the rest of the community. Arrogance.
The club also pulled out the "woe is me card" stating the club paid $450,000 in taxes into the Gateway budget over the past 5 years and all they get in return is "maintenance of the wetland". Our representative Bob Nielson, clearly showing his conflict-of-interest, said the club is double-taxed. He asked his board, HIS BOARD, "what do they get for their money?" What do they get for their money? What do they get for their money? Bob. What do WE get for OUR money? We get common area lawn maintenance, we get a pool, we pay for your soccer fields, etc etc. THEY chose to be Golf members. We did not waterboard Country Club members, forcing them to pay huge amounts of money to swing a golf club. They are all well aware of what they get for their money. The scary part for us is that YOU DON'T.
And, the club hit the Supervisors with a very low blow, highlighting something I've been talking about for months, the engineering and attorney fees the district has wasted. Country Club President Dennis Mitchell said "your concern is the expenses. You ran up $100,000 in expenses for a $30,000 job". You could hear a pin drop after that bomb. I thought I heard someone say: truth hurts doesn't it. Maybe that was me, talking to myself.
Folks at the end of the day the Country Club IS to blame for violating the wetland setting this money-pit into motion. They did it and to this day they deny it. The Supervisors are to blame for a colossal lack of control when it comes to spending. You were dragged into this issue because the Gateway Golf and Country Club performed work on a 4 acre piece of property most of us will never even set eyes on in our lifetime. They did it in clear violation of South Florida Water Management regulations and they were successful in turning the issue around to make it ALL your fault. Our Supervisors, under the leadership of Country Club member Bob Nielson need to pay a price in November. Never again should we allow elected officials who control our money to say "how did we get here".
