With the current and past presidents of the Gateway Golf and Country Club (Dennis Mitchell and Ed Tinkle) sitting silently in the audience, Supervisor Carol Stanley went off. "I'm prepared to sue. I'm prepared to take the land by eminent domain". Another possibility discussed was placing an assessment on the club for the expenses we've been racking up on this issue.
The Country Club is holding on to a conservation easement the district needs in order to get a permit for Wetland 47 from SFWMD. There's no reason for them not to give it to us other than it's the only piece of leverage they have. The club was hoping that holding back the C.E. would force the Supervisors not to sue the club for the expenses incurred on wetland 47. In the real world a cynical person might call that a subtle form of blackmail.
Here's our problem. If we do not get the permit by May 9th there's a possibility the residents will be hit with another fine. Country Club President Dennis Mitchell said "when we get all the facts on the table, we can resolve this". Huh? What? We have the facts. We've been over the facts. For the last 6 months if not longer you've been having meetings going over the facts. What else could the club possibly have behind door number three to prove they did not cause the damage that led to the fine? Mitchell could have easily said to the board last night, here's the C.E. you've been requesting, let's all be good neighbors and work this out.
It seemed like the board was getting ready to do the right thing last night. They were saying all the right things, for sure. Supervisor Ed Sichel said "we are miles apart". Gateway District Manager Brian Lamb said "this board is not at fault. How much more do we want to negotiate with them? They have the C.E. and they are holding it against us. The process is stalled." Gateway attorney Tony Pires said "the country club volunteered to do the work. If you assume a task you need to do it correctly." But that's as far as they go, which is the norm for this board. To the water's edge, dipping a toe in, but the water's always too cold. They get to a tough decision and they simply cannot pull the trigger. It's the clear difference between Bob Nielson's inability to lead and chairman-on-hiatus Pete Doragh.
The board discussed the options it had which included taking the property by eminent domain and telling the club to stay off the property. That might turn that par 3 into a par 9. They discussed taking legal action against the club and the contractor that did the work Friendly Fire. And, they discussed hitting the club with an assessment to try and recoup some of our expenses. Throughout the entire discussion, a good 45 minutes, neither Mitchell or Tinkle tried to interject by simply saying let's end this thing here. Here's your conservation easement, let's move forward. I was baffled that not a single board member put this question to either one of them: Why don't you just give the residents the conservation easement?
Folks, you may find this interesting. Attorney Tony Pires quoted Julie Arrison from SFWMD. He said Julie was holing the permit in the air shaking it saying the following..."I have your permit ready to go. All we need is the Conservation Easement". It's like teasing a dog with a biscuit making him jump. And there you have it. The good ole boys just need to slip the C.E. under the door.
Rather than taking any action the board set yet another meeting. Another meeting. They will sit down with the Country Club and Friendly Fire again next Wednesday at 5:30. Brian Lamb set the tone for that meeting. "The starting point is $140,000. We don't care where the money comes from. And, we want the C.E". Lamb has got to be frustrated. He was put in charge of negotiating with the club, along with Supervisor Neubauer, and for sure feels like the rug has been pulled out from under him.
There's no word yet on whether or not that meeting will be streamed live. As soon as we get confirmation we'll pass it along to you. That's one meeting you will not want to miss.
