Environmental activist challenges notorious settlement between Lake Point and South Florida Water Management District for violating Florida’s Sunshine Law

Lake Point Ranches development on the south side of Kanner Highway one mile east of Lake Okeechobee in this photo taken in November 2013.

Read the full lawsuit, filed March 11, 2019, here 

After years of contentious litigation involving a suit filed by Lake Point Phase I, LLC and Lake Point Phase II, LLC against the South Florida Water Management District, the District’s Governing Board held a meeting with its General Counsel Brian Accardo behind closed doors to discuss the case. Moments after the closed-door meeting concluded, and without advance release of the settlement agreement or public discussion regarding its merits, the District’s Board voted unanimously to settle the case on terms that were at the time undisclosed. [Additional background on this case can be found here.]

According to a lawsuit filed Monday, March 11, 2019, the first day of “Government in the Sunshine Week,“ this sort of ceremonious pageantry to formally accept an agreement that had already been decided upon entirely behind closed doors blatantly violates Florida’s open government laws.What actually transpired in that “shade meeting” is not known because the District has refused to release the transcript of the closed-door session with its attorney, in spite of a legal requirement that it do so as soon as the litigation was concluded.

In fact, the District was so anxious to keep the discussions that took place behind closed doors top secret, it sued an environmental organization, Everglades Law Center, for having made a public records request for a copy of the transcript. Initially the District claimed the transcript could not be made public because there was still on-going litigation between Lake Point and another party. In later pleadings, the District claimed that the transcript must remain secret not only until all the related litigation ends, but forever, because the closed-door meeting included discussions of what had happened at a prior court ordered mediation, and such “mediation communications” are confidential.

The complaint filed earlier this month on behalf of local activist Pangioti Tsolkas alleges that the District’s Board “privately decided to settle the Lake Point litigation, as well as the specific terms upon which the lawsuit would be settled.” This, according to Tsolkas, is antithetical of Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law, which requires public business to be conducted in the public, not behind closed doors. Tsolkas says the settlement agreement obligates the District to buy a minimum of 50,000 tons of rubble mined by Lake Point, whether the excavated materials are needed or not, and allows Lake Point to sell water, a concept contrary to the basic premise that Florida’s water is a public resource managed for the public’s benefit.

According to Marcy LaHart, the attorney representing Tsolkas, “while avoiding the uncertainty of litigation is often in the public’s interest, the lengths to which the District has gone to keep secret its reasoning behind entering the Lake Point settlement agreement is unprecedented. Regardless of whether entering the settlement agreement was a good thing or a bad thing, every penny the District will spend implementing the agreement and complying with its terms is the public’s money, and the public has a right to know why their public officials chose to settle the case when and how they did.”

Media inquiries contact Marcy LaHart, marcy@floridaanimallawyer.

PBC Green Party Activist Samson Kpadenou Running for FL House of Representatives

The Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition urges you to get active in the District 87 race

See a map of District 87 below

Samson LeBeau Kpadenou is running as a Green candidate for the Florida House, representing District 87. Learn more at Samson2018.com.  

It's rare that an authentic grassroots community activist steps forward to engage in an electoral system dominated by corporate interests. This campaign represents one of these rare moments.

Samson (who many of us know as LeBeau) has been involved with the PBC Environmental Coalition and other environmental/social justice efforts for several years, attending meetings, hearings and demonstrations. He is the co-chair of the county and state Green Party, which had been one of the most active organizations in the PBCEC, offering support for local efforts to challenge over-development for the past two decades. On top of that, District 87 includes the northwest portion of Lake Worth, a long-time stronghold of environmental activists in South Florida.

In his own words:

As American discontent and deep political corruption and ineptitude in both of the major parties spilled onto our front pages and news feeds, I realized that almost across the board our political system had been corrupted to serve the wealthy few over the working many. I discovered that we have few honest actors in our government. I observed that our political class with their ivy league and business school degrees are no smarter than us, just better connected. I suddenly knew that if the people did not come together, hold government accountable and take our government back, things could only get worse for average Americans.

 

When I became civically engaged I found it to be my passion. I joined organizations that were fighting to make the political process answer to the people, or founded them where necessary. I began attending city and county commission and school board meetings and speaking out to them about issues that most impact our communities, like immigrant protections, environmental racism and gentrification. I took several trips to Tallahassee to argue for union rights, fracking bans, protections from wage and tip theft, public school funding and more.

I currently serve as co-chair to the Green Party of Florida and the Palm Beach County Green Party. I am the founder of Black Lives Matter Palm Beach County and the treasurer of the Palm Beach County Democratic Socialists of America. I am also an active member of the Palm Beach Tenants’ Union and the League of Women Voters.

Check out a great interview with him from CBS Ch 12

Follow and share his Facebook campaign page

Here is a map of District 87. Please reach out to any friends and family who can vote and are residents in these neighborhoods. Contact his campaign to volunteer.

FL House of Representatives, District 87

March 1st: Defeat the Racist Riviera Beach Bleach Plant Plan

On February 9th, residents of Riviera Beach and environmental justice activists across the county were successful in compelling the Planning and Zoning Board to make a recommendation that would stop the Odyssey proposal and to encourage the City Counsel to deny any future plans to locate in the City of Riviera Beach.

Odyssey bleach plant in Tampa, FL

This Wednesday, March 1st, 6pm at Riviera Beach City Hall, the City Counsel meeting will take a final vote on the matter. But residents are concerned that the Counsel will pass this proposal in spite of the Planning and Zoning Board's conclusion.

The proposed site is zoned General Industrial with a "special exception" requirement which means that the plan can only be approved if it can show that it will do no harm to the community.

The site is adjacent to a large apartment complex, surrounded by low-income, African American residential areas, schools, churches, and a large food company. All of these are within the 1/2 mile evacuation zone required by the US Emergency Responder guidelines for facilities handling liquid bleach, which is a code 1791 product. This requires an evacuation plan and a hazmat plan. 

Feb 9th Meeting on Massive Bleach Storage Facility Next to Residents of Riviera Beach

From the Environmental Assessment by ERMI

The Riviera Beach Planning and Zoning Board (P&Z) will be voting on approval for a massive bleach storage and distribution center this week, Thursday, Feb 9, 6:30 p.m. at the Council Chambers in Municipal Complex at 600 West Blue Heron Boulevard, 33404
 
News of the proposed facility, which seeks to store and 40,000 gallons of bleach and transport tankers during all hours of the day, only surfaced in December, and has received minimal coverage aside from a single story last month from CBS 12.

The conditions for approval (which can be viewed in the P&Z packet) say the plan must show that it will not harm the public interest, but the Environmental Assessment report conducted by a consulting firm, Environmental Risk Management, Inc (ERMI), lacks a cumulative impact assessment which shows all the other industrial facilities surrounding Riviera, all of which individually swear they are doing no harm, but collectively pose an environmental justice nightmare where racism is undeniable.

The Environmental Assessment also gives minimal information about impacts from a large accident in transportation, both on public health and on the waterways which drain into a sensitive and already overburdened coastal ecosystem.

The bleach plant would sit adjacent to a residential community, including home day care facilities.

PBCEC supports residents of Riviera Beach in asking the P&Z Board to conduct a series of public meetings to fully inform the community of this proposal.

Mass Civil Disobedience to Stop the Sabal Trail Pipeline from crossing the Suwannee River

The following is a call to action from Sabal Trail Resistance in North Florida:

Join us in putting a wrench into the gears of the pipeline machine. This will be a mass sit-in to stop the Sabal Trail fracked gas pipeline construction from drilling under the Suwannee River in Live Oak, FL.

Schedule:

Friday, Jan 13th, 4 - 6pm, we will hold a direct action and know your rights training for all participants (not just people risking arrest), at Water is Life Camp. For location see: www.facebook.com/WaterIsLifeCamp/ (Please do not bring dogs.)

Saturday, Jan 14th, 11am, we will gather at the Suwannee River State Park parking lot. Please plan to carpool as there is a $5 fee per car to park here. We will march on the drill site at 1pm sharp.

Sunday, Jan 15th, 8am till release, solidarity rally at jail and/or courthouse which may be holding water protectors. [Locations TBA]

Additional Details:

There are several options for camping in the area, including two free encampments and additional public and private campgrounds in the area.

Not everyone who attends needs to risk arrest, but we ask all to consider their role in making this a successful event. It will be a "power in numbers" moment.

There will be clear zones for higher risk and lower risk participants.

We will plan to avoid the risk of felony charges for the mass action, and anticipate any arrested will be released by the following morning. If you plan to participate in civil disobedience, please consider having funds available for bail/bond (or having your network assist in fundraising.)

If arrests occur, we believe that a "necessity defense" exists, which explains that "the degree of harm actually caused [will be] a reasonably proportionate response to the degree of harm threatened."
 
This legal defense strategy explains that laws can and should be broken when there is a real, imminent risk occurring... For example, peircing an aquifer that millions rely on for drinking water to transport a hazardous substance for private profit.

We encourage all who participate to request a public defender, retain their right to speedy trial and demand a trial by jury to present their defense.

More details on Sabal Trail Resistance can be found here.

  A list of other STR supporters can be found here.


Note: This is one action in a series of many to occur before and after. This one action is aimed at building broader support and creating a higher level of pressure on the system to stop this pipeline. If you can only make it out for one weekend this month, make it this one.