Wetlands sellout
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 23, 2007
Not since three members were hauled away in handcuffs in a vote-buying scandal 24 years ago has the Hillsborough County Commission displayed such deplorable conduct. It was bad enough that the board, meeting Thursday as the Environmental Protection Commission, moved to kill the wetlands program that has protected against flooding and pollution for 22 years. But the way commissioners rammed it through, in a kangaroo court greased by falsehoods, raises legal and ethical flags.
The decision was no surprise. EPC chair Brian Blair has been gunning for the program for months, contending, wrongly, that it merely duplicates federal and state regulation. The county's program makes it harder on the front end for developers to destroy wetlands and it applies to smaller tracts of land that the state and federal governments ignore. Yet that did not stop other commissioners from parroting Blair's misinformation campaign - even as they made the opposite argument on the need to lower the bar for developers.
This board cannot get its story straight because facts are not part of the equation. Look at how Blair fumbled the meeting as chairman. He initially told the audience it could speak, but reneged after hearing a few public comments, complaining that he lacked the time. After member Kevin White moved to kill the program, the EPC director, Dr. Richard Garrity, begged to explain his plan for streamlining the process - a report the commission had asked for, and the advertised purpose of the meeting. Blair asked: "How long is that going to take you, Doc?" After a staff lawyer intervened to warn the board it could not sneak the measure through without a public hearing, the panel voted 4-3 to move in that direction.
Commissioners Mark Sharpe, Rose Ferlita and Al Higginbotham were right to criticize the majority for rushing the decision without any idea of how it would impact flooding or the water supply.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, a former commissioner and EPC chair, warned the board in a letter Thursday that the move could threaten federal funds for local water projects. Garrity will have another chance before a final vote in the coming weeks to make his case, but the question is whether the merits matter. The board majority doesn't seem to care whether the program is unique or not or whether it will impact the budget at all.
Thursday's charade showed that - check out the transcript through hillsborough.org. White, Blair, Ken Hagan and Jim Norman cannot hide behind science or the budget. This is selling out, plain and simple, to developers.