Landfill developer's generosity is suspect

Angelo's Aggregate Materials likes to point to a thick layer of clay it would use to line its proposed landfill as evidence of its environmental safeguards for rural east Pasco. The company says less about the thick layer of cash it is using to line the campaign treasuries of public officials at the same time it seeks state and local approval for what could become a 1,000-acre landfill, composting and recycling operation near Florida's Green Swamp.

Though individual contributions are limited to $500 per candidate, the company and its founding members circumvent the spirit of Florida's campaign finance law by bundling maximum donations through various companies and trusts. Most troubling is the $4,500 to the re-election campaign of Pasco Property Appraiser Mike Wells the day after the company filed an appeal with the Pasco Value Adjustment Board seeking to reduce the assessment on land it owns in east Pasco.

The company and Wells' office negotiated a settlement after a magistrate ruled in favor of Angelo's at a hearing in which the Property Appraiser's Office did not challenge the company's engineering report. The settlement cut the appraised value of the land by $1-million and reduced its property tax bill roughly $22,000.

Wells maintains the assessment dispute and political contributions are unrelated. The 20-year public official is either naive - by not wondering what someone might want in return for contributions nine times the individual limit - or wasn't paying attention to his office operations. Either way, he is sullied by the appearance of a quid pro quo. If Wells wants to eliminate the hint of impropriety, he should return the contributions. It should be easy to do considering he faces no re-election opponent.

Other beneficiaries of the company's generosity:

- The campaign of state Rep. Will Weatherford. R-Wesley Chapel, whose district includes the landfill site, received $5,600. Weatherford did not join the public opposition and declined to introduce in the House legislation from Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, to block the landfill. However, Weatherford said he did talk with the Department of Environmental Protection chief to relay the public's concerns about the proposal.

Angelo's, incidentally, hired high-powered lobbyist Brian Ballard to represent its interests in Tallahassee. Ballard registered as lobbyist for the company the day after Crist announced his bill.

- The Pasco Republican Party received $5,000, and afterward party Chairman Bill Bunting arranged an appearance for the company before the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce's political affairs committee. The panel, representative of an area close to 40 miles away from the landfill, endorsed the company's proposal even though the Greater Dade City Chamber members oppose it and named the leading opponent, Carl Roth, as its citizen of the year.

- Commissioner Pat Mulieri received $1,000 during her 2006 campaign and said she met with company representatives twice, but she questioned the project's validity. Still, that didn't stop her from regurgitating the company line from the dais last year that the county's trash incinerator was a source of air pollution. County Administrator John Gallagher rebuked her by reminding Mulieri that upgrades authorized by the commission had kept the incinerator operating efficiently.

The company's contributions did not end at the county line. All told it donated $89,000 to political causes and $95,000 to a handful of east Pasco nonprofit groups favored by the large landowners and power brokers there.

In an e-mail to the Times, Dominic Iafrate, Angelo's vice president, boasted of the savings to the public if the county scrubs plans to expand its trash incinerator in favor of the private landfill.

"I think the question really should be how much have you invested in this project and how much will that investment benefits the citizens of the county?" he wrote.

What is clear from the campaign finance reports is the company doesn't limit its investments to land acquisitions and technological research.

[Last modified January 21, 2008, 21:00:28]