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The quiet partnership of environmentalists and wealthy homeowners combines to protect their separate interests.
By BILL ADAIR, CRAIG PITTMAN and JOHN BALZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 9, 2000
For years, prominent environmental groups have crusaded to block a new airport at Homestead Air Force Base. Over and over they have warned that hundreds of flights a day from the airport would damage nearby Everglades National Park and Biscayne Bay National Park.
What they didn't advertise, though, is that they have recently been paid thousands of dollars by wealthy homeowners in the Florida Keys who are worried about their property values.
The Ocean Reef Community Association of Key Largo is paying $250,000 to Alan Farago, the conservation chairman in the Sierra Club's Miami chapter, long known as the most vocal opponent of the airport. Ocean Reef homeowners also paid $15,000 to the national Sierra Club for a mailing, and $58,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council for consulting and public relations services.
The battle over Homestead is a complicated tale of money and power that has created some unusual allies.
The Ocean Reef development, which has been criticized for its past environmental misdeeds, is now working side by side with environmentalists. Together they are fighting Dade County officials and local developers who want to turn the military base into an international airport between the two national parks.
"When you have such a powerful enemy, you've got to form alliances with other powerful interests who have the same goals," Sierra Club Florida representative Frank Jackalone said. "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in politics."
Hurricane Andrew flattened the south Dade air base in 1992, knocking the wind out of the Homestead economy by wiping out thousands of jobs. The Clinton Administration promised the base would reopen, but since 1994 Farago has rallied environmentalists, homeowners' groups and farm workers in battling plans to convert the base into a commercial airport.
Miami-Dade County officials would like to put a commercial airport at Homestead to relieve Miami International Airport. Although they do not yet own the base they have already leased the property to a company run by influential home builders. The wealthy pro-airport forces have hired a battery of high-powered lobbyists and public relations firms to win approval for the airport.
Both sides are waiting for the Air Force to complete the latest environmental study on the proposal, currently scheduled for release in a month.
The 1,900 Ocean Reef property owners have a big stake in the decision. Home to some of South Florida's wealthiest residents, Ocean Reef is about 11 miles from the Homestead runway. Residents say they are concerned about loud jets passing overhead, as well as the environmental impact on the Everglades and Biscayne national parks.
The Ocean Reef Community Association has collected $1.7-million from its residents and launched an aggressive lobbying effort. A letter from the head of the homeowner's association to one of the residents said "our way of life and property values are threatened" by the airport proposal.
Last February, the Ocean Reef group urged its well-connected residents to write members of Congress urging them to oppose the airport. A letter from the association noted that most property owners have their primary homes in northern states and said, "We believe it will be very effective if your correspondence to your congressman was printed on your northern stationery."
The Ocean Reef homeowners started a group called the Everglades Defense Council and hired FLX Communications, a company owned by the Sierra Club's Farago, to run the new Everglades group. Ocean Reef, through the Everglades Defense Council, paid $125,000 to Farago in the first half of the year and has renewed the contract for an additional $125,000, Farago said.
The contract calls for him to attend meetings on the council's behalf, coordinate public relations, organize phone banks and send out literature.
The alliance is unusual because Ocean Reef has a checkered history when it comes to the environment. In the 1970s and '80s, Ocean Reef's managers were fined for dumping untreated sewage and violating state and federal dredging laws. Last spring two men were charged with cutting down mangroves in a state park that would have blocked a waterfront view from Ocean Reef property.
At the time, Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen wrote that Ocean Reef "has been the scene of the most prolific and defiant violations of environmental laws in Monroe County."
But residents and environmentalists say Ocean Reef has cleaned up its act since 1992, when new management took over. They say Ocean Reef residents turned in the men who were charged with cutting the mangroves and that the homeowners association has done many projects to protect the environment.
Audubon of Florida senior vice president Charles Lee said being on Ocean Reef's payroll won't hurt Farago's credibility with other environmental activists. Lee said alliances such as this are becoming increasingly common as environmental groups have grown more sophisticated about what they need to do to take on well-financed opponents.
The Farago-run Everglades Defense Council gets nearly all of its money from Ocean Reef, but its news releases have not disclosed the connection. In fact, EDC's releases have primarily quoted officials from the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Although Farago has been paid by Ocean Reef/EDC for most of the year, he has usually been quoted in news stories under his Sierra Club title, which is a volunteer position.
Farago said he is describing issue positions the Sierra Club adopted years ago, long before his contract with the Ocean Reef Club: "I'm stating a Sierra Club position. It's not an Ocean Reef position."
Farago said he does not usually disclose his relationship with Ocean Reef when he is lobbying on the issue, but said he would tell people if they asked.
He said he didn't have any qualms about taking $250,000 from the Ocean Reef homeowners.
"The environmental community is very grateful to have a partner and a constituency that wants to become involved in protecting the national parks," he said.
This year, Ocean Reef paid $58,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council for air, water and noise studies, and for a "Miami-Dade County educational campaign," according to a letter from the homeowners association. The letter specified that the "these studies need to have an Ocean Reef component or a separate section that we can use independent of the base study."
Brad Sewell, the senior project attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the money was a grant and that his group had independence in how it was used. "We lobbied on the Homestead issues because of our six-year commitment to the issue," Sewell said. "It's one of our core Everglades issues."
David C. Ritz, the administrator for the Ocean Reef Community Association, said his group was not trying to hide its ties with the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"We're quite proud of our involvement in all of these environmental issues," Ritz said.
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.