For many, the Florida Everglades’ spectacular vistas exist in black and white images from the lens of landscape photographer Clyde Butcher.
Butcher’s large-format prints hang in museums around the country, adorn Florida’s Capitol and even brighten Miami International Airport. Five decades after he moved to Florida, drawn by Ivan Tors’ mid-’60s TV series Flipper, Butcher is guided by the same belief: nature matters.
On the heels of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s declaration last week that he will push to strengthen the urban development boundary, a countermove has sprung up in the Florida Legislature that would weaken the county’s protection against urban sprawl on its western and southern fringes.
State Sen. Ellyn Bodganoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican, put forth an amendment to a House bill on Friday that would make it easier to shift the UDB by requiring a simple majority of the commission to approve any change to the county’s comprehensive plan, which guides development.
But Gimenez protested, calling the move an attempt to undermine the county’s unique local powers.
On Tuesday, at his first state-of-the-county address, the mayor said he would work to bolster the UDB by pushing to incorporate into the county charter a requirement that an extraordinary supermajority — three-fourths, or 10 of 13 commissioners — sign off on any changes to the invisible boundary that limits development bordering the Everglades.
The county currently requires a two-thirds majority — nine of 13 commissioners — to approve any change to the UDB.
Gimenez sent a letter Friday to each member of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation — along with Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park — blasting the legislative move as an interference with Miami-Dade’s Home Rule Charter. He said it “potentially threatens precious wetlands.”
“They are trying to usurp local authority,” the mayor told The Miami Herald. “It strikes me as funny that soon as my state-of-the-county address calls for strengthening the UDB, this crops up.”
(An incarnation of the amendment surfaced Monday, a day before Gimenez’s speech.)
In the letter, the mayor said denying Miami-Dade residents the ability to require a supermajority vote to amend the UDB would be “denying the people of Miami-Dade County the ability to govern themselves on this issue of local concern.”
EMAILS CIRCULATE
Local environmentalists circulated emails over the weekend urging supporters to call Bogdanoff to oppose her amendment.
The most recent effort to move the UDB came two months ago. Miami-Dade commissioners, acting against the recommendation of county planners, sent the state an application by Ferro Investment Group II to allow business and office development on 9.9 acres designated as agricultural on the southeast corner of Southwest 167th Avenue and 104th Street, outside the UDB.
Ferro Investment’s pro-bono lobbyist is lawyer Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, also a Republican state senator from Miami. Diaz de la Portilla, a former county commissioner, said the project has no relation to Bogdanoff’s amendment.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “The Ferro application has nothing to do with that.”
Diaz de la Portilla noted he helped create Miami-Dade’s community councils to give neighbors a say on proposed development. He also backed requiring that a two-thirds majority of commissioners approve UDB-related applications if they burdened public services. That condition has since been eliminated, he said, adding that he favors Bogdanoff’s amendment to even the playing field for property owners.
BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation in South Florida since 2008, has resigned to become executive director of Gill Action, a Colorado-based organization that provides funding for pro-gay political campaigns across the nation.
“Perhaps having a family has made it more imperative to get involved on a full-time basis to make sure American families have the same rights as everyone else regardless of sexual orientation,” said Fordham, 44, a one-time aide to several Republican politicians, including former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach.
Fordham, partner Mike Cevarr, a senior research analyst for Fannie Mae, and their two sons, 13-month-old Lukas and Levi, 7 months, will move this spring from Coral Gables to Denver.
“I’m giving up the sun and the surf for the sun and the snow,” said Fordham, originally from Rochester, N.Y. “It's an unexpected opportunity and I hate, hate, hate to leave my Everglades work. It's near and dear to my heart.”
His last day at the Everglades Foundation will be Friday, April 13. He starts the following Monday at Gill Action.
The Everglades Foundation, based in Palmetto Bay, will soon look to replace Fordham. “Paul Tudor Jones, our board chair, will lead the search committee,” Fordham said.
After graduating from University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics, Fordham got a congressional internship; worked for Jim Inhofe (then a U.S. Congressman, now a senator); and became Foley’s chief of staff in 1994. He stayed with Foley until 2004, then worked a year as finance director for Sen. Mel Martinez.
For three years, Fordham worked in public affairs/governmental public relations. In January 2008, he became CEO of the Everglades Foundation.
Although Fordham has been closely tied to Republican politicians, he also has cultivated relationships with Democrats. South Florida’s two congresswomen both praised him in news statements.
"Although we will miss Kirk's determined efforts to protect and restore America's Everglades, I am thrilled that I will now have the opportunity to partner with him in his new role at Gill Action,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman from Weston. “Kirk practices a bi-partisan approach to problem-solving that has earned him the respect of many friends on both sides of the aisle. As we continue our march forward to protect the right of every LGBT person to enjoy every opportunity this nation has to offer, I look forward to working with Kirk to build on the progress that has been made by groups like Gill Action."
Said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, one of the Republican Party’s most outspoken gay-rights advocates: “The Everglades will lose one of its most tireless and effective advocates, but the nation will benefit as Kirk shifts his focus to advancing equal opportunity for each and every American. Kirk is well regarded in Tallahassee and on Capitol Hill as a staunch supporter who has used his knowledge and experience in government affairs to further important causes. I look forward to working with him to ensure that our nation — and our laws — treat everyone fairly and equally.”
Gill Action fund, begun by Quark software inventor and philanthropist Tim Gill, has given $14.45 million to pro-gay campaigns since 2005. In Florida, Gill Action helped fund the unsuccessful 2008 campaign to prevent a statewide amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions, said Fordham, who made national news in 2006 when Mark Foley’s political career imploded during a sexting scandal involving teenage male congressional pages.
Fordham, who helped orchestrate Foley’s resignation from Congress after ABC News obtained copies of the text messages, later told a House Ethics Committee that he reported Foley’s antics to House Speaker Dennis Hastert three years before that scandal broke, but that Hastert did little with the information.
Some gay activists believe Fordham didn’t do enough to stop Foley when he suspected inappropriate behavior between the congressman and underage pages.
“While I appreciate Kirk’s many talents at bringing various political players to the table to move the LGBT agenda forward, I am perplexed as to why these guys just can’t say they’re sorry for what they did,” said Mike Rogers, a Washington-based activist blogger who appeared in the 2009 film documentary Outrage, about closeted gay politicians including Foley. “He said, ‘Oh, I gave the information and no one did anything with it.’ ”
Fordham says he doesn’t know what more he could have done about Foley’s “flirtatious” behavior: “I went behind my boss’ back to the House speaker to report it.”
Posted on Thu, Mar. 01, 2012Everglades may get boost from lawmakers
A year after slashing Everglades funding, Florida lawmakers appear poised to give some back.House and Senate budget negotiators this week agreed to set aside some $30 million for restoration projects. That’s still $10 million short of Gov. Rick Scott’s request but a major leap from the zero the Senate had initially penciled in.
Environmental groups praised the move as a positive sign, saying they were cautiously optimistic that it signaled a change in direction from last year’s tough session, when lawmakers and Scott gutted Everglades and conservation land-buying programs, state growth management rules and other long-standing regulations.
Now, they’re keeping their fingers crossed the trend will continue with a still-bigger target — a Senate bill that would lift spending caps lawmakers last year placed on the state’s five water management districts, which are largely funded by property tax revenue.
The Florida Conservation Coalition calculated that the cap, placed on property tax rates that supply much of the districts’ revenues, wound up shriveling budgets by nearly 40 percent, or $700 million. The law also shifted oversight of the agencies’ spending to the Legislature.
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida, said that even legislative leaders acknowledge that last year’s measure went too far, threatening to cut into the districts’ “core missions” of providing flood protection and a supply of clean water to the public and natural systems like the Everglades.
Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, acknowledged the ripple effects had run deeper than desired. The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees Everglades restoration, has tapped reserve funds to cover shortfalls, a strategy that will work only in the short-term.
Alexander said he helped put the new bill together “because I felt like we needed to take another look at it and find a more sustainable policy. There are reserves that are just a bit out of balance and I think, longer term, that in order to meet the water resource needs, the water boards must keep the state waters clean.”
While the bill would lift the caps on spending, it also leaves a final review of the district’s budget largely to lawmakers — a provision environmentalists hope to see removed. They’re supporting a proposal by Scott that largely restores the system that existed before last year’s changes, leaving oversight of the districts under the governor, who also appoints their governing boards.
Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, said legislative authority only injects more politics into efforts to maintain funding for Everglades restoration and cleanup projects already expected to take decades.
“We certainly don’t want to see the process become pork-barreled where, from session to session, you have a new committee chair that wants to put projects in his own backyard,” Fordham said. “You can’t provide long-term planning with that.”
But lawmakers also may be reluctant to give up newly won control over the districts, agencies that collect hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes and have pursued expensive projects or land-buys without legislative approval.
Under Gov. Charlie Crist, the South Florida Water Management District sought an audacious $1.75 billion deal to buy out the sprawling empire of the U.S. Sugar Corp. The deal, heavily criticized by lawmakers, was eventually downsized to a $197 million land purchase of 26,800 acres.
But some environmental groups have questioned whether the Legislature’s power grab will stand up under court challenge, saying the system of independent districts was established in the state Constitution.
Environmentalists are banking on beefed up support to repair some of the losses from last session.
The Florida Conservation Coalition — created in November under the leadership of Bob Graham, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator, and a number of influential former state executives — has made the water management rollback a priority.
They also give some credit to Scott, who told conservation groups in January that he had learned a lot in his first year and was vowing to make Everglades issues a priority.
With the state under pressure from federal judges, the governor last year outlined a plan to expand the network of artificial marshes used to reduce the amount of farm pollution flowing into the Everglades. Negotiations with federal agencies continue over the state plan, which was significantly smaller than one proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Scott followed up by proposing $40 million in restoration funding in his budget. That’s still down from a peak of $100 million to $200 million in annual state funding during the administration of former Gov. Jeb Bush but double what Scott proposed the previous year. Scott’s budget proposal also included $15 million for Florida Forever but lawmakers have not yet allocated anything for the land-buying program in their roughly $70 billion proposals.
“It does make a difference by him putting it out there,” Draper said.
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A bill that would require water management districts to receive budget approval from the Legislature was substantially revised Thursday and passed by the Senate.
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed HB 7051 backing proposed water quality rules that are intended to replace federal rules opposed by utilities, industry and agriculture groups.
An Audubon scientist sees a flash of pink hope in the return of roseate spoonbill to nests on the mangroves dotting Florida Bay (Miami Dade, 2/17/2012)
With a fast-growing medical school on a built-out campus, the university is pursuing state-owned land bordering the Everglades to exchange for the existing county fair grounds; environmentalists question the plans."
Hope for the Everglade Snail Kite: Army Corps Agrees to Evaluate Forward Pumps on Lake Okeechobee
"The Everglade Snail Kite is a system-wide indicator species for Everglades restoration success. In order to comprehensively protect Kite habitat and the Greater Everglades Ecosystem as a whole, water level declines should be dealt with through water restrictions and water conservation measures. Audubon urges that citizens, businesses, and agencies respond to these steps dutifully when drought conditions are identified to avoid the need to use temporary forward pumps when water is most scarce."
