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Bill Lambert
The Industrial Development Authority and a $7.25 million
grant award to Continuum Labs has been the target of a
recent grand jury investigation in Hardee County.
As the Director of the Industrial Development Authority
and the Economic Development Council, I have prepared a
response to clarify, supplement and counter conclusions
reached by the Grand Jury from their deliberations. I am
thankful we have a system of government that provides
for freedom of free speech to express agreement or
disagreement thru public discourse.
Hardee County has a number of imminent and serious economic issues. Over the
past two decades efforts resulted in opportunities to mitigate impending
circumstances from having catastrophic sociological and economic circumstances.
In order to fully and properly discern conclusions of the grand jury presentment
citizens must be aware of the circumstances surrounding Economic Development
efforts in Hardee County. This response is prepared to help Hardee County residents
and other interested parties better understand our local situations and why certain
criticized actions and activities have occurred.
History
Hardee County was created with the separation from Desoto County in 1921. The
result of this separation created two mostly identically rectangular shaped
geo/political areas or Counties approximating an area 20 miles north and south by
30 miles east and west containing a little more than 400,000 acres. Its political
mindset has been adamantly agricultural with increasing influences transitioning to
accommodate a phosphate mining economy.
There are significant, even vast reserves of phosphate under Hardee County.
Phosphate is one of the three primary components in fertilizer and vital to crop/food
production.
Mining and agricultural political compatibility has been a curious political alliance,
well planned and well-structured to assure mining permits and ensuing excavation
of the resource. There are however, several imminent factors and public opinions to
consider related to Hardee Countys economy and its future as a result of mining:
Our future will be dictated for centuries by the ultimate number of acres in
the County to be acquired, controlled or influenced by mining interests. The
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Every citizen must be ever mindful that it is the ancient history of Hardee County
that left deposits of phosphate in the sedimentary seas millions of years ago. It is
the recovery of those deposits and the resultant impacts of the recovery that will
drive the political decisions that shape our future.
The deposits of phosphate under the County will be extracted, and the manner in
which the Countys leadership attracts offsetting economic drivers along with the
degree to which the issues of reclamation are addressed to mitigate these mining
impacts, will define our Countys destiny.
Leave the phosphate companies alone. They bought the land with the
intention of mining it and their property owners rights should prevail.
The Board of County Commissioners is the sheriff over phosphate mining.
They are a temporary land use but have permanent impacts. They must be
policed and regulated.
The redistribution of the severance tax money should go directly into the
hands of elected officials and only spent according to the prevailing political
philosophy.
The redistribution of the severance tax money will not go into the
governments coffers because it will never be utilized for economic
development to remove the Rural Area of Critical Economic Concern
designation. The temptation will be to pave roads of influential citizens,
lower property taxes, offset fire assessment fees or garbage collection fees
or to enhance the general operations of government.
The roots of divisiveness in Hardee County are firmly planted in disagreement over
final disposition of these monies-- those provided to the Economic Development
Authority (EDA) from redistribution of severance taxes and in similar fashion those
under the stewardship of the Hardee County Industrial Development Authority (IDA).
The IDA revenues occur through the negotiated agreement known as the Economic
Development Terms, Exhibit B of Mosaic South Fort Meade Mine Development
Order to the Hardee County Industrial Development Authority over the mining
period for the South Fort Meade Extension mines first ten years.
The EDA revenues from this Florida Law directs a nine member independent
authority created by the Florida Legislature to solicit, rank and fund grants for
economic development and infrastructure (infrastructure inferred to be related to
economic development) and should provide $75,000,000-100 (million) to retrofit
our economic circumstances.
Those of us who worked diligently to make this income stream a reality were: Gary
Oden - to whom I give credit for making us aware of the need to return a greater
share of severance tax money to Hardee County, his replacement - Lex Albritton,
Susan Dick - secretary to the BOCC, who lived every day discerning how to properly
communicate these circumstances to the public, County Attorney - Ken Evers, Kris
Delaney - the Countys planner, Doug Knight - the Countys mining coordinator and
other commissioners thru this period who always unanimously supported the
direction of this initiative - Walter Olliff - a former mine employee elected to the
Board of County Commissioners, Milton Lanier - the salt of the earth for us, Nick
Timmerman - brilliant politician and a man of vision, Gordon Norris - savvy and well
connected politically and Bobby Smith - the incredible Hardee County pundit.
The money should go into the Countys general revenue coffers and spent
under the control and direction of the Board of County Commissioners.
If the Mosaic Company provided money directly to the BOCC, it would be
certainly challenged as a pay for permits scenario and would never be
allowed. Mosaic refused to provide direct payments to the County.
Give the money to the people.
I want recreational opportunities (ball fields) for my children or
grandchildren.
I want my road paved.
I want my taxes lowered.
I dont want to pay for garbage pickup or fire fees.
corresponding increase in tax roll values, payroll dollar multipliers for the
citizens and ad valorem tax revenue increases.
If the money is simply doled back out to the citizens to provide property tax
or fees relief, it would run out at the end of the agreement and nothing to
change our circumstances would ever occur.
It is this agreement, its interpretation, intent and application by the Hardee County
Industrial Development Authority that is the focus and object of the grand jury
presentment, and even more specifically, the funding of a grant recipient initially
referred to as LifeSync or BlueWater and its successor, Continuum Labs.
process was to get a larger distribution of the severance taxes returned to the
County to offset the impacts of mining.
This process took almost three years of intense negotiations, lobbying, boxes of
chocolate and assertiveness on all sides of the equation. Ultimately Hardee County
prevailed with a statutorily created independent special district (the Hardee
County Economic Development Authority) to administer a supplementary
redistribution of phosphate mining severance taxes for economic development and
infrastructure (hopefully invested in, because it was related to economic
development) known as Senate Bill 3110. It could easily approach $100 million
before mining is completed.
In 2007 I was solicited and eager to consider taking over the job as Director of
Economic Development and administrator of the affairs of the Hardee County
Industrial Development Authority. I was approved in October of that year and again
set about to change the way we looked at and felt about Economic Development in
Hardee County. In less than one year we had completed the Mosaic Economic
Development Terms agreement to be administered by the Industrial Development
Authority to create certain economic changes and to provide certain economic
opportunities in Hardee County.
The Economic Development Terms Exhibit is available for you to read at:
http://hardeebusiness.com/archive/public_records/Contracts_Appraisals/Mosaic_Agre
ement_signed_copy.pdf.
This agreement was negotiated to provide $42 million over 10 annual
disbursements through an agreement between the Board of County Commissioners
and the Mosaic Company. Neither Mosaic nor the BOCC had any desire for the
money to go into the County governments coffers. This money was paid to comply
with the Economic Element of the Comprehensive Plan that compels mining
companies to demonstrate how Hardee Countys economy can recover before,
during and after mining.
It is this money and the philosophy of how the IDA has deployed it into the local
economy that has caused this investigation. I might add that the detractors of
the agreement would have aligned to challenge any expenditure approved by the
IDA no matter where a decision was made to spend this money.
The IDA has grown from no assets ten years ago to an investment
portfolio of cash and market value of assets of over $20 million today.
Additionally, the IDA has contributed through agreements and
investments for certain roads, structures and facilities over $4 million
back to the County.
4. It was the IDAs award process that the Blue Water project was
initially funded after being ranked by the IDA along with other
applicants. The root of all of the issues this project has faced
can be traced back to a flawed application process administered
by Bill Lambert. (Presentment page 3)
I fully accept any criticisms directed at the IDA or its members squarely on
my shoulders. There is no such thing as a perfect application process. The
number of variables to consider in order to assure a reasonable chance at success
for an unflawed grant process are too numerous to list. However, I can state that
the human traits of jealousy and envy certainly did appear with sectors of the public
when applicants began to apply for this grant money.
However, even though the IDA concurred with the grand jury (later recommended in
this report) that the funds should at least be made available on a priority award
basis to Hardee County residents, it is the Hardee County resident involvement that
stirred the most controversy. Almost all of these applications in this cycle had
Hardee County citizens involved.
I remain firm in my opinion that the IDA should transfer money to the EDA or
administer grants from the EDA for any grant funding that involves the expenditure
of money other than capital investment such as bricks and mortar projects or job
training activities.
5. We find it troubling that at the time the IDA was considering
LifeSync Technologies, Inc.s grant application, Joe Albritton, a
member of the IDA board, was heavily engaged in the
negotiations between the IDA and LifeSync Technologies, Inc.
(Presentment page 4)
After an exhaustive investigation by the State of Florida Commission on Ethics, the
board concluded on December 14, 2014, all complaints against Mr. Albritton were
dismissed as having no probable cause. Among the findings specifically in the
Public Report of the investigation regarding Complaint No. 13-083 the conclusion
was that the Commission on Ethics finds that there is no probable cause to believe
the Respondent violated Section 112.3143(4), Florida Statutes, by participating
and /or voting on issues which would have inured to his or others private special
gain.
6. The implementation and monitoring of the grant by Bill
Lambert and the IDA Board Members was incredibly insufficient.
Bill Lambert seemed more concerned with protecting the privacy
rights of the company receiving public funds at the expense of
truly understanding how the company was spending the publics
money. (Presentment page 6)
Not one day has passed since October of 2011 that I have not been involved in
some aspect of the grant. It has been tense, but fascinating. While I am not new to
dealing with controversy, the issue of privacy versus the publics right to know is
one of the most complex issues in which I have ever been involved. I am keenly
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familiar with the public records law and the exemptions afforded the Hardee County
Industrial Development Authority.
There are two laws to consider in this equation Section 119.07, Florida Statutes
(public records) and Section 288.075, Florida Statutes (Confidentiality of Records).
Violation of either of these laws could result in fines including jail time.
This issue is still being litigated between the IDA and Henry Kuhlman, and because
of this litigation I have great concerns when discussing it in any forum. I believe the
IDA had an obligation to protect certain information as confidential. However,
because I did not possess the information I reviewed in the LifeSync/BlueWater
portion of the grant period, I do not believe it ever rose to the level of a public
record. I made this circumstance regarding these records publicly known on
numerous occasions.
7. Bill Lambert appeared timid, afraid, and embarrassed to
scrutinize closely or ask questions about how the various
expenditures were benefiting the project and the people of
Hardee County. The following LifeDash spreadsheet Illustration
1 and Illustration 2 show some ways the publics money was
spent in the first year of the contract. (Presentment page 7)
I reaffirm my concern for the privacy rights of the company in order to protect the
IDA investment of public money. If I had made one misstep I could have committed
breach of the contract between the IDA and grant recipientsLifeSync and its
successor, Continuum Labs. If I had released information that led to the companys
failure it could have precluded the IDA from any recovery in a court of law.
Aside from this important issue I support the provisions of the public records law
affording the public a right to view records and to know what is occurring within
government agencies. If discernment over the conflicts of laws related to
proprietary confidential business information, millions of public dollars and public
record laws causes me to appear as timid, afraid and embarrassed to scrutinize
closely, then I suppose I have to accept it. I know I have handled this
circumstance in an appropriate manner.
Almost three pages of the presentment disclosing the expenditure of $49,703.97 as
an example of how public money was spent is perplexing. LifeDash, while similar in
sound to LifeSync is a totally separate company and is not related with any common
ownership interest of LifeSync. Because there are no dates on the information
apparently obtained by subpoena (I could have never had access to this
information) it is difficult to determine whether the LifeDash expenditures occurred
during the LifeSync contract or the Continuum Assignment and Modification
contract period.
Regardless, LifeDash primarily provided a license fee based service to LifeSync and
Continuum. The value received by the grant recipients and the citizens of Hardee
County is totally vested in the computing platform usage under the license to the
project.
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comments from this grand jury may be appropriate and the criticisms may be wellplaced. Time will tell. We must have patience
14. We learned that those who have opposing views to the
Chairman of the County Commission, or who ask too many
questions, are not welcome as member of the IDA; that must
change. (Presentment page 19)
I have no idea what dialogue occurred with the grand jury for this comment to be in
the presentment. Nothing is further from the truth.
15. We recommend that the process for application, approval and
monitoring of IDA grants be completely revamped and that Bill
Lambert not be involved with the process. A model to consider
following is the grant approval process utilized by the Economic
Development Authority. (Presentment page 20)
Bill Lambert served as Chairman of the Hardee County Economic Development
Authority from its creation in 2004 until 2011. Bill Lambert is fully aware of the EDA
processes but the Mosaic Agreement is different from the severance tax
redistribution legislation (EDA) and the two of them will hopefully find a compatible
chemistry to create a fantastic future for Hardee County citizens.
16. A significant flaw in the process was the failure to have a
technology expert looking out for the interests of Hardee County
citizens interests. (Presentment page 20)
If there was a technology expert available to accomplish this task it would beg the
question of why isnt the grant being provided to the technology expert? The
technology including the platform and software are meaningless if they are not
designed to fit a place in the market that will make enough revenue to pay for all of
the expenses of the business and including a decent profit. It is the adaptation
of the software to the market wherein the entrepreneurial genius exists.
17. Any future grants awarded by the IDA should have
restrictions that require open positions to be advertised and
priority should be given to Hardee County residents.
(Presentment page 21)
All jobs to date have been posted and all hires have come thru the workforce
agency. Im not sure what the grand jury means by require open positions to be
advertised. Our objective is to create jobs in Hardee County. Certainly the creation
of jobs that are filled by Hardee County citizens is the primary and ultimate
objective, but the real situation is making sure the company has the right talent to
assure success. This will always be an issue but at the end of the day the business
has to decide which persons are best to advance the development of the enterprise.
18. Needed: an individual unafraid to make absolutely certain
every dollar spent by the grantee had an articulable purpose
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