stuart Brightline station
It's your Tax Dollars
Regardless of your stance on whether Stuart should be home to the Brightline station, it is a bad deal for taxpayers. Residents are wise to the fact that we have been constantly taken advantage of in big-league financial negotiations and are now demanding more from our officials.
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Is JONATHAN DICKINSON STATE PARK Safe from development?
Whistle blower saves Pakrs
James Gaddis, a former Florida state employee who leaked details on plans to develop state parks, says he was fired last week from his job at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) but doesn’t regret making the proposals public. Gaddis, who had worked as a cartographer in the Office of Park Planning department for more than two years, was personally tasked with drawing the plans to add amenities to nine state parks.
Statewide public protest against the proposed park development forced Gov. Ron DeSantis and the DEP to scrub their plans. Groups pushing the golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson—Tuskegee Dunes Foundation and Folds of Honor—also pulled out of the project.
Florida citizens were caught off guard by the plans, which began with DEP's announcement of the Great Outdoors Initiative circulating around Aug. 19. The initiative was meant to increase public visits to state parks. The plans were so outrageous that some people initially believed the documents released were fake.
Gaddis said DEP employees asked to create the plans initially thought the request was a joke. He said DeSantis used to be well regarded within the DEP because of his dedication to the environment by buying land for conservation. Gaddis was informed of the plans as early as July when he was told what amenities were wanted and where.
The state's Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC), which votes on changes in state park plans, is scheduled to meet Sept. 12.
Gaddis said he was disgusted and couldn’t take it anymore. He called the project “secretive” and said they weren’t supposed to discuss it with anyone. When he presented a draft plan, he said it would come back with edits that he believes were relayed from the Governor’s office to the DEP, although he is unaware of any input DeSantis had.
DeSantis addressed the public outcry on Aug. 28. He said he did not approve the park projects and called them “half-baked” and “nowhere near ready for prime time.” DeSantis did acknowledge that the Oklahoma-based nonprofit charity Folds of Honor was behind the golf course plans. It pitched the plans as the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation.
Eric Draper, director of the Florida Park Service from 2018 to 2021, believes DeSantis was trying to deflect blame from his office.
"It seems clear this idea was shopped at the governor's office and pushed to DEP," Draper said. I don't think the governor looks at every little detail, but it was unfortunate that the DEP was such an enthusiastic defender for days after it was clear it was a very bad idea."
