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The Town of Southwest Ranches, Corrections Corporation of American (CCA), and DHS / ICE want to build one of the largest immigration detention centers in the nation within walking distance of thousands of homes; thus, reducing the quality of our life and our community. We do not agree with the federal government privatizing our immigration detention centers throughout the nation when there is clear evidence that privatizing our prisons creates a clear public safety threat. For ICE to continue to privatize these institutions and bring this safety threat through their "secure communities Initiative" to our community is unacceptable. Depriving someone of their liberty is a non-delegable governmental function and privatizing of such a function is infecting our nation like a virus.

The Town of Southwest Ranches has now entered into it's THIRD Fire Contract within the last year now with the Town of Davie, costing taxpayers $120,000 in ramp up fees. They are now closing several roads in western Southwest Ranches charging the tax payers $80,000 for the gates. They have paid an unknown amount of money for lobbying with ICE regarding this prison. They have several lawsuits against the Town, 1- Involving Open Meeting Violations on a November 5th meeting concerning the ICE Detention Center, 2- Open Records Violations, and 3- The Town is putting together a lawsuit to sue Pembroke Pines for breach of contract because the City utilized their exit clause and cancelled for convenience their Fire/EMS contract which included water and sewer at the last minute for the CCA prison. In the contract it states that there should be no third party beneficiaries. CCA would be a third party in this instance.

CCA has also filed suit in Federal court against the City of Pembroke Pines saying they are denying them water however the City had never seen a water application. The City did file for a Declaratory Judgement in State Court but that has been put on hold until the Federal Court hears the suit from CCA.

Is ANYONE CONFUSED as to why the Pembroke Pines/Southwest Ranches Fire Agreement was cancelled? The Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff attempted to "slip" into the agreement a portion that guaranteed water for the prison at CCA's request. This is something that should have been brought up separately. CCA should have brought it forward on their own in a water application. This is sleight of hand that CCA and the Town attempted to do because they were so afraid of CCA being on the Pembroke Pines agenda.

As of June 2012, ICE put out a statement that the site selection was no longer needed due to the fact that the extra bedspace was no longer needed. READ UPDATE HERE!


Monday, July 30, 2012

Jeff Nelson... Leadership of Southwest Ranches?

In addition to being the Mayor of Southwest Ranches, Jeff Nelson works at Cypress Bay High School where he is an assistant principal.  Cypress Bay High School is one of the many schools in Broward County.  The Broward County school system is in dire straights from a combined overspending and the decrease in tax receipts from falling home prices.  They have had to lay off teachers and do alot of cutting back on extras and certain enrichment courses in this tough economy. 


Why is this connection so important?  Well, while acting on the Town Council, Jeff Nelson was one of 4 votes approving a deal with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in 2005 (Knight Absent/Abstained).  In this deal, it enabled the multi-billion private prison firm to claim an agricultural exemption that cost Broward County School's ALOT of money!  While the agricultural exemption is a legal exemption that many farmers use, in this incidence it clearly shows how developers abuse this exemption by renting cows to place on the property thus avoiding taxes.  The snippet from the contract is below.

Since the private prison firm purchased the property in 1998 and this marketing contract with the Town wasn't approved until 2005, it has been a total of 8 years since the Town Council had their hand in approving this "ag exemption".  So for 8 years, Jeff Nelson was party to helping a multi-billion dollar private prison corporation dodge paying much needed tax dollars for our schools and teachers.  Is this fair??  According to them they are taking a legal tax break and did nothing wrong.  Which legally they did just what the law required them to do.  But is this a justified use of the ag exemption?  News 10's Bob Norman did a great story on the tax evasion/rent a cow from Bergeron here.

Let's calculate how much the schools would have gotten if CCA didn't get the agricultural exemption.

Because of the 2005 CCA-SWR Contract,
Broward County Lost $480,000 ($60,000 x 8 years)

VS. what CCA paid $24,000 ($3,000 x 8 years)
(numbers taken from Bob Norman's report above)

So, from where we are standing, Jeff Nelson was a party to $456,000 being ripped off the students of Broward County by voting for the Town to support this tax exemption.  How can any teacher or school employee support such a fraudulent use of the agricultural exemption??    Over the past 14 years CCA has owned the property, they have used this exemption to avoid paying net $804,000 (60,000 x 14 years - $36,000) total in taxes. 

What kind of leader is this?  We feel actions speak louder that words in this scenario.  Jeff Nelson may be an assistant principal, but he surely showed us who he advocates for with this vote, and it isn't kids nor the community surrounding the prison parcel. 

Do you feel Jeff Nelson should continue to be Mayor of Southwest Ranches??  We will leave you to make up your mind in November.

The entire CCA contract can be downloaded here.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 30, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    You have got to be kidding?!?! so every cow pasture is now a school problem. Get real and take off those rose colored glasses it's a legit tax exemption in the state of Florida.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No CCA Immigrant Prison in Southwest RanchesAugust 1, 2012 at 7:45 AM

    Nelson is and has been a weak embarrassment for the Town. I first interacted with him when Weston essentially stole a Broward County school (Cypress Bay) for their own use. Jeff is an assistant vice principle there. Jeff never advocated for the children of Southwest Ranches so that they could STAY at the high school closest to them and idle sat by while we had our kids bussed 6 or more miles out to US27. I felt his position was cowardly then.

    The next I saw of his cynically using children was at a council meeting where a group of students in an American Sign Language club came into a council meeting and gave us a presentation of their musical theater in ASL. Jeff just gushed and gushed over "our future." Immediately after the presentation, during public comment, I asked Jeff if he told those kids still in the halls if HE was actively lobbying for a prison 1.1 miles from their running track. As he's promoting this as a great boon in terms of jobs for our residents, I questioned the vision for our children to work as corrections officers for a private immigrant prison. No response from Nelson.

    So then we have the proof that Nelson voted for a contract with CCA which the town agreed to help CCA obtain agricultural exemptions even though the property was primarily going to be used as a prison. Of course, the purpose of the ag exemption is to reduce property taxes which is where the $120MM Broward School deficit will draw from.

    Nelson is just a self serving politician who, unlike the 4 other councilmen who ultimately said they would not support the prison if it did not benefit the town, Nelson said "this has been in the works for a long time" and he reaffirmed his commitment to the prison MINUS the proviso that it must benefit the community.

    8 years of his failed leadership is enough. It's time he goes. And it's time the Camelot dynasty of Becker Poliakoff goes with him.

    ReplyDelete

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