Southwest Ranches Council's Two Big Lies

Southwest Ranches officials have repeatedly stated their two big lies.  The first big lie is that this prison has been an integral part of the planning of the Town since prior to its incorporation which is "why that parcel was given to Southwest Ranches when incorporation took place."  The second big lie is that the prison is an integral and necessary part of the revenue stream which has been planned on and depended on since incorporation.

We will eviscerate both lies.


Before we do, it's worth reprinting SWR Attorney Keith Poliakoff's infamous circling sharks email and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's hypocritical (she hasn't spoken with a single constituent regarding this as far as the opposition movement knows) admonishment of Mayor Jeff Nelson so that we all can understand what sort of devious government officials we are dealing with.

From: Poliakoff, Keith 

Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 12:00 PM

To: Charles Lynn; 'Cheryl Williams'; 'Ivy Fivey'

Cc: Michele Mellgren (michele@TMPGplanning.com); jeff@TMPGplanning.com; 'Dave Tringo';elizabeth@TMPGplanning.com; 'Willie Nabong'; Franco, Omar

Subject: Re: Cone of Silence for CCA Facility

All:

As you know we are in the final months to see if we can land the new Federal Immigration Facility.  Florida City is flipping over all stones to try to take the lead, but their strategy with the press is actually backfiring since residents are now comming (sic) out in opposition to the Florida City proposal, which will inevitably cause Homeland Security to shy away from their site since they do not want controversy right now.  Further an immigration facility in Dade will not get much fanfare.

As you probably have seen we have remained incredibly quiet and have been working diligently with our legislative leaders on this matter without pushing the press angle.

As such, I have been fully advised by our DC contacts that we should remain fully quiet on this one and to let our DC Leaders help without sparking a fire that will make it more difficult for them to assist.

Accordingly, if you get any calls on this, which you certainly will since the sharks are beginning to circle, I would appreciate it if you could direct anyone to speak to Charlie Lynn.  If he gets a ton of calls we will issue a carefully crafted press release, but until then, the less we say the better off we will be.

I know Mayor Nelson fielded a few basic questions from the Sentinel, which should release a small story later today.

Regards: Keith

Also, the reader needs to be reread Congresswoman's paucity of public information admonishment of  Mayor Jeff Nelson.

Lie One: The Prison Has Been A Well-Known Part of Our Plan

We have been repeatedly told by the Mayor and other town officials that the reliance on a prison as an integral part of our ability to sustain ourselves as an independent municipality has always been A WELL KNOWN part of the plan.

First stop is the Town's website and the description.  The History Page makes no mention of the dependence of our future on a prison.  Given that Vice Mayor Doug McKay has repeatedly admonished us that "we didn't do our homework", we are surprised to find no mention of the corporate partner that will save the town.  Next we went to the Home Page which even describes some of the zoning of the Town.

There is NO mention of a prison.

Looking through various Town budgets which generally contain quite a bit of commentary, we find no mention of a prison and back in 2005 a couple of mentions of "CCA."  (If you didn't know what CCA was you'd breeze right past these mentions in spreadsheets.)  The last budget, 2011,  is quite in depth and worth reading.

That's no surprise as promoting the Town as a haven for prisons and as a place where the majority of nonresidential taxes come from a prison is something to be ashamed of, not something to advertise. And Town officials have been complicit in not advertising this.

Next, look at the Town's official document describing the plans for the Town's growth and development.  This document is called the Town of Southwest Ranches Comprehensive Plan. The document itself states its own purpose and how its basic elements came go be:

The Town's first Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Town Council on May 8,
2003. It is dedicated to developing strategies and policies to ensure preserving,
protecting and enhancing the quality of the Town's Rural Lifestyle.

 and

During the preparation of the Town’s first Comprehensive Plan that began in
Spring 2001, the Town Council endeavored to obtain the maximum opportunity
for the Town’s residents, surrounding communities, applicable regulatory authorities and concerned persons to participate in the Town’s holistic planning
process.

The first paragraph clearly states what we all know about out Town's motto Protecting Our Rural Lifestyle. This official document does try to define the concept of rural in the glossary of definitions:

Rural Character - Means an area that is characterized by natural, agricultural,
equestrian, pastoral or rustic uses.

and

Rural Purposes - Means that land is used as a resource for agricultural,
equestrian, managed forest or mining uses, or maintained in a natural state as
wetlands, fields or forests.

There is no mention of a prison, correctional facility, jail, "processing center" or anything of the sort expressed or implied in their meaning of rural.  Steve Breitkreuz told us at the December 22, 2011 Council Meeting that a prison was part of preserving our rural lifestyle.

A reading of the document only locates two mentions of "prison" as POSSIBLE uses of land within the town.  This comprehensive plan SHOULD contain a description of the prison and how our town is dependent on it.  It doesn't.  It doesn't mention ANY plans for a prison.  Nowhere.  They are lying to us all.
Let's take a look at one of the first public ordinances related to the prison and let's see how much they wanted you all to know about this.  The infamous Sylvan Pass plat was discussed in Ordinance 2001-08.  The only mention of the necessary prison that everybody in the town agreed and banked upon was here:

WHEREAS, a portion of the West Broward Industrial Park Plat has been sold to a third party; and
WHEREAS, Sylvan Pass has not yet been constructed and is requested to be vacated in order to provide a preferred method of access along 202 Avenue; and

And that "third party" might just be CCA.  It is quite clear that this Town, from its inception, has done practically everything in their power to keep the residents in the dark about their plans for a prison.
In the 2011 budget, a great deal was written about a special Town Council workshop discussing the future of the town.  We copy the writeup here which describes the steps that will be taken to brighten the outlook of the Town's future.  Notice that, even though, in the very same month the budget was published and the Council worked on a resolution doubling the size of the facility and increasing bed count by 50% (and never passed a resolution allowing high security lockdown), there is NO mention of a prison.  They are hiding it from us all.

Excerpt From 2011 Budget

In February of this year, our Council took it upon themselves to convene a visioning workshop and prioritize the goals of the Town. Various goals were identified and knowing the importance of these goals to our residents and our Council, we’ve already made substantial progress! Some exciting things to watch for in the coming months include the relocation to a new Town Hall, improved drainage, park development and more road repaving around the Town! Each year Town goals will be incorporated into the budget process to ensure the Town’s money is being spent in a conscientious and effective manner.

Some highlights of our progress:

1. Relocation of the Town Hall.
2. Balance the budget without tax increase or use of reserves.
3. Renegotiate the BSO Fire Contract.
4. Work with South Broward Drainage District, South Florida Water Management District and Department of Agriculture to resolve flooding issues.
5. Projects Funded from External Sources.

The Town was awarded a $50,000 grant from Broward County to remove invasive and exotic species from the Southwest Meadows Sanctuary Park along with replanting native trees. The Town was also awarded a grant from Broward County to build a fitness trail and butterfly garden in the Rolling Oaks Park.

6. Develop a plan and the funding for the resurfacing of the roads.
7. Implementation of Auditor’s Suggestions.
8. Develop a plan to bring to fruition the Public Safety Building.
9. Develop Fishing Hole including a Multi-Purpose Field.
10. Develop a detailed Drainage Plan for the west side of the Town.
11. Repair the Rolling Oaks Barn.
12. Increase Volunteerism.
13. Initiate Studies.
14. New Information Technology (IT) Contract and Website Improvements.

These people have been hiding this from you for years and are lying to your faces when they imply that there has been a ton of publicity on this and that you've all expressed your desire for this henious prison.  The truth is that they never wanted you to know about this and they've used subterfuge for years to bring it along in a stealthy fashion.

Lie Two: Revenue from the Prison Is Integral to Our Survival
Town officials repeatedly tell us we NEED and PLANNED on this revenue stream to support our tenuous bid to obtain a municipal charter from the state.   This lie isn't even supported in their own documents. As we have demonstrated, the comprehensive plan does not contain ANY explicit statements regarding the founding of the town, its fiscal viability, or future plans depend on anything like a prison.

If we review the budgets from the Town's inception in 2000 until now, we find the first mention whatsoever of  CCA is in the 2005 budget.  Note that a PRISON is not mentioned, but CCA is mentioned.  How many people know that CCA is a for profit prison company with a string of human rights abuses? Out of the blue, we are now told that the next 5 years anticipate $4.4 MM in receipts from CCA.  It should go without saying that for all the claims of how necessary this prison is to the viability of the Town, during that 5 year plan very little, if any, of the $4.4MM anticipated from CCA ever hit town coffers.

Based on the planned 5 year revenue stream first discussed in the 2005 one is led to believe by Steve Breitkreuz and the rest of the Council, Vice Mayor and Mayor that it is miraculous that we've survived our Town's incorporation to date without the revenue budgeted in 2005 and that we MUST have this prison now to rectify the situation.

The saving grace that was never counted on, yet had a profound effect on the fiscal underpinning of the Town is that of property values and ad valorem receipts skyrocketing due to the exceptionally strong residential housing market.

The following table shows excerpts from a number of Southwest Ranches budgets.  Click on the year to hyperlink back to the source document.

Budget Year	Assessed Property Value	Ad Valorem Receipts	Promised CCA Revenue	CCA Revenue as % of Ad Valorem
2001		$1,910,317
2002	$609,360,600	$1,828,082
2005	$828,653,484	$2,485,960	$1,000,000	40%
2011	$1,188,648,143	$4,225,184	$450,000	11%

(The $450,000 promised figure from CCA came from their robocall in November.)

As you can clearly see, the Town's property base has nearly doubled, and with the nearly 30% increase in mileage rate seen over the past few years, the Town's ad valorem receipts have more than doubled since the Town was founded.  This was never anticipated and is a windfall for revenue. In fact the increase in ad valorem receipts from 2001 to 2011 is more than $2.3 MM dollars.  This windfall increase overshadows ANYTHING EVER proposed by CCA and the increase certainly TOWERS over the $450K on record as CCA's contribution.

It's almost astonishing, but our property is valued at over $1 billion dollars.  Can you imagine the hit if our property sees the same sort of decline reported in Goodyear Arizona which was 12%?  It's potentially hundereds of millions of dollars and WAY more than the $10MM to $20MM possible over the 20 year contract with CCA.  What are they doing?  Given that Jeff Nelson has recklessly called for more inclusive and harsh disclosure statements by Real Estate companies, we are starting to think that their INTENTION is to decimate property value in the Town.  Why?

Have you ever heard of ANY government at ANY level saying they had enough money?  Well, these hapless souls have received an unreal gift of a huge windfall increase in ad valorem tax receipts since their shaky inception 12 years ago which totally obliterates their undocumented claims that they always planned on prison revenues to maintain our rural lifestyle.  This windfall obliterates the promises of revenue by CCA, yet they pigheadedly push ahead with this immigrant prison. Why?

Town's officials are engaged in BALD FACED lying in order to justify bringing this CCA threat into our community.  At this point, it is the group's firm belief that each and every Town Councilman, Vice Mayor and Mayor are complicit and the underlying motivation for their inconceivable support for this prison is in question and that they all need to be recalled.  Also instigators Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Senator Bill Nelson need to be thrown out of office in November of 2012 as they are up for reelection.