STATE FARM'S HEAD ON A PLATTER
What Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor wanted the Easter Bunny to bring him.
South Mississippi Living 4/07

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Accused firm could settle in Scruggs case




By ANITA LEE

GULFPORT -- Forensic notice of settlement

The Scruggs Katrina Group has settled its differences with an engineering firm accused of criminal activity in handling of Hurricane Katrina claims, according to a notice filed in U.S. District Court.

If the settlement is finalized, Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp. will be dismissed as a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit the Scruggs group filed on behalf of 21 policyholders from Pascagoula to Waveland.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The lawsuit alleges State Farm insurance companies conspired with vendors to minimize or deny policyholder claims by blaming Katrina damage on tidal surge covered by federal flood insurance rather than the wind damage State Farm covers.


State Farm and the vendors, including Forensic and independent adjusting firm E.A. Renfroe & Co., have denied the allegations.

Forensic also is under federal scrutiny. In a policyholder lawsuit filed by the Scruggs group, Forensic was forced to turn over the personal computer hard drive of employee Nellie Williams, who exchanged e-mails with company engineers assigned to State Farm claims.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Jackson subpoenaed the computer hard drive from the Scruggs group, asking that it be delivered to a grand jury in Gulfport. Forensic at first fought the subpoena, which the Scruggs group wanted to give federal prosecutors. The two sides settled their disagreement over the hard drive on Nov. 9, the same day Forensic entered a notice that a settlement was at hand in the racketeering case.

Forensic e-mails previously obtained by the Scruggs group for the racketeering case show State Farm manager Alexis "Lecky" King was unhappy when engineers concluded wind had damaged property, insisting water was the cause. King at first "fired" Forensic, the e-mails indicated, but decided to give the company another chance if two contested reports were reworked.

King has been identified as a "target" of the federal investigation, but her attorney says she has done nothing wrong. In cases where she has been forced to offer pretrial testimony, King has refused to answer many questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

State Farm maintains it was simply seeking "dependable, accurate engineering reports."

Forensic attorney Larry Canada of New Orleans could not be reached to comment.

The racketeering lawsuit filed by the Scruggs group on behalf of policyholders has been assigned to Judge William H. Barbour Jr. in Jackson and has tentatively been set for trial Oct. 20, 2008.

• Federal subpoena for Forensic hard drive

• Forensic, Scruggs joint motion regarding subpoenaed records


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Mother, son struggling to keep roof over heads

Posted on Tue, Nov. 13, 2007
By ANITA LEE
calee@sunherald.com

D'IBERVILLE -- Susan Anderson watched her recovery money dwindle as she tried to keep herself and her son, Tyler, afloat after Hurricane Katrina.

In early 2006, they finally secured a temporary home in a FEMA trailer off Lamey Bridge Road, a few miles from the D'Iberville apartment complex where they had lived before the storm.

Anderson worked the phones, trying to find help. She desperately needed a car. Her son had taken ill after the hurricane and had weekly appointments with two different doctors. A cab ride to one of those appointments was $38.

A FEMA counselor referred Anderson to the Harrison County Long Term Recovery Coalition, whose flier said the agency helped with unmet needs such as housing and vehicles.

She filled out an application with the Harrison County group, but did not hear back. As 2006 wore on, Anderson was running out of options. FEMA had given her $9,000 for furniture, but she and Tyler didn't need furniture for the trailer. FEMA could not give her money for a car because the two she lost in Katrina had been in family members' names.

She finally decided to use the FEMA money as a downpayment on a car. She bought a new Toyota Corolla because she feared a used car might be a flooded Katrina wreck. Her decision to buy a car with the furniture money was a no-no. From that point, relief workers began speaking to her as if she were a thief.

"Why can a mother not get her child medical treatment?" Anderson said recently. "What was I supposed to do? Flap my arms, turn into a bird and fly him to his medical appointments?"

What the various relief workers failed to understand was that Anderson and her son had not been sitting in their trailer, piling up relief loot. They had lost their food stamps because they had a FEMA trailer. Their transportation expenses had skyrocketed. Laundromat washers and dryers ate lots of quarters.

Anderson documented her expenses, including the weekly doctor's appointments.

By March of 2007, apartments had been restored at Arbor View, where the Andersons lived before the storm. She and Tyler moved home, away from the FEMA park where drug addicts loitered and strangers bunked with the neighbors.

Anderson's rent is slightly higher and the apartment smaller than before the storm, but the complex is kid-friendly, secure and well maintained. Anderson has received no FEMA assistance for the move or the rent. FEMA caps individual assistance at $26,200, but Anderson said she has received only about $15,000.

The Salvation Army gave the Andersons vouchers for two mattresses and box springs. Anderson called the Harrison County Long Term Recovery again to see why no caseworker had been in touch and if they could help with furniture. The woman who answered said Anderson could be prosecuted for duplication of benefits.

"She told me I should have saved my FEMA money for furniture," Anderson said.

FEMA refused to acknowledge that her benefits would not be duplicated if an agency helped her. Anderson decided to visit the FEMA office in Biloxi.

"Security is everywhere," Anderson said. "It's locked up tighter than Fort Knox." She said a fellow named Buddy was sent up front to talk to her. Buddy told her to copy her records and resubmit them, including all her rental car receipts. They were duly submitted, but her request for further assistance was denied.

She said Buddy told her: "As far as I can see, you're doing pretty good. You've got a brand new car, you've got a new apartment. It's the end of the line for you, lady."

On Aug. 16, Anderson penned a letter to U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. The letter was 10 pages organized as 17 points. The 11th point: "We have fallen so far behind on just the most basic living expenses, we are going to lose everything."

Point 15, in part: "I have not gotten rich from this situation. We have had to seek assistance for food and to pay electricity over the past several months. I sold my jewelry. It wasn't worth much but had sentimental value to me (I salvaged it from mud and water after Katrina). My son has even sold his video games.

"I've heard words like 'donor intent' from charitable groups. I don't think donors would mind if their donations went toward helping a mother get her child to his doctor. As far as FEMA is concerned, I don't understand why they seem to be enjoying the fact that I will lose everything again. It seems like such a waste of taxpayer dollars because a lot has been spent on housing for us up to this point."

Anderson has received no response.

As for FEMA, the agency could not discuss Anderson's case because of privacy issues. Instead, FEMA released this statement: "Her case is still under review. The review process is still continuing."

Anderson doubts she and Tyler could find a cheaper place to live. Their rent at Arbor View is $835 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.

"I'm not saying I can't pay rent," Anderson said. "Right now, I'm just saying there's not a lot to choose from. I'll never have any money for furniture now."

Besides the beds, they have a couch and love seat loaned to them by a woman from one of the churches. Anderson also bought a washer and dryer. They have no tables. Tyler points to a plastic storage box when asked where he eats.

Still, he is thriving in school and happy to be home. Best of all, he has completed his medical treatments and feels much better, although he is still very anxious.

"I worry that we're not going to be able to live here," said Tyler, who has bright blue eyes. "I want to live here more than anything."

How to help

If you would like to help Susan Anderson and her son, call Mercy Housing and Human Development at 896-1945.


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Toxic gas pervasive in FEMA units, tests show

Nearly all trailers, mobile homes exceed long-term formaldehyde standard

Daisy Carmouche reads the Bible on her couch where she spends most of her time since her medical condition deteriorated after moving into the FEMA-provided mobile home in Picayune, Miss. Sean Gardner / for MSNBC

By Mike Brunker
Projects Team editor
MSNBC
updated 5:07 a.m. CT, Mon., Nov. 12, 2007

More than two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the Mississippi Gulf Coast, private tests of FEMA travel trailers and mobile homes provided to storm victims indicate that high levels of formaldehyde gas in the units is much more widespread than the government has acknowledged.

The previously undisclosed test results from nearly 600 units, reviewed by msnbc.com, found that 95 percent of the temporary housing units provided by FEMA measured at least twice the CDC’s maximum recommended level for long-term exposure to the toxic gas. In some extreme cases, the levels were 70 times the long-term standard.

The tests were conducted by the Sierra Club and a Galveston, Texas, law firm that is involved in federal litigation against the manufacturers of the travel trailers and mobile homes that FEMA distributed.

The federal government promised to test inhabited travel trailers and mobile homes but has not yet followed through.

Many of the trailers and mobile homes have been occupied for two years which makes the high formaldehyde levels a scientific mystery, since those levels typically decline significantly when units are ventilated by residents.

‘I really can't account for it’
“It’s really surprising,” said Mary DeVany, an industrial hygienist whose Vancouver, Wash., firm has conducted more than 100 of the tests. “I really can’t account for it.”

The results for mobile homes are especially puzzling, as the units had been presumed to be safer than travel trailers. Mobile homes, which are mounted on a permanent chassis and contain at least 320 square feet of living space, are intended for long-term occupancy. The level of formaldehyde in building materials used in their manufacture is regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has halted distribution of travel trailers - described as campers no more than 45 feet in length — for temporary housing because of formaldehyde concerns and said it is working to move all 52,520 households currently residing in travel trailers nationwide into permanent housing. It also said it will provide temporary housing to anyone who expresses a desire to move out of travel trailers because of formaldehyde.

But the agency continues to provide mobile homes to disaster victims, including 50 it sent to people left homeless by last month’s wildfires in Southern California, according to FEMA spokeswoman Mary Margaret Walker. The agency also has agreed to donate up to 2,000 unused mobile homes to native American tribes, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., announced in June.

Walker did not respond to queries about the number of people on the Gulf Coast living in FEMA- provided mobile homes, but it is believed to be substantially lower than those in travel trailers.

Formaldehyde, a chemical used in a wide variety of products, is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

An array of ailments
But apart from little-understood long-term health risks, many residents say the gaseous form of the chemical causes immediate ailments, including bloody noses, respiratory distress such as asthma, sinus infections and bronchitis, skin rashes and burning eyes. The gas is emitted by composite wood and plywood panels in the FEMA units.

Joseph Carmouche, 82, and his 75-year-old wife, Daisy, of Picayune, Miss., are among those who wonder if the gas is harming them.

The Carmouches, who lost their home to Hurricane Katrina, have had a rash of health problems since they moved into a FEMA-provided mobile home in December 2005. Joseph Carmouche said his emphysema worsened significantly and he suffered an outbreak of bullous pemphigoid, a chronic autoimmune skin disease. His wife developed asthma severe enough to prompt her general practitioner to refer her to a pulmonologist.

When they had the mobile home tested for formaldehyde in July, more than a year and a half after they moved in, the reading came back at 0.186 parts per million (ppm) or more than 23 times the long-term maximum exposure level of 0.008 recommended by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a unit of the federal Centers for Disease Control.

The couple was in the midst of negotiations with FEMA to buy the mobile home at the time, but they have put any deal on hold until they get answers from the agency.

“We don’t know if we should attribute our health problems to the air quality or not, since we’re not experts,” Joseph Carmouche said. “We’re just curious and concerned.”

Carmouche and thousands of other residents in the temporary housing units continue to wait for the answers that might be provided by government-sanctioned testing.


Testing of occupied units delayed
The EPA, acting at FEMA’s behest, tested 96 unoccupied travel trailers on the Gulf Coast in October 2006, finding formaldehyde levels high enough to “cause acute symptoms in some people.”

But FEMA postponed a planned second round of testing of occupied FEMA travel trailers and mobile homes early this month, saying it needed additional time to decide what level of exposure would be acceptable and what thresholds would trigger specific actions. Walker, the FEMA spokeswoman, told msnbc.com that the postponement of the testing of the occupied trailers was expected to be a short one.

The delay came 3 ½ months after the release at a congressional hearing of internal FEMA e-mail indicating that the agency had suppressed warnings about the health problems associated with formaldehyde exposure and had resisted testing since March 2006, in part because of fears over legal liability.

One June 2006 e-mail stated that FEMA’s Office of General Counsel "has advised that we do not do testing" because this "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." Another agency attorney advised "[d]o not initiate any testing until we give the OK. While I agree we should conduct testing we should not do so until we are fully prepared to respond to the results. Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."

In the absence of government testing, two private entities — the Sierra Club and the Buzbee Law Firm of Galveston, Texas — have stepped in.

“What we’re doing is confirming what our clients have been telling us is true, that they’re sick and the trailers are full of substances that are making them sick,” said Tony Buzbee, whose firm is involved in a federal lawsuit against the travel trailer and mobile home manufacturers filed on behalf of more than 3,200 residents of FEMA-provided housing.

Nine out of 580 meet long-term standard
The law firm alone has tested more than 580 travel trailers and mobile homes provided by FEMA to storm victims in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The results, which have not previously been made public, indicate that the scope of the formaldehyde problem is much broader than FEMA has acknowledged.

DeVany, the industrial hygienist who has conducted many of the tests, said that only 23 of the tested trailers and mobile homes “were at less than twice the acceptable long-term exposure limit” of 0.008 ppm and, of those, only nine were lower than the standard.

The vast majority of the units tested were travel trailers – some of which came back with readings as high as 0.56 ppm, or 70 times the long-term standard. DeVany said that mobile homes, while generally showing lower concentrations of formaldehyde than the travel trailers, also came in well above the threshold, in some cases higher than 0.1 ppm.

She said that suggests that manufacturers didn’t adhere to the HUD standard – 0.2 ppm for plywood and 0.3 ppm for particleboard at the time of manufacture - as they rushed to meet the demand for the units after Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast in August and October 2005, respectively.

“The results are too high to ever have met the HUD standard during manufacturing,” she said. “… We shouldn’t be seeing the levels we’re seeing a year and a half or two years later.”

But Peter Taafe, an attorney with Buzbee's law firm, said he has no firm evidence yet that manufacturers did not use "low-emitting" building materials as they rushed to meet demand.

Jesse Fineran, a former FEMA contractor in Mississippi who said he was fired after repeatedly urging his supervisors to address the formaldehyde problem, told msnbc.com that installation practices and the oppressive heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast also may be contributing to the problem.

‘Don't step there or you'll fall right through’
“These trailers were not designed to be perfectly level ... and when you level them, it breaks all the seams,” he said, referring to the standard practice of placing the travel trailers on blocks. “So water gets into the trailer and into the particle board and the wood and starts to break them down, and then the formaldehyde breaks down into a powder and gets back into the air. That’s why some of the ones that have been lived in have higher reading than the new ones.”

DeVany said she has seen anecdotal evidence to support that theory while making the rounds to place and retrieve formaldehyde test kits.

“In many of these units, the floors are falling apart,” she said. “You go in and the occupants say, ‘Don’t step there or you’ll fall right through.’”

HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley declined to comment on the specifics of the private testing, but said his agency has no reason to believe that the mobile home manufacturers violated the HUD standard.

“We are confident that manufactured homes that are regulated by HUD meet the standards set forth in Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standard,” he said in a written response to questions submitted by msnbc.com. “… These standards were not waived in this instance or in any other.”

Bruce Savage, a spokesman for the Manufactured Housing Institute, which represents the mobile home industry, said the organization could not comment on the test results without additional details on the methodologies used to obtain them.

“Our technical staff still feels that the information provided is too limited and does not provide us with enough context to be able to adequately evaluate and comment on this issue,” he said. “We stand by the statement … that manufactured homes are built in compliance with the HUD code, which sets limits on formaldehyde.”

‘They are intended for long-time use’
Walker, the FEMA spokeswoman, did not respond to a request for comment on the test results. But in reply to an earlier inquiry she said, “In mobile homes, the amount of formaldehyde in the construction supplies is governed by a HUD standard and all the mobile homes meet or exceed that standard. They are intended for long-time use.”

Becky Gillette, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, said FEMA’s response echoes the denials it made when the environmental organization first publicized the formaldehyde problem in travel trailers.

“We notified them of the problem with travel trailers a year ago March and got absolutely no response other than statements that there was no cause for concern,” she said.

The final determination on whether the formaldehyde levels have harmed the trailer and mobile home occupants may be rendered in a federal court in New Orleans, where the consolidated lawsuit against the travel trailer and mobile home manufacturers will be heard starting in January.

Buzbee, the Texas attorney involved in the lawsuit, said he expects the case will be long and complex, and predicted that the defendants will attack the use of the CDC’s standard for long-term exposure to formaldehyde.

“A case like this, that’s going to be one of 50 arguments they’ll make,” he said. “They’ll argue that as government contractors they should be immune. They’ll argue that the testing is faulty. You can only imagine how many defenses they’ll throw up when there are more than 3,000 plaintiffs and the exposure they face could be in the billions of dollars.”

With any resolution of the legal case years away, the Huckabees of Kiln, Miss., and many others in similar situations see no short-term alternative to living in a FEMA mobile home that they believe has made them sick.

‘Formaldehyde free’ home exceeds workplace standard
Lindsay Huckabee, who testified before Congress in July about the health problems she and her husband, Steven, and five children have experienced in two FEMA mobile homes, said the couple was assured by FEMA officials that the second one — the one they still occupy — would be “formaldehyde free.”

But after the family moved in, the new unit tested at 0.108 ppm for formaldehyde, higher than the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s 0.1 ppm standard for one-time workplace exposure. “They basically said ‘this one is lower than the other one, so we’re good, right?’” Huckabee said.

She said that fresh air and the use of two donated air purifiers had eased their symptoms over the summer, but they returned recently when they began using the heat again.

“Everyone’s waking up with sore throats again,” she said. “I’m guessing it’s the ducts heating up the boards and releasing more of the formaldehyde.”

Much scarier are the strange symptoms their youngest son, Michael, who will be 2 in January, has begun exhibiting.

“He was in the hospital three weeks ago because his lips kept turning blue,” Huckabee said. “It only happens for a few seconds at a time, but it’s frequent enough to where it started to scare me a bit. ... His doctor said he’s got something similar to carbon monoxide poisoning. Now we’re trying to figure out if formaldehyde exposure might exhibit similar symptoms.”

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said stories like that make it clear that FEMA must immediately test the occupied travel trailers and mobile homes.

“‘FEMA officials in Washington have repeatedly failed to take the steps needed to protect the thousands of families living in trailers and mobile homes,” he said. “FEMA should start following through on its promise to test the trailers and start making the health and safety of these families a priority.”

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21725858/


© 2007 MSNBC.com

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Monday, November 12, 2007

Smart Growth Is Smart for Post-Katrina Business and Community Development

by Ana Maria

In the immediate wake of Katrina’s complete and utter demolition and devastation of the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast came discussions regarding how to rebuild and what that rebuilding would look like. Discussions surrounding land use issues began to hit the press fairly quickly.

Of course, no one imagined that rebuilding would be thwarted almost entirely through Big Insurance deliberately robbing families and businesses of being able to rely on their homeowner and commercial insurance policies to cover the severe wind damage sustained over the 3-4 hours of hurricane force winds that beat down our properties long before the water arrived.

Nevertheless, out of the woodwork came the usual suspects from developers with profit at any cost to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) prototypes, both of which the local papers were reporting.

At the time this public discourse began, I was sitting quite comfortably in my lovely apartment in the heart of Silicon Valley, Calif., in a complex with “three resort-style pools, unwind[ing] in the fitness center, sauna or one of three spas, or simply stroll[ing] along serene water scapes and lakes.” I like convenience, beauty, and as many comfort creatures as I can afford at any moment in time.

Personally, throughout my time in San Jose, Calif.—the tenth largest city in the nation, I worked side-by-side both community leaders and developers on a number of high profile and controversial projects—projects for which I was helping to make happen and others, well, to derail.

As of late, the development issues making headlines have run the gambit from the appalling and galling to the thank GAWD! One incident in particular is easy to see both the appalling/galling and the thank GAWD sides.

In this incident, “no permits have ever been taken out with the county or city and no site plan review has been approved” wrote the Sun Herald, “unpermitted work that has included digging canals, constructing levees and installing unauthorized water and sewer hookups . . . which apparently includes large parts of nearly 700 acres.” The negative result of this isn’t merely a matter of failing to file the proper paperwork. One man whose “50-acre parcel already is flooding at the slightest rainfall because of the landscape alterations” said "I just broke out in fear when I came back here and saw what they were doing. . . . I'm simply dumbfounded how something like this can happen."

The development is governed by both Hancock County, which has ordered a cease and desist order, and the city of Bay St. Louis, which "voted . . . to have electical power shut off to the Stennis Technology Park office building, and force its tenants to vacate it . . . and has ordered increased patrols in the development area -- and even hired a private detective to monitor the area south of the I-10, Highway 603 interchange, to make sure no unauthorized work continues.

How utterly appalling for the developers to come and act as if that the laws around here do not pertain to them. Callously and cavalierly, the men who own the companies and who are in cahoots in this endeavor have altered the landscape impacting Mother Nature. This environmental change is having a very real, immediately negative, and obviously visible impact on the surrounding neighbors. What gall!

Thank, GAWD, that the county supervisors and city officials are taking sweeping action against them—when they can find the owners who seem to be rather elusive.

On the other hand and on a fundamentally positive note, last week was the one year anniversary for the Silver Slipper casino on the western tip of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The casino has provided many women and men much-needed employment. Employees have told me that the casino provides good benefits—dental, eye, health,which are often non-existent in jobs today, particularly along the post-Katrina Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Slipper, as we locals call it, earned the tourism business of the year for 2007 from the county chamber of commerce.

They hope to begin building a hotel, a larger casino and "just a lot of wonderful amenities" in March 2008 and to open Dec. 31, 2009.

Plans call for an enlarged parking garage, two new restaurants, an entertainment venue for up to 700 people, meeting and banquet space for 500, a world-class spa and a wedding chapel overlooking the water.

Silver Slipper just opened "the only RV park on the beach anywhere on the Coast," [General Manager John] Ferrucci said, and the current 24 spots will expand to 38 by the end of January.

. . . He said Silver Slipper takes care of its staff so they in turn keep the customers happy. Every employee received a bonus the past three consecutive quarters and because housing continues to be a challenge, "Our company is working on building 50 single-family homes," Ferrucci said, and employees will have the first option to purchase them.
To all of this I say, “Halleluiah!” The Gulf Coast needs the business. We need jobs and revenue streaming into this area. The Slipper has been a very good corporate citizen. We need more good corporate citizens just like this. Being in parade country, if the Slipper can lead the parade, let’s have at it.

We also had another piece of remarkable developer news last week.
The developers called it paradise. Environmentalists called it a nightmare. Now, a state appeals court is calling it over.
Just before Katrina hit, the county supes voted to rezone “about 1,000 acres in beach areas, changing zoning from primarily single-family residential to a new designation called resort commercial.

When I first began to become aware of the issues surrounding this controversial development, what struck me most was the fact that neither an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) nor traffic analysis had been conducted. Huh? Maybe I’m just too big city for my roots, but those were two reports that HAD to be conducted first and foremost in San Jose before major zoning changes could begin to be considered.

In one instance, a group of citizens in South San Jose had been searching for land for the city to convert to soccer fields. Land availability is scarce in the nation’s tenth largest city with its recently attained population of one million. The unsafe traffic pattern and the draining of the water resources eventually helped to kill off that multi-year attack to get soccer fields for what would have essentially become the exclusive use for children of wealthier San Jose families. I gave an “amen and thank GAWD” to that conclusion.

In another instance in a wealthier small San Jose suburb, I worked on behalf of a developer to obtain permission for a mixed use development—residential housing and businesses. With the seal of approval from with city council, the senior citizen agency, and Sierra Club, and plenty of community leaders, the development was ready to go . . . except a group of citizens gathered enough votes to put the issue on the ballot—a favorite California tactic from any side of any political fence. They put it on the ballot, and the measure was defeated. Too bad.

With financial troubles well publicized, Hewlett Packard needed to sell off that large barren prime piece of real estate. Besides, like here, the entire region desperately needs more housing—particularly lower income high-density, condo housing (the price tags of which begin at the high end of Mississippi Gulf Coast homes today). In this instance, unfortunately, the NIMBYs—those who say Not In My Back Yard—won.

Who were these NIMBYs? They were folks who had come to the sleepy little suburb some 20 to 30 years ago, bought a home for the going rate and whose homes now have appreciated in value perhaps by 10 times. To put this into perspective, two-bedroom condos in 7-8 story buildings went for $900,000 in 2006.

These were condos. No yard, just condos.

When I asked one of the ladies who opposed this beautiful development, which I was working toward, what was the reason she opposed it, she confirmed her NIMBY status. She said that she didn’t care that there was a severe housing shortage. She got her home, that was all that mattered, and she wanted her town to quit evolving. A certified NIMBY.

Here in Hancock County, I hope that the board of supervisors can see their way clear to adopting smart growth approaches to development. There are plenty of examples of the variety of ways to implement smart growth. Rubber-stamping either reckless developers or NIMBY’s isn’t the way to grow out of our predicament here in the Katrina-ravaged region.

To those developers that say we ought to be glad simply because you are gracing us with your presence, I say, go talk with General Manager John Ferrucci at the Silver Slipper. His business is thriving, the community is happy the Slipper is here, and the company is smart. This place needs plenty of thriving businesses to employ the people who want to live here. It would have been great to have had the option to stick around in the area after I went off and got a few college degrees and a few years of experience elsewhere.

Instead, the sleepy little beach town region didn’t offer that option, and so many of us left.

To those residents in Hancock County and elsewhere along the Mississippi Gulf Coast who want only for the world to return to pre-Katrina days—period, I say “whatever are you thinking?!” To get it to those pre-Katrina days requires an investment of plenty of money. We’re not getting plenty of insurance money that is rightly due. What industries are even remotely interested in this area? What are you doing to entice developers to build, to invest, to create with us?

So much here is now as expensive as it was for me when I was living in one of the most expensive areas of the country. Goodness gracious! Plus, wages for many workers have hardly kept up with the inflation of the cost of living along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even if we ONLY had the ambition of attaining August 2005 living conditions, plenty of financial investment is required.

Where that money comes from will depend on the kind of long range pay off developers will see possible for them. The kind of businesses that come to an area depend on the kind of workforce that can be attracted, which depends on what is offered compared to what is offered elsewhere, and depend on the kind of workforce that is already here. While I love this place, I have no illusion August 2005 is as good as it can get. Paleeze! As a native daughter, I always had far more ambition than to believe that the status quo—where ever it is—would be good enough for all eternity.

I believe in smart growth and have had the privilege of working in San Jose as senior city council staff member as well as assistant policy director with a progressive union think tank to positively impact a planned development called Coyote Valley, which has been years in the making and plenty more to go before businesses and residents actually move there.

Of course, if the area experienced the same devastation we have here, years in the making would not ever be considered a viable option in Silicon Valley . . . and neither is it here. Nimbyism, derelict developers, and smart growth are the paths we can take.

I hope for everyone’s sake that we seize this opportunity to entice great business prospects with appropriate smart growth parameters with an eye on making things significantly better, not merely the same, than pre-Katrina—better from a business AND a quality of life perspective . . . better so that Katrina’s devastation, which remains all around us today, gives way to our dreams of a new, thriving, environmentally sound, AND economically vibrant region of tomorrow and for generations to come. Smart growth is the smart approach for Post-Katrina business and community development. In the meantime, too many families and business owners are hurting. So, let's get to it quickly.


© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Whitewater heads back to Katrina-stricken city

By CARLA MCCANN


WHITEWATER — In Bay St. Louis, Miss., children slowly are healing from the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina that leveled about 80 percent and damaged the remaining 20 percent of their city two years ago.

At least one pastor, the Rev. Mike Cuevas, attributes part of the children’s recovery to the community of Whitewater, which has provided supplies, donations, work crews and a heartfelt offering of friendship to the people of Bay St. Louis along the Gulf of Mexico.

“You have opened the doors of the world” for the children, Cuevas said in an e-mail letter to Whitewater Police Sgt. Michael Ciardo.

“Almost every service is one of thanksgiving for the help that all of you have given and for God guiding you to our community,” Cuevas wrote.

The children couldn’t have had a better geography lesson than to look at a map of the United States to see where all of the help and love has come from, Cuevas said.

Whitewater adopted Bay St. Louis as a sister city in November 2005 after Ciardo, who also is Whitewater’s emergency management coordinator, was assigned there for a month under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

The EMAC is a congressionally ratified organization that provides form and structure to interstate mutual aid.

The southern city was home to historian and author Stephen Ambrose, who grew up in Whitewater. It also was ground zero for hurricane Katrina, Ciardo said.

Whitewater’s commitment to Bay St. Louis has brought in more than $50,000 in donations from business owners and private contributors and more than 2,000 hours of labor to help rebuild, Ciardo said.

“Although work continues in earnest in southern Mississippi, there still remains a need for donated labor and materials,” Ciardo said.

FEMA trailers still dot the landscape, and people have to travel to other cities to buy groceries because Bay St. Louis no longer has a grocery store, Cuevas said.

For Ciardo, being involved in rebuilding the southern city has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life, he said.

That’s why he is leading another organized mission trip to Bay St. Louis on Jan. 2-9.

Ciardo, however, isn’t the only Whitewater resident whose life was touched by the humanitarian need within the Mississippi city.

Last year, for example, a group of about 30 UW-Whitewater Student Optimists and Whitewater community leaders traveled to Bay St. Louis to work in the schools and help rebuild.

“Two of those college students are returning to Bay St. Louis to spend this Thanksgiving with a family they befriended during their initial humanitarian effort in the city,” Ciardo said.

During the past two years, Whitewater also has hosted one of the southern city’s artists and a family of five, allowing them a short break from the reality of their world, Ciardo said.

The visits also helped tighten Whitewater’s bond to its sister city, he said.

“We want to get people involved in helping others,” Ciardo said. “This (Southern city) is our back door. And these people still are struggling with insurance and political issues while they are continuing to rebuild their lives.”

------

TO HELP

For reservations or more information about the upcoming humanitarian mission trip by Whitewater residents to Bay St. Louis, Miss., call Police Sgt. Michael Ciardo at (262) 473-0570 by Tuesday, Nov. 20. Monetary donations can be sent to: “Sister City Project,” City of Whitewater, 312 W. Whitewater St., Whitewater, WI 53190.


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Silver Slipper's golden year

Casino has big plans for guests, workers

By MARY PEREZ
meperez@sunherald.com
November 9, 2007

HANCOCK COUNTY -- The crowd pouring into Silver Slipper Casino on opening day Nov. 9, 2006 was just the start of an amazing first year for General Manager John Ferrucci.

Besides putting 700 people back to work in Hancock County after Hurricane Katrina, a highlight of the first year was "how pleasantly surprised we were by the reaction of our guests," he said, "and the positive comments that continue to this day."

CEO Paul Alanis and the investors took a leap of faith, building Silver Slipper on the Coast after the storm.

"We were the Hancock County tourism business of the year for 2007. Our first year. We were thrilled," Ferrucci said. With that kind of year, "We're just now talking in earnest about our next plans of construction." They hope to begin building a hotel, a larger casino and "just a lot of wonderful amenities" in March 2008 and to open Dec. 31, 2009.


Plans call for an enlarged parking garage, two new restaurants, an entertainment venue for up to 700 people, meeting and banquet space for 500, a world-class spa and a wedding chapel overlooking the water.

Silver Slipper just opened "the only RV park on the beach anywhere on the Coast," Ferrucci said, and the current 24 spots will expand to 38 by the end of January.

"We are the first casino on the Coast since the storm to bring back live keno," he said. The keno parlor will open behind the poker room by Jan. 6, when someone will win the million dollars on display in the Silver Slipper Casino. This isn't just a chance someone could win, he said. "This is absolutely, positively going to happen."

Also around the first of the year, repairing and repaving the roads leading to the casino could begin on both U.S. 90 to the beach and on Beach Boulevard.

Ferrucci said customers keep coming back because they have a good experience, great restaurants and live entertainment at least every weekend. He said Silver Slipper takes care of its staff so they in turn keep the customers happy. Every employee received a bonus the past three consecutive quarters and because housing continues to be a challenge, "Our company is working on building 50 single-family homes," Ferrucci said, and employees will have the first option to purchase them.




Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Clermont Harbor rezoning shot down on appeal

By J.R. WELSH
jrwelsh@sunherald.com
November 8, 2007

HANCOCK COUNTY -- The developers called it paradise. Environmentalists called it a nightmare. Now, a state appeals court is calling it over.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals has overturned a county zoning decision that would have allowed towering condominium buildings to be constructed in the Clermont Harbor area. In calling the zoning move "arbitrary and capricious," the court threw a major roadblock in the path of Paradise Properties.

The issue began in May 2005, when the group sought preferential zoning treatment to allow the development. The Hancock County Board of Supervisors agreed, and rezoned about 1,000 acres in beach areas, changing zoning from primarily single-family residential to a new designation called resort commercial.

The new classification allowed condominium developments to be built with no height or density restrictions. There was talk of building thousands of condos, and one developer claimed units were already being pre-sold. Public meetings were also held to promote incorporating the small area into a separate city, to be called Paradise.

The activity made jaws drop throughout the county and threw environmentalists nearly into apoplexy. The issue wound up in circuit court, where the county's zoning decision was upheld.

A small band of county residents then fought the decision in the court of appeals, with support from Coastal Community Watch, a local citizens' group. Several condominium developers rallied around the county in its defense of the new zoning, said Biloxi lawyer Robert Wiygul, who filed the appeal to fight the change.

Wiygul said the higher court decision, made public Tuesday, should prevent multi-storied condomiuniums from crowding the land and skyline in the Clermont Harbor area.

"They are definitely not going to be able to go forward with these things now," he said.

Lori Gordon, one of the appellants, applauded the appeals court decision, saying, "This whole show was run by developers." She added she hoped the decision will prompt county supervisors "to take more care in dealing with the lives and futures of the people of Hancock County."

Under Mississippi law, a zoning change requires convincing evidence it's necessary because of a change in the character of the affected area. The appeals court ruled the county's finding of change in the area was "sparce and conclusory at best, and nonexistent at worst."

"The way to get rebuilding on track in Hancock County is by listensing to the citizens, not pushing mega-development," said Ellis Anderson of Coastal Community Watch. "The court's ruling gives us another chance to do things right."

It was unclear Wednesday what action, if any, county officials might take. However, supervisors recently made an about-face on another condomiunium development proposed along the Jourdan River in Kiln, and turned it down.


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.


Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Bay 'pulls the plug' on Stennis Tech Park bldg.

Nov 7th, 2007

By Mary G. Seiley
Nov 7, 2007, 10:00


Bay St. Louis City council voted Tuesday night to have electical power shut off to the Stennis Technology Park office building, and force its tenants to vacate it -- today.

The action came at the insistence of Council President James C. Thriffiley III, who said the city cannot allow occupancy of a building without proper water and sewer facilities.

He also urged city Attorney Donald J. Rafferty to file city citations against the building's owners. Rafferty said federal Corps of Engineers officials and the Environmental Protection Agency are threatening 'severe sanctions' against the development's owners.

He also said the city has ordered increased patrols in the development area -- and even hired a private detective to monitor the area south of the I-10, Highway 603 interchange, to make sure no unauthorized work continues.

© Copyright 2007 Bay St. Louis Newspapers, Inc.

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

County tells developer to stop tearing up wetlands

Oct. 03, 2007
By J.R. WELSH
baybureau@aol.com


HANCOCK COUNTY -- County officials are issuing a cease and desist order against a development project below Interstate 10 where they say wetlands are being torn apart by unpermitted work that has included digging canals, constructing levees and installing unauthorized water and sewer hookups.

Hancock supervisors decided to stop work on part of the Stennis Technology Park, stretching south of I-10 nearly to Bayou LaCroix on the western side of Highway 603. Another part of the project on the eastern side of 603 also will be stopped by Bay St. Louis, city officials said. That land is located in the newly annexed area of the city.

"It's just mass confusion," City Attorney Donald Rafferty said of the work, which apparently includes large parts of nearly 700 acres. The Stennis Technology Park project has been planned for several years, but officials say no permits have ever been taken out with the county or city and no site plan review has been approved.

A project representative was verbally directed to stop the work late Monday afternoon, officials said. Still, bulldozers were roaring and work continued on the property when the Sun Herald visited the site Tuesday morning.

County paperwork on a formal cease and desist order is now in the works, and Rafferty said Bay St. Louis will follow suit.

The developers also own a large parcel to the north of I-10 and west of 603 where an office building already has been built. That work was legally completed with the proper permits, County Supervisor Rocky Pullman said Tuesday.

Supervisors decided Monday to stop the work after Chrissy Schuengel, who lives just south of the project on Bayou LaCroix Road, filed a complaint with the board. County Engineer Geoffrey Clemmons also filed a report recommending a work stoppage.

"It looks like a lot of wetlands - not just wetlands by the textbook definition, but sensitive wetlands," Clemmons said.

Stennis Technology Park Inc. and a sister company, Hancock County Land LLC, are registered in Mississippi as out-of-state companies headquartered in Mobile. In 2006, Hancock County Land was granted variances to change the zoning on the property to planned unit development.

The Mississippi Secretary of State's Office lists Mobile businessman Rodney A. Pilot as president of Stennis Technology Park. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Schuengel's father, Lawrence Lang, who lives on Bayou LaCroix Road adjacent to the project, watched bulldozers working on Stennis Technology Park on Tuesday. He said his 50-acre parcel already is flooding at the slightest rainfall because of the landscape alterations.

"I just broke out in fear when I came back here and saw what they were doing," he said. "I'm simply dumbfounded how something like this can happen."

County officials appeared to be equally surprised. "They've dug canals as big as those in Shoreline Park," said Supervisor Steve Seymour, whose District 2 includes the development.

"We need to stop the whole mess from happening right now," County Attorney Ronnie Artigues said.

Pullman said the county also will ask that the state Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers investigate the work to determine any damage to the environment. He and others said it is surprising that such extensive, unauthorized work has proceeded just off a main county thoroughfare.

"At the end of the day, somebody's going to come forward," he said. "And when they do, they're caught."


© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com

Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......

Friday, November 09, 2007

National Implications: The Color of Mississippi Politics

by Ana Maria

What is it about Mississippi that makes its politics so sadly predictable? Yes, of course, color plays a central role in our political landscape. With the regularity that comes in a campaign like the sun rising every morning and night falling upon the earth in the evening, the Republican party roles out its plays and here in the deepest of the Deep South, no crystal ball is needed to know what those plays are or the final outcome, particularly if the Democratic candidate is African American.

But the color that makes a real difference in an election night outcome isn’t necessarily the color that is found on a candidate’s skin. At some levels, campaigns aren’t all that black and white of an issue. Oh, yes, race and gender and sexual orientation can be factors. They are HUGE factors here in Mississippi while not so in my previous state of residence, California.

However, the color that makes a difference here in Mississippi as well as in any electoral campaign across the nation is the color green—and I’m not talking about whether we’re environmentally sane, the color of well manicured grass, or whether envy has overtaken one’s senses. I am talking about the color of money and what that green affords us.

Take this analysis a step further and we uncover a Democratic challenge when it comes to how we tend to think about money—either personally or as a class of individuals who overall feel the delights and pains of life in ways that we believe our Republican counterparts do not because the main organ in that equation appears to be wholly missing from them—their hearts.

Think about it. If Governor Barbour, the Republican Party, and its partners in the insurance industry all of whom operated within a well-refined political organizational apparatus had competed with an equally well-refined Democratic organizational apparatus with our own industry partners and statewide leaders, the outcome of this and any other electoral contest would routinely be different and certainly much less predictable.

When a Republican campaign breaks out its coded advertisements as often happens here in Mississippi as well as plenty of places throughout the nation, can we imagine the difference if these ads or speeches or other tricks were responded to in the same way that Coca-Cola responds to Pepsi increasing its market share? Can we imagine the difference in election night results if any time the Republican Party rolled out one of its routine operational schemes it were to do so in the context of the Democratic Party already preemptively thwarting the historic effectiveness of those tactics?

Well, if those of us on this side of the political aisle imagine these things THEN we can go in the direction of those dreams to make them reality. I can already here the grumblings from both sides. The Dems will mumble something about not having money to do this. Republicans will talk among themselves about their perception that Dems don’t have the discipline to make up their minds and we have an aversion to money. All the answers, of course, have merit.

We will have money when we put our mind to raising it remaining focused on raising it until it is seared into our brains with new synapses affirming the naturalness with which we automatically bring into our side of the political equation plenty of financial prosperity and abundance to fund the campaigns to win at the ballot box which is the precursor to winning the votes to pass great legislation, confirm stellar judges, and appoint expert managers to head one or another government agency.

The old adage is so accurate: if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right. It’s perfectly fine for my side of the political fence to complain bitterly about Barbour’s money and organization as long as that propels conversation about what Repubs do well that we should also adopt. Let’s go back to the Coke and Pepsi comparison. In the early 70’s, Coca-Cola launched it extremely successful ad campaign with the famous lyrics “I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” This proved to be one of the most successful campaign ads the Coca Cola company ever ran.


Some ten years later, Pepsi scored big with signing on the ever-popular Michael Jackson for its commercials. Rather than just being content to launch one very popular commercial, Pepsi signed up as a major sponsor for Jackson’s tours, which proved to be an incredible investment.

And so the competition for market share goes between companies. Politics is an industry. Adopting some baseline business perspectives would do our Democratic Party quite well.

In this regard, the Democratic base would do well to think of our party, itself, as a business. Every business needs to raise capital to buy real estate, construct office space, acquire new businesses, provide good compensation packages through which to hire, train, and retain great personnel, and develop marketing strategies to retain the current customer base while implementing new strategies to capture new customers and turn them into routine customer base. Thriving businesses think like this, act in accordance with their thinking, and their results speak for themselves.

Yes, yes, yes. I can hear my side already. But what about businesses like Halliburton and Black Water? We’re to emulate those?

Oh good grief! Why not think of Ben and Jerry’s?!

Look, whether the business is a thriving local merchant that provides the best donuts around or a major multi-national corporation, basic principles apply. Most basic to them both is the simple fact that capital is the oxygen for their operations be it the most delectable donuts ever placed in our mouths or rotten food served up to our brave soldiers in Iraq.

We HAVE to think of our politics in an organized business-like fashion so that we can compete successfully in electoral campaigns anywhere in the country and come out victoriously with election day outcomes.

We have great values—just like many businesses. We have great products in terms of the public policies we seek to implement.

  • Democrats want public schools that are great places to educate ALL of our children—and not just the elite. We want our public schools to be a wonderful place that teachers want to work.
  • Democrats want a clean environment that sane public policies can create because we want EVERYONE—and not just the elite—to enjoy the beauty of this gorgeous planet and EVERYONE to breathe clean air, drink pure water, and eat healthy food grown from Mother Nature’s belly.
  • Democrats want EVERYONE—and not just the elite—to work inside thriving businesses where workers and owners are excited to be there and take pride in the services and goods offered so that we develop ever-evolving communities where children are raised in safe, loving, vibrant environments, where we grow into young and middle aged adults with a stable and ever-expanding economic opportunities that afford us the financial resources to provide for ourselves and our families, and where we grow old gracefully with plenty of resources to maintain our health and enjoy life to its fullest.
Democrats want these things for EVERYONE, not just the elite. To do so requires that we think of our politics in terms of our values and positions AND in terms of having the organization and infrastructure through which we can more easily and routinely dominate the political market, if you will.

We focus our attention on having a great candidate, and having great candidates is important to us. But it is like a business focusing on its sales people only as if they operate outside of an having an accounting and finance department to bring in the money owed, pay the bills, and project future cash flow with one or another business development model. Or outside of a marketing team to position the company in a way that opens doors easily to the sales people. Businesses have to have the less than glamorous nuts and bolts so that their company can shine above the competition.

The same is true in politics.

Besides, it’s so obvious that lesser candidates get into office. The Mississippi Insurance Commissioner race is a prime example. If Mike Chaney had to campaign inside a party structure on par with the Democratic Party, I don’t think he would have come out ahead.

But Chaney did compete with the backing of a party structure that has invested plenty of money in knowing who will come out to vote and what the party must do to inspire their loyal voters to cast their ballots come election time. And the party did it. Hardly rocket science, but it has eluded too many inside of my own party.

To return to the Coke-Pepsi analogy, Pepsi didn’t just complain that Coke had had a stroke of genius with its "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" campaign. Pepsi took what it could from its competitor then bested Coke in the signing up Michael Jackson whose stardom had reached legendary proportions at that time. Brilliant marketing and business development!

The day that plenty more members of my beloved Democratic Party think strategically about how to position ourselves collectively so that we compete on an equal footing as our political counterparts, the day we start saying to ourselves and each other that we’ll raise the money, that we CAN raise the money, that we have plenty of deep pocketed supporters as well as everyday smaller donors who we can develop into regular investors, and when the Democratic Party commits in heart, mind, and soul to invest in baseline infrastructure rather than ONLY in this, that, or the other candidate--looking for the savior syndrom, THEN we’ll be able to meet the racially-tinged messaging and other dirty political tricks and meet them with our own political machine to produce election day results that can tell a different tale about election day results.

The Republicans have their racial bias that often comes out in their campaigns. We can count on it just as we can count on the sun rising every morning. But infusing meaning into the outcome of those elections as if it were a forgone conclusion forever written in concrete is erroneous until the day that those racially tinged campaigns are met with an equally well-oiled Democratic political machine who institutes tactics and strategies ahead of time so that those tactics begin to lose their potency.

Until then, the Repubs will continue their ways because their success depends on the status quo from my party, a status quo that says defeat is inevitable. Well, triumph will be inevitable when we say it is and act upon what we tell ourselves and each other. We must say things differently to ourselves and each other. Then, we must act differently to bring different results. We have to feel things are possible and see things as possible, then we must go out and be open to the myriad of ways that will make things different. Besides, none of this is rocket science. We just have to do the baseline things so we can begin to see an improvement in the results we are getting.

That is how we give real competition to the racially-tinged and coded campaigns of our competitors and test the true strength of their tactics here in Mississippi and elsewhere throughout the nation.

The question of how to elect a well-educated, articulate, polished, eloquent, and experienced hometown Mississippi African-American Democratic man to a statewide office for which he is the most qualified candidate rests with developing a well-organized, well-funded political apparatus dominated with folks who have not only the desire to win but who have the determination to think like winners do—as if the end result of triumph is our natural destiny.

It begins with changing how we think and how we act based on our thinking. This is a key element, and it is within our grasp. Grab it.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
Return to A.M. in the Morning! Home

Read More......