2/12/8 MANGROVE MAMMA
(email exchanges excerpts)

1. George Neugent to Sloan Bashinsky
Sorry I missed the Coleman Show? Not really. You've known me for quite awhile now Sloan and I would think at least long enough to question anyone who would say I didn't return phone calls or hid in my office to be a blatant liar.

I'll discuss, with Coleman and his lying buddy Sandra Downs, who I don't know, about her mangrove problem (and if she had a mangrove problem, why didn't she take her mangrove problem to people who deal with mangroves) and I would only add that she shouldn't be running for the highest law enforcement position if she doesn't even know where to bring her mangrove problems. Has she not heard of the Department of Environmental Protection?

2.  Excerpt from George Neugent's letter to Sloan Bashinsky
"Sorry I missed the Coleman Show? not really. You've known me for quite awhile now Sloan and I would think at least long enough to question anyone who would say I didn't return phone calls or hid in my office to be a blatant liar." (referring to Sandra Downs)

3.  Sandra's Response to above content of George Neugent's letter
I live in George Neugent's district. I was naive. I thought he was really going to be interested in documents spelling out corruption. I didn't realize when I went to him that some of the people involved, the Goodman's, were not only his friends, but were chair of the Republican party of which he is a member and he was up for reelection.

In late 2005 and early 2006, I began phoning George Neugent's office regularly, desperately trying to get a meeting with him.

Despite my determined efforts, his assistant consistently said he was unavailable and refused to set a time for me to meet with him. Over and over, I listed my concerns and asked for a response. I had issues with color of law abuses, nepotism violations, environmental destruction and wanted a CRB over the Sheriff's Office. I also was concerned about an alliance between David Horan and Mike Rice which might have involved coercion of deputies to perform "tasks" against citizens whom David Horan targeted.

After trying diligently to personally meet with Mr. Neugent and his failure to even phone me, I decided to write him a letter. I put all of the above concerns in writing and faxed it to him on February 21, 2006 at 3:00 p.m. It would not have been an easy letter to ignore!

This letter included my name, address, and phone number. I still received no response.

I then made a surprise visit to his office. I took another copy of my letter. His assistant smugly stated that Mr. Neugent had received all of my phone messages and my letter. She was clearly agitated that I had come unannounced. Mr. Neugent was at the office but would not see me. Clearly Mr. Neugent was made aware of my repeated efforts to contact him, yet he was unyielding in his determination to "hide".

George Neugent did not respond in any way to my concerns, nor did he forward them to anyone else for review to my knowledge.

5.  Excerpt from George Neugent's letter to Sloan Bashinsky
"I'll discuss, with Coleman and his lying buddy Sandra Downs, who I don't know".

6.  Sandra's Response
I do not know Jerry Coleman personally and have only been an outspoken adversary of his at meetings, both Planning and Commission, which is documented on tape. I agreed to be on his show to promote my candidacy.

And no, Mr. Neugent you do not know me, but that was always your choice. You did not want to know me, and I suppose you hoped I would just go away.

7.  Excerpt from George's letter
"about her mangrove problem (and if she had a mangrove problem, why didn't she take her mangrove problem to people who deal with mangroves)"

8.  Sandra's Response
"Her mangrove problem"? Sorry George, this is not my mangrove problem. It happened in your district and it was your mangrove problem. This dealt with the chair of your party (Carey Goodman) and her family. They cut down 7200 sq. ft of mangroves on a state island to improve their view. You enjoyed this view. The pictures on the Republican website show you there at the house at a Fish Fry with them.

This property they destroyed belongs to every citizen of this state.

It wasn't the Goodman's to destroy. DEP had given a permit to trim only a fraction of it, and to a height no less than 8 ft. This was not enough for the Goodman's. They trimmed 7200 sq. ft and killed the interior. It seems the permit DEP had given them was illegal to begin with, so DEP tried to cover it up when their violations became apparent.

You, George, could have enforced the laws as a commissioner under your Beach and Shore Preservation Authority Article II Div. 1 Section 4-17, 4-18(d)(e). But you wouldn't even acknowledge my complaint. You had authority and also an obligation to respond to the massacre of our environment. I went to you first because this was your district it happened in.

Then I went to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Later I went to Dixie Spehar. And then Ileana Ros-Lehtinen responded and in a letter dated October 27th, 2006 she charged Mayor McCoy and the Monroe County Government with "dealing with this issue, because it falls under your jurisdiction". She also forwarded pertinent information. You all did nothing. You did not even acknowledge our Congresswoman. I contacted the Senators, every one of them in the State of Florida. It is now a fact that DEP was issuing illegal permits (to wealthy and politically connected persons including your friends who finance your campaign), and DEP has now conceded that.

The Joint Administrative Procedures Committee (which consists of 5 Senators) just got done with the case. DEP promises to never do it again. It again took Tallahassee to manage our problems because our county government failed to do their job again.

9.  Excerpt from Georges letter
"and I would only add that she shouldn't be running for the highest law enforcement position if she doesn't even know where to bring her mangrove problems. Has she not heard of the Department of Environmental Protection?"

10.  Sandra's Response
You have to be very creative to fight against public corruption. When you go to the property authority, and they refuse to perform their job, then you have to look outside the box. Every entity I contacted with this issue, I also presented them with the statutes that allowed their involvement and their ability to enforce. I did this with the commissioners and every agency I contacted thereafter. I went to the local DEP first of course, then the Regional DEP, then to all the Senators of the State. One demanded an investigation. Then the Inspector General, then the Senate Committee on Environmental Protection, etc., etc.

I consulted with numerous Environmental Attorneys, Last Stand, the worldwide Mangrove Action Project, Professors from Universities, the South Florida Water Management district, Fish and Wildlife, Larcenia Bullard, Ron Saunders, Governor Bush, NOAA, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and our dear Commissioners. I've left out numerous others, but you get the point.

DEP was granting illegal permits. Thousands of these permits were issued at the expense of every citizen in this state to benefit a select few. It was not easy to uncover this, every attempt was made to bury the facts, and the retaliation was fierce to me and my family for demanding the laws be enforced that protect mangroves.

Our efforts saved 1000s of acres of state owned mangroves from destruction. Why this effort on my part? Because we've lost 80% of the mangroves in Florida and we CANNOT survive without them. My eldest son is a scientist, my middle son a fisherman, and my husband is an arborist. You cannot imagine how vital the mangroves are! We cannot afford to lose anymore.

DEP cannot issue any more of these permits. DEP has been investigated by a Senate Committee and DEP found themselves in trouble. However the permits that were previously issued have not been revoked and DEP is reluctant to revoke them. Only powerful and connected persons ever received them. What would these powerful people do if someone said "No" to them?

The campaigns of the Republicans are financed by the Goodman's.

They were investigated for violations to the mangroves. The DEP found them guilty. The Goodman family told DEP that they wanted to continue cutting mangroves on our lands, and informed DEP that they did not want fines. DEP said they needed to appear to be consistent with fines given others for the same. But the Goodman's said they wanted to be fined $0.00, and would not accept anything else. So DEP fined them $0.00 in an order pretty much drawn up by the Goodman's themselves.

And to top it all off, they are still allowing the Goodman's to cut our 7200 sq ft of mangroves on an offshore island without a professional mangrove trimmer and after they violated and destroyed thousands of sq ft of mangroves in so doing previously. The fines could have totaled $500,000.00. Is this consistent with what the City of Key West was fined for removing mangroves to clear a flooding problem?

Thanks to you, County Commissioners, for doing nothing. I care about our mangrove laws, our civil rights laws, our ethics laws, our Sunshine laws, etc. A lot of effort and thought went into them. Evidently they were necessary or they wouldn't have been conceived. I respect the intent for which they were enacted. I believe in this country and our rights for all, not just bubbas.

Dear Commissioners, I did your job. You deserve to be impeached, all of you except Sylvia Murphy. Our laws mean nothing if no one will enforce them.

In an effort to assure Commissioner Neugent that I was not a liar, and he was in fact notified as I had claimed; I faxed him the documents which proved that. He claims now he recalls them and said he had forwarded them to DEP. Thus far DEP has not provided proof that George Neugent did that. In an e-mail exchange with Sloan Bashinsky, George Neugent challenged me to provide relevant information for his review.

I suggest you go to my web-site, check your facts, and disclose where you got your bad information about my family being in the business of burning houses.  You state it's proven. You can and will be held liable for what you say. Yahoo will have to disclose your identity if I sue you.

Yes I expect to be trusted with high risk employees and big budgets because I am neither, a thief nor a liar. I also am running for a position I know a great deal about.  Knowledge is not measured in degrees, my friend, as is evident in the amount of lawsuits against those with degrees.  May I remind you that Former Sheriff Freeman, highly respected and holding the office of Sheriff numerous times in Monroe County neither had experience nor degrees in law enforcement.  Gov. Schwarzenegger had no experience in politics, running a state nor in the law officers he controls as Governor. He was recently voted #1 in the country. Neither did the revered Ronald Reagan have experience. Sometimes no experience is better than bad experience as is evident with Fidel Castro.  Is this the type of experience you demand?