Dr. Steve Rosen's Story and Florida Hometown Democracy - Part I

Comment Up

Over the next several Sundays, we will be printing Dr. Steve Rosen’s story and why he became involved in Florida Hometown Democracy. Steve is one of the biggest supporters of Florida Hometown Democracy, not only philosophically, but financially.

Steve Rosen is a native Floridian, 58 years old, who attended the University of Miami and Florida International University. He graduated from FIU in 1973. He graduated from Emory University School of Dentistry in 1977 and practiced dentistry for 17 years.

In 1985 he invented a skin care product that clears ingrown hairs and razor bumps. He says, "It took nine years to traverse the learning curve." He never borrowed money for the business and paid off a ton of debt from his dental practice and school loans and now says, “I am fortunate to be able to be a part of Florida Hometown Democracy.”

The gopher tortoise digs and lives in burrows

FLORIDA HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY
By Dr. Steve Rosen

PART I--WHY I GOT INVOLVED

Mainstream media and opponents of Florida Hometown Democracy are refusing to cover my participation in this project. They have harped on another business owner from south Florida because he is a strip club owner thinking to discredit the effort on that basis. This is a typical attack fronted by opponents who have no substantive argument against passage of FHD other than it hurts their personal pocketbooks. They know it and we know it. None of them have the guts to face Lesley Blackner in a debate. Instead they pay some two-bit hired mouth to parrot their points so they themselves can avoid her. They are afraid to the bone of Lesley Blackner. This is a good thing.

I am the animal activist in the core FHD group. My participation stems from frustration based on the following account which the Florida Sun Sentinel refused to cover even after I personally handed a stack of documents to Dave Fleshler, a reporter who covers environmental issues. To this date Fleshler denies my claim that his bosses carefully screen stories so as not to annoy their benefactors, powers that be or whomever they answer to. Here is my account.

In 1991, and what is now the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, all gubernatorial appointees and all earning their income from the development industry, decided to help their fellow developers save time and money. They issued a dictum stating that no longer would developers have to painstakingly dig up Florida Gopher Tortoises from their six foot deep and up to thirty foot long tunnels so that land development would not kill these animals and the 200 plus other species that inhabit these tunnels. One such inhabitant is the East Indigo Snake which is protected under the Endangered Species Act, a law despised by the Commission and their ilk. They had to keep the Ponzi development scheme going no matter the cost.

After endless whining by developers, the Commission said “no problem”. Starting in 1991 developers were allowed to cough up some money to purchase ITP’s or “Incidental Take Permits.” As you will see the word “incidental’ should be changed to “Massive” take permit because that is exactly what happened.

The fees paid were “supposedly” to permit state officials to purchase other tortoise habitat for “mitigation” purposes, i.e. preserving other habitat to replace habitat lost to the bulldozer.

From 1991 until 2007 when the Commission finally ended the practice, developers literally buried alive over 90,000 gopher tortoises plus whatever else was inhabiting the tunnels at the time including Federally protected East Indigo Snakes which by law, the Florida Wildlife Commission cannot interfere with.

I learned about this mass killing in 2005 and immediately filed suit against the Fla. Fish and Wildlife “Con”mission. They immediately filed a Motion To Dismiss.

Next Sunday, Part II of Dr. Rosen's story.