SHAMEFUL PEOPLE

When a disheveled looking Cape Coral lawyer shows up on your doorstep, Sierra Club membership card in hand, don’t you wonder why he’s here – and, more importantly, how he came to be hired here?

Brookes, who was misidentified by The Record as “Ralph Brooks” in an April 22, 2009 article by Peter Guinta, shows up at a county commission meeting representing “South Anastasia Community Association” in opposition of a commercial construction project just off Interstate 95 that would bring 450 permanent jobs to the economically depressed southwest quadrant of St. Johns County.

After receiving approval from Planning and Zoning, this “shovel ready” project is stalled. The Southwest Commerce Park project would employ construction workers to build its 460,000 square feet of light industrial and warehouse space, create new employment opportunities after the 83 acre project is built and has been backed by a $100 million investment from its owner.

The reason we find ourselves looking to cut essential government services to balance our county budget is that we don’t have the money to pay for them. The reason we don’t is the fact that St. Johns County has such a poor reputation for not being business friendly.

Of course Brookes has no investment here.

At that meeting, Commissioner Mark Miner said, “We need more businesses here. I have no problem with this project at all. I don’t see how this is going to destroy the environment.”

But that didn’t stop Brookes’ fellow Siera Clubber Bill Hamilton from shamefully spinning the tale of an environmental holocaust if construction of this project is moved forward.

The owner was granted a deferment until October for a decision on his application; a deferment that was granted over the objection of one, lone county commissioner – Joseph “Ken” Bryan.

Most recently, Brookes has not only appeared before the St. Augustine city commission – he has filed an unexpected motion to intervene in the negotiations to put an end to the $9 million lawsuit hanging over the heads of city taxpayers.

Who is out-of-town lawyer Brookes representing in that case? Why, none other that sitting County Commissioner Joseph “Ken” Bryan and his Sierra Club associate, Bill Hamilton.

Is Bryan using his position to advance The Sierra Club agenda? Has he compromised his position on the Board of Commissioners; offering his vote in exchange for promoting his own political career by supporting the anti-business, anti-employment organization who wraps every healthy, quality of life issue in a shroud of imagined environmental consequences?

Has Brookes become the new mouthpiece of the wealthy and privileged hypocrites who use every luxury for themselves — luxuries that they would deny to others in the future?

What’s wrong, Mr. Brookes? Not enough ambulances to chase in Cape Coral? Absolutely shameful.