Handwringing and inaction

Walton officials, residents want faster oil cleanup (PHOTO GALLERY) | want, oil, cleanup - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Commissioner Sara Comander said she has witnessed the slow pace.
?We have folks trained and ready to go, so why aren?t they being used?? she said. ?This is a problem that needs to be solved.?

After 65 days this is the leadership we get? A leader would MAKE SURE the people trained are being used. A leader would have already arrived at a solution rather than sit around and look for someone else to solve the problem. Sara Commander is Walton County's Nero fiddling while our beaches are ruined.

Thank God our Sheriff seems to be cut from a different cloth.

The Sheriff is indeed doing a great job...and is working hand in glove with the County Commission, who to date is paying the bills. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures standing in the way of moving forward and just cleaning up the mess. It's a complex mess that by and large local government doesn't have any real control over without jeopardizing BP reimbursement...and those procedures are still being worked out at the state level. Your local leaders -- Sheriff, individual Commissioners, and the County Commission as a whole are advocating as strongly as they can (and doing the job) for more local control over this process. We're spending reserves right now, anticipating BP reimbursement...but it hasn't happened yet. If we have a hurricane on top of the oil spill, all bets are off. Let's not be too quick to throw stones at any of our Commissioners on this, unless you stand ready to help pay the bills for cleanup through higher taxes.

The Sheriff is indeed doing a great job...and is working hand in glove with the County Commission, who to date is paying the bills. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures standing in the way of moving forward and just cleaning up the mess. It's a complex mess that by and large local government doesn't have any real control over without jeopardizing BP reimbursement...and those procedures are still being worked out at the state level. Your local leaders -- Sheriff, individual Commissioners, and the County Commission as a whole are advocating as strongly as they can (and doing the job) for more local control over this process. We're spending reserves right now, anticipating BP reimbursement...but it hasn't happened yet. If we have a hurricane on top of the oil spill, all bets are off. Let's not be too quick to throw stones at any of our Commissioners on this, unless you stand ready to help pay the bills for cleanup through higher taxes.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

OK, I had a nice reponse formulated, but I timed out on SoWal before I could hit "Submit Reply" (Help us out here Kurt). I'll recreate it on Word and copy and paste to beat the time monster.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

Your response to a thoughtful, concise and correct reply to you leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least. If you are so uninformed as to think the present situation and that of our estemed federal government won't eventually cause a tax increase, I feel for you.
As far as Sara Comander is concerned, she is by far the most resourceful and forward thinking Commissioner we have. Its too bad some, don't have the common sense approach to problems she does.
As far as clean up is concerned, I was on BMB this morning. While I realize there is oil and tar balls at various places on the beach, it is not here and you can't clean it up if its not here. That make sense, doesn't it? When we have an oil situation, I'll be the first to call 267-2000.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

If the county removes the burden from BP for cleanup, where do you think the money should come from to pay for it? Higher taxes have been fought for two years now by various county boards. The school budget looks dismal from my understanding and with the real-estate market hurting budgets the last few years, assuming this debt could be a disaster for the county, IMHO. I don't know where the funds are going to come from if the county assumes all liability for it.
Does anyone have an idea or information?

OK, I had a nice reponse formulated, but I timed out on SoWal before I could hit "Submit Reply" (Help us out here Kurt). I'll recreate it on Word and copy and paste to beat the time monster.

You're learning!

If you type more than a sentence, form habit of ctrl-a, ctr-c before hitting submit. This puts your text in your clipboard so you can resubmit if needed.

One good thing about firefox is if your reply hits the ether and then you hit your back button it usually retains your text.

Are our local leaders responsible for the clean up or do they just want our votes

Walton officials, residents want faster oil cleanup (PHOTO GALLERY) | want, oil, cleanup - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Commissioner Sara Comander said she has witnessed the slow pace.
?We have folks trained and ready to go, so why aren?t they being used?? she said. ?This is a problem that needs to be solved.?

After 65 days this is the leadership we get? A leader would MAKE SURE the people trained are being used. A leader would have already arrived at a solution rather than sit around and look for someone else to solve the problem. Sara Commander is Walton County's Nero fiddling while our beaches are ruined.

Thank God our Sheriff seems to be cut from a different cloth.

Ro quit that.;-)

They are all the same

You're learning!

If you type more than a sentence, form habit of ctrl-a, ctr-c before hitting submit. This puts your text in your clipboard so you can resubmit if needed.

One good thing about firefox is if your reply hits the ether and then you hit your back button it usually retains your text.

Thanks Kurt! Guess I need to check out Firefox as well. I'm still using IE8 as my browser. I'll get with you separately to discuss.

Boy it did not take long to threaten us with higher taxes did it? That is a typical government response, if you criticize us we'll just raise your taxes for you. But I remember hundreds of people taking their time to go to the training to clean up and then nothing. And now Commander wants to grandstand and talk about someone solving this problem. That is what we elected her for. She's only had 2+ months.

CJ, I?m not trying to threaten you on this; merely trying to explain the realities of the situation.

As you may already know, the Walton County Board of Commissioners has delegated Emergency Management responsibilities to the Sheriff ? which is why you see him out front in this situation. You?ll see more of him if we have to deal with a hurricane this year. The County Commission still retains the ultimate responsibility for providing Emergency Management for its citizens under Florida law, as well as the responsibility for paying for it all through the revenues available to the county from property taxes and other revenue streams. In the present instance, one of the potential revenue streams, and one we?re counting greatly on, is BP reimbursement under the federal Oil Spill Protection Act of 1990 for the county?s expenses in cleaning up their mess.

Our local folks are not driving the train on the oil spill recovery?yet. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures that are driving this at the present time ? all with the hammer of being reimbursed or not by BP if we don?t do it their way.

I spent two hours yesterday afternoon taking notes at a meeting at the Emerald Coast Conference Center (the palm forest on Okaloosa Island) in a meeting with Florida DEP Secretary Mike Sole, CAPT Poulin from the Mobile Coast Guard District (and his henchpeople); 2 BP representatives (one a Vice President ? of what, I don?t know); a lady from the US. Department of Homeland Security (Deputy Assistant Undersecretary, etc. etc.) and County Commissioners. County Administrators, and Emergency Management Directors from nine coastal counties across Northwest Florida ? from Escambia to Franklin County.

Walton County was well represented by Sheriff Adkinson, County Commissioner Larry Jones, our County Administrator Lyle Seigler, Dawn Moliterno from our TDC, Mike Barker, our Sheriff?s Emergency Management Director, and Chief Rick Talbert from South Walton Fire District. Walton County was better represented than any other county in terms of number of people there from my count ? and Walton County was heard loud and clear along with all the others.

Topics of discussion at the meeting were the clean up response as it pertained to each county; then procedures for BP reimbursement to counties for expenses incurred to date (which has changed 6 times since this all started) and ongoing expenses. Since the local media is pretty well awash in coverage of this meeting I won?t go into the details of the discussion. Suffice it to say, nothing was settled at meeting?s end and nobody got a check in hand from BP, but everybody above the county level of government got an earful from the rest of the folks around the table.

Yes, there were many volunteers who came forward and devoted their time to the training for oil clean-up. This is admirable. We even had inmates at the county jail volunteer to receive the training in the event they might be needed. But the reality is that the federal government?s and the state?s position on this is that BP employees should clean up the oil ? not local volunteers. JobsPlus (a state agency) had jobs available with BP contractors for 200 people (with Walton County residency a requirement) ? at $18/hr no less. Sheriff Adkinson (with the concurrence of the County Commission) has made it clear to the state and the feds that if BP doesn?t respond in a reasonable time to oil on our beaches that we will ? with volunteers, county inmates, and county public works resources.

This is a disaster that affects us all here in Walton County ? whether you rely on the beaches for your living, or you?re a local who enjoys going to the beach, or a taxpayer who for the past few years has seen our county grow and build infrastructure from the benefits of the high tax base along our beaches.

We are all in this together, and it is not a time for politics and throwing bricks at our local government officials. Your local government officials are doing everything they can to protect our interests and get our beaches cleaned up if they get oil ? and keep the oil from hitting our beaches if they can. The obstacles to success in this are all external ? BP, the state, and the federal government. We don?t need to make the job harder by attacking folks within the county. I respectfully submit to you that the team we have in place now is working together and doing everything they can to minimize the affects of this disaster on us.

CJ, I?m not trying to threaten you on this; merely trying to explain the realities of the situation.

As you may already know, the Walton County Board of Commissioners has delegated Emergency Management responsibilities to the Sheriff ? which is why you see him out front in this situation. You?ll see more of him if we have to deal with a hurricane this year. The County Commission still retains the ultimate responsibility for providing Emergency Management for its citizens under Florida law, as well as the responsibility for paying for it all through the revenues available to the county from property taxes and other revenue streams. In the present instance, one of the potential revenue streams, and one we?re counting greatly on, is BP reimbursement under the federal Oil Spill Protection Act of 1990 for the county?s expenses in cleaning up their mess.

Our local folks are not driving the train on the oil spill recovery?yet. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures that are driving this at the present time ? all with the hammer of being reimbursed or not by BP if we don?t do it their way.

I spent two hours yesterday afternoon taking notes at a meeting at the Emerald Coast Conference Center (the palm forest on Okaloosa Island) in a meeting with Florida DEP Secretary Mike Sole, CAPT Poulin from the Mobile Coast Guard District (and his henchpeople); 2 BP representatives (one a Vice President ? of what, I don?t know); a lady from the US. Department of Homeland Security (Deputy Assistant Undersecretary, etc. etc.) and County Commissioners. County Administrators, and Emergency Management Directors from nine coastal counties across Northwest Florida ? from Escambia to Franklin County.

Walton County was well represented by Sheriff Adkinson, County Commissioner Larry Jones, our County Administrator Lyle Seigler, Dawn Moliterno from our TDC, Mike Barker, our Sheriff?s Emergency Management Director, and Chief Rick Talbert from South Walton Fire District. Walton County was better represented than any other county in terms of number of people there from my count ? and Walton County was heard loud and clear along with all the others.

Topics of discussion at the meeting were the clean up response as it pertained to each county; then procedures for BP reimbursement to counties for expenses incurred to date (which has changed 6 times since this all started) and ongoing expenses. Since the local media is pretty well awash in coverage of this meeting I won?t go into the details of the discussion. Suffice it to say, nothing was settled at meeting?s end and nobody got a check in hand from BP, but everybody above the county level of government got an earful from the rest of the folks around the table.

Yes, there were many volunteers who came forward and devoted their time to the training for oil clean-up. This is admirable. We even had inmates at the county jail volunteer to receive the training in the event they might be needed. But the reality is that the federal government?s and the state?s position on this is that BP employees should clean up the oil ? not local volunteers. JobsPlus (a state agency) had jobs available with BP contractors for 200 people (with Walton County residency a requirement) ? at $18/hr no less. Sheriff Adkinson (with the concurrence of the County Commission) has made it clear to the state and the feds that if BP doesn?t respond in a reasonable time to oil on our beaches that we will ? with volunteers, county inmates, and county public works resources.

This is a disaster that affects us all here in Walton County ? whether you rely on the beaches for your living, or you?re a local who enjoys going to the beach, or a taxpayer who for the past few years has seen our county grow and build infrastructure from the benefits of the high tax base along our beaches.

We are all in this together, and it is not a time for politics and throwing bricks at our local government officials. Your local government officials are doing everything they can to protect our interests and get our beaches cleaned up if they get oil ? and keep the oil from hitting our beaches if they can. The obstacles to success in this are all external ? BP, the state, and the federal government. We don?t need to make the job harder by attacking folks within the county. I respectfully submit to you that the team we have in place now is working together and doing everything they can to minimize the affects of this disaster on us.

Thanks northlake for your comprehensive post. This disaster is not a sprint it is a marathon, planning and execution are the best tools our county has in meeting the challenge. Both planning and execution have been happening daily for almost two months. What happened yesterday along the beach is not the same thing that will happen today, or tomorrow or next week. It is truly a series of ever changing daily crisises.

Nice job and great post, Northlake.

Nice job and great post, Northlake.

He has alot of incentive to write glowingly about Comander; if he doesn't she will come after his job next. That is what happened to the last PIO for the county.

CJ, I?m not trying to threaten you on this; merely trying to explain the realities of the situation.

As you may already know, the Walton County Board of Commissioners has delegated Emergency Management responsibilities to the Sheriff ? which is why you see him out front in this situation. You?ll see more of him if we have to deal with a hurricane this year. The County Commission still retains the ultimate responsibility for providing Emergency Management for its citizens under Florida law, as well as the responsibility for paying for it all through the revenues available to the county from property taxes and other revenue streams. In the present instance, one of the potential revenue streams, and one we?re counting greatly on, is BP reimbursement under the federal Oil Spill Protection Act of 1990 for the county?s expenses in cleaning up their mess.

Our local folks are not driving the train on the oil spill recovery?yet. There is a host of state and federal agencies, regulations, and procedures that are driving this at the present time ? all with the hammer of being reimbursed or not by BP if we don?t do it their way.

I spent two hours yesterday afternoon taking notes at a meeting at the Emerald Coast Conference Center (the palm forest on Okaloosa Island) in a meeting with Florida DEP Secretary Mike Sole, CAPT Poulin from the Mobile Coast Guard District (and his henchpeople); 2 BP representatives (one a Vice President ? of what, I don?t know); a lady from the US. Department of Homeland Security (Deputy Assistant Undersecretary, etc. etc.) and County Commissioners. County Administrators, and Emergency Management Directors from nine coastal counties across Northwest Florida ? from Escambia to Franklin County.

Walton County was well represented by Sheriff Adkinson, County Commissioner Larry Jones, our County Administrator Lyle Seigler, Dawn Moliterno from our TDC, Mike Barker, our Sheriff?s Emergency Management Director, and Chief Rick Talbert from South Walton Fire District. Walton County was better represented than any other county in terms of number of people there from my count ? and Walton County was heard loud and clear along with all the others.

Topics of discussion at the meeting were the clean up response as it pertained to each county; then procedures for BP reimbursement to counties for expenses incurred to date (which has changed 6 times since this all started) and ongoing expenses. Since the local media is pretty well awash in coverage of this meeting I won?t go into the details of the discussion. Suffice it to say, nothing was settled at meeting?s end and nobody got a check in hand from BP, but everybody above the county level of government got an earful from the rest of the folks around the table.

Yes, there were many volunteers who came forward and devoted their time to the training for oil clean-up. This is admirable. We even had inmates at the county jail volunteer to receive the training in the event they might be needed. But the reality is that the federal government?s and the state?s position on this is that BP employees should clean up the oil ? not local volunteers. JobsPlus (a state agency) had jobs available with BP contractors for 200 people (with Walton County residency a requirement) ? at $18/hr no less. Sheriff Adkinson (with the concurrence of the County Commission) has made it clear to the state and the feds that if BP doesn?t respond in a reasonable time to oil on our beaches that we will ? with volunteers, county inmates, and county public works resources.

This is a disaster that affects us all here in Walton County ? whether you rely on the beaches for your living, or you?re a local who enjoys going to the beach, or a taxpayer who for the past few years has seen our county grow and build infrastructure from the benefits of the high tax base along our beaches.

We are all in this together, and it is not a time for politics and throwing bricks at our local government officials. Your local government officials are doing everything they can to protect our interests and get our beaches cleaned up if they get oil ? and keep the oil from hitting our beaches if they can. The obstacles to success in this are all external ? BP, the state, and the federal government. We don?t need to make the job harder by attacking folks within the county. I respectfully submit to you that the team we have in place now is working together and doing everything they can to minimize the affects of this disaster on us.

Glad to see the Sheriff and larry Jones were at the meeting, they are doing a good job for Walton County.

They could do more work instead of going to meetings all day and sugar coating everything to the public. Mike Barker is doing the real work and staying on top of the problem.

He has alot of incentive to write glowingly about Comander; if he doesn't she will come after his job next. That is what happened to the last PIO for the county.

First of all, I see nothing that "glowingly" about Commissioner Comander in the post by Northlake. You obviously know who he is as I do but there is a difference here.
Your agenda hides behind your obvious support of one of Commissioner Comander's opponents. At least come out in the open and say who you support and why. While I am not suppose to be disrespectful of any poster, and generally respect that, your cowardice in the above type of post is indicative of the dirty, disrespectful and useless kind of politics I, and so many others, abhor.
Sara Commander would not seek the removal of any county employee without due cause. She is not that type of person.

First of all, I see nothing that "glowingly" about Commissioner Comander in the post by Northlake. You obviously know who he is as I do but there is a difference here.
Your agenda hides behind your obvious support of one of Commissioner Comander's opponents. At least come out in the open and say who you support and why. While I am not suppose to be disrespectful of any poster, and generally respect that, your cowardice in the above type of post is indicative of the dirty, disrespectful and useless kind of politics I, and so many others, abhor.
Sara Commander would not seek the removal of any county employee without due cause. She is not that type of person.

You can call me all the names you like but before you pass judgement on Commander you should talk to Balzley, Rivers, Mitchell, Millard, Blackshear, Mares, Glidewell, etc. etc. I bet they will shed a different light on her. Rumor has it Bell left because he was tired of dealing with her. And if you can get current county employees to talk to you ask them their opinion of her. Then ask them their opinion of Cuchens. Of course you may not care about what the employees think, after all they are only hired hands.

You can call me all the names you like but before you pass judgement on Commander you should talk to Balzley, Rivers, Mitchell, Millard, Blackshear, Mares, Glidewell, etc. etc. I bet they will shed a different light on her. Rumor has it Bell left because he was tired of dealing with her. And if you can get current county employees to talk to you ask them their opinion of her. Then ask them their opinion of Cuchens. Of course you may not care about what the employees think, after all they are only hired hands.

Now the truth comes out! You are supporting a former Commissioner who single handedly did more damage to our beaches than the tropical storm, IMO. Not to mention the fact had special interests running out the ying yang while Commissioner.
My opinion of Cuchen's does not come from county employees, who do a great job, it comes from my observation of his second term in office. Luckily, I wasn't here for the first.
I wasn't calling you any names but your observations and understanding of our county commission and its function in connection with the governance of Walton County is sadly misdirected.
In case it hasn't dawned on you by now, I most strongly and vociforsly support Sara Comander. She serves the citizens of this county to her utmost and is the best Commissioner we have had since Lane Rees.

Why so angry