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Nancy Smith

Brian Ballard's Worth the Disappointment, Reasons Martin Commission

April 29, 2016 - 7:30am

The two most volatile issues in Martin County are the deterioration of its waterways and the looming, life-changing spectre of All Aboard Florida.

While most of Florida is aware of the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon pollution, the county's dogged battle going on to stop the disruptive $1.5 billion Miami-Orlando passenger rail service is far less known outside the Treasure Coast.

Believe me, when something untoward and threatening happens in the lifestory of either one, Martin Countians rise to the occasion, ready to fight for the home they love. I know of no citizens in Florida more fiercely protective of their quality of life.

I Beg to DifferAs it happens, this time it's All Aboard Florida. 

A story published Wednesday on Treasure Coast Newspapers' website TCPalm.com, "Martin County's lobbyist Ballard Partners works for All Aboard Florida, too," stirred up a hornet's nest.

In fact, I spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday fielding more than a dozen phone calls from Martin County, mostly from people I knew when I lived there -- from people wanting to know how it could be that Brian Ballard, paid $52,000 a year to lobby on Martin County's behalf in Tallahassee, could take the county's money and then work against it.

Entities representing All About Florida pay Ballard, whose firm represents more than 200 clients, nearly six times what he gets from Martin County.

Said one caller, "It's like the county went out and hired (U.S. Sugar Senior Vice President of Public Affairs) Robert Coker to lobby on water issues. ... Ballard had an absolute conflict of interest, but he took our money anyway. It's time to dump him and get somebody up there who knows what loyalty is."

Said another caller, "If Brian Ballard is that good getting us what we want, why didn't we outbid All Aboard Florida for his services and turn him loose on the governor?"

Veteran reporter George Andreassi, who wrote the TCPalm story, interviewed ethics professors and government watchdogs, most of whom found the perception of wrongdoing egregious enough that the county should reevaluate renewing its contract with Ballard.

The county after all has pledged to spend as much as $2 million fighting All Aboard Florida in court. And the battle is down to stopping AAF by leaning on agencies to deny the permits it needs to go ahead. AAF must get 11 permits from six federal agencies; but it also needs 17 state permits -- something over which Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed the heads of state agencies, wields considerable influence. Anyone who in turn can influence Scott -- and Ballard is probably among those with the magic touch -- is going to be a powerful weapon in deciding the fate of All Aboard Florida.

Ballard is on the other side on this one.

But here's what readers perhaps missed in Andreassi's story and bears repeating: 

1. Martin County has known about Ballard's relationship with AAF since 2014. "I told them a long time ago that I represent Florida East Coast Industries and other AAF affiliates," Ballard told me. "That was never an issue. When you have a large firm, sometimes there are conflicts among the clients, but you bring the matter to the clients' attention. That's what we did. Martin County doesn't need lobbyists to handle the permitting, they need lawyers, which they've got. They're spending $2 million on lawyers."

2. Every Martin County commissioner claims Ballard brought home the bacon over the years, particularly on water projects. None of them wants to see him replaced. "He's worth his weight in gold," Commissioner Doug Smith told me. A past president of the Florida Association of Counties, Smith was in on hiring Ballard in 1998. "OK, let's say we fire Brian and hire somebody else. How is that going to help us with AAF? Brian has had FEC as a client for something like five years. No matter what we do, he's still going to be pushing their agenda, we're not going to stop that. So why wouldn't we keep him and continue all the good he does us?"

Commissioner Sarah Heard apparently has no stomach for trading in Ballard either. She told Andreassi, "Brian Ballard is arguably the most powerful man in Tallahassee. He has the ears of lots of very important people. He's got juice."

Nevertheless, Stuart resident Barbara Barron told me she was "outraged" and wanted to know what could be done. "Right at this critical juncture," she said, "we find out we employed Judas."

"Why are we just finding this out?" asked Rio's Clay Rogers.

Actually, TCPalm had written of Ballard Partners' commitment to All Aboard Florida years earlier, here and more recently here, but neither story connected the dots by identifying Ballard as Martin County's lobbyist.

Nobody asked me, but my vote would be with Heard and Smith and the other commissioners. Brian Ballard does have juice. They have a lobbyist in Ballard they know, who knows how to get what they want -- permit denial excepted. He was fully up front with the commission about AAF, about what his firm can and can't do. Unless there's a rest-of-the-story I don't know, it seems to me a little late in the game and a little disingenuous to cry conflict of interest now.

Yet, I can't deny this is a sad story.

If completed as planned, the “express” rail service proposed for the Florida East Coast rail corridor will start in Miami and end at Orlando International Airport, with intermediate stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

But it will offer nothing whatsoever to the Treasure Coast -- Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties -- except 32 nonstop, 100-mph trains a day, threatening safety at rail crossings, coming between ambulances and hospitals, disturbing tranquility in densely populated residential sections and damaging, if not destroying, a valuable marine industry affected by long bridge openings.

Freight trains currently use the tracks, and each lowering of a bridge closes the waterway for up to 20 minutes. Under the new passenger service plan, freight trains would continue to use these bridges as well, to make a total of 42 to 46 trains a day -- in fact, due to the connection of the company with Port Everglades and its expansion to accommodate Post-Panamax ships, freight on the tracks is expected to increase.

Brian Ballard or no Brian Ballard, Martin County people worry about their future for good reason.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith

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nancy smith
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