Fed. Bureau of Prisons wants to house 2500 illegal
aliens in Columbia County • Meeting tonight
Columbia County, FL (posted June 30,
2009 at 2:31 p.m.) Part I
By Stew Lilker
This public notice was published right after the obits
on Sat., June 20th. It is almost impossible to pick it
out
when looking at the whole page.
In the works for over a year,
the prison was originally going to house 1,254 convicted
illegal aliens.
Buried after the obituaries in the Saturday, June
20th, Lake City Reporter was a
barely visible “Public Notice” from the Federal
Bureau of Prisons.
While this project appears to have been in the works
for over a year, County Manager Dale Williams and the
County Commission have been silent regarding the
specifics of the project since sometime before July of
2008.
On July 1, 2008 the County Commission held a “special
meeting” at 9:00 a.m. in Board’s conference room. The
County publicly announced this special meeting by
putting a notice in the mailbox of the Lake City
Reporter. This mail box is located in the office of the
County Commission. No members from the public attended
the meeting. This is the well worn, tried and true
method County Manager Dale Williams has used over the
years to evade the spirit of the Sunshine Laws and to
keep the public in the dark regarding short noticed
meetings.
During the July 1, 2008 meeting, [click
here to go to the minutes] the County Commission, in
its usual helter-skelter motion making routine, rejected
and then approved a letter of support for the prison
project. At that time the prison was to house “1,254
illegal aliens who have been arrested and convicted of
committing a crime in this country.” The public was
never given a copy of this letter; it is unknown whether
or not it was written; it was never mentioned at a
public meeting again.
Today, the Federal Bureau
of Prisons (“Bureau”) is looking to house up to 2500
prisoners in a private prison in Columbia County.
Florida’s most secretive County Government remained
true to form doing what it does best -- keeping the
public in the dark. For a year, County Manager Dale
Williams and the County Commission have been involved in
discussions with a specialty investment-banking firm
that specializes in providing long-term financing to its
clients through the issuance of municipal bonds.
According to the July 1, 2008 meeting minutes,
Commissioner Stephen Bailey spoke about what he thought
were problems with the pay rates being proposed. It is
impossible to read Commissioner Bailey’s real remarks,
as after the considerable complaining and lobbying of
County Manager Dale Williams, all quotes from
Commissioners and all meeting attendees have been agreed
to be stricken from the record before they ever appear.
Earlier today, the Observer asked Columbia County’s
long time Assistant County Manager, Lisa Roberts, about
the county’s involvement in the planning of tonight’s
meeting.
Ms. Robert’s told the Observer, “The County had
nothing to do with this meeting and nothing to do with
setting it up.”
The Observer asked Ms. Roberts if she knew where the
property was. Ms. Robert’s replied, “I don’t know.”
The Observer asked Ms. Roberts if she knew if anyone
in the county was involved in the project. Ms. Roberts
answered, “To my knowledge, no one in the county was
involved.”
Last week, a confidential source sent along a
correspondence from Mike Harling of the
Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc. addressed to
various public officials in the County. In this
correspondence, Mr. Harling wrote, “I want to thank you
again for your time and support for the Federal Bureau
of Prisons project that we are pursuing.”
Tonight at 6 p.m. in the Downtown Public Library, the
Bureau is looking for public comments.
