Florida’s Water Moccasins: Water Management Districts

The Gantt Report

The water moccasin is a poisonous, venomous, a species of pit viper, found in the southeastern United States. Adults are large and capable of delivering a painful and potentially fatal bite. When antagonized, they will stand their ground by coiling their bodies and displaying their fangs. Although their aggression has been exaggerated, on rare occasions territorial males will approach intruders in an aggressive manner. This is the world’s only semi-aquatic viper, usually found in or near water, particularly in slow-moving and shallow lakes, streams, and marshes.

Near water is where you find human moccasins, two-legged snakes that spend taxpayer dollars on anything that they want to with no regard to equal rights, justice, fairness or Florida law!

According to Broward county’s “New Times” newspaper and other media sources, the South Florida Water Management District “has no qualms about squandering our money when politics are in play.”

It is not unusual to see Florida’s five water management districts in cahoots with big political campaign contributors and greedy contractors when billions of tax dollars are being spent.

And just like the reptilian version, the two legged water snakes will attack anyone that questions the way that they do business.

How would you like to spend millions of dollars on worthless swamp land to help your buddies and cohorts? Maybe you’d like to spend billions of dollars with your business friends by ignoring Florida’s, and sometimes Federal, small and minority business participation laws.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe members on Florida’s Water Management District boards are appointed.

If all Florida citizens are taxed to provide funding for water management districts and about 15% of Florida residents are African American, it would seem fair to have about 15% of advisory members on water management districts to be African American citizens.

But Blacks in the Sunshine State can’t go to sleep and dream about being a decision maker in any of Florida’s five water management districts because those positions are reserved for people that will do whatever they are told to do by big politicians and big business people.

OK, why should The Gantt Report care about what goes on in Florida’s Water Management Districts?

Well, The Gantt Report, The NAACP, The SCLC, The Urban League, Florida’s Black Chambers of Commerce, Florida’s Black contractors, Florida’s Black engineers, Florida’s Black media companies and everybody else concerned about the use and misuse of Florida’s tax dollars should be concerned when money is flowing like a river and only white snakes can participate in water management purchasing transactions.

You tell me. How many Black companies are making money on the cleanup of the Everglades? What about beach safety, water recreation, land preservation, waste water operation, and other areas? Do you know any Black people with state contracts to do work in those places?

Well, the South Florida Water Management District is seeking to hire engineers and others to do restoration work on some of South Florida’s water and sewer systems and they have over a billion dollars to spend on it.

What are the water management districts plans in regards to complying with Florida’s laws regarding minority business participation in such spending projects?

Their plans are to do what they always do, ignore state laws regarding Black and minority businesses and to give all of the money they can to their pet snakes!

Rumors suggest that one or more Black companies have expressed interest in suing the government agency to get the courts to stop the water and sewer restoration until the water management districts spends some of the money it collects from Black citizens with Black businesses.

From my perspective, a law suit against Florida’s water management districts would be a good law suit!