The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for unnecessary appraisals to jack up the cost of Cone Ranch and derail the acquisition of Cone Ranch by ELAPP. We already own Cone Ranch, but they will say we can't afford it.

County bond "guru" Mike Merrill publicly maintains that Bond Covenants require appraisals and a Fair Market Value price, but when cornered he privately admits that this requirement is NOT explicitly stated in the bond covenants. "Its just the way we've always done things."

Environmental Attorney Pamela Jo Hatley says Merrill is wrong. Her advice: get a "Declaratory Judgment", let the Courts settle this. Environmentalists who have read the Bond documents agree. The requirement of appraisals and Fair Market Value is not in the Bond Covenants, but unless we go to court, Merrill and the BOCC are not going to play by their own rules.

Merrill and the BOCC are paying lip service to putting Cone Ranch into ELAPP, while working behind to scenes to make sure it can never happen.

Demand a Declaratory Judgement

BOCC is going to spend big bucks for bogus appraisals and then pull the ol' Bait and Switch, leaving Cone Ranch still under the Water Department and ELAPP left out in the cold...

Now that you know what they are up to, YOU have to stop them!

Call, write or email the County Commissioners.

Tell them to Stop Wasting Time and Money.
Demand a Declaratory Judgment.
Force Merrill to release Cone Ranch.

We will not buy what we already own!

Action Items

~Action	Detail
Join	our Facebook group for updates.
Write	Letter to the Editor and to the BOCC
Call	the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners
Attend	Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners meeting to tell them personally to stop playing games with Cone Ranch. Get a Declaratory Judgment to settle the Bond requirements once and for all!

Subprojects

~ Goal	Description	Lead
Legal Research	Russ
Strategic Partnerships	Identify stakeholder groups	Everette Paul
Letter to the Editor	Campaign coordination	Tim
Media Relations	Draw coverage to Cone Ranch, identify sympathetic media channels and reporters, press releases	Tim
Event Management	Coordinate calls to stakeholders, coordinate visibility, recruit from/connect with event participants	Edwin

Blog

Sell Cone Ranch to ELAPP

News

• "Pamela Jo Hatley discusses the Cone Ranch Bond Covenants issue in the Tampa Tribune", January 10, 2010
• "Pitch for Cone Ranch put on indefinite hold" St Pete Times Nov 13 2009
• "Developers Find Payoff in Preservation", Washington Post, 21 Dec 2003
• "Investment group airs plan for ranch", Tampa Tribune, 24 Aug 2009
• "Advisory Panel considers proposed division, sale of Cone Ranch property", St Pete Times, 15 Aug 2009
• Cone Ranch ‘preservation’ presentation leaves more questions than answers, lots of red flags, Creative Loafing, 3 Jun 2009

Board of County Commissioners

Call the Board and let them know what you think.

~ Member	Phone
Ken Hagan	813-272-5452
Jim Norman	813-272-5725
Mark Sharpe	813-272-5735
Rose Ferlita	813-272-5470
Al Higginbotham	813-272-5740
Kevin White	813-272-5720
Kevin Beckner	813-272-5730

Video

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Pictures

http://bit.ly/bpXnk

Resources

Hills County Public Records

City of Tampa Cone Ranch Letter

June 24, 2009 Tampa City Council to BOCC Chairman Ken Hagen:

"The Tampa City Council, by motion and vote on June 18, 2009, wishes to express its concern to the Board of County Commissioners that Cone Ranch be retained in its entirety by Hillsborough County and be preserved."

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