Water district shakeup begins with two surprise resignations
The South Florida Water Management District’s lead counsel and governing board vice chairwoman have resigned their positions with the largest state steward of Everglades restoration, leaving a key staff job and four leadership seats open when additional board member terms expire in March.
Melanie Peterson, who represents areas including Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast on the nine-member board, was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott for two terms, the second of which was set to expire in March 2022. Her resignation letter to Scott is dated Jan. 1.
Brian Accardo, who was at the district for three years, said he decided before a Dec. 13 governing board meeting that he would accept an offer with a private firm focusing on environmental and government law. His last day was Friday.
The resignations set the stage for a new administration to reshape the state’s largest water management district whose oversight of 16 counties from Orlando through the Keys has often raised the ire of environmentalists.
They also come at a time when the board faces intense public and political scrutiny for a November decision to sign a new eight-year lease with Florida Crystals that allows it to continue sugarcane farming on 16,000 acres slated for a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.
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It was a measure district officials said is required in the state law that created the reservoir to reduce harmful lake discharges and alleviate toxic algae blooms in northern estuaries. But environmentalists, who were outraged at the last-minute notice given about the deal, said the approval was a favor to powerful sugar growers when the land could be used for water storage in the interim.
Peterson: Her businesses require more 'personal attention'
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, represents Treasure Coast areas that have suffered repeated algae blooms. He called for the board to resign in a December interview with CBS4 Miami journalist Jim DeFede.
Mast is chairman of Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis’ transition team on the environment and agriculture. The governor appoints water district board members to their four-year terms.
“Given Ms. Peterson’s track record of denying science and voting against Florida’s environment, this is good news and puts Gov.-elect DeSantis in an even stronger position to overhaul a board that has far too often placed the needs of special interests over public health and environmental protection,” Mast said Friday in a statement.
Peterson, a 42-year-old Realtor and co-owner of Stone Column Stables, makes no mention of the controversy in her resignation letter, saying the impetus for her departure is that her businesses require more of her “personal attention.”
"I have enjoyed working closely with our field staff and land management team as Chair of the Project and Lands Committee as we focused on the surplus lands that are not needed, putting them back on the tax rolls and dedicated those revenues for management of conservation lands that will benefit the region on the whole," Peterson wrote in her resignation letter.
But water district board member Jim Moran, who is not seeking a new term when his expires in March, said he believes the lease decision is to blame for the resignations of both Peterson and Accardo.
“It’s the unfortunate consequence of the board doing exactly the right thing at the November meeting, which it was required to do by law,” said Moran, a Boynton Beach attorney who also represents Palm Beach County on the board. “The new administration does not have enough experience yet in these matters to appreciate the wisdom of the board, the existing executive director and our former general counsel Brian Accardo.”
Accardo: Job is 'exhausting and takes a toll on you'
Accardo, 42, who was hired by former district executive director Pete Antonacci, said the lease controversy is not the reason for his resignation and that he is proud of the deal because it allows the district to collect rent on land until the reservoir is ready for construction.
The district can terminate the lease in two years.
“This is just the right time for me,” Accardo said about leaving the district. “I’ve been in government seven years and I’ve been near the top and it’s exhausting and it takes a toll on you.”
Accardo also oversaw two pivotal and controversial deals to end lengthy litigation against the district.
In August 2017, the board approved settling a prolonged lawsuit with Lake Point Restoration, a rock mining company in Martin County that is co-owned by one-time Wellington resident George Lindemann Jr.
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Environmentalists said the August 2017 settlement was a surprise, made after a private executive session and before the public could see the terms of the deal. It triggered a public records request from the Everglades Law Center for minutes from the executive session. The water district has asked a judge to decide if the minutes, which have not been released, are public record.
More than a dozen unwitting citizens who filed similar records request also got dragged into the litigation when the district asked for their communications with key players in the case. First Amendment Foundation President Barbara Petersen said the move was an attempt to “scare the pants off people.”
Accardo said it was a legal maneuver to protect the district from nefarious public records requests made solely to initiation court action and for the district to pay attorneys fees for the other side.
"Brian Accardo is one of the best attorneys that I've ever worked with in my 40 years of practicing law," Moran said Friday. "He has common sense, which is often missing in my profession."
In November, at the same meeting where the board approved the sugar lease, it also agreed to seek the end to nearly three-decades of federal oversight for Everglades restoration. Peterson was one of six votes in favor of trying to cancel the the so-called “consent decree” negotiated under former Gov. Lawton Chiles.
Board Chairman Federico Fernandez as well as members Carlos Diaz and Dan O'Keefe voted against the historic move. It was first time a district board had voted to make a formal request to get out from under the court order.
“People say this is a thankless job, and it’s a harsh thing to say, but these jobs subject you to a lot of criticism and we are just people trying to do the right thing,” Accardo said Friday. “It’s why I don’t think people can do these jobs forever.”
Board members whose terms are set to expire in March include Moran, Miami-Dade representative Sam Accursio and Rick Barber, who represents Lee, Collier, Hendry and Charlotte counties. All of the current board members were appointed by Scott.
DeSantis will be sworn in Tuesday.
Kmiller@pbpost.com
@KmillerWeather
