Ag department used Amendment 1 money to pay consultants on Lake Okeechobee operation panel

A state agency paid a consulting firm with ties to the sugar industry to participate in planning future Lake Okeechobee operations with Amendment 1 money voters said should be used to buy conservation land.

The $35,000 paid to MacVicar Consulting Inc. of West Palm Beach shows the money came from the state's Land Acquisition Trust Fund, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' July 1 purchase order.

The trust fund is to be used to “acquire, restore, improve and manage conservation lands," under the Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative voters approved in 2014.

Ag Commissioner Nicole "Nikki" Fried told The Florida Channel in a Jan. 22 interview Amendment 1 money "is supposed to be going for the purchasing of land."

The point of the amendment, she said, "was to make sure that we had an opportunity and finances to preserve our waters and our lands here, and I want to make sure that is done."

Even though more money is needed for administration, Fried said at the time, "that’s not where the (Amendment 1) money is supposed to have gone."

Using Amendment 1 money

Amendment 1 money funds nearly 70% of Fried's Office of Agricultural Water Policy, which paid for the contract, spokesperson Franco Ripple told TCPalm in an email Wednesday.

"As with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife (Conservation) Commission, Amendment 1 proceeds are used for a variety of environmentally related purposes, as designated by the Florida Legislature," Ripple wrote.

More: Watch Commissioner Fried's interview with The Florida Channel 

The purchase order was released Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Palm City Republican who has criticized Fried, a Democrat, for putting three members of the MacVicar firm on the Project Delivery Team advising the Army Corps of Engineers on how to operate Lake O.

Mast maintains the three — firm President Thomas K. MacVicar, William Baker and Lennart "Len" Lindahl — are registered sugar industry lobbyists who would give the industry "special access and influence" on the panel.

More: Mast wants sugar lobbyists off Army Corps' Lake O planning panel

The ag department "regularly engages technical consultants, as do many other state agencies," Ripple wrote. "These particular consultants have been on contract with the department for nearly 30 years to provide hydrological expertise."

It’s interesting, Ripple wrote, Mast raised concerns about the consultants "now that a new commissioner is in office, instead of during previous administrations.”

'Misleading narrative'

Ripple said Mast was "pushing a purposely misleading narrative to draw attention away from his own failed 26% environmental score, including votes to eliminate clean water safeguards," a reference to the congressman's lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters.

And earlier this week, Ripple added, the Sierra Club of Florida gave Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he called Mast's "ally," a "D" grade on environmentalism and sustainability.

Ripple previously told TCPalm the three sugar lobbyists weren't "appointed" to the panel but only provide advice.

An Aug. 14 email by Rebecca Elliott, the ag department's environmental manager and appointee on the Project Delivery Team, said only department employees would provide "policy input" on the panel.

But the purchase order calls for the MacVicar firm to assist the department in "monitoring, understanding and influencing the water-related issues important to agriculture in South Florida."

More: Read the agreement between the ag department and MacVicar Consulting

The May 3 proposal submitted by MacVicar also states the firm would help in the "development and implementation of the water allocation process during declared water shortages."

The sugar industry has long advocated for keeping plenty of water in Lake Okeechobee. The U.S. Sugar Corp., which MacVicar has represented in the past, sued the Army Corps in August for allowing Lake O to drop below 11 feet in elevation, claiming it threatened water supplies for both farmers and municipalities.

Mast has been a staunch advocate of keeping lake levels lower to reduce the need for harmful, often toxic algae-laden, discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

More:Read statements supporting Fried

Tyler Treadway is the environment reporter for TCPalm. Contact him at tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com or 772-221-4219.