Posted on 09/28/2002 9:45:05 AM PDT by bat-boy
A Florida pastor has opened the doors and grounds of his church to the upcoming Sawgrass Rebellion rally in part because his efforts to reach out to the indigent have met significant opposition from different levels of government, most recently in the name of protecting the environment.
"I love nature, but we should not be enslaved to it, " says the Rev. David Mallory of the First Assembly of God Church in Naples, Fla. "So I sympathize with the people who are fighting for their homes and land here and want to do what I can to help those who are helping them." The three-day rally will occur Oct. 17-19.
The 58-year-old pastor, who has been ministering in Collier County for 14 years, said his mission has been beset with more than environmental requirements.
"Actually, there's been a whole host of issues that we've had to deal with, whatever seemed to suit [bureaucrats] at the time – environmental or homelessness," Mallory said.
"I am just a minister; I just want to help people," he explained. "I have been doing this all of my life, but I don't understand all the obstacles the government has placed in the way of our mission."
He added, however, that it's not so much elected officials, such as representatives in Congress or county commissioners, who cause him problems, but the non-elected officials, the civil-service employees "who trouble me" – particularly those with an environmental bent.
"I truly believe it's the environmental people within the government that are thwarting the true freedoms of all of us; even our elected politicians are powerless to stop them," he said.
Mallory has had a 34-year career in the ministry, beginning in his native Canada, then in Miami and Collier County. He moved to Naples 14 years ago. His work is fully supported by the county Board of Commissioners, the sheriff, and many of the county judges who send individuals charged with non-violent crimes, mostly drug-related, to his facility for treatment and assistance.
"Our goal is to provide shelter and rehabilitation for the indigent, drug and alcohol abusers, and the homeless," Mallory said. "We provide shelter, detoxification, rehabilitation, medical screening, food, clothing, counseling, education, protection for unwed mothers and abused runaway teens, the hungry, or anyone else who needs help. We've had drug offenders brought here in paddy wagons straight from the court."
When the county would not approve zoning changes for a larger, expanded center in East Naples five years ago, the church had to relocate. It sold its building and purchased a 70-acre parcel of land in the northeast part of the county. Mallory found himself facing numerous obstacles placed in his way not only by the county and the regional water district, but the federal government as well, in particular the Army Corps of Engineers.
Mallory recently received a fax from the Corps, threatening his church with a $25,000 fine for allegedly failing to follow certain dictates. It was the latest in a series of demands from that agency that have plagued the church since its move.
"When we received our permitting, we were forced to buy 103 acres of offsite mitigation lands somewhere in the Everglades at a cost to the church of $500,000," Mallory said. This was more than the church could afford, but fortunately a member of the congregation made a donation for the purchase of the land, otherwise the project could not have been continued.
Having fulfilled the requirement for the offsite mitigation, the church was told to set aside 12 acres of land onsite as mitigation for wetlands. That was still not enough. There was another hoop through which to jump.
"This fax is a letter of warning saying that we now have to set aside some 16 more acres onsite or we'll be forced to pay their fine," said Mallory.
It's not that the church has been slack in fulfilling the various environmental demands placed on it. When the congregation moved to its present site, it had five small lakes built surrounded by a nature trail on the campus, only to be told by the Corps that the lakes were needed to support five species of endangered birds. To do this, wetland vegetation in bands of three different levels of height had to be planted around the lakes at a total cost of $15,000 – but he was not told what specific species of birds were to be protected.
"How do I know what type of bird I am supposed to be attracting?" he exclaims.
The Corps further insisted that certain plants be removed from the property because it was a wetland, then directed Mallory to plant 850 new trees. He complied, but was next ordered to plant 1,000 more trees on the church property. He has recently been told to have another 1,000 planted.
His frustration evident, Mallory recounted story after story of harassment and interdiction.
For example, he built a six-foot high chain link fence, pursuant to orders from Collier County. When local children dug under the fence, he ordered his crew to move two scoop-loads of earth as fill to stop the trespassing and destruction.
Said Mallory, "Then the Corps came in. I don't know if they watch us every day or what, but they came in immediately and said that we had illegally filled a wetland and we had to pay a $6,000 fine. Then they took 80 feet from around the entire perimeter of our grounds to keep as another wetland-protection area."
This 80-foot-wide swath of land circling the property is to be kept in a natural state, creating an onsite wilderness area for which the church receives no compensation.
But Mallory's problems do not stem entirely from federal edicts.
When the church moved to its present location, the county demanded that it pay to widen the adjacent road, changing it from a two-lane to a four-lane highway and to pay for turning lanes. Moreover, the church had to provide the South Florida Water Management District with two paved boat ramps going both north and south along a "canal" that fronts the facility before the SFWMD would approve the project.
"Actually, it's not a canal – it's really more a drainage ditch. There are no boats using it," said Mallory.
"I am sorry, but I just don't understand the Corps and the SFWMD or their reasoning," he exclaimed.
The church currently is embroiled with the county in disputes over water meters and impact fees. The county's Community Development Department claims a staff report shows that Mallory has 28 buildings on the site hooked to county utilities, but that he has only three permits. Moreover, the department claims the user fees on a water meter have not been paid though the meter has been on the property for three years.
Not so, says Mallory. Only three of the structures are permanent – the guardhouse, the youth room and the chapel. The others include six modular office buildings, four modular buildings for Sunday school classes, six separate trailers where people are currently housed, and eight modular houses that are not yet in use.
"We have had a water meter here for years, but we recently had to pay a $25,000 deposit for a water meter which we already had," Mallory said.
Besides the meter problem, Mallory is in a battle over a county demand for impact fees. He wants to be able to provide housing for recovering drug addicts, homeless people, abused women and children and destitute seniors, and envisions an eventual 100 housing units on the property. Those eight modular housing units on the church campus are the start, but they are standing empty because of red tape.
"We can't set them up and open them to the public because Collier County wants $104,000 in [water and sewer] impact fees, and they want it all up front, even before we begin to house those who need the help," he said in an exasperated tone. In addition, the church must pay $4,000 per trailer for other county impact fees for libraries, parks, fire, schools and emergency medical services.
"Some of the buildings that they're trying to collect fees on won't be built for four or five years," said Mallory. "All I ask them to do is charge us per building, pro-rated, as they would a homeowner. I've asked, why not be fair? Why not just charge us $3,000 for one trailer at a time as they're hooked up. But before the first trailer is open they want the entire $104,000. We're not asking the county to give us anything, they'll still get their fees, but they should do it in a way that makes sense. You pay your phone bills by the month, you don't pay the whole year in advance."
On Sept. 24, Mallory presented his case directly to the Board of Commissioners. Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, a former Collier Country commissioner himself and now a state senator representing Naples, attended the meeting to support Mallory.
The Naples Daily News reports that Collier County Manager Jim Mudd had checked with county attorneys, who informed him that there was no "wiggle room" in existing county law regarding payment of water and sewer impact fees that would allow commissioners to grant Mallory's request. At that point, Sen. Saunders suggested that the commissioners amend the impact fee ordinance by declaring a county emergency.
"An emergency is whatever you decide it to be," said Saunders. "They are providing us a tremendous service and saving the taxpayers money."
The commissioners agreed and directed the staff to work with Mallory, research Saunders' suggestion and come back with a plan. They also asked Saunders to do what he can to get a state law amended that currently requires religious organizations to sign a statement agreeing not to discuss religion in their programs in order to receive Community Development Block Grant funds.
A block grant for $32,000 that would have helped to alleviate some of the financial strain had been approved, but Mallory refused to sign the statement.
But beyond his experiences with county and Army Corps bureaucrats and ordinances, there is an even deeper reason why Mallory understands and is receptive to the cause of the Sawgrass Rebellion, one that stems from his work as pastor in East Naples.
"The people were far from wealthy, they were in fact very poor, but they were the salt of the earth. They helped everyone, with no questions asked," he said. "They once invited me and my son Joshua to go deep into the Everglades with them to spend the weekend at their camp. I remember traveling in a swamp buggy to a small cabin. We saw wildlife everywhere and it was amazing."
"All the people in that parish wanted was to be able to hunt, fish and enjoy their recreation in the Everglades," he said, as people like them and their families had done for decades before it was declared a park. "But the federal government took the land, fenced it and declared it off-limits. Many members of the congregation moved away because they no longer had a place where they could go to enjoy nature."
"That is why, if we can help the Sawgrass Rebellion in any way, the church, our people and our facilities are open to them," he said.
The Sawgrass Rebellion is an umbrella organization founded to protect the property rights of South Florida residents through legislation, litigation, and public education. A national forum and property rights rally is scheduled in Naples, Oct. 17 and 18. Caravans from across the United States will converge at the rally and travel across the Everglades to Homestead, Fla., on Oct. 19. The largest property-rights advocate group in the United States, the Paragon Foundation of Alamogordo, N.M., recently agreed to help South Florida residents in their stand against "unwarranted taking" of their properties.
A long time. We've been putting up with this for a long time. Because we thought we were free, and we thought that we would always be free.
It was not so long ago that there was another people; they thought they were free too.
Sorry for the downer... but welcome to my world. (I just fixed the page, by the way -- formatting had gotten messed up, the last line dropped...)
Until honest, hardworking Americans band together and take up arms to protect themselves, it is only going to get worse, be it Republican or Democratic administrations.
I am not advocating, nor do I belive that a violent overthrow of the government is proper, and that was not what my post was meant to say.
Good for him. I hope he's ready for the IRS to descend on him, though.
The Dems can have Hillary, Sharpton and JJackson come into their churches for political purposes, but this guy is on the "good" side, so watch out
Yep! Yew nailed 'er!!! They be BORN AGAIN PAGANS!!!
(gittin a guvermint paycheck and pension, unlike yew an me)
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened----
Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and one of the founders of the ACLU
I am not advocating, nor do I belive that a violent overthrow of the government is proper, and that was not what my post was meant to say.
Maybe I can say what's on everybody's mind - we ARE the government. That's why we can keep and bear arms. That's why WE are the militia (10 USC Sec. 311)
We can just peacefully say "We are in command, cease and desist!"
But we must do it as a large enough group to get attention
And what happens when they say "Move or you're under arrest"?
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