Backroom deals

Click title for story link. Just when you thought the Florida Legislature couldn't look any more out of control, along comes Sen. J.D. Alexander. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, is chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee. As such, he is the chief budget writer in the Senate and one of the most powerful people in Tallahassee. So when he offered a last-minute amendment to Senate Bill 2080 on April 29, no one objected or even questioned it.

Storms Recounts CSX Battle for Panel

Click title for story link. By Bill RuftyLedger POLITICAL EDITOR LAKELAND Sen. Ronda Storms held members of the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce almost spellbound Thursday with a passionate description of the battle over CSX in this year's state Legislature. Complete with sound effects, the Valrico Republican told how she and Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, worked to defeat a bill that would have held the railroad company blameless for certain accidents if the state bought tracks from CSX for use in a commuter rail system.

Power Player of The Week

Click the title and watch the video. Senator Paula Dockery was named Power Player of The Week. http://www.sayfiereview.com/index.php?doDate=20090505

CSX Haven Project to Be Delayed

Click title for story link. (Didn't CSX and the City of Winter Haven say these two projects weren't connected?) By Tom PalmerTHE LEDGER Published: Friday, May 8, 2009 at 9:12 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, May 8, 2009 at 9:12 p.m. WINTER HAVEN The combination of the economic downturn and the failure of commuter rail legislation in the Florida Legislature will delay construction of the CSX freight rail terminal in Winter Haven, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said this week.

Internet Site Gives Lakeland Plenty

Click title for story link. By ROSEMARY GOUDREAU Published: Friday, April 10, 2009 at 1:32 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, April 10, 2009 at 1:32 a.m. Readers of The Ledger's two articles about my contract with the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority might think that downtown landowners got next to nothing for their money ["City Board Shells Out $40K for Very Little," March 14, page B1, and "City Bypassed Bidding Rule for Internet Site," March 29, front page]. Please allow me to set the record straight about the work I've done on behalf of downtown Lakeland, which faces life-altering changes should the state close the pending deal with CSX railroad.AC = --> First, some background. Until November, I was the editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune, where I wrote and edited a series of editorials about the terrible terms of the CSX deal, the most expensive rail sale in U.S. history.

Winner and loser of the week

Click title for story link. Winner of the week: State Sen. Paula Dockery. It’s mainly through the sheer doggedness and determination of the Lakeland Republican that approval for the 61.5-mile SunRail commuter rail project near Orlando looks anything but certain more than halfway through the legislative session. Up against legions of SunRail supporters, Dockery has been relentless in raising questions about the deal.

SunRail foe kicking our butts

Click title for story link. I'm a choo-choo guy. But still I can admire the way Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland is kicking our butts on SunRail. She led the charge to kill it last year. She has even odds of doing so again this year.Watching her take on our local legislators is watching a woman among boys. "My objective is not to derail it but renegotiate it," she says of the deal. "But nobody is interested in renegotiating it."

SunRail friends, foes turn up the volume

Click title for story link. State legislators got two very different samples of public opinion on the $1.2 billion SunRail commuter rail proposal that awaits a key Senate vote Wednesday. First thing Monday morning, the project's leading opponent in the Capitol, Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, e-mailed her Senate colleagues a summary of critical editorials in 10 different newspapers all over the state (the pro-SunRail Orlando Sentinel did not make Dockery's cut-and-paste piece, which she headlined "Florida Newspapers Say No to SunRail deal.") See Dockery's full e-mail here.

City Bypassed Bidding Rule for Internet Site

Didn't the City of Lakeland beg for help in the beginning? Click title for story link. LAKELAND The Lakeland Downtown Development Authority ignored city purchasing policy when it awarded a $42,500 contract to a Tampa woman to produce a Web site opposing a state rail plan. Anne Furr, executive director of Lakeland Downtown Development Authority Click to enlarge Jim Verplanck "It should have been bid," city Purchasing Manager Mark Raiford recently told The Ledger about the contract, awarded late last year. The city's purchasing rules call for competitive bidding on goods or services costing more than $1,500. That didn't happen in the case of the deal made with Rosemary Goudreau. And the LDDA board paid Goudreau $40,000 even though the Web site was never completed. The site was to oppose a state plan to buy railway from CSX for use as a commuter rail line. The LDDA is concerned that would send more trains through downtown Lakeland.

SunRail Lobbying Continues

Click title for story link. Backers of the planned SunRail commuter train that would run through Central Florida sent a letter to state Senate President Jeff Atwater Monday extolling the virtues of the $1.2 billion project. Signed by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty -- among others -- the two-page letter touts the anticipated economic benefits of the train, which would run along 61.5 miles of track from DeLand in Volusia County through downtown Orlando to Poinciana in Osceola County.

Breaking Through The CSX No-fault Impasse

By James McGovern and Timothy Murray The Herald News Posted Mar 27, 2009 @ 05:35 PM Fall River — A historic agreement that would improve and extend the commonwealth’s rail system for both passenger and freight service, and boost the economy of the region, has been stalled for months because of an unreasonable demand for no-fault liability from CSX, the national railroad serving Massachusetts. A new federal report examining the issue, however, exposes the weakness of CSX’s position and should help break through this impasse.The deal at stake holds the future for commuter rail service west of Boston and to the SouthCoast region around. The agreement involves the rail line from Allston to the MassPort terminals in South Boston, and the Grand Junction, the line that crosses the Charles River near Boston University which is the only north-to-south freight rail connection through the city. This agreement, announced in principle last fall, also calls for raising the bridge clearance at railroad crossings west of Boston so freight trains can roll through the state with two containers stacked on each flatbed. Double-stacking will significantly expand the capacity of the system and make it more cost-effective. That’s good for CSX and for companies that ship goods by rail. It’s good for motorists and the environment because fewer trucks on the road eases congestion and improves air quality. And it helps the regional economy because Massachusetts is the rail gateway for New England. About 40-precent of all rail traffic in the six-state region flows through Massachusetts.We have come to agreement on all major elements of this plan, except the question of liability after the state buys the rail lines in question from CSX. The issue is who should be responsible for damages if there is an accident involving freight and passenger trains. CSX demands that it have no liability for an accident, even if it is the sole cause of that accident. Throughout our negotiations with CSX, the company has asserted that this no-fault provision is the industry standard, but that turns out to be incorrect.Because other states are also grappling with this same no-fault issue, Congress asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to examine the question. The GAO report, released March 26, dispels the notion that no-fault liability, even in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct, is the industry standard. In fact, there is no industry standard.The GAO report describes a hodgepodge of agreements across the country, with varying combinations of liability provisions. Furthermore, the GAO report cites a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals that found “it was against public policy to indemnify for gross negligence and willful misconduct because this could undermine rail safety.” That’s just commonsense, and our efforts in Massachusetts should be guided by the simple notion that people and companies are responsible for their own actions.Think of it this way: a tractor trailer truck speeding out of control on Route 128, its driver drunk and barely conscious after logging 36 straight hours on the road, slams into a school bus. Who is at fault? Who pays for the damages? Under CSX’s view of the world, the truck driver (assuming he lives) and the trucking company would walk away scot-free, with all the damages paid by the state highway department.Clearly this is an absurd scenario, but it is what CSX is asking for with no-fault liability, even in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct. No-fault is bad public policy. It undermines the basis of our justice system and it creates an environment where the freight railroads would have no incentive to maintain safe equipment and operating procedures.Today, the passenger-freight liability arrangement between the state and CSX is mixed. On the lines CSX still owns, they demand no-fault. But every day CSX runs its trains over tracks already owned by the state (MBTA) and on those tracks there is a fault-based liability arrangement, with each party taking on the responsibility to pay for damages if it is at fault.That policy should stay in place if and when the state takes ownership of the tracks. At the end of the day, we all want the same things. We want to see our freight and passenger rail systems thrive and grow. To do so, however, will require the parties to come together and work in a spirit of true partnership. It will require the federal government to act and set a true national standard for these liability arrangements. And it will take the state’s resolve to use all the legal tools at its disposal to break this impasse and complete the rail plan which holds so much promise for the economic and community development of our state and New England.Timothy Murray is Massachusetts’ lieutenant governor. James McGovern is a U.S. Congressman representing the Third Congressional District.

Will state's deal with CSX be a train wreck?

Click title for story link. By Bill ThompsonStaff writer Published: Monday, March 30, 2009 at 6:30 a.m. Last Modified: Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 10:32 p.m. Seven years ago, a speeding northbound Amtrak passenger train derailed in Putnam County, killing four people and injuring more than 140 of the nearly 500 riders on board.AC = --> .art_main_pic { width:250px; float:left; clear:left; } Investigators determined the April 2002 accident was caused by shoddy maintenance and improper stabilization of a section of the tracks, owned by CSX Transportation. As a result, Amtrak paid $12 million in damages related to that crash near Crescent City, according to an October 2004 article by The New York Times. The article noted that some claims were still outstanding two and a half years later. The Times also reported that CSX did not pay one dime, even though the multibillion-dollar company was responsible.

Commuter Rail Proposal Stagnates

Click title for story link. By LINDSAY PETERSON lpeterson@tampatrib.com Published: March 31, 2009 TALLAHASSEE - With only a month left in the state legislative session, the going has gotten slow for Central Florida's commuter rail project. A bill with a key liability agreement won't come up for at least two weeks in the next Senate committee scheduled to hear it. At the same time, the head of the U.S. House Transportation Committee has called signing such agreements an "unacceptable practice." The comments from U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., came in response to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report about the arrangements that governments make when they buy freight railroads for public use. In Florida's case, the state plans to give CSX Transportation $432 million for 61 miles of the track that runs through downtown Orlando. The track would be used for a commuter system, called SunRail.

Train Activity Will Increase

Click title for story link. By LAURA KINSLER lkinsler@tampatrib.com Published: March 26, 2009 DADE CITY - Dade City will see a 50 percent increase in freight train traffic even if the state's commuter rail deal with CSX falls apart, a rail executive told city commissioners. Commissioners called a special workshop this week with officials from the Florida Department of Transportation and rail giant CSX to discuss how the proposed SunRail project would affect Dade City. The Florida Legislature is considering a proposal to buy 61 miles of CSX tracks for the state's first commuter rail line in Orlando. The project would require CSX to reroute more than a dozen freight trains from the A-line to the S-line, which travels through town, on their way to a massive new rail hub in Winter Haven.

Winter Haven

Click title for story link. Winter Haven touts itself as the distinctively different community to live, work and play in, and now that city officials have secured a deal with CSX, the goals that have been set for the future landscape will be attainable, those officials said.AC = --> Construction of the proposed Evansville Western Intermodal Terminal Facility in southeastern Winter Haven is closer to becoming a reality. Construction is expected to begin this year and will take 18 months to complete. City officials have said the project will stimulate economic development and provide an alternative of transporting goods and services.

Bills in Legislature Would Give CSX Free Ride on Liability

Click title for story link. Published: Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 11:05 p.m. Joe Follick, in a Ledger article Feb. 19, was a bit misleading about the transfer of liability for accidents in the proposed Central Florida Commuter Rail Corridor to state taxpayers.AC = --> Mr. Follick wrote that "The only thing lawmakers need to approve to complete the deal is a proposal that would make the company and the state responsible for their own equipment, employees and passengers in a crash, regardless of who might be at fault." Actually the Proposed Committee Bill 901 before the House and Senate Bill 1212 require to "forever protect, defend and indemnify and hold harmless" CSX, even for CSX's negligent, willful and wanton conduct. The no-fault principal really means that Florida taxpayers will be responsible for paying the bill in several scenarios even if CSX "or any other person or persons whomsoever" is completely at fault and even if CSX's conduct is so reckless that it results in punitive damages.

Outrage.. Florida's economy crashes, state holds $795 million in cool cash for CSX.

Click title for story link. Posted by madfloridian in General Discussion Thu Jan 22nd 2009, 03:29 PM The CSX deal is one of Jeb Bush's legacies to this state. It was rammed through in 2004 and 2005 so secretly that some moderate Republicans never knew about it. This is an outrageous situation. It really is. It is going to hurt most of Central Florida by cutting cities in half with long freight trains and destroying rural subdivisions and environment. CSX appears to be completely in charge, able to make all the rules.This editorial is an angry one. It goes so far as to ask the question about Florida:

Why Isn't Winter Haven Worried?

Click title for story link. By Laura Kinsler Tampa Bay Online DADE CITY - City Commissioners are keeping an eye on Tallahassee as state legislators debate the $1.2 billion commuter rail deal with railroad giant CSX. The 61-mile commuter rail line around Orlando would have a direct effect on Dade City because dozens of additional freight trains could be rerouted directly through the town on their way to a massive new rail hub in Winter Haven. City Commissioner Curtis Beebe worries that Dade City has been too slow to anticipate the problems additional rail traffic on the "S-line" could bring. The plan includes about $300 million for CSX to make improvements on the S-line to accommodate as many as 54 trains a day.

Stop Winter Haven Rail Yard

Click title for story link. It is not too late to stop the proposed CSX rail yard in Winter Haven. None of the construction has started. This bad idea was first proposed quietly three years ago while Jeb Bush was governor. He favored the proposal.AC = --> This rail yard will cause pollution in Winter Haven to adjacent residential areas. The rail yard will bring endless freight trains through downtown Lakeland, which recently spent millions of dollars renovating the downtown, including the area next to the Amtrak station. We should not give up. We can contact our county commissioners and other elected officials and tell them that we do not want the city of Lakelanddestroyed by endless freight trains, long freight trains, going through Lakeland. DANIEL BARKER Lakeland

Chicago CSX Intermodal Site Devastates Lives

Is this the fate of SE WinterHaven? COPYRIGHT 2006 Chicago Tribune Byline: Antonio Olivo Apr. 10--At night, while most of Chicago sleeps, families near the CSX Intermodal rail yard in West Englewood lie awake, their homes shuddering from something that sounds like trucks falling from the sky. In daylight, they watch cracks spreading across ceilings or walls and wipe clean the black diesel dust that settles on floors and dishes--byproducts of a 24-hour operation that handles as many as 700 truckloads per day. When CSX opened the rail yard in 1998--an economic boon to the struggling South Side neighborhood--everybody knew there would be noise and traffic. The city, initially wary of the yard, negotiated an agreement with the freight hauler to pay $300,000 a year into a neighborhood investment fund as a way to turn a potential nuisance into a plus for the blighted area. But neighbors say the fallout from rail yard activities is worse than they imagined. And the money, nearly half of it set aside for homes with bad roofs, porches or windows, seems to have gone everywhere but to those in the worst spots. Portions of the $2.8 million paid by CSX so far have gone to a picture-frame shop, a suburban roofing contractor, a street-cleaning program employing ex-convicts and a project to build a neighborhood strip mall, documents show. But plans for a sound barrier have fizzled. Chicago was built around one of the nation's great railroad hubs, and from its early years, there have been conflicts between residential life and the demands of the industry. A century and a half later, the South and Southwest Sides remain crucial junctions in the nation's freight system, now dependent on steel containers weighing up to 40 tons each that can be switched from trucks to railcars to ships. CSX does not dispute Englewood residents' complaints that the West Englewood yard has caused sleep deprivation, illness due to diesel pollution and property damage. In response to a class-action lawsuit last year, in which some nearby homeowners sought to limit the yard's operations to daytime and early-evening hours, the company did not take issue with those allegations. CSX lawyers instead noted that the company is immune to such court action under a 1995 federal law that leaves regulation of rail operations to the Surface Transportation Board. That federal agency said it hasn't received any complaints about the yard. A federal judge dismissed the suit, noting CSX's contention that cutting operations would cost $500,000 a day in lost revenues. "We're working with the alderman and the faith-based organizations to try and be good neighbors," CSX spokeswoman Kim Freely said. Critics complain, however, that any benefits from the rail yard have been arbitrary. Of the 35 or so households that have benefited from CSX's West Englewood fund, mainly through a hand-drawn lottery held in 2003, most are at least half a mile from the yard, where its concert of slamming containers, horns and revving diesel engines can scarcely be heard. "Those people don't even know there is a train yard over here," said Quincy Johnson, who blames a crumbling porch and ceiling cracks in his Hamilton Avenue home on a towering overhead crane nearby that stacks room-size metal containers onto metal train beds. City officials say it is not their problem. "If there are complaints about damage and people believe it is a result of CSX, they need to deal with CSX directly," said Connie Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city's Planning and Development Department. Before the rail yard opened, city officials had sought to open an industrial park in 10 vacant acres owned by the former Conrail company. Upon learning that CSX had acquired that land and intended to use it, the city persuaded the freight company to contribute the equivalent of the tax revenues projected for the industrial park. Officials targeted a 2-square-mile area surrounding the site as the stage for local improvements delivered by the CSX fund. The money has fostered community development in a blue-collar neighborhood long starving for local investment, Buscemi said, adding that the city has not received any proposals specifically seeking to repair homes closest to the yard. Besides agreeing to pay the city at least $300,000 a year until 2018 for its operations in West Englewood, the Florida-based company has sponsored local parades and turkey drives and contributed $2,000 toward a new neighborhood community center, Freely said. The intensity of need in the neighborhood showed when the city sponsored a 2003 lottery to determine whose homes would be fixed with $300,000 set aside for emergency repairs. In an elementary school auditorium, members of a standing-room-only crowd strained to hear whether their names had been pulled from a box up on stage. Several who won had never seen the rail yard, those who attended recalled. "The people closest to the yard got a raw deal on that one," said John Paul Jones, chairman of the non-profit Greater Englewood Community and Family Task Force. Carolyn Brown won new windows, doors and some tuck-pointing on her Throop Street graystone, which sits a mile from the yard. "I didn't have the money to do any of that," Brown said of the $10,000 job. "I was lucky." Some small-business owners also have benefited. Herbert Goode, president of Silver Cloud Galleries, a picture-frame manufacturer in West Englewood, applied for aid and used the $25,000 he received to pay for glass-block windows and other renovations to the brick industrial building his company bought in 2000. "I was going to do the repairs anyway," Goode said. "I didn't get as much as I expected. Still, I was reimbursed for something, which is better than a kick in the head." James Capraro, a veteran community activist who helped city officials negotiate the terms of the fund, said local community leaders did not anticipate the rail yard's impacts. His group, the Greater Southwest Development Corp., has used $250,000 from the fund toward efforts to rehab four abandoned houses in nearby Chicago Lawn, he said. Another group, Neighborhood Housing Services, has used about $400,000 from the fund to help homeowners--none closest to the rail yard--with facade improvements. "The fund wasn't created to correct the ills of the railroad because the railroad wasn't supposed to create any ills," Capraro said. The fortunes of those helped by the fund have heightened resentment near the CSX yard, where the noise continues. "My granddaughter [is] scared, waking up screaming sometimes," said Annetta Allen, gesturing toward Janai, 6. The pigtailed girl watched hip-hop videos in their Hamilton Avenue living room, where a web of cracks zigzagged from a wall onto the ceiling. Outside, a recently paved sidewalk also had cracks. Local concerns fall most heavily at Goodlow Magnet School, which sits a block from the yard on 62nd Street, near a CSX retention pond that neighbors say is a mosquito problem. Goodlow Principal Patricia Lewis said teachers complain about groggy pupils sleeping at their desks. A concentration of asthma cases at the school also has officials wondering whether it's related to diesel fumes and dust wafting from the rail yard, though there is no evidence to support that, she said. Ald. Theodore Thomas (15th), whose ward wraps around the rail yard, agreed that residents are suffering. But he said his hands are tied by the agreement that spreads the neighborhood fund over 2 square miles. "I don't like the service area of CSX," Thomas said. "I think we're stuck with it." Ollie Mae Ervin has for years kept her grandchildren's old socks as proof of her misery. Wrapped inside plastic freezer bags, the lace-fringed toddler socks were covered with the black diesel dust Ervin says she mops from her linoleum floors most mornings. Splayed across a table like crime scene evidence, the packages carried handwritten labels that documented years of frustration: "2002, 2003, 2004, 2005." "I just mop so much all the time," Ervin said, while a diesel engine rumbled outside. "Some days, there's so much dust you feel you can hardly breathe." aolivo@tribune.com Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com. TICKER SYMBOL(S): NYSE:CSX COPYRIGHT 2006 Chicago Tribun