Facts Contradict City Manager's Threats

April 20, 2007

James R. Klindt, Esquire
United States Attorney
U. S. Department of Justice
Middle District of Florida
400 North Tampa Street, Suite 3200
Tampa, Florida 33602

Dear Mr. Klindt:

I am in receipt of a copy of a letter to you from the City Manager of Marco Island wherein he refutes information sent to you that precipitated the much needed investigation of the asbestos contamination here on Marco Island.

As is usual with Mr. Moss, his refutation is totally devoid of any facts, however, it is writhe with accusations, innuendo, and disdain for the citizens of Marco Island. Recently he has resorted to outright threats against citizens who dare to hold a different view of this situation than his. That is clear in his statements further on in this letter wherein he threatens a countersuit against CARES and it’s directors past and present for daring to file for a declaratory judgment regarding the City’s recent apparent violation of the CARES/City/QE mediation settlement agreement.

In an effort to clarify the original letter of March 9^th, and Mr. Moss’ answer of April 17^th, I have copied the body of his letter into this document and will offer my comments where appropriate. My comments will be in bold italic typeface.

On or about March 9, 2007, you received a letter signed by several persons regarding alleged mishandling of asbestos pipe on city-owned property and an on-going investigation by the Marco Island Police Department.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that:

• The letter dated March 9, 2007 contains patently false information;
• The subject matter is of a civil nature as demonstrated by several lawsuits filed by an organization supported by Mr. Neylon and several or most of the signatories. The most recent lawsuit was filed on April 12, 2007;

In the first place, I am only a point of contact for the group of persons who signed this letter. There were nearly 60 signatories, and those signatures were collected in a matter of a few days with very little effort. If we wanted to take more time, we could have received over 2,000 signatures.

The reason the City of Marco Island is the recipient of so many law suits stems from the fact that Mr. Moss and four councilors have systematically ignored citizen complaints and questions regarding this and other issues literally forcing citizens to the courts for redress.

• Whether there is criminal conduct is a matter of an on-going investigation by the Marco Island Police Department;

A seven month politically motivated criminal investigation that started because the contractor AMRC, failed to adequately clean the site in the first place. I say politically motivated because Chief Reinke and Bill Moss both said, when the asbestos was discovered for the second time, that it was planted. Moss even tied the planting of the asbestos to the recent recall effort.

The second cleanup yielded tons of asbestos contaminated material. Why didn’t Chief Reinke debunk the planted theory when he realized that only someone capable of moving tons of contaminated material to the site could possibly be responsible?? Why is the investigation still ongoing?

• The complaint is due to a disagreement with public policy decisions of the Marco Island City Council regarding the replacement of septic systems with a central sanitary sewer collection system;

Mr. Moss refuses to face the fact that asbestos contamination of Site-A, Site-C, and the entire area of the South Collier Boulevard construction project is a serious matter, and has absolutely nothing to do with the Septic Tank Replacement Program. Equally, or possibly more serious, is Mr. Moss’ outright cover-up of this very serious problem and his unwillingness to hold the responsible party accountable.

Marco Island Contract 05-006 has numerous clauses that would have protected the citizens of Marco Island from the acts of Quality Enterprises, form both a health and safety standpoint as well as monetary repayment for the clean-up costs, however, Mr. Moss categorically refuses to enforce the contract! Why?

• The subject matter continues to be within the jurisdiction and oversight of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency;

Mr. Moss failed to tell you that in his eagerness to head off this situation he made a statement that appeared in the March 15, 2006 Marco Eagle http://www.marconews.com/news/2006/mar/15/asbestos_found_marco_park/ that Jon Iglehart Director of the Southern Division of the FDEP, had surveyed the site, declared it to be free of asbestos, and assured the City that the contractor, Quality Enterprises, “adhered to proper removal practices” for handling asbestos material. However, at the time Moss made that public statement, Mr. Iglehart, had not been to the site, did not investigate the methods QE was using to handle asbestos material, and failed to mention that no one on QE’s crew had any training whatsoever in handling or even identifying asbestos material.

FDEP’s inspector Mr. Sherrill Culliver came to the site three times before he finally admitted that the material that was strewn from one end of Site-C practically to the other was indeed asbestos. Then when he walked across the street to the enormous pile of processed fill he also determined that there was asbestos material there too.

The frustrating part about this was that we were looking through the fence at this contaminated material, while Quality Enterprises trucks were hauling it to South Collier Boulevard to be used as fill, and the FDEP couldn’t find it. I truly believe if we didn’t demand that the FDEP meet us at the site, they would never have acknowledged the existence of this hazardous material at all.

In a meeting that I was in with Jon Iglehart back in October of 2006 he admitted that they had botched the initial investigation and then failed to adequately account for the evidence when Site-C was initially cleaned up. This initially posed a problem for the EPA investigators who had taken over for FDEP regarding this contamination issue, but they subsequently worked through those problems.

Mr. Moss was incensed when the EPA got involved and in fact his Public Relations person, Ms. Lisa Douglas, who he hired from the FDEP asked me if I had called the EPA. I was not the one who got them involved, nor do I know who did, but I have had several conversations with them since they took over. Lisa told me that when Moss heard the EPA was involved he hit the roof.

So to summarize, The FDEP would go along with anything the City wants, and apologize for screwing it up later, but the EPA really wants the rules followed, and they are trying to work with the City and Quality Enterprises to get this material cleaned up and off the Island.

• The false allegations in the March 9, 2007 letter may constitute a violation of law relative to providing false information that may warrant investigation.

This is pure Moss. Shoot the messenger, threaten, coerce, and shift the focus from the problem to the complainant. Every statement made in the March 9^th letter to you was factual. We have provided verifiable information substantiating each of those statements further on in this letter. What Mr. Moss is demonstrating in yet another threat is his premeditation with violating the civil rights of individuals in an effort to suppress their constitutional rights of seeking redress. His tactics are legion in this regard and while they are omitted from this letter for clarity, it is hoped that at some point those abuses are also addressed by federal authorities.

BACKGROUND

About 77% of Marco Island properties are served by a central sanitary sewer collection system. The remaining properties have on-site septic systems. The Marco Island City Council initiated a long-term program to install new sanitary sewer lines to the 5,500 properties without such service. The cost is to be recovered through a special assessment to those property owners receiving the new service. This decision caused public controversy.

A political action committee, Citizens Advocating Responsible Environmental Solutions, Inc. (CARES), unsuccessfully attempted to have the policy rescinded by their elected officials. CARES then filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in and for Collier County, Florida, Case No. 06-183-CA, against the City of Marco Island and The Department of Environmental Protection of Florida on February 3, 2006. A Final Summary Judgment as to Counts One, Two, and Three was entered in favor of Defendants City of Marco Island and The Department of Environmental Protection of Florida by the Honorable Judge Lawrence D. Martin on January 11, 2007.

In order to sell assessment bonds to fund the sanitary sewer project, the City sought court approval of its assessment process and bond sale through a bond validation process. CARES argued against the City during the Circuit Court hearing. The judge issued a strong ruling in favor of the City. CARES subsequently filed an appeal directly to the Florida Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for this week (April 20, 2007).

Believing that the presence of asbestos cement pipe in the construction area and staging area constituted a violation of the Clean Air Act and the RICO Act, CARES filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court Middle District of Florida against the City of Marco Island, Quality Enterprises USA, Inc., City Manager William Moss and Public Works Director Rony Joel, Case No. 2:06-cv-123-FtM-029-SPC. Before a Motion for Dismissal was heard, a mandatory Mediation was held on October 4, 2006. The lawsuit, clearly lacking merit, was quickly settled through Mediation.

The asbestos concrete pipe shards found on Site-A, Site-C and in fill material used on the South Collier Boulevard project were nominally the same size, with newly broken edges many of which were friable, (meaning that the material could be reduced to powder by normal hand pressure), which would be consistent with material run through a crusher.

Mr. Rony Joel, Public Works Director for Marco Island, stated on three separate times in an open meeting of the Marco Island City Council on April 6, 2006, that asbestos cement pipe was crushed, by Quality Enterprises, originally on South Collier Boulevard, and then at Site-A. Mr. Moss came out shortly after that meeting and said Mr. Joel was mistaken. (Marco Eagle, March 15^th 2006) http://www.marconews.com/news/2006/mar/15/asbestos_found_marco_park/ Mr. Joel can be viewed making these statements at http://www.earnmarco.com/asbestos1.html Just play the videos to confirm what Mr. Joel said.

The RICO charge stemmed from the fact that AMRC, the testing company who was originally hired by CARES to determine the concentration of asbestos in the initial samples collected, was immediately hired away from CARES by the City which we were told amounted to witness tampering and therefore the RICO charge.

In order to understand the entire situation leading up to the mediation agreement, it will be essential for your investigators to speak with Mr. Edward Foster, former chairman of CARES and Mr. Douglas Enman, current chairman of CARES. What I can say regarding the mediation is, that in my opinion, CARES received some very bad legal advice which ultimately ended the asbestos lawsuit. Bad advice, not a lack of merit which is borne out by the continuing involvement of the EPA and the FDEP in trying to resolve the contamination issue.

On April 12, 2007, CARES filed a motion for Declaratory Judgment claiming the City has violated the terms of the Mediation Agreement. While again lacking merit, the City is preparing its response and may take further legal action against CARES and its officers, past and present.

The terms of the mediation settlement agreement that are in question and the subject of this new action seeking a Declaratory Judgement refer to collection of costs to remediate the asbestos from Site-A and Site-C and certain indemnification of Marco Island against future action stemming form the asbestos contamination caused by Quality Enterprises.

Rather than abide by the letter and spirit of the mediation agreement Mr. Moss unilaterally hammered out a contract between himself and QE, which not only did not collect the money Marco Islanders have already spent, but obligated Marco Island Taxpayers to pick up the rest of the bill. He then wrote a diatribe, which can be viewed athttp://www.cityofmarcoisland.com/Public_Documents/MarcoIslandFL_CouncilAgenda/Mar19/7B.PDF to propose this deal to the city council for approval. Essentially he couched this in such a way as to make the removal of the asbestos pile on Site-A contingent on accepting the new contract. That is not true, since Mr. Moss knew that if he didn’t tie this bitter pill to something that all Marco Islanders want, which is the removal of contaminated material from our Island, he wouldn’t stand a chance of getting it passed. More detail and insight into this latest contract with Quality Enterprises can be viewed at www.earnmarco.com on the first page about the fourth article down titled “The following provides more detail on the latest sweetheart deal for Quality Enterprises”

In addition to legal action, several or all the signatories to the March 9, 2007 letter to you have

• initiated, participated in, or supported an attempt to amend the City Charter to require a bi-annual election of the City Manager, a professional position universally appointed by elected officials, not elected by registered voters;

• initiated, participated in, or supported a recall of three Marco Island City Council members who supported the new sanitary sewer program;

• initiated, participated in, or supported an attempt to schedule a referendum election to overturn City Council’s decision to provide sanitary sewer service.

Failing to succeed through the political process, through the judicial process, and through the administrative process with the FDEP and the US EPA, a few citizens are seeking to ask you to initiate a criminal investigation in order to facilitate achievement of their political goals.

Remember, this is about widespread asbestos contamination of Marco Island. It is not about charter amendments, recall, or referendum, it’s about asbestos contamination, its about the sham investigation of the asbestos, its about the false accusations by the city manager, the city police chief and councilperson Tucker accusing ordinary citizens of planting the asbestos AND A COVER-UP BY CITY HALL.

Should you ultimately decide to pursue further inquiry, I hope you review the March 9, 2007 letter, the motivating circumstances in which it was written, and Section 837.05, Florida Statues regarding false reports to law enforcement authorities.

Nothing new here. In a City Council Meeting where the Council decided to pay legal costs for the Councilors being recalled, Mr. Moss went into a discussion with the City Attorney stating that the City should seek to recover those legal costs from people signing the petitions. This exchange, (voter intimidation), which had a chilling effect on the recall petition drive, can be viewed at http://209.15.40.246/miblog/videolibrary2.html about halfway down the page on the right side titled “City Manager & City Attorney Intimidate Voters.” There are many other videos and articles on this site and on www.earnmarco.com that will show the way concerned citizens are threatened on Marco Island. They are truly worth watching and reading.

Mr. Moss also petitioned the Council back in February to sue CARES for legal costs surrounding the asbestos lawsuit. Even though there is a clause in Marco Island Contract 05-006, (Section 13.1), obligating Quality Enterprises to pay all City Legal Costs. Mr. Moss refuses to enforce the contract and rather threatens to sue citizens for seeking redress.

Even though the Council voted not to pursue citizens for these legal costs last time, Mr. Moss stated in a newspaper article last week that he will once again request this at the next Marco Island City Council Meeting on April 23, 2007. Quality Enterprises is responsible, not only for contaminating our Island, but also for all legal costs arising out of any lawsuits regarding the contract, yet Mr. Moss wants to sue citizens. Why?

The following provides a brief response to the allegations made in the letter of March 9, 2007 to your agency: “The City of Marco Island has a plot of land that is contaminated with asbestos.”
It is a widely published fact that pieces of asbestos cement pipe were found at a construction staging area on Marco Island’s future site of Veterans Community Park. Like many other jurisdictions, asbestos cement pipe is a predominant pipe used in the City’s water and wastewater utility system. The two specific staging areas are designated as Site A and Site C.

Upon discovery of the pipe fragments on Site C, the City initiated a plan of action that involved the retention of a specialized environmental consulting firm and a state licensed asbestos contractor to perform appropriate environmental monitoring and removal of the pipe fragments.

This initial clean-up amounted to over 40,000 pounds of contaminated material; I think that might just be mischaracterized as “pipe fragments”.

The City accepted responsibility for the cleanup of Site C, recognizing that the firms that used the site as a staging area did not use or remove asbestos cement pipe for the reconstruction of a road project and replacement of utility lines. During Hurricane Wilma, a Category 3 storm event with landfall on Marco Island, a City employee asked a contractor’s (Quality Enterprises) employee to move concrete material from Site A to Site C to secure a large woodchip pile that could potentially be harmful to persons as flying debris. It was assumed that the employee inadvertently placed asbestos cement pipe to secure the woodpile, and that this explained the discovery of pipe fragments many months later. This theory has yet to be confirmed.

What Mr. Moss fails to mention here is that Quality Enterprises prepared Site-C for use by the other contractors, by removing a large number of sizable Australian Pine trees, filling the holes left by the stumps and grading the site. Mr. Moss will tell you that Quality Enterprises didn’t use fill on the site the sugar sand that they plucked the trees out of just filled in the holes automatically. What Mr. Moss also fails to tell you is that citizens have given statements to the City of Marco Island police where they have witnessed activities by the contractors consistent with using fill from one site and transporting it to the other, and this omission is because those statements indict the contractor. His latest cover-up story is that these pipe fragments have been on the site for decades. My question is why is the City Manager of Marco Island constantly making up theories to run interference for Quality Enterprises, when it is clear that they contaminated our Island? Why?

Following initial cleanup of the site with certification and photographs from the environmental consultant, more asbestos pipe fragments were discovered. Some fragments were near survey stakes used to mark where the soil was tested for evidence of asbestos. There was also evidence that dumping of some material had occurred since the cleanup, and it was well known that some citizens, including representatives from CARES, had collected asbestos cement pipe from a construction site. One individual later publicly admitted that he had a bag of fragments in his garage. Because of the suspicious circumstances, the City Manager asked the Police Department to initiate an investigation.

The dumping that Mr. Moss refers to was witnessed by a Marco resident Mr. Raymond Beaufort. He can tell you what he saw. The person who had the asbestos in his garage was Ed Foster, the former Chairman of CARES and he can fill you in on the situation regarding that material. By the way, Mr. Foster alerted the city to, and turned in the asbestos material he had after Mr. Moss initiated the police investigation, not before as Mr. Moss suggests in his reference to suspicious circumstances.

As stated above, this second clean-up of Site-C yielded more tons of contaminated material, not a few pounds planted by citizens as Mr. Moss would have you believe, but tons of contaminated material. Again, based on the amount of material found on the second pass, why is the investigation still ongoing when it is clear that in order to contaminate Site-C you would have to have access to a pile of contaminated material, and the heavy equipment necessary to place it on Site-C.

Quality Enterprises, not citizens, has a pile of contaminated material, or about half a pile left after spreading the other half on South Collier Boulevard, and they have heavy equipment, and they removed the trees on Site-C that left holes to fill, so why aren’t they being considered as perpetrators instead of citizens? Why?

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been informed and involved in the environmentally responsible mitigation of Site C. No mitigation action was taken without appropriate environmental review and permits.

Once again, Jon Iglehart Director of the Southern Division of the FDEP admitted they botched the original cleanup, investigation, and chain of evidence. The permits issued and the experts hired to accomplish the clean-up have cleaned up the Site at least three times to date, and I was told by Liam Dillon of the Naples Daily News, that they were still finding pipe fragments on Site-C as recently as two weeks ago.

Maybe if they just admit that the holes the stumps left were filled with contaminated material, and dig those areas up, they will finally get all the asbestos off the site. Of course that would mean that Quality Enterprises put it there and Mr. Moss doesn’t want that. Why?

It is also a publicly known fact that there are asbestos pipe fragments in a soil and concrete debris pile on Site A. This site is used as a construction staging area by Quality Enterprises, the contractor hired by the City to rebuild Collier Boulevard, including the utility infrastructure. Both the FDEP and the US EPA have been involved and approve of a mitigation plan developed by the contractor.

Once again Mr. Moss forgot to tell you that the EPA actually suggested the plan he says the contractor developed. In fact the EPA stated in late August or early September of 2006, that they would approve removal of the entire pile on Site-A if it were all treated as Regulated Asbestos Containing Material, (RACM). The plan Quality Enterprises proposed was not approved by the EPA because it involved separating large concrete pieces from the pile, cleaning asbestos off them and then crushing them for road fill material. Then take what was left and remove that as RACM.

The EPA told the City and Quality Enterprises that trying to separate this material, clean it, and then treat what was left as RACM would be very difficult to do while meeting regulations of the Clean Air Act and they should consider removing the entire pile as RACM. The mere fact that Quality Enterprises would offer such an unworkable abatement plan further demonstrates their inexperience in handling asbestos containing material. Pamela McIlvaine, of the EPA Region 4 District Office in Atlanta, mcilvaine.pam@epa.gov can confirm all of the above statements regarding EPA approvals.

That EPA approved deal has been on the table since September of 2006, but only when Mr. Moss hammered out the deal where the taxpayers of Marco Island pay Quality Enterprises to remove it, did they agree to the EPA approved plan. This amounts to citizens paying $950,000 for contamination caused by an untrained contractor who took a fairly benign substance, and converted it into a nightmare. Again Marco Island Contract 05-006 protected the citizens against this, WHY WASN’T IT ENFORCED? WHY HAS IT TAKEN OVER SIX MONTHS TO GET RID OF THIS CONTAMINATED PILE? WHY?

As further proof of the inexperience exhibited by contractors in handling asbestos material, there was a story in the Marco Eagle, back in October of 2006 covering the rediscovery of asbestos on Site-C complete with a picture of what appears to be of migrant workers with handkerchiefs covering their faces, holding plastic bags shuffling in plain clothes over the site “picking up asbestos”. That article and picture can be viewed at http://www.marconews.com/news/2006/oct/27/city_looking_new_asbestos_find_veterans_community_/ Once again the FDEP failed to adequately account for the 150 +- pounds of material picked up that day by these workers who failed to follow EPA rules while removing asbestos from Site-C under the guidance of AMRC the City’s asbestos expert.

“The explicit and implicit culprits of this crime, as put forth by the City of Marco Island City Manager, the City of Marco Island Police Chief, and a City of Marco Island Councilperson are ordinary citizens. In an effort to prove the assertion of planting asbestos by ordinary citizens, the Marco Island Police Chief, who reports to the City Manager, commenced a criminal investigation of the ‘planting’ of the asbestos six months ago.”

The explanation as to the source of the asbestos cement pipe fragments on Site C is a matter of an on-going Marco Island Police investigation. I am certain that they will share findings to date with any other law enforcement agency. It is assumed that there is no natural occurrence of asbestos cement pipe fragments in soil, so someone put it on Site C. Whether that occurred recently or decades ago have not been determined, to my knowledge.

The key phrase here is the “decades ago”, where Mr. Moss is now suggesting that these pipe fragments have been buried in the ground from the initial installation of water pipes on Marco and his friends Quality Enterprises simply unearthed them. This is the latest in the cover stories Mr. Moss has proposed.

Notice again that Mr. Moss fails to mention that tons of material was found and removed on the second cleanup. So stating that “someone put it on Site C” fails to address where “someone” got tons of asbestos contaminated material, and how “someone” transported and buried tons of asbestos contaminated material on Site-C.

“It is indisputable that a city contractor crushed asbestos-laden pipe on the plot of land.”

If it is, in fact, indisputable, we assume this information has or will be conveyed to the Marco Island Police Department during their misdemeanor investigation. City staff advanced a theory and accepted responsibility for the removal of pipe fragments from Site C. Quality Enterprises, while not admitting fault, has accepted responsibility for the complete removal and disposal of soil and concrete debris from Site A with the appropriate notice to the FDEP.

The tree theory can be proved by digging where the trees were, but to my knowledge that has not been done, even though this theory was delivered in writing to the MIPD several weeks ago. EPA also has this information. This can also be read and downloaded from www.earnmarco.com It is on the opening page along with the latest deal between Mr. Moss and QE. Also, Mr. Moss stated in a newspaper article earlier this week that the tree theory has no validity. Of course he didn’t elaborate as to why it was not valid, he just dismissed it out of hand.

As far as City staff advancing a theory and accepting responsibility for the cleanup of Site-C, this was always going to be reimbursed by the contractor, until the most recent deal. Now that Mr. Moss’ intention is clear that the taxpayers of Marco Island should pay $950,000 for the clean-up he is couching his statements in such a way as to indicate that the City always intended to pay for cleaning up a mess caused by Quality Enterprises. Why?

The following factual statements can be verified, and I believe they prove indisputably that Quality Enterprises crushed asbestos cement pipe, mixed it into roadbed material and spread it on Site-C and many parts of South Collier Boulevard before they were stopped and the remaining pile of this contaminated material still exists on Site-A.

1. Quality Enterprises was the only contractor removing asbestos cement pipe on Marco Island during 2005. This can be verified by speaking with City Project Managers, Quality Enterprises management and employees, and by Mr. Moss’ comments in the Marco Eagle of March 15, 2006 http://www.marconews.com/news/2006/mar/15/asbestos_found_marco_park/ wherein he stated “Moss said. About 88 percent was abandoned and the remainder, 86,740 pounds, was disposed at the Collier County landfill.” The EPA requires transport and disposal records for all asbestos containing materials, http://www.epa.gov/region4/air/asbestos/waste.htm yet the City was unable to produce records for the 86,740 pounds Mr. Moss says was delivered to the landfill. These records must exist or how would Mr. Moss know the exact quantity of material that was taken off the island? Was that 86,740 pounds disposed of legally?

2. Quality Enterprises was processing roadbed material on South Collier Boulevard using a crusher to break up concrete and I believe asbestos concrete pipe during the summer and fall of 2005. When hoteliers complained about the dust and noise, the City gave Quality the right to use the recently acquired site for the Future Veterans Park (Glon Property Sites A, B & C) to use as a processing/staging area. The crusher was moved to Site-A and a very large pile of what is now known to be asbestos contaminated material was produced by Quality Enterprises. Quality Enterprises processed this material. Quality Enterprises has had exclusive use of Site-A since they took it over in the summer of 2005. And the contaminated pile that exists on Site-A is what is left of the processed material Quality Enterprises produced.

3. Mr. Joel stated at the March 6, 2006 Marco Island City Council meeting that Quality Enterprises crushed asbestos cement pipe on both South Collier and at the Glon Property. He said this three separate times in that meeting. Later when Mr. Moss realized the ramifications of his Public Works Directors statement, he concocted the misstatement defense. Another interesting thing to note is that Mr. Joel displayed his ignorance of the seriousness of crushing asbestos concrete pipe in his statements. EPA clearly states that crushing asbestos concrete pipe makes it friable, and therefore hazardous RACM.

4. Over 40,000 pounds of newly broken asbestos shards and Regulated Asbestos Contaminated Material, RACM, have been removed in several cleanup operations at Site-C alone. This can be verified by tipping records from the Collier County Landfill where the remediation contractors delivered the material. These records can be obtained by sending a request to Margie Hapke at margiehapke@colliergov.net There have been at least three remediation contractors involved in the Site C cleanup, all overseen by AMRC the testing company that certified the site clean at least three times, and is still finding asbestos on the site. Ms. Hapke might also be able to find out if the 86,740 pounds was classified correctly and disposed of legally when delivered to the landfill.

5. A pile of Regulated Asbestos Containing Material RACM weighing between 80,000 and 100,000 pounds still exists on Site-A. The FDEP took samples from this pile that tested as high as 40% asbestos. The threshold for determining if asbestos has to be handled as a hazardous substance is 1%. The report showing asbestos quantities for the 14 samples taken from Site-A and Site-C can be requested from the FDEP. Mr. Iglehart can help you get a copy. jon.iglehart@dep.state.fl.us This pile of contaminated material is what is left of a pile at least twice this size when the asbestos was first discovered. Much of this asbestos contaminated material was used by Quality Enterprises, as fill on South Collier Boulevard. Simple borings can verify this. Myself, Mr. Godfrey Davies, Mr. Michael Daniel, and Councilperson Teri DiSciullo can also confirm the presence of this contaminated fill material from personal observations near the intersection of Collier Boulevard and San Marco Road back in April 2006.

6. Quality Enterprises removed trees, filled and graded Site-C for use by Ballgas and LCEC. It is a virtual certainty that they used asbestos contaminated fill from the big pile on Site-A to do this, yet the MIPD say they must have an eye witness to prove this. The asbestos contaminated material that was on Site-C had the same characteristics as the material on Site-A. The FDEP tests confirm this, and photographic evidence that CARES has confirms this. Much of the broken pipe shards have clear evidence of rust on one side meaning they were used as water pipes recently, and it is clear to the casual observer that the broken edges were recent fresh breaks and are clearly friable.

If the above doesn’t amount to indisputable evidence that Quality Enterprises crushed asbestos concrete pipe on Marco Island, then I guess the tooth fairy or Easter bunny must have done it and stored it in the contaminated pile on Site-A.

“It is our opinion that the aforementioned criminal investigation revealed that no individual planted the asbestos, but that it was the contractor that intentionally or inadvertently placed the asbestos on the site.”

If the individuals can support their statement, they should so advise the Marco Island Police Department.

If the MIPD can’t figure out that citizens cannot plant tons of asbestos pipe shards, 2’ to 3’ below the surface of Site-C, then how do you propose we convince them?

“Given the Marco Island City Manager hired the same contractor who crushed the asbestos on the plot to begin with, we believe that the actual culprit will never become known and hence never prosecuted.”

If the individuals have factual knowledge as to who “crushed the asbestos to begin with” this information should be provided by the individuals to the Marco Island Police Department to facilitate the investigation and prosecution.

Go to http://www.earnmarco.com/asbestos1.html and play the videos to confirm what Mr. Joel said. I think if you then question Mr. Joel under oath, you may actually find out who misspoke.

I apologize for the length of this treatise; however, some things just can’t be said in a few words. It should be clear that Mr. Moss offered no verification for his statements above. He did however threaten to start legal action against citizens who are lawfully expressing their constitutional rights and are lawfully seeking answers to pressing questions that affect our safety, health and recourses.

The purchasing ethic in public affairs clearly states that one should avoid even the appearance of impropriety when dealing with public purchasing of goods and services. The relationship between Mr. Moss and Quality Enterprises goes way beyond those advisories, and I believe that we concerned citizens of Marco Island have a right to get answers to the above posed questions.

Low or poor quality of product, inexperienced workers created a hazardous dump out of fairly benign material through mishandling, late project completions, and still Quality Enterprises is the fair haired child of City Hall. Why?

Lastly, as you consider these facts, the premise for contacting you and other authorities not under the purview of Mr. Moss is that Mr. Moss, Police Chief Reinke and Councilperson Tucker have publicly proclaimed that the asbestos that is and has been on the island was put their by citizens. As your investigation unfolds and finds that these accusations are false, then you have been asked to prosecute those individuals for making false charges.

Facts are indisputable and verifiable. We only need to dig a bit, and I’m certain the facts will come out. You now have the opportunity to bring this nightmare to an end and in doing so, you will be providing a immeasurable service to all Marco islanders.

Respectfully;

Butch Neylon