‘Does That Make Any Sense To You?’: Rick Scott Questions DoD Nominee About Land Ownership Issues

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) questioned Adam R. Telle, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, about public and private land ownership.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much. Senator Scott. Thank you, Chairman. Congratulations on each of you on your

00:06nominations, and I know you're going to do a great job. Mr. Tell, do you have any friends in Florida?

00:12Senator, I do. My wife behind me is from Pinellas County, and her family, of course, is still there

00:18in St. Petersburg. I wish you the best of luck, because the Corps' reputation, not the people,

00:24the people at the Corps are wonderful people, but the Corps' reputation in Florida, as we've talked

00:28about, is horrible. I mean, you can't get an answer. They don't, I mean, it's just like a black

00:35hole of information. No one will tell you the time process, where a permit is, why you're going to get

00:42turned down, why you're going to get, can you fix it? You want to keep your friends in Florida, right?

00:48Senator Scott, certainly. You raised a very important issue, and your state is one that is

00:53surrounded on at least three sides by water. Water is critically important to the state of Florida,

00:58both inland and on the coast. It's unacceptable that we can't give you answers. Your state,

01:05your state has more capacity, or as much capacity as any state, in terms of dealing with these issues,

01:10and has taken on a leadership role, and we ought to be working in a competitive, in a complimentary,

01:15complimentary way with the state of Florida, and I hope that you and I can visit the Jacksonville

01:19District Office together. So you think at the end of this, you're going to have friends in Florida?

01:23Your family's going to talk to you? Well, Senator, I hope so. I'm going to do the best job I can

01:28for the nation, and if that's true, it'll be the best job I can do for Florida.

01:32Do you have any friends on the beach in Florida?

01:34Senator, I do often visit the beaches when I'm visiting my in-laws, and I know we have some

01:39major issues related to beach nourishment, and it's most acute in Pinellas County. There's been

01:44a large challenge. It's actually all the way down to where I live in Naples. You know what they,

01:49you know what they, what they, they changed, they changed how they looked at it. They said,

01:52think about this, on private land, and so you have private land, and then the public land,

01:57the beach is public land, right? The way it works in Florida. So at median high tide, okay,

02:02you own the land of there. After that, the core, or the state owns it. The core has said that they,

02:07they give you a form that says, we're going to give you a temporary easement forever. It actually

02:11says that. It says it's called temporary easement. There's a forever easement to go on private land.

02:16Does that make any sense to you? Senator, certainly the protection of the citizens of Pinellas County,

02:24the property and lives of Pinellas County is a critical, of critical importance. There's a

02:28challenge, as you've pointed out, related to land ownership and access here. It seems to me that we

02:34ought to be able to find a creative solution that solves the interests of, of landowners, as well as

02:39the interests of the, of the public in, in Pinellas County, and as you state, all the way down to Naples.

02:44So you think you can solve this? So actually we get the beach renourishment done?

02:50Senator Scott, I look forward to working with you on that. When I'm given more details about the

02:55challenges, I know they're, they're extensive and I know that they've been wrangled over the years,

03:01but I look forward to working with you. I think with a can-do attitude, we can make progress here

03:04and provide this critical flood protection to Pinellas County and other parts of Florida.

03:09You know, it's, you brought up Pinellas, especially Pinellas. It's had an unbelievable impact on the value

03:15of homes. I've not been able to get the beach renourishment done because, you know, we've had

03:19three bad storm surges in the last two and a half years. So it's had a pretty big impact over there.

03:26Senator, I agree totally. My family was affected by that, those, those storms there, and I look forward

03:32to working with you on it.

03:33So I'm a business guy and in business what you get frustrated with is government. You know,

03:38the permitting process, the stupid licenses you have to have, and then the regulatory environment.

03:45And so then you say, golly, I already did, got this permit. I did the exact same, the state government

03:50does the exact same thing the federal government does. So why can't we delegate, you know, if you have

03:57a good state, why can't you delegate some of the Corps' responsibility to the state and allow them

04:02to do the permitting as long as they do a good job?

04:06Senator Scott, I agree with you. We're going to be able to deliver services to the public better

04:10if we do it closer to the public and to the people who understand the environment. You've done a very

04:16good job as governor to unlock Florida's capacity and allow the state to take on much of the burden

04:23that the federal government was taking on. That's good for the state of Florida. That's good for the

04:27public. That's good for the American taxpayer because it's relieving the federal government

04:30of these duties. And I look forward to working with you where appropriate to make sure that we're

04:33delegating as much authority as we possibly can to the states, especially those with a lot of

04:37capacity like Florida has.

04:38I just hope at the end of your time, your relatives continue to talk to you. Thank you.

04:44Senator, thank you.

04:47Senator Scott, I'd share that hope.

04:49And these bureaucrats who award a temporary easement forever perhaps should stop by the

04:59English department at their local community college.

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