How to Take Down a Town

The Background:

Hardee County is located in central Florida and has a modest population of 28,000. It is an agriculture community that depends heavily on phosphate mining revenue. Hardee's per capita income is half of that of the state's average and over 20 percent of its population lives below the poverty line. Hardscrabble is the first word that comes to mind, when describing the area. Such a profile is not uncommon in counties where mining is prevalent. Among all of the Florida counties that suffered from a lack of economic growth, those most troubled are mining counties.

Bill Lambert, Director at Hardee County Economic Development knows this. So when Hardee County made its last agreement permitting Mosaic Phosphate to mine 11 thousand acres within its borders, he requested the company make-up the economic hardships consequential to their operations. Mining supports fewer jobs and produces less revenue per acre for the county then other industries, so he proposed Mosaic offer the county incentive capital to put into an economic stewardship fund for compensation. They accepted.

That project was the South Ft. Meade mine, and the amount agreed upon was $42 million over a 10-year period -- if the county permitted the mining operation. They did. Hardee County accepted Mosaic's first installment of $5 million, which they deposited into the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) account.

An IDA is a declaration by the local government to recognize an independent government body for the development and financing of projects within the description of the said boundaries. In Hardee's case, their IDA was deeded and delegated the responsibility of owning, managing and marketing the Hardee Commerce Park, as just one of their projects.

The IDA's officers are responsible for reporting transactions, annual financial reports and for fulfulling all of the provisions required by The Sunshine Law, as is any local government in Florida. It is mandatory for the IDA to assemble an authority board. Those board members were appointed by the Hardee Board Of County Commissioners (BOCC).

In Hardee County, the local authorities and county agencies that oversee the public's trust are the BOCC, the IDA, the EDC (Economic Development Council) and the EDA (Economic Development Authority). State law requires all to have outside audits and quarterly/annual reports for accountability.

The Players:

Our story starts with a concerned citizen. His name is Hank Kuhlman, a UPS pilot and resident of Hardee County, living in Ft. Green. He and a friend, Frank Kirkland, frequent the county commission meetings. Their purpose: to protect their property from the rubber-stamping of permits for mining, landfills and industrial parks. Kuhlman and Kirkland claim that Hardee Commissioners overwhelmingly favor the interest of those applicants over the interest of their residents.

Kuhlman read a report announcing that Hardee County was looking at a solid waste project that claimed to turn all of the county's trash into clean fuel, eliminating the need for a landfill. The project was to be built in the west part of the county where Kuhlman lived. Mr. Kuhlman wanted the full story, so he and Kirkland went to the public meeting where the promoters were selling their idea to the county commission.

The company: Waste Generated Products (WGP), and two of their representatives, president, Guy Wardlaw and treasure, Rick Fishman, were at the meeting answering questions, and making claims Kuhlman thought were outlandish. The two men alleged their technology could transfer hundreds of tons of unsorted garbage a day into jet fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel. They claimed they could operate their system off the fuel it creates, while running generators to sell power to the electric company. They marketed the process as ”emission free“ and at absolutely no expense to the county.

This was only the third reported time the WGP reps met with county officials. The first was Oct. 7, of 2011, when they proposed their plan. The second, on Oct. 14, was when they briefed the commission on how their operation worked. Then at this Oct. 20 meeting, WGP had returned to close the deal. EDA Chairman Bill Lambert, sat with the two WGP reps during the meeting, encouraging the board to go forward by signing a memorandum of understanding, committing the county to co-sign a $40 million loan to build the plant.

Kuhlman and Kirkland wondered, whether this three week romance might turn into a $40 million liability. According to the proposed deal, WGP would purchase a "financial instrument" or "insurance bond" to protect the county from any liability.

I was familiar with these instruments, aka "derivatives," as well as the "gasification" process technology WGP would use to perform their claims, Kuhlman and Kirkland contacted me to see if I could help them find out the story. They thought WGP was a shell company and that it had just incorporated in Florida, May 17, 2011. They couldn't find any history that coincided with any of the claims WGP made at the meetings and pointed me to county posted videos to those meetings on the internet. I reviewed all three (in keyword - type "waste generated products")

There are various legitimate claims to the variety of sciences supporting this process, but I know of none that equal the assertions both WGP reps made in the videos, which clearly would be global game changers. I also didn't find any of the projects both men claimed they currently had in operation in New York, Michigan and London. I called the Massena N.Y. (the town WGP reps claimed to have operations) Solid Waste manager to see how it was working out for them. They had never heard of WGP.

In WGP's Hardee proposal, they referenced LBO Capital Corp. and U.S. Quest as "strategic partners." I couldn't find anything on U.S. Quest, (who reps proposed would handle their licensing), and LBO Capital was a non-active stock that had a $.02 value and had been flat for years (no action). I was wondering, are the only ones vetting these guys the aforementioned two local citizens and one local reporter? Then I remembered that the IDA treasurer, Michael Douglas Manley, had just been arrested for misappropriations of funds. So surely the authorities were looking at the commission and would soon know about WGP, right? Like many things, the answers are never quite that simple.

Continued - click here to read part two