Political Insider

By Blogfather

February 29, 2008 7:14 PM | Link to this

So not only do Georgians have to worry about pork but hogwash too?

Are these pirates sworn in when they lie like that? Put ‘em behind bars then. I like politicians behind bars. I feel safer. Sleep better.

By Tom

March 1, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

No, amazingly they do not swear people (or pirates) in at these “hearings.”

By Mae

March 1, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

Chip Pearson and the other republicans on the economic development committee(democrats supported Chapman’s Jekyll bills) should be told by their constituents that they will do everything in their power to vote them out of office in November because they not only did not represent what the people want but they SOLD THE “PEOPLE’S PARK” BACK TO THE MILLIONAIRES AND TOOK AWAY THEIR BEACH!

By Babs McDonald

March 1, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

I was at the General Assembly, and I saw the peoples’ voice being totally discounted. All that mattered was the wealthy making more money off of our State Park. I believe the Republicans have forgotten that they can be voted out of office; that average Georgians do, in fact, have the last word. Remember Jekyll Island on November 4.

By Susan

March 1, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this

Someone needs to determine why it is so important to the Lt. Gov. and Sen. Pearson that Linger Longer build a high price resort on Jekyll that they had to silence the people of GA. It seems the only way the Lt. Gov. and Sen. Pearson felt they could win this was to keep the people from being heard in the committee meeting. That is a serious betrayal of voter trust! And while I’m questioning motives, why is it so important to the Jekyll Island Authority that the reporting of financial and traffic numbers must be misreported to convince lawmakers that the expensive resort is needed?

By Helene Johnson

March 1, 2008 11:10 AM | Link to this

I attended the meeting of the Senate Economic Development committee this past Thursday. The meeting was rescheduled at very short notice, then located in the smallest possible meeting room, where my line of sight was blocked, and voices were difficult to hear. Others supporting the protection of Jekyll Island were relegated to the halls. This smacks of railroading. The Georgia public is not through with this yet. I believe we still live in a Democracy - but we cannot be complacent in making sure it functions.

By Melissa

March 1, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this

Senator Chapman would not have come forth with his numbers if he weren’t sure about them. What would he gain by lying?

By Observer

March 1, 2008 11:29 AM | Link to this

The greed of these coastal real estate developer folks & their political backers is endless, but their bubble may soon burst.Who will be able to afford fancy upscale resorts on Jekyll when most Georgians cannot even afford gas to get to work?And their buddies in banking & finance are going down the tubes also in this sinking national economy, due to their own greedy credit & financial market schemes. Crony capitalism is a sinking ship.

By bonnie newell

March 1, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this

Agents of the Jekyll Island State Park Authority are slandering Senator Chapman by accusing him of prevaricating in his statements about hidden income in the Park’s accounts, and statements about visitation declines which did not actually occur, as they were simply the result of changes in method of traffic measuring. Some Authority personnel respond that the hidden monies were simply grant dollars. Even if this were so, how would one think that the IRS would act if you or I were to take our grant income and hide it from the government? It was income, and shouldn’t be hidden from the public. The traffic information was carefully researched by a professional in the field. There was simply not the large drop in visitation that the Authority agents would like us to accept. The bottom line is that real-estate developers should not be allowed to take the public’s favorite beach in one of their State Parks and use it for profiteering by building of a village of luxury condominiums (the purchase price of beachfront 3-bed condos is projected by the developer to be $784,000). Keep the real-estate people out of the last beachfront Park in Georgia, except on the footprints of deteriorated hotels. Don’t let them build right on a beach that is critical nesting habitat of endangered loggerhead turtles.

By Martha Lang

March 1, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this

It is nothing more than a POLITICAL LAND GRAB instigated by Perdue. He appoints his cronies, i.e. Ben Porter, Chairman of Jekyll Island Authority who then hand picks Linger Longer as the developer. Perdue is merely saying THANK YOU to Linger Longer owners, the Mercer Reynolds family for their huge financial support for his re-election by presenting them Jekyll Island on a silver platter.Excuse me, but I beleive that Jekyll belongs to the people not the governor and his cronies. We need to remember these politicians come election time!!!

By cyberteach

March 1, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this

Thank you, Mr. Boshears, for once again speaking up for Jekyll! I attended both the Senate committee’s hearing on Sen. Chapman’s bills as well as a House committee later considering Rep. Buckner’s bills relating to Jekyll. In both instances, I was shocked by the arrogant and strident tones taken by both Porter and Croy—-not only in attacking Sen. Chapman and calling him a liar without offering any evidence—-but also in continuing to assert that the only people complaining about Linger Longer’s proposed development are a few homeowners on Jekyll and a small group of malcontents. He knows better, but he keeps saying this. At the House committee meeting, Mr. Porter again asserted that passing any bills would kill Jekyll’s revitalization, which of course is not the case as new hotels are already being built. He also went so far as to lecture the committee, saying that the JIA was appointed to do a job and that they “take their charge and stewardship very seriously” and that they “cannot run up here [Atlanta] every year because of one little group.” We, the ordinary folks of Georgia, need to start demanding that some people be appointed to oversee our island that are not just free-enterprise-at-all-costs Republican friends of the governor and cronies of developers.

By Lamar

March 1, 2008 1:56 PM | Link to this

Revitalization of Jekyll does not require additional high end private residences nor the giveaway of the entire prime beach to private developers. Moving Beachview Drive away from the beach and developing the land between will result in a cruel joke on State Park visitors. There will be no view of the beach.

By Vicki

March 1, 2008 4:10 PM | Link to this

I attended this meeting, and interestingly there was not enough room for all those in attendance to support Senator Chapman’s bills. Jekyll Island Authority’s Croy and Porter knew they were ALL Chapman supporterswhen they waltz by and through people rudely because they do not really care what Georgians want for Jekyll. Croy and Porter were verbally abusive to Chapman. The Senators not supporting their constituents will be remembered this next election! It was absurd for Mr. Porter to remark that if Chapman’s Bills were passed there would never be revitalization, when he truly meant there would never be overdevelopment as he and the Governor would like. Thank you Mr. Boshears for suggesting an independent evaluation of the JIA’s financial records! Maybe there need to be many more eyes on the JIA!

By brad

March 1, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this

I wonder if they taught Mr. Boshear’s to reference his law school education several times in the letters he writes.

By GCM

March 1, 2008 4:58 PM | Link to this

The Jekyll Island Authority and our payoff man of a governor have brought great shame to our state. They should all resign and let some well intentioned and upright Georgian’s do the job they have failed miserably to perform.

By susan evans

March 1, 2008 5:00 PM | Link to this

Thank you Senator Chapman for telling the truth. Thank you Mr. Boshears for upholding the truth. All these people know is to lie and denie. They are the liars, the crooks, and the thieves. Shame on them and their parents who didn’t not teach them morals. Evidently money can’t buy class. You can dress them up and fill their pockets with money—but they still look like losers to me.

By Jennifer

March 1, 2008 5:56 PM | Link to this

Sen. Chapman took care to research the State Archives for information which he could not be obtain from the JIA. He also had accounting experts look at the information. By cross-referencing state audit reports by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts against public financial reports published by JIA, they discovered that the figures from JIA and state audit reports just did not “add up.” Sen. Chapman has done due diligence. I agree: The only way for JIA to defend their position is for an independent, outside agency to look at the figures.

By N. D. Sullivan

March 1, 2008 7:31 PM | Link to this

I am disgusted at all of the skullduggery that is going on in under the capitol dome. I have always thought it was ridiculous for people to say that Republicans care only about the rich, but it seems that the charge is true in this instance. Not only will the planned “revitalization” destroy Jekyll’s unspoiled beauty, it will put the island financially beyond the reach of the average Georgian, who is finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. The “beautiful people” have lots of places that they can go. Leave Jekyll to be the “poor man’s playground,” as a bumper sticker in the 1950’s labeled it.

By Missy

March 1, 2008 7:37 PM | Link to this

I commend Senator Chapman for not giving up on Jekyll Island. Protect our beach! When are developers going to stop looking at Coastal Georgia- Jekyll in particular with dollar signs in their eyes. Let us keep our culture and heritage. Mr. Boshears- start a revolution with the JIA. They have been getting away with too much for too long. As for our state senators, this is worse than taxation without representation. This is taxation with disregard to our representation. Georgians do not want condos on our beach!

By Johanna

March 1, 2008 9:13 PM | Link to this

Senator Jeff Chapman is representing THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA. Other senators want to put their two cents of hogwash because they want others to think they know what they are talking about. Figures don’t lie, liars do. Senator Chapman doesn’t have anything to hide, he is pointing out what THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA deserve to know. Why did Jekyll Island Authority sponsor a park in Brunswick? Let’s see the cooked books or the books that aren’t part of the normal budget! What are you hiding?

By Joann

March 1, 2008 10:14 PM | Link to this

Does anyone else think it’s odd that Mercer Reynolds, “the top”Republican fundraiser in the USA has set his sights on a small Georgia State Park that just happens to be an island with prime beach access? How naive to allow a financially influential power elite massage their way onto the last remaining public beach in Georgia. Hope someone’s keeping tabs on which legislative power brokers are lining up to get sweet deals for friends and family for their Jekyll beach condos !

By Tom H.

March 1, 2008 10:22 PM | Link to this

Really now, what did you people expect when you elected these money grubbing people? They know all they have to do is say their opponent is “too librul for georgia” and presto, all the people knock each other over in their haste to elect them. Even when they are exposed as dishonest, we still elect them. Good bye Jekyl Isl. we ordinary citizens will miss you.

By Hazel Motes

March 1, 2008 11:28 PM | Link to this

All this hooplah shows that our politicians are guided by the Golden Rule: “Those that’ve got the gold make the rules.” Back in the 1950’s, when you parked at the public beach on Jekyll you had a sticker on your car when you came back that said “Jekyll Island - The poor man’s playground.” Maybe they can come up with a new one when they railroad all the “redevelopment” through that says something like: “Jekyll Island - A beach for the affluent, built on bribery and skulduggery” All of us who are opposed to wrecking Jekyll should remember these Republican quislings in November.

By howard

March 2, 2008 1:29 AM | Link to this

wait a minute…you’re asking the JIA to prove a negative. They say their budget numbers clearly show there is not some “hidden” funding.

Chapman whips out some traffic numbers and vague attendance numbers and say they’re lying?

Are you kidding me? Chapman is a fool. Sounds like Croy and Porter are calling chapman out for what he is.

By timg

March 2, 2008 1:33 AM | Link to this

it’s painfully obvious that the jekyll island folks are only about one thing….stopping any redevelopment and renewal of the island.

Listen folks, Jekyll is a dump. It needs a complete overhaul. Get over it.

The jekyll island authority is just trying to make the place nice again, not the private third world country of some yankees.

The board and this porter and croy guys should be commended for putting up with these idiots and trying to do something decent with that island.

By Be Honest

March 2, 2008 4:25 AM | Link to this

Be honest everyone, this is about developers getting whatever they want and sticking it to average state residents. The 8 million + people in Georgia aren’t screaming for fancy condo’s and hotel rooms at Jekyll. We just want to it to be fixed up a little and to be open to all of us.

The folks from Linger Longer are big contributors to Sonny Perdue. Linger Longer didn’t present the best plan, but they bought off Sonny. Croy & Porter are on board with the guvna, and have absolutely no personal ethics. Jeff Chapman is fighting the good fight. But the big money guys win everytime.

By Observer

March 2, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this

I read this quote recently. I think is applies.”In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”George Orwell

By GCM

March 2, 2008 1:54 PM | Link to this

Dear timg, Your comment that opponents to Linger Longer’s grand plan are obstructionists, against all redevelopment is completely wrong. We are against over development. We have, for years been urging the Jekyll Island to fix up things. They didn’t. The old hotels they let deteriorate should be replaced first.

By GCM

March 2, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this

Dear timg,to characterize the opposition to Linger Longer’s plan as by “yankees” is ridiculous. I’m a long-time Jekyll resident, and my family has been in Georgia since the 1700s. Many other Jekyll homeowners are native Georgians, and the overwhelming majority of Jekyll visitors (and people protesting Linger Longer) are Georgians. It’s Linger Longer’s high priced pr team and the JI Authority that would like you to believe otherwise. To accept their word on anything is simply eroneous. They are trying to sell a gigantic development instead of true redevelopment. Dumping 1,100 new overpriced hotel rooms, a Myrtle Beach style shopping complex and a giant convention center on over a mile of the most accessible beach is not redevelopment. It’s a massive new development which changes and destroys the character of the island itself. To the gov and the Reynolds brothers, Jekyll is simply a revenue opportunity, and they intend to exploit it, disregarding the public interest. Once this is done, Georgians will lose something truly precious and unique forever.

By Brenda Constan

March 2, 2008 5:06 PM | Link to this

On Thursday, February 28, I attended the State Senate hearings on Senator Chapman’s Senate Bills 426, 427, and 428, concerning Jekyll Island. What a disappointing revelation about Georgia’s legislative process.

Clearly, from the content of questions several of the senate committee members asked, they had taken little time to familiarize themselves with the bills before walking through the doors of the hearing room.

Despite the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island’s presentation of figures illustrating the skewed methods the Jekyll Island Authority has used to convince elected officials that visitation on Jekyll has declined; and despite IPJI’s binder, thick with pages of testimony from Georgians and surveys from thousands of Georgians who oppose development on the beach, the committee axed Chapman’s bills.

During the hearings Ben Porter and Steve Crowe, members of JIA, dismissed arguments that the proposed beach development is inappropriate in a state park. They insisted that visitors to Jekyll Island travel there for the beach experience, suggesting this justifies building a 64 acre town center and a six story hotel on the only remaining open expanse of beach on the island.

Porter’s and Crowe’s reasoning is specious at best. The publics’ desire for a beach experience does not require building additional beachfront hotel rooms. The island is small. One can walk to the beach from nearly any point on the island. There are already six existing hotels, most of them beachside, that are in the process of or scheduled for renovation. Furthermore, just as alluring as the beach are Jekyll’s other unique features: the salt marshes and wetlands, the new turtle research center, the historical area, and the lovely bike trails that meander through the maritime forest and beneath the magestic live oak trees on the island’s bay side.

In all of the public meetings about Jekyll Island I have attended in the past year,the citizens of Georgia have cried out against development on the beach. Most disappointing about Thursday’s hearings is the total disdain and disregard our elected officials have for the opinions of the citizens of Georgia who elected them to represent us. Their vote on SB 426, 427, and 428 demonstarates they represent Georgia’s moneyed development corporations and our governor, who view Jekyll island not as a state park but as an income stream for the state.

By rds

March 2, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this

As a resident of Georgia and of an Island that has been overdeveloped, I thank Senator Chapman for his courage and for looking out for the people of Georgia. It seems that any time a Republican gets caught with their “fingers in the cookie jar” they start accusing their opponents of “stopping development.” It is very evident that this is about making money for the Governor and Mr. Porter’s friends.

By Theresa Matt

March 2, 2008 6:25 PM | Link to this

I worked for 40 years to get Republicans elected to office in this, my native state, and I am thoroughly ashamed of them. My votes will no longer be for those who favor the rich over the average citizen. Those who have been elected can be defeated!!! Remember Jekyll Island on November 4th!!!

By GaConservative007

March 2, 2008 7:26 PM | Link to this

…slow growth, no growth libs.

By m.a. sullivan

March 2, 2008 9:36 PM | Link to this

Our “representatives” who voted against Senator Chapman’s bills should be strutting down Stewart Avenue wearing garish makeup, slit skirts and fishnet hose, because they’re nothing but w*******. Well, I’m sure that thousands of Georgians will remember their names when election time rolls around. I know I will.

By Charles B,

March 3, 2008 1:23 AM | Link to this

From the beginning, the development plans seemed too aggressive for me. Why begin with a high-impact plan? If you have a place that is one of a kind, an ecological treasure and loved by countless people, what is wrong with a gradual step-by-step approach? I am a fiscal conservative and I favor sensible improvement of the island’s existing amenities (and then wait a sufficient time to see how that pans out). In my view, that is all it needs for now, and avoids irreversible risks involved by being far more aggressive right off the bat.

My family and friends love Jekyll Island for its low key, inclusive, unpretentious atmosphere, and have been coming there for many years. Jekyll has a feel that is one of a kind, and it is what so many of us love about it. I doubt the idea of significant new development there would pass if put to a popular vote or independent unbiased random poll of residents and visitors.

I see many have called the whole development decision into question due to the potential influence of political contributions. If this is indeed a valid assertion, then does it not seem that taxpaying voters deserve to have this decision be reviewed, reconsidered, and even reversed?

Jekyll Island would seem to be a juicy plum for development, and for that reason taxpaying voters should be all the more wary. I know many of us appreciate Senator Jeff Chapman’s efforts to preserve and protect the island. And I suspect that those who helped kill Sen. Chapman’s recently submitted legislation should not be surprised if they pay a price for that come election time.

By susan

March 3, 2008 5:15 AM | Link to this

timg I want you to know that I pay thousands of dollars in state taxes each year. Jekyll Island earns millions of dollars each year. You wrote about “this porter and croy guys”. The way you referred to them shows me that you don’t even know what you are talking about. These men are members of The Jekyll Island Authority. They are the reason Jekyll Island is a “dump” as you put it. In the past they have not done their jobs by effectively using the millions of dollars that the island earns each year on maintaining and marketing the island. It is the Jekyll Island Authority fault that the island is in the shape it is in now. This has nothing to do with a lower number of visitors. This has to do with just plan sorriness. As Georgians we have a right to ask them not to build hotels, condos, and retail stores on the public beach. What part of that is so hard to understand? Senator Chapman understands that there has to be a better way to go about choosing a developer than choosing one that wants to take the best before they are willing to fix the rest. You need to know what you are talking about before you toot your horn. Many Georgians are heart broken because our state government has chosen to turn their backs on us and “the people’s island” for far too long. You and no one else has a right to make light of our cause. After saying what you did—and not knowing what you are talking about—you are the one who looks like a fool now.

By Will Jones

March 3, 2008 7:59 AM | Link to this

Mercer Reynolds is a thorn needing to be removed from the foot of the American People in Georgia. With direct responsibility for the promotion of the homosexual draft-dodger George Bush, Reynolds also appears to be a draft-dodger, with his bio touting “one year” in the “Army” between graduation in 1968 and beginning a job with Coca-Cola in 1969. Unless he can produce proof of an Honorable Discharge his bio is a lie covering up the fact that he, like George Bush, was also cheated into the closed National Guard to evade service during Vietnam.

Just like Sonny Perdue’s “interest” in Veterinary Medicine…just long enough to dodge Vietnam.

These ravening wolves don’t need to be rewarded by the money and beachfront land of the People of Georgia. They have brought a pox on America in the form of George Bush and must be removed from our body politic. They are a cancer.

By cyberteach

March 3, 2008 10:03 AM | Link to this

I love it that this discussion of Jekyll is still going, but I do not think we help our cause by making ad hominem attacks and ranting about Bush’s military service and other whatnottery. To do so, makes us look exactly like what Porter and Croy are trying to portray us as: a small bunch of frothing malcontents who can safely be ignored.

By Will Jones

March 3, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

Mince words as you wish, but having a cabal of treasonous draft-dodging perverts, historically affiliated with the knowable Anti-Christ, stealing the beachfront of Jekyll Island or committing 9-11 is neither “minor” nor “unspecified.” It is of “whole cloth” - the spirit of the age - and therefore fails to “qualify” as “whatnottery.”

Those without the ability to see the Big Picture: the Anti-Christ usurping Our Nation, as Our Founder, Thomas Jefferson, warned, are co-opted, and as blind as those unable to see their own noses.

The spirit supporting the 9-11-committing homosexual draft-dodger cheated into the White House by the Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court is the same spirit attempting to destroy Jekyll Island for the People of Georgia. That spirit is evil. Those who serve that spirit are evil.

By Ann

March 3, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this

How curious that Sen. Chapman’s attack came out the day before the hearing? Sen. Chapman is a liar [in my opinion] and is serving the interest of a small group of retirees from the north and doing NOTHING for the voters in his district in Glynn and Camden Counties…. he should resign.

By Observer

March 3, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this

How about a statewide referendum?We know what the politicans want, because they are beholden to the developers for campaign contributions etc.  Why not ask the people of Georgia directly what type of redevelopment they want on Jekyll Island State Park? No weasel words, just straightforward presentation of competing options. This is a democracy, isn’t it? (Isn’t it?)

By CL

March 3, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this

How about a statewide referendum? We already know what most of the politicians want, because they are beholden to the developers for campaign contributions, etc. But what do the people of Georgia want for Jekyll Island State Park? Enough of this endless speculation. Let’s ask them directly in a straightforward referendum which presents the competing options (and no lawyerly weasel words, please..). Radical concept, eh

By Ken

March 17, 2008 5:43 PM | Link to this

**Hey Ann

You question Senator Chapman’s timing as suspicious. Jeff timing may have been earlier if the Jekyll Island Authority had cooperated with the Senator. I know for a fact that the State Auditor did not get finished with the audit of the Island until shortly before the Senator went public. Everything the Senator has done has been in the open. He doesn’t have his name on every other pine tree in Georgia saying he is a liar or has he been convicted of an ethics violation like the governor. **

By coastalviewpoint.com

March 29, 2008 10:59 PM | Link to this

It is a land grab. It is theft. Worse, it will probably destroy the very beach they want to sell off. Beaches erode back and forth. They plan to build so close to the water tht they will inevitably end up putting out big rocks one day to deep the buildings from falling down. Then it will be nothing but buildings and rocks. Great idea… politicians and thiefs…same difference. www.coastalviewpoint.com