Pensacola Independent News

THE BUZZ | Vol. 5, No. 36, September 22, 2005
(American Red Cross)
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REBUILD DOLLARS UNDER SCRUTINY The nonprofit created by local do-gooders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan continues to refuse to provide detailed financial information to the media or public.

The Press Gazette in Milton ran a recent story written by Deborah Nelson reporting that Rebuild Northwest Florida approved more than $1 million in salaries. The agency's spokeswoman Carolyn Appleyard says the salary information was a draft and that number is too high "but declined to release an updated salary schedule to the press," according to the Press Gazette in its story headlined, "Who gets Rebuild's dollars?"

The newly created nonprofit has raised between $2 million and $5 million but various Rebuild officials have failed to provide detailed financial information or answers requested by the Independent News, WEAR and the Press Gazette.

Meanwhile, the daily Gannett paper continues to cheerlead for the local organization, happily running donations from major corporations and individuals on its front page and providing barrels and barrels of ink for its fundraising concerts and activities.

The Press Gazette reports from an April 2005 Rebuild document the newspaper obtained that 28 personnel slots are created at a cost of $1,045,000 per year. That document approves two directors at $75,000 per year and two executive assistants at $35,000 per year.

The Independent News was aware of the April memo but Rebuild officials claimed that those weren't actual salaries. They maintained to IN that they were part of a grant application, as a way to show the value of some of its volunteers.

The nonprofit did release to the Gazette a "Statement of Cash Activities," as of Sept. 14. The Gazette reports that Program Services lists $998,185 in payouts for contract labor and leased employees. Rebuild officials told the Gazette that those were operational costs.

Under Management & General, the Rebuild statement shows costs of $92,895, including "leased employees office" expenses of $39,402. But the Gazette reports, "Rebuild officials declined to release any specific management salaries or an agency salary schedule."

Other expenses revealed by the Gazette included $47,509 in travel, $18,564 in entertainment and $8,113.75 in travel, meals and per diem.

The Press Gazette article also questions the amount of roof and housing repairs done by Rebuild. It said it took Rebuild more than four months to repair one elderly Pensacola resident's roof. It quotes Rebuild founder Buzz Ritchie saying the group has repaired about 500 homes total, so far.

Stay tuned as local media outlets continue to try and get an accurate accounting of the dollars and repairs by Rebuild.

GANNETT A PANHANDLE GIANT? What has many major advertisers, local powerbrokers and concerned newspaper readers quaking in their boots? Gannett, again.

The country's largest newspaper chain is continuing its quest to control Northwest Florida news, information and advertising.

Almost two years after its failed bid to buyout Freedom Communications, which owns the profitable Fort Walton Beach and Panama City daily papers, Gannett successfully acquired the Tallahassee Democrat last month.

How bad did Gannett want the Tallahassee paper owned by Knight Ridder Inc.? It gave away daily papers in Idaho and two in Washington for it. Gannett also received some cash.

In a press release, Gannett President and CEO Craig Dubow says: "Florida, where Gannett already has three TV stations, three newspapers and distributes Clipper magazine, is a strong and growing region for Gannett. The Tallahassee Democrat, in the state's capital, is a key addition to the mix. We look forward to bringing them on board."

Gannett was also proud to announce it found other jobs for its publishers at the papers it gave to Knight Ridder. Meanwhile it put Patrick Dorsey in charge of the Tallahassee Democrat. He was director/finance and group controller for Florida Today, a Gannett operation in Brevard.

Who's next? Watch out as Gannett tries to gobble up the rest of Northwest Florida.

WEAR GETS WOODY WEAR continues to beef up its newsroom with the addition of Randy Wood as its managing editor….although we're not sure what a managing editor does for a television station.

Wood, formerly of WKRG in Mobile, has 15 years of television news reporting experience in the Florida Panhandle and south Alabama. Now, he's with Channel 3, making the big bucks like news anchor Bob Solarski, The Buzz has it.

Actually in his new capacity as M.E., Wood oversees all day-to-day news coverage and content and gets Solarski's coffee.

Wood assumed the position recently after having served as interim news director at WCJB-TV Channel 20, the ABC affiliate serving Gainesville and Ocala in central Florida.

"Randy is an aggressive reporter and leader who has demonstrated a level of understanding of local news few people have," says WEAR-TV news director Peter Neumann in a press release on the station's Web site.

Can we expect a new series of hard-hitting investigative reports from WEAR in the future? How far away are the sweep weeks?

MOUSE TRAP There may be some relief for Perdido Key landowners in their battle with its "endangered" beach mouse (IN, "Mouse Trap," Sept. 8). House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo has introduced new legislation to rewrite the Endangered Species Act.

Pombo's bill offers property owners grants and incentives to cooperate in protecting species on their land. The law would also require the federal government to compensate landowners, if protecting endangered species forced them to give up the use of their land. The federal government would also have to give greater weight to peer-reviewed science and empirical data, rather than computer modeling of the populations of endangered species.

Environmental groups say the provision amounts to paying landowners not to violate the law and argue it would make it more difficult to get a species listed as threatened or endangered.

The House Resources Committee is expected to pass the bill, and GOP leaders have promised a vote on the House floor this fall. However, the more closely divided Senate has shown little interest in taking up the contentious issue of reauthorizing the law this year.

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