No Democracy in Florida
This website contains evidence of how citizens rights were violated by Florida State officials including forcing plans opposed by the public, refusal to allow a referendum on a public issue, official State Advisory group violation of stated mission, conflict of interest, violation of neutrality, lack of representation, violations of Democracy and the Florida Attorney General’s office failing to respond to complaints about this matter.
Silver Springs Park in Silver Springs FL is one of the Nations first National Attractions and home of the world famous Glass Bottom Boats. It was owned by ABC Television from 1962 to 1984. Movies such as Tarzan, Creature from the Black Lagoon, scenes from Legend and James Bond were filmed at Silver Springs.
ABC Television built the sister park, Wild Waters in 1978. It’s not only one of the South’s first Water Parks, it’s one of the first Water Parks to use fiberglass slides. It provides over 60 summer jobs and is one of the few attractions we have in our area.
In 2014, Wild Waters was put under the control of Florida Park Service by Governor Rick Scott. Soon after, Florida State Park bureaucrats announced that they planned to close Wild Waters in 2016.
Eliminating Wild Waters has not been due to a lack of attendance, it’s because Florida State Park Bureaucrats wants to use the property for a more “Park Like Setting” and they don’t care what the public wants.
A petition was created and signed by over 3,400 people from all over the state of Florida, the United States and by members of our troops in the Mid East demanding that our Water Park be preserved.
Despite over 3,400 people signing a petition demanding that Wild Waters be preserved, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced that will be demolishing Wild Waters at the of the 2016 season.
Why the Florida Park Service Closed Wild Waters Water Park
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In the video above, Silver Springs Park Manager Ms. Sally Lieb states; “You’ve got the State Park , the Greenway & trails, and there’s the huge national forests, so we want that corner to represent that and having the water park there doesn’t give anybody that feeling when their heading in that direction”.
That statement proves eliminating Wild Waters is what members of the Silver Springs Advisory Group and Park Service wants for their own personal, selfish reasons.
Eliminating our water park because “having the water park there doesn’t give anybody that feeling when their heading in that direction” is a selfish and inconsiderate excuse on the part of Florida State officials to denying thousands of people here in central Florida our Water Park.
Over 3,400 people signed a petition to save Wild Waters in Silver Springs Florida. Copies of petition and comments were sent to Governor Rick Scott…
Copies of petition and comments were sent to Mr. Donald Forgione, Director of Florida Park Service…
Copies of petition and comments were sent to Silver Springs Park Manager Sally Lieb…
Copies of petition and comments were sent to Republican House Majority Leader Mr. Steve Crisafulli, Republican Senate Majority Leader Ms. Lizbeth Benacquisto, Republican Representative Robert C. Schenck and the Ocala City Council.
Copies of petition and comments were sent to the Marion County Commissioners Mr. David Moore, Ms. Kathy Bryant, Mr. Carl Zalak, Mr. Earl Arnett and Mr. Stan McClain (all are Republicans).
Letters were sent and calls made to Senator Dorothy Hukill (Deceased) and Representative Dennis K. Baxley (both are Republicans), who represent the Ocala area and there was no acknowledgement or response from either of them.
Two separate complaints were filed to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Republican) and the Florida Attorney General’s Office in January 2015 about citizens rights being violated and to date, there has been no response from Pam Bondi or the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Several complaint letters were sent to Mr. Jon Steverson, Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection about all of the issues on this page and there has been no acknowledgement or response from him.
Florida Environmental Scientist Suspended for Saying “Climate Change”
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This is the same Department of Environmental Protection which was accused of ordering employees not to use the terms “Climate Change“, “Global Warming” and “Sea Level Rise” as reported by National TV Networks, Newspapers and by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting – http://fcir.org/2015/03/08/in-florida-officials-ban-term-climate-change/
2019 UPDATE: New 2019 Petition to Rebuild Wild Waters Gets 12,000 Signatures
In December 2018, the Florida Park Service began Demolition, Against the will of the People.
People were heartbroken and outraged about our beloved Water Park being destroyed. Here’s a few of their comments;
In response, a new petition was created in January 2019 to rebuild Wild Waters.
In less than one week, 8,000 people signed the petition.
Within 2 months, over 10,000 people signed the petition demanding Wild Waters be re-built. This is almost 3 times the number of people who signed the original petition.
Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/rebuild-wild-waters
Download a copy of 12,057 signatures in support of re-building Wild Waters as of 9-6-20
Download a copy of 800+ comments in support of re-building Wild Waters as of 9-6-20
According to an in the Star Banner Newspaper, the Marion County Commissions wants to spend 23 million dollars for a new Aquatic Center. Seems Wild Waters could have been fixed up for a fraction of that amount. Talk about wasteful spending!
Every member of the Marion County Commissioners, the Ocala City Council members and the Mayor were sent letters to inform them about the new petition with over 10,000 signatures and once again, ALL choose to ignore the letters and their constituents proving they could care less what the citizens they are supposed to be serving want. In my opinion, they all are unfit to “serve” in any position in Government.
As described on this site, every elected and non-elected state official has failed to uphold and respect “the will of the people” proving there is a total lack of democracy in this state. Ads may be ran at some point in the future exposing this entire matter. This is a classic example what’s wrong with our government and I think people all over the United States should be made aware of this outrage.
There hasn’t been ONE Florida State official respond to the petition and take action to uphold the will of Florida citizens. Every person who has ignored the two (2) petitions has proven themselves Anti-democratic , grossly negligent, unworthy of public trust and unfit to hold public office.
This proves that there is NO Democracy in one-party rule REPUBLICAN dominated Florida and Florida state officials don’t give a damn about what the citizens who they are PAID to serve, want.
Florida government officials ignoring the wishes of the citizens of this state and refusing to let the people vote on keeping our Water Park PROVES the State of Florida is run like Anti-democratic Fascist Dictatorship.
Eliminating Wild Waters against the “Will of the people” is another example of why it’s a mistake to vote for REPUBLICANS
Full details at https://wildwatersocala.com/why-wild-waters-closed/
Per the above article; “You’ve heard of death by a thousand cuts. Florida Republicans have inflicted the thousandth cut on democracy in this state. Democracy in Florida is just about dead. The state effectively has a one-party (Republican) regime”.
“Florida Republicans acquired their overlord status in large part through voter suppression. After the November 2020 election in which many more Democrats than Republicans voted by mail, Republicans had to suppress that too. Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley introduced SB 90, which retroactively voids as many as 6 million already-filed 2022 mail-voting sign-ups and bans mail-ballot drop boxes, which were used without incident by 1.5 million Florida voters last year. It’s voter suppression on steroids”.
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