County Unanimously OKs Plans for Private Disaster Response Center

The Emmet County Commission voted unanimously Thursday night to approve Sovereign Deed’s plan to build a controversial disaster response base at the Pellston Regional Airport.

Sovereign Deed is a private security company that advertises disaster response services to subscribers who would pay fees of $50,000 or more. In the event of a disaster, subscribers might be brought to Pellston.

Though some local residents and officials welcome the company as a potential job source in an economically strapped area, others have expressed strong concerns about the vagueness of the Sovereign Deed plan and the wisdom of using public funds to subsidize a company that seeks to privatize national disaster response services. In addition, there is concern over legal matters involving both Sovereign Deed and its CEO, Barrett Moore.

Continued -Planning officials and citizens have said that approval of the plan could mean locals will have no oversight of what goes on at Sovereign Deed and that the base could be used for paramilitary training.

In May, Sen. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) sponsored a revision of the state’s industrial tax abatement law so that private security companies can receive tax breaks. Further, a regional economic development authority — the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance — has been working with county and township leaders and staff to leverage state grants for Sovereign.

But county approval of the development proposal does not guarantee public funding of the project, commissioners said.

“We will not jeopardize taxpayers’ money unnecessarily,” James Tamlyn, chairman of the seven-member board of commissioners, said. “We looked at this with our attorney as a business decision, a way to develop the airport.”

Tamyln said that before the county pays for infrastructure upgrades for Sovereign Deed, officials want to see a good faith financial investment by the company, such as a $20-million bond for the project.

It’s not clear what criteria state agencies will use to decide whether to release funds to help Sovereign Deed.

“If Emmet County, and the state of Michigan for that matter, is looking at this as an investment they should at least check it out a little more before signing over 700 acres of county land along with our tax dollars,” said local resident Cindy Mom, who has attended several meetings on the project.

Local officials have said that Sovereign Deed CEO Moore’s background as a founder and CEO of an Iraq war contractor, Triple Canopy, indicates the new company will be financially viable. But information about financial and legal problems associated with the company and Moore have raised doubts about the Sovereign Deed project. The company is facing a lawsuit over unpaid bills and there is a mechanics lien against its current headquarters outside Chicago.

In the weeks leading up to the approval of the Pellston site plan, differing versions of Sovereign Deed’s business model have circulated. For example, Richard Mills, a former brigadier general and now vice president of strategic development for Sovereign Deed, told locals that the facility would serve as a call center and warehouse for supplies. Sovereign Deed lobbyist and former speaker of the Michigan House, Rick Johnson, said the company planned to use the facility as a place to bring subscribers in the event of disaster.

The first phase of the Sovereign Deed building plan calls for a hangar that can accommodate military cargo planes.

Now that development — which includes a hangar, training center, crisis action center, warehouse and other buildings — has been approved for the airport site, Sovereign Deed is free to modify its business model as it sees fit.

Some opponents of the project have pointed out that Blackwater USA, another Michigan-connected private security contractor, is trying to build a training facility near the Mexican border in California apparently to compete for border security contracts.

There is no reason Sovereign Deed couldn’t change its focus and position itself similarly, Tamlyn said.