Michigan Messenger » Emmet County

GOP official in Petoskey calls McCain pullout a ‘complete crock of crap’

Ed Brayton — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:11:48 +0000

Republican officials in Michigan are trying to put a brave face on the McCain campaign’s withdrawal from the state, but at least one county GOP chairman in the Petoskey area is having none of that. Politico reports:

“If you are going to end visits to the state by McCain / Palin, do it,” urged Jack Waldvogel, chairman of the Emmet County GOP in a message obtained by Politico. “Just don’t formally announce that you are ‘pulling out’ of Michigan, and then come back two days later asking the base core of support to ‘keep working.’ What a slap in the face to all the thousands of people who have been energized by the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket. I’ve been involved in County Party politics and organization for 40 years, and this is the biggest dumbass stunt I have ever seen.”

Waldvogel added later in the message: “He has given up on our State? What a total and complete crock of crap. Again, I think McCain owes the Republicans and the People of Michigan a HUGE APOLOGY. SOON!”

I don’t think Mr. Waldvogel is gonna be on McCain’s Christmas card list this year.

Even dogged by controversy, Sovereign Deed moves forward with plans in Petoskey area

Eartha Jane Melzer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:35:16 +0000

Federal agency clears way for Emmet County’s negotiations with tarnished disaster-response privateer

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted Emmet County the right to lease some of the Pellston airport for commercial use, reviving concerns in the Petoskey area about a controversial company that has pursued space at the airport for a training center.

The FAA approval is not an endorsement of Sovereign Deed, spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory, said, but it is a necessary step for the county if any sort of business is to develop at the airport.

Last fall, the Emmet County Planning Commission approved Sovereign Deed LLC to build a national disaster response training center on 700 acres of airport property.The privatized civil defense project sought $14 million in state grants plus millions in tax breaks. In January, Michigan Messenger revealed that company founder, Barrett Moore, had lied about his military record and business history. Democratic State Rep. Gary McDowell responded by announcing that he would not support development plans by the company until Moore explained his misrepresentations.

Fred Gray, Emmet county spokesman, said he expects the county will now pursue a lease agreement with Sovereign Deed.

Continued -Sovereign Deed has said that in order to locate at the airport the county must build 10 million dollars in infrastructure. The county has said Sovereign Deed must put down millions before it will invest anything. The county is hoping to leverage state grants to build infrastructure at the airport, improvements which they say would benefit any business that would locate there, and by trickle-down effect the county as a whole.

The following was written by the Petoskey News about the new phase for the Sovereign Deed project:

Earlier this year, there was much stronger opposition to Sovereign Deed. Some locals decried privatized disaster relief as wrong and raised questions about past business dealings of Barrett Moore, the company’s CEO. However, given the nature of the region’s economy some say it’s hard to continue to oppose Sovereign Deed.
“I’m not surprised, but I’m disappointed things are moving in this direction,” said Cindy Mom, a Petoskey resident who had voiced her opposition to Sovereign Deed earlier and admitted to letting the issue fall by the wayside as of late. “Everyone wants a better economy and more jobs, but I think they duped Northern Michigan into accepting and embracing this thing without being honest about how many jobs they are really bringing here.”
Moore did not return repeated requests for comment by press time.

The County Commission meets tonight and is expected to discuss Sovereign Deed. Members of the group We Don’t Need Sovereign Deed plan to attend and voice concerns about the company.

County Unanimously OKs Plans for Private Disaster Response Center

Eartha Jane Melzer — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:28:34 +0000

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.

Personal Bankruptcy, Another Lawsuit Emerge Involving Sovereign Deed Founder

Eartha Jane Melzer — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:35:39 +0000

Barrett Moore, the CEO of Sovereign Deed — a company that wants to develop private disaster relief services with financial assistance from the state and county governments– declared personal bankruptcy in 1998 and has been sued for illegal or deceptive business practices three times in the last three years.

Sovereign Deed’s plan is to develop 700 acres of property around the Pellston Regional Airport as a safe haven for subscribers in the event of a catastrophic attack on the U.S., according to Rick Johnson, the former speaker of the Michigan House and now a lobbyist for the firm.

The project has been well-received by state and local government, Johnson said.

“We are looking at the county, state or federal government to provide grants for infrastructure,” he explained. “Roads need to be improved, water needs to be brought in.”

Continued -Last week the Emmet County Planning Commission approved plans for 12 acres of new Sovereign Deed buildings at the airport. The commission reviewed the proposal in a Tuesday study session in advance of a Nov. 8 meeting

Moore has not disclosed publicly in connection with his Michigan activites that he filed for personal bankruptcy in Illinois in 1998. According to a petition filed in federal bankruptcy court in Chicago he stated that two of his companies, Knight International and Arbitage Imports, were insolvent and that he had debts totaling $2,749,355. His only assets were $4,897 in an IRA account, $500 in household goods and $350 in clothing. In February 1999 the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago discharged an undisclosed amount of debt Moore owed to 58 creditors, according to court records.

In 2000 Moore’s computer-based training services company called Trifus agreed to resell the programs of a Utah software firm, Learnframe. In a July 2006 lawsuit the company alleged that Moore recruited former employees to steal software codes and that he defaulted on a $1.2-million promissory note. In March 2007 a federal judge agreed to Moore’s request that the dispute be submitted to arbitration. Court records do not show any activity since then.

As Michigan Messenger reported last week, Moore was sued in 2005 by former colleagues at Triple Canopy, a controversial private security firm operating in Iraq that he founded in 2002. The complaint alleged that Moore raided company funds for his own personal use, in one instance purchasing and hiding $100,000 in gold coins. The suit also alleged that he seized control of Triple Canopy’s communications systems as a negotiating ploy for a better severance package, thereby endangering employees in Iraq. Moore rejected the claims. The dispute was settled out of court.

As the Messenger also reported last week, a lawsuit filed in 2006 by an Illinois supplier alleged that Sovereign Deed failed to pay for one million surgical masks. That is still pending. Moore denied any wrongdoing.

Some local supporters of Sovereign Deed were surprised to learn of Moore’s financial history.

Emmet County Chamber of Commerce executive Carlin Smith, who backs Sovereign Deed’s plans in Pellston, said he did not do a background check on Moore or his companies. “The Chamber has more of a PR role,” he said.

Emmet County Controller Lyn Johnson said he was aware of the allegations and was not concerned about them. He said that during a trip this spring he visited a Sovereign Deed facility in Chicago and was satisfied that the company was sound.

Michigan Messenger contacted three of the seven Emmet County commissioners–Jack Jones, Thomas Shier and Thomas Foltz — all of whom said they were unaware of Moore’s business and personal history. The commissioners are expected to vote on the Sovereign Deed project on Nov. 8.

“I personally would want to consider [the allegations] if [they] came from a credible source,” Shier said. Foltz and Jones expressed similar sentiments.

Three lawsuits and a bankruptcy is not a normal profile for someone seeking tax abatements, said Dale Oesterle, a professor and contract law expert at Ohio State University’s Moritz Law School.

“The problem with these kinds of tax abatements is that it takes awhile for them to pay off…you want the guy to stay in business,” he added, “Give them a dollar in tax abatements and you collect two or three in taxes. But that doesn’t work if they don’t stick around.”

Group questions tax breaks for private security company

Eartha Jane Melzer — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:12:47 +0000

The CEO of a private security company that plans to locate its national response center in northern Michigan will respond to citizen concerns at a meeting on Tuesday.

In August Sovereign Deed, a company that offers private catastrophe response services, announced that it would build its national response center at the Pellston Airport in Emmet County.

The decision came after northern Michigan lawmaker, State Senator Jason Allen (R-Traverse City), successfully amended the plant rehabilitation and industrial development act to allow a “strategic response center” to quality for tax abatements. An analysis by the Senate fiscal agency noted that the bill would allow McKinley township to offer the company five million dollars in additional tax abatements and that Sovereign Deed is likely to bring 40 jobs to the area.

Continued -The tax breaks are among the issues raised by citizens from Cheboygan, Emmet, and Charlevoix counties who have founded a group called, “Do We Need Sovereign Deed?”

In a set of questions prepared for the Tuesday meeting by retired anthropology professor, David Dwyer, DWNSD asks, “Is disaster relief for all citizens a public (governmental) function?”

The group argues that because the Michigan Constitution states that all political power is inherent in the people and that Government is instituted or their equal benefit, security and protection, spending public funds for private security is improper.

The group also wants to know whether the company will warehouse weapons in northern Michigan and whether it plans to mine water.

DWNSD notes that Sovereign Deed founder, Barrett Moore, also founded Triple Canopy — a private security contractor found by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to have fired first in 30 separate clashes in Iraq.

The group asks whether Sovereign Deed’s request for public expenditure should be put on hold, “in view of Triple Canopy’s complicity in the disastrous and criminal mercenary war-profiteering in Iraq.”

Private civil defense company to move to Pellston

Eartha Jane Melzer — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:01:01 +0000

Sovereign Deed, a company that calls itself the nation’s first private civil defense firm, has decided to establish its national response center in Northern Michigan.

Company CEO, Barrett H. Moore, also founded Triple Canopy, a company he said, “commercialized the market for specialized military services,” and made over 500 million dollars in military contracts.

The company website encourages readers to, “understand the uncomfortable truths,” — that the government is not prepared to fully protect everyone during a major disaster and that just-in-time delivery could mean shortages.

Sovereign Deed plans to offer disaster planning, rescue, and shelter services to subscribing members.