SANDDOLLAR CONSULTING
Owners/operators of the Brian Dunwoody House at
520 N. Spring Street, Pensacola, Florida 32501
Mailing Address
12525 Meadson Road
Pensacola, Fl 32506
September 11, 2011
The Honorable Marco Rubio
B40A Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Rubio
Thank you for your letter of September 7, 2011. Thank you for forwarding my correspondence to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for a thorough review of the apparent illegal/criminal actions against us as you stated in your letter of August 11, 2011. They have yet to contact me for any information but I will keep you informed. I want to thank you for taking seriously the oversight of federal agencies when all too frequently these agencies refuse to do the job they have been made responsible for, authorized to do and are paid to do while citizens who pay for these services do not received them.
For example, in our situation my late husband and I have both served our country (veterans), worked hard, coached teams our children and grandchildren were on, served in community organizations, and obeyed the law.
We are not house flippers. We have only owned four properties in 39 years of marriage, two of which we still own. We no longer have our starter house or our brief experiment in owning a rental house. We do have our residence of over 33 years, which we built in 1978 (we were the contractors) and our business downtown, which we purchased in 1998, an historic Victorian mansion, built in 1883 and listed on the United States Registry of Historic Places, which we restored according to the Guidelines set forth by the United States Secretary of the Interior for restoring historic properties. We invested our life savings and many years of future income to properly restore this beautiful historic building. We won best restored house for the year 2000. This property is very dear to us, our children and our grandchildren.
After restoration, we were legally authorized by City Officials (2000) and State Officials (2001) to continue the operation of the previous business owner, an art gallery/antique shop holding functions which had been opened in 1980. This business had been in operation for over 25 years with no complaints from the City, from the neighbors or the clients when we were illegally closed down during a function (a wedding), without due process, by three City Departments within 48 hours of each other, on March 19, 2005, the day before City Officials announced that they were building a 40 million dollar maritime park at the end of our Street, Spring Street.
It appears that, when our property became very important, it had to be illegally taken away from us even though we are in compliance with all laws controlling our business operation. We are still illegally closed down even though we have worked diligently to have this illegal prohibition lifted. State Statutes prohibit extortion (Pensacola City Officials threatened to charge me with a crime if I have functions which I am authorized to do), prohibit grand theft (Pensacola City Officials are denying me my rightful income from my officially approved business), prohibit conspiracy (after 25 years of operation with no complaints, 3 Pensacola City Departments closed my business down within 48 hours), etc. Federal laws prohibit the illegal closing of a minority-owned business (woman-owned) and prohibit closing an authorized business without due process, etc. Yet, all of these came to pass.
The change was so abrupt that it took us a while to understand what had happened. I officially dotted every “i” and crossed every “t.” All of our paperwork had been approved, even to the state level. We were on the Tour of Historic Homes for 2000, my daughters and I served as docents for other years for other houses on the tours, local artists set up their easels outside and painted our house, we were written up in historical magazines and the paper for the work we had done, and on March 19, 2005, City Officials ordered us to close down and, more or less, get out.
I initially reported that these actions were illegal to the Departments which had closed us down, the City Manager, the Police Department, and the Neighborhood Development Department. All refused to stop the apparent illegal/criminal actions against us. Senator Rubio, I have notified City Officials and members of the Pensacola City Council, regularly, for over six (6) years that they are breaking the law in this matter but they refuse to stop. Most, like our current Mayor, Mayor Hayward, won’t answer my correspondence where I show him that we were operating in compliance with all City, County, State and Federal laws but ignores the whole illegal situation: that we are illegally prohibited from using our property as properly authorized in 2000, and further sanctioned by ordinance in January, 2001. Since I am an elderly widow, City Officials appear to be waiting for me to die and the property can easily be forced away from my heirs who are all wonderful, intelligent, caring, artsy people but probably not able to defend themselves against these illegal attacks and law enforcement agencies appear to protect these illegal attacks, leaving victims defenseless.
I reported the apparent illegal/criminal actions of City Officials to the Escambia County Sheriff, Sheriff Morgan. He said that the City of Pensacola was not in his jurisdiction and refused to do anything. Sheriff Morgan appears to be violating the Florida Constitution as he will not allow the citizens of the City of Pensacola to use the services of the Escambia County Sheriff even though we pay Escambia County property taxes in addition to paying Pensacola City property taxes on our property downtown.
The Constitution of the State of Florida states that, “(h) TAXES; LIMITATION. Property situate within municipalities shall not be subject to taxation for services rendered by the county exclusively for the benefit of the property or residents in unincorporated areas.”
Sheriff Morgan’s website states, “The mission of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is to improve the quality of life and protect the property of all individuals in Escambia County by providing responsible, effective and efficient law enforcement services to prevent crime and enforce the law with integrity and fairness.”
Sheriff Morgan is violating his mission statement as he refuses law enforcement services to Pensacola City citizens thereby excluding at least 50,000 people out of the 300,000 people in Escambia County. Escambia County is divided into five districts. Our business, in downtown Pensacola, is located in District 3 of the County, our County Commissioner is Marie Young, and we have been paying County and City taxes on our property downtown for over 13 years but have been denied the services of the County Sheriff. The Escambia County Sheriff is obligated to obey the Florida Constitution as we all are but he refuses.
I have reported these apparent illegal/criminal actions on the part of Pensacola City Officials many times to the State Attorney, Mr. Eddins. He has refused to stop the illegal actions against us and has refused to charge those breaking the law. While the State Attorney can claim prosecutorial discretion in pursuing charges against law breakers, Mr. Eddins is not authorized to condone and allow apparent law breaking to continue, harming law-abiding citizens, as he is doing. The State Attorney’s office should be investigated as it appears that he has refused to stop illegal/criminal actions against us and, also, he helped the Pensacola City Attorney prepare his statement to FDLE which defamed me and made false accusations against me and FDLE, in turn, defamed me and made false accusations against me.
On Sep 9, 2010, it appears that Florida State Attorney, Mr. Bill Eddins, the Pensacola City Attorney, Mr. Wells, and Pensacola Community Development Department employee, Ms. Morris, discussed the answer Mr. Wells, as the representative of the City of Pensacola, was going to send to Mr. Ramage (FDLE) regarding my reporting to FDLE, again, the illegal closing of our small business, an art gallery/antique shop holding functions, on March 19, 2005. It appears that they decided to present false statements and false charges about me to FDLE instead of the real facts which are: we were authorized in 2000 to hold functions, further authorized in January, 2001, I operated in compliance with all rules and regulations, I was illegally closed down, without due process, by the Pensacola Police Department on March 19, 2005, etc.
Mr. Ramage (FDLE) repeated the false statements and false charges of the Pensacola City Attorney to me as a reason for not stopping the apparent illegal/criminal actions against me, to excuse FDLE’s inaction, to excuse FDLE for not charging those breaking the law and apparently to cover-up apparent wide-spread corruption. FDLE has consistently refused to investigate this illegal activity. I wrote, twice, to Mr. Gerald Bailey, Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), pointing out that the charges stated by the Pensacola City Attorney and repeated by Mr. Ramage were false but Mr. Bailey has refused to address this matter.
The action on the part of FDLE in repeating undocumented false charges and undocumented false statements instead of the heavily documented report I submitted concerns me as I am now questioning the credibility of the FDLE on any issue they investigate. It appears that FDLE may not really investigate or even read the facts but stands behind fellow government officials no matter if the officials are right or wrong. FDLE has failed to do its job regarding our situation.
I believe that making false statements to a law enforcement agency is a crime and should be investigated. I wrote to Pensacola Mayor Hayward and Pensacola City Attorney Messer and asked that they correct the official record about me at FDLE and replace the false charges and false statements with the true facts. They refused.
The FBI website states that the job of the FBI is to “Combat public corruption at all levels.” I wrote the FBI about the appearance of corruption at every level of government I addressed, that we are victims of apparent multiple illegal/criminal actions against us, by government officials, followed by cover-ups on the part of each law enforcement agency we have contacted. This is a serious problem which should be resolved by a government agency tasked and paid to do this job, such as the FBI. They stated that it was not in their jurisdiction, which is not true, and that the Statute of Limitations had expired, which is not true as the apparent illegal/criminal actions are being forced on us every day we are closed and every day we cannot earn an income from our investment property. The event is ongoing and the Statute of Limitations cannot even start until after the event is over.
The FBI website also states, “The FBI is the lead agency for investigating violations of federal civil rights laws…and we take that responsibility seriously.” I even reluctantly asked the FBI to stop the apparent illegal/criminal actions against us based on civil rights (woman-owned business and elderly) as a last attempt to get some action but they have ignored that also.
My opinion is that people who do not want to enforce the law should not be in law enforcement. I, and others, are paying heavily for services we are refused.
I am still closed, I am still out of work, my contract employees are still out of work, we are in dire financial straits, caterers and the like have less work, etc., all due to apparent illegal/criminal actions on the part of City Officials.
Senator Rubio, I have been sent from agency to agency all over the state and all over the country and no one will stop the apparent illegal/criminal actions against me. Hopefully, as you requested, the FBI will do something this time. I am requesting that you stay with me until the apparent crimes against us stop and we are able to earn income, again, from our properly authorized business. It is painful that our beautiful historic building is falling into disrepair due to the illegal actions of City Officials.
I am also requesting, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a copy of any communication you have (except generated by me) regarding me or our property, especially correspondence to the FBI and local officials, for my documentation. I am currently writing a book about our experiences in restoring our historic property and our experiences in becoming part of the return of people to inner cities. We have encountered many problems in this endeavor which people should be made aware of if they are planning to do the same thing.
Again, thank you for your assistance and I believe you will do a good job for those of us who are law-abiding, patriotic, hardworking, family-oriented and devoted to our Country.
Sincerely,
Mary Mead
