Friday, May 11, 2007
By Robert P. King
Another board member is departing the South Florida Water Management District, giving Gov. Charlie Crist a chance to appoint a majority of the panel that controls the powerful agency.
Lennart Lindahl, an engineering consultant from Tequesta, announced Thursday that he is resigning today because of health problems. He had open-heart surgery in 2004 and suffered "sudden cardiac failure" last fall, prompting his family and doctors to urge him to scale back his activities, he wrote to the governor this week.
"It's not what I want to do, but it's what I must do," Lindahl, 63, said Thursday at the end of a board meeting near West Palm Beach.
Then-Gov. Jeb Bush named Lindahl in March 2001, and he was due to leave in 2009. He held an at-large seat representing St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
For six years, the nine-member board was entirely Bush-appointed. But Crist has replaced three in the past month, and Chairman Kevin McCarty of Delray Beach said last week that he is not seeking a new term.
The agency oversees all or part of 16 counties, boasts a $1.4 billion budget and leads Florida's part of the $10.9 billion Everglades restoration.
The board has taken harsh criticism over the years, especially from environmentalists who accused it of backsliding on the Everglades cleanup. But Lindahl said he's proud of steps the board has taken to protect the Loxahatchee River, buy land for the restoration, expand water supplies and borrow up to $1.8 billion to speed Everglades projects.
"That's just a portion of what we did," he said. "But it's pretty incredible."
In another transition, the board unanimously elected one of Crist's appointees, Miami lawyer Eric Buermann, as its new chairman. Another Miami lawyer, Bush appointee Nicolas Gutierrez, is the new vice chairman.
Buermann is a former chief counsel for the Florida Republican Party and the state Bush-Cheney campaign. He also was general counsel for Crist's inaugural committee and the registered agent for Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government, a group that bashed Crist rival Tom Gallagher in last year's GOP primary.
Buermann has donated more than $125,000 to GOP candidates and causes in the past decade, campaign records show.
Buermann also serves on the Miami River Commission and oversaw Crist's environmental transition team, which encouraged the governor to take on issues such as global warming.
"You might describe me as a citizen-soldier trying to do the best job I can for the people," Buermann told The Palm Beach Post in March.
The governor's office said it has not received any
applications for Lindahl's seat. The position is unpaid.