Spaceport spending

– August 23, 2023 –

Good morning. If you’ve ever been curious about where all the money goes for public projects, we have an eye-opening breakdown of costs on Camden’s defunct spaceport venture. We also have a report on a new DNR commissioner infamous for a 2017 incident that involved moonshine. And we have sea turtles, lots more than expected it turns out. Let’s take a look.

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Spaceport spending

Consultants, engineers, lawyers and lobbyists don’t come cheap, as The Current’s Maggie Lee demonstrates in her breakdown of where the money went for Spaceport Camden. Our data wizard analyzed more than 500 invoices that Camden has posted on its website so far totaling about $4 million to figure out who got what.

Among her findings:

•  Spaceport hired Live Oak Public Strategies in 2021 at $7,500 a month soon after its founding by Tim Fleming and Chuck Harper, after they departed their jobs as Gov. Brian Kemp’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff respectively. 

•  Fenimore Ventures, which appears to have only two employees, promised Camden a three-phase business and sales plan meant to deliver “committed potential tenants” by 2021. The company has billed Camden approximately $600,000 according to documents made public so far.

•  In  2015, Camden signed a wide-ranging service agreement with Fort Worth-based NelsonCFO, just a month after the company was registered with the Texas Secretary of State. The cost is expected to come to $1.6 million, but Camden hasn’t posted any invoices or progress reports from the company about its work.

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DNR commissioner named

The Department of Natural Resources Board named Walter Rabon as the new commissioner Tuesday. The Jasper County resident vowed to keep the agency “between the ditches,” a curious choice of words given that he was suspended from the department five years ago after drunkenly driving a friend’s Corvette into a ditch.

The incident drew widespread media attention at the time not only because of Rabon’s position as deputy director of the DNR but also because officers discovered moonshine in the vehicle.

Rabon is a 30-year veteran of the department, having come up through the Law Enforcement Division. In this experience he’s similar to Jeff Cown, who joined DNR in the 1990s and earlier this month was appointed director of DNR’s regulatory arm, the Environmental Protection Division.

While the DNR is promoting experienced personnel, public access to the DNR Board’s activity is lagging. The board livestreamed its meetings at the height of the pandemic, but then discontinued the practice. Showing up in person in Atlanta — or at an occasional on-the-road venue — is the only way for the public and reporters to see the board in action, as Sierra Club lobbyist Mark Woodall noted in the Georgia Recorder.

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Sea turtle update

After last year’s record high sea turtle nesting on Georgia’s coast — with 4,071 nests — turtle watchers were prepared for a much leaner season this year.

Computer modeling suggested the total would be about 2,800 nests, Mark Dodd, a senior wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources reported. But it’s turning out much higher, with 3,464 nests documented on beaches from Tybee to Cumberland islands.

Tybee is having a second-straight year of more than 30 nests, high for this developed tourist spot. The 15- year average for Tybee is 18 nests a year. Chantal Audran, executive director of the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, credits conservation efforts — beach signage, a lights-out campaign and other educational programs — with helping locals and visitors alike protect sea turtles. “Tybee is very supportive and the passion and diligence of its residents to support sea turtle conservation is also paramount,” she said.

But Dodd isn’t satified yet. “It’s decent nesting compared with previous years on Tybee, but the overall nesting density is low compared to undeveloped beaches,” he wrote in an email. “I’m not sure we can call it a success until densities are similar to other islands in the state.”

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Also noted:

•  The Georgia DNR Board belatedly posted the biography and photo of member Mark Hennessey, who was appointed in April. Hennessey is the CEO of a group of luxury car dealerships in the Atlanta area. He’s also one of 16 so-called fake electors from Georgia who signed a fraudulent electoral vote certificate that was submitted to Congress as part of the failed attempt to claim Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

•  The Tybee Island Marine Science Center at 37 Meddin Drive on Tybee is celebrating Westie the loggerhead’s first birthday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, August 25. Westie was a “straggler” hatchling being raised at the science center. The public is welcome to observe feedings, discover sea turtle artifacts, and get a temporary turtle tattoo. 

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Editor’s note: This newsletter was corrected Aug. 23. Chantal Audran is the executive director of the Tybee Island Marine Science Center. A previous version misstated her title.

If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or just like what you see, let us know at thecurrentga@gmail.com.

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