What is Rodney Barreto up to? By Geniusofdespair

This can't be good...

On July 14th at the Community Council 11 meeting, Rodney Barreto's Company, Krome Gold Ranches, that owns 466 acres outside the urban development boundary, is asking to "modify and delete conditions of a previous approved resolution to allow the applicant to sell the excavated lake materials and to delete the time frame for completion of the lake excavation, and to permit the lake materials to be used off-site and/or outside the current urban development boundary area, on this site."

Barreto owns this large parcel with Augustin Herran and Armando J. Guerra, that makes 3 of the 9 Board of Directors of the BauerFinancial-rated ONE STAR U.S. Century Bank. (One star is the lowest ranking by Bauer.) How did they get to one star? As Gimleteye reported yesterday, almost 10% of their loans were to insiders, a giant number when you consider comparable 'peer group' banks (There are 114 banks in peer group 1) were at less than 2 tenths of a percent. And, U.S. Century loans to insiders total net worth was at almost a whopping 74%. In comparison to banks in their class which were at less than 1%. Their commercial Real Estate/total loans are at 45.88% while the peer banks are at 14.31%. And, their Construction and Land Development/Total Loans are at 23%, whereas the peer group banks are at 3.59%. That all might account for some of their problems.

Yes we have a Krome Gold file. Rodney Barreto is also the Superbowl Host Committee chair and the Chairman of he Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He was put on Fish and Wildlife by Jeb and he was kept there by Charlie. One of Crist's dumber moves... apparently Rodney is raking in the dough for Crist.

This application sets a precedent for rock mining in a place where rock mining has been discouraged. If our memories serve us correctly, all this mined rock was supposed to provide fill pads for the new suburban sprawl that the county commission was poised to approve, until the housing markets crashed. What a joke it has been: using excavations to bail out speculators under the guise of providing benefits like water enhancements. These incidental rock miners are trying to save their skins, using up the aquifer that serves us all as a private benefit to them! Also, zoning changes that started with amendments to comprehensive land use plans, now being altered to serve another interest, are the best reason to support Florida Hometown Democracy: trust the voters to know what interests and who is gaming our zoning. Rock mined lakes are popping up all over, now that development is years and years away. In Palm Beach, the county commission slammed the door on new applications for rock mines. Maybe if a few of our own county commissioners were prosecuted like they have been in Palm Beach-- related to rock mining, we would do the same here.
US Century