TO:
All DEP Employees
FROM: David Struhs
DATE: January 3, 2000
SUBJECT: New Year Message to All DEP Employees
The beginning of a new year is a traditional time to take stock of our
personal
lives. The same should be true for our professional ones.
In so doing, we
find reason to be proud, and reason to be confident in the future.
I will always remember 1999 as a remarkably challenging and exciting
time.
Getting to know Florida better, and getting to know many of you better
has
proven to be most rewarding. A year of organizing and team building,
combined
with some high profile decisions and new directions, has not only made
1999
memorable, but has helped set the course and pace for the beginning
of the
next
century.
Years from now when we look back at 1999, I for one will remember the
renewed
focus we put on powerful ideas. Principled ideas such as the
notion that
companies must provide "Reasonable Assurance." Positive ideas
such as
focusing
on achieving "More Protection, Less Process."
What DEP did at Garcon Point and with the Anderson Columbia family of
companies
in 1999 has clearly raised the bar for future performance, both by
the
regulated community and by DEP, in the new century. We have also
learned (I
perhaps more than some of you) the hard lesson that even in those cases
where
we push the envelope and achieve previously unimagined levels of improved
protection, some continual criticism is a constant in a democratic
society.
Perhaps the criticism that stings the most is that which originates
from
uninformed views of what our agency can and cannot do under the laws
of the
land. Our jobs would be easier if more citizens understood government
better.
Yet we can take great pride and comfort in knowing that so many of the
benefits
we do achieve in our work at DEP accrue to so many, and often well
into the
future. For example, in 1999 DEP negotiated the largest reduction
of air
pollution in Florida's history by a single company, bringing a real
solution
to
Florida's most intractable air quality problem. Tampa Electric
Company's
agreement to cut air pollution by as much as 85% will improve the health
of
thousands, reduce nitrogen loading in Tampa Bay, and set a new standard
for
advanced pollution control technology at power plants across the country.
These are the kinds of real, measurable results that Florida has come
to
expect
from its state government.
Of course, so many of the great and memorable highlights of 1999 have,
in
fact,
been years in the making - certainly long before my own arrival on
the scene.
The gold medal awarded to Florida's State Parks for having been voted
the best
state park system in America is but one example. Hundreds of
DEP full-time
and
part-time employees and hundreds of dedicated citizen volunteers have
gone
above and beyond the call of duty for many years to achieve this national
recognition.
Perhaps one of the most lasting legacies of 1999 was the passage of
Governor
Bush's Florida Forever Act. The Florida Legislature moved decisively
to meet
the clear desire of a vast majority of Floridians to preserve and protect
the
state's threatened scenic and natural wonders. And DEP was in
the middle of
the effort to help ensure that the passage and enactment of the world's
largest
land conservation program occurred before the new century began.
What a
thrill
that was!
There is so much more of which we can all be proud. Time and space
prevent a
more comprehensive record here. However, as we prepare ourselves
for the
pressures and stresses that will be a part of our normal professional
life in
the year ahead, let us not lose site of all the good things we have
accomplished together in the year just closed. If past is prologue,
then we
have a very bright future indeed.
Happy New Year to you all, and keep up the great work.