A trove of emails and text messages has been turned over to the county from our consultant DPZ. The history of the issues with the master-planning effort for OLF-8 was posted in part I.
I'm going through the emails and texts over the next several evenings and I will do a series of posts on what I find.
And there are serious issues that need to be discussed about this issue and they will be discussed.
But I found a couple texts early on this weekend that were somewhat amusing. So I'll post them next. I hope I can keep from "spitting out my Guacamole.."
This exchange, these two texts above, was interesting.
They come out seemingly complimentary as they watch our meeting and comment along like some strange version of Mystery Science Theater 3000- but then they devolve into laughing and giggling. One member suggests it is some kind of a drinking game and another talks about getting "sober." It's weird. We are all taking this seriously--is DPZ and their team?
ReplyDeleteWonder what Bear's f/b messenger of DU drops will look like..
Popping the Popcorn
You know what? This is Embarrassing. For DPZ, Studer and Navy Fed. The world Class planner, the Early Education Czar wanna be and the world's largest credit union. Just Wow!
ReplyDeleteBack when I was researching how Doug had gamed the traffic stats down on PK Drive by running disinformation on a cell tower study that had been conducted, I ran into the below exchange in his emails.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw Marina Khoury commend him for taking apart a County staff member for just trying to do his job--and express her hope that the dressing down would yield "positive results" (what results was she hoping for?)--the word that popped into my mind was "mercenary."
Not in its strict definitions, but as a metaphor for the way she seems to insert herself into a complex and sensitive nexus of stakeholders and sew a divide and conquer PR and planning strategy. And then apparently weight the outcome toward a particular set of stakeholders, rather than arriving at a compromise solution that is truly reflective of all viewpoints.
From a more positive perspective, she seems to become intoxicated by a particular design vision, and once she has bought all in to it, she is programmed to pursue it with a relentlessness that, if you agree with her vision, no doubt seems nothing short of a miracle of advocacy. In that, I admire her tenacity.
The problem is, her role isn't supposed to be advocate, but facilitator. --Melissa Pino
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On Sep 21, 2015, at 11:15 AM, Colby S. Brown wrote:
Commissioner Underhill
Below is a brief on the cell phone data that was acquired by FDOT that we talked about a couple weeks ago.
Colby Brown, PE
Asst. County Engineer
Deputy Director Public Works
Design and Transportation
--------------------------
(Part 1)
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteFrom: Doug Underhill [mailto:DBUNDERHILL@co.escambia.fl.us]
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2015 3:34 PM
To: Colby S. Brown
Cc: Doug Underhill ; Jonathan L. Owens ; Jack R. Brown ; Rick Hall ; Juan C. Lemos ; Horace L Jones ; greg.vaughn@atkinsglobal.com
Subject: Re: Cell Phone Data on PK
Colby,
I recognize that you are simply passing along what you were passed by a contractor. The following is not a criticism of your knowledge, integrity, or professionalism. Please keep in mind that you are speaking to a Navy Information Officer with more experience in tracking things by telemetry than you can shake a stick at.
So what you are telling me is that, based on data that the public is not allowed to see, that I am not allowed to analyze, I am expected to make public decisions about where to spend massive amounts of money in ways that will have a permanent impact on the environment and quality of life of our citizens?
Is it really Atkins' position that 95% of the cell phone registrations (hand shakes with a tower) on the island are in some way attributable to "through traffic"?
In order to make such a statement, they would have to analyze data from three Florida towers (KNKA491, KNKA491, KNKA696) and at least two Alabama towers (KNKA461, KNKA278). However, when you consider the fan overlap of these towers it would seem nearly impossible to make such a dynamic leap in reasoning, especially when you consider the load-balancing role of the T-Mobile tower in Lillian. While I recognize that they feel they cannot share the data they are using, I expect to at least see the analytic explanation of what constitutes a "through traffic" condition. They and Atkins, however, should be aware that there are many very highly trained SIGINT professionals in this town who will very happily take the opportunity to shoot holes in psuedo-science.
Respectfully,
Commissioner Doug Underhill
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From: Marina Khoury [mailto:marina@dpz.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 3:48 PM
To: DBUNDERHILL@co.escambia.fl.us
Cc: Mike Weich ; Rick Hall rickhall@hpe-inc.comsed Subject: FW: Cell Phone Data on PK + charrette sked
Commissioner Underhill,
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated the candor of your response below. Hope it yields positive results.
We are gearing up for our charrette in about 10 days time and look forward to providing you with an implementable vision plan, so that you can one day soon, check that box and erase it of your do-to-list on your white board.
Regards and we hope you’ll attend a session or two at the charrette.
Marina Khoury RA CNU LEED
Partner
DPZ Partners LLC
320 Firehouse Lane, Gaithersburg MD 20878
marina@dpz.com
C. 305 299 8129 | T. 301 948 6223 x3007