If in fact G&S's negligence caused the SEC investigation ...
I have absolutely no opinion what probability there is in winning anything from G&S. The following is just a diatribe about our legal system. I would have posted this to my local chat room but they have an agreement saying anything posted is subject to prosecution which in this case I am utterly opposed to. And maybe I have hit the sherry a little hard.
I live deep in the south east which is subjected to an insect pest called the fire ant. For several years I have combatted fire ants, partly because they were heavily infesting our neighborhood and I pictured us being sued by parents of any toddler who was seriously injured by stings. If we made no effort toward controlling fire ants, I saw us as being subject to a tort claim eventually. I knew a family in the neighborhood with a 5 year old who was sensitized to their stings. I saw us vulnerable if we didn't do anything to control them.
So I have been killing fire ants and picking up trash for the past several years, compensated for my out-of-pocket expenses by the homeowners association, the board on which I serve. In fact, we can't get any home owners to come to the annual meetings because they trust us to run things to please ourselves. The homeowners association board is like the board of directors of a company. The home owners are like stock holders, the board is like a board of directors, and the management company we employ is like the CEO and his crew. I only wish GRNO was run the way we run our neighborhood association. GRNO's board is the same as its management which is a recipe for disaster.
As an aside, the reason for homeowners associations in Florida is because of management of commonly held property such as retention ponds which collect excess rainwater during tropical downpours which is also polluted by chemicals deposited on streets and lawns. We need to pay for extremely expensive remediation of algae buildup in the ponds as well as mowing the grass in the commonly held areas and various other very expensive services. So we board members take our duties very seriously even though homeowners do not attend any meetings.
Anyway, I have been going around the neighborhood killing fire ants. Fire ants are an insect, it breeds in flight. Believe it or not, I have learned a scientific fact that I have never seen anywhere- that fire ants possess an genetic memory, like monarch butterflies. Now you might ask - so what? Well, it means I know where to look to find their nests and can zip on my bicycle past the areas I know they aren't!
Anyway, today I was out killing ants and along comes my nemesis, an irrational crank. This individual tells people he is a university scientist (we have the U. of Florida in town). He and I have gotten into it before. He screams at me over and over, do I have authorization to kill fire ants? Why don't I put little signs in the ground every time I kill a nest? (Local lawn people put a little sign in the ground when they spread chemicals on somebody's lawn) Yeah, like I am going to install a sign every time I kill a nest.
This individual is no university scientist. I started to discuss the chemical I was using and he backed off and changed the subject.
I use Diazinon, which is used on vegetables. I use 1 oz per gallon of water. I get the stuff all over me every time I go out. I don't wash it off until I get back.
To make a long story short, he calls the cops and 2 cops show up at my door!!!! They knew the story, they were VERY sympathetic, they agreed with what I was doing in controlling fire ants, but the department is 30 positions down and they found themselves called out on this totally asinine complaint. Now, I and any rational homeowner around here would say, tell this clown to take a long hike. But instead, the police department sends out 2 of their finest to control an unpaid public spirited citizen instead of dealing with an obviously unhinged head case.
You might say, go ahead and meet everybody's requirements. Every indication of common sense would say, do what the police officers suggest. Get all property owners permission to control fire ants (hundreds of homeowners, maybe thousands, plus several government agencies - what is GRNO's excuse, something about government permits?) Our neighborhood is bordered by a state highway, a city street, a power utility, and so on - sure, no problem!!! Try to tell all those bureaucrats that all I want to do is kill hazardous bugs for free. We all know they will just jump to comply. GRNO has told us all about the wisdom of that. And having a good story and having good political connections? What a joke!!!
But suppose I had all the written permissions of the hundreds of property owners. Suppose I had licenses to handle all hazardous materials (another joke). Suppose I had a big book of all those documents on my bike to deal with that head case the next time he accosted me? He sent the cops to my house. He knows where I live! The cops chose to control ME instead of HIM!!! Sure, the department is 30 positions short and it will get a lot worse after October. Basically the cops asked me to back off. The head case won. Legally, despite how unhinged he is, the legal system plus the understaffed police department set up conditions in which every body loses instead of the bad guy. Am I totally pissed? Take a wild guess.
What does that have to do with GRNO? Go back about 4 or 5 years and follow the politics. I think I'll have a little more sherry. |
