Q&A with Marty
Most of the questions I asked Black in a quick phone interview were answered with a standard "I am not allowed to discuss that under orders from the United States Attorney General's Office," which I expected and have no reason to disbelieve. These were questions like "Are indictments in the works against former employees?," "Who is the EPA looking at in particular with regards to criminal charges?," and the like. I knew he was going to duck on those questions, but I had to ask anyway.

I was able to get an answer from one question: "The EPA is only looking at former employees, right? To your knowledge, the Feds aren't looking at any current employees?"

"That's correct."

"What time frame are we looking at before the Feds charge any individuals involved?"

Black paused. "I don't know."

"Don't know or can't say?"

"I really don't know."

"So what's your feel, two months, six months, a year?"

I could hear Black puffing out his cheeks and blowing air out of his mouth as he tried to formulate an answer that would satisfy me. It wasn't gonna happen.

"You know, I truly have no idea," he finally said.

Which I have little doubt is true -- the Feds have been extraordinarily tight-lipped about the entire investigation all along, even to the point of refusing to acknowledge that an investigation was ongoing despite grand jury subpoenas that had previously been served on city hall and city employees over the past three years.

There's one key difference between Black's statements and the plea agreement document. Black has repeatedly stated that the Feds are only going after former employees of the city. The plea agreement doesn't make that same distinction: "Defendant [City of Venice] agrees to cooperate fully with the United States in the investigation and prosecution of other persons, including its past and present employees" (item 8, page 4). As cagily and carefully worded as this document is, I refuse to believe for a second that those words "and present" were tossed in on a whim. While Black has been reported in the past as stating that we won't see current employees being led off in handcuffs in the future, I remain somewhat skeptical of the claim.

While the Feds are going after the city on just the Curry Creek and Knight's Trail Park incidents, that doesn't limit the Feds from going after others on incidents not mentioned in the city's plea arrangement. The EPA spent three years on this investigation, the FBI kicked in some man-hours as well, including a hidden-mic recording session with our former city manager. It's a sure bet that the Feds know about a heck of a lot more than what they've let out so far.

So is Black lying? Maybe, but if he is, it's understandable and I don't have a problem with it. Either he doesn't know for sure or he does know and he's under instructions to state publicly that he doesn't know. So either way, he has to give an answer that pleads ignorance.

From my perspective, there's a minimum of two current employees and one elected official that the Feds could go after if they wanted. The question then is, do the Feds want these guys too? I didn't ask Marty that. I wasn't going to put him in that kind of spot and besides, I already knew what his answer would be. See above.

Almost humorously, the plea agreement refers to the environmental crime dynasty, ...ooops, I'm sorry, I mean the former utils management team that we have all come to know and love, as "."

Hey, it's ! Woooooo-hoooooo!!!!

The first thing that sprang to my mind was all of those Kids in the Hall sketches that involved tailored suits, bright ties, martinis and truly aberrant behavior. The second was cheesy businessman clip-art, which I dutifully inserted onto this page.

Starting on page 14, the document describes as "high-level executives, managers and supervisors [whose jobs were] to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Pollution Control Division and the Eastside Wastewater Treatment Facility."

The document then goes through a long and redundant-sounding series of accusations aimed at members of , both collectively and individually, but without ever actually naming any individual person as a member. The Gondo boldly took its best guess: "Speculation is this would involve some of the 13 who lost their jobs last August during budget cuts."

No kidding. Really?

It's fairly obvious from the wording in the plea agreement that former utils director John Lane and his assistant, Patricia 'Pat' Wilson, are considered part of . Based on the plea document, several of their underlings are in the group as well. What's not so clear is if the Feds are considering anyone above Lane and Wilson on the food chain to be part of that group. The wording is ambiguous enough to indicate that the Feds may be looking outside of the utils offices and into the offices of at city hall as well, like former city manager George Hunt and anyone else who had knowledge and did nothing * .

Note to John Lane: when law enforcement and prosecutors develop a pet name for you, like "The Family" (Manson), or The Box Bandit, or , you can pretty well take comfort in the assured knowledge that you're already screwed. Lose the Papa Hemingway beard and all that Florida Gators crap -- that way, the Feds will hopefully never spot you in a crowd. As for his former assistant, Pat Wilson, and the rest of : I hear it's nice in Iran this time of year and extradition from there is a bitch.

* You are bright enough to figure this one out for yourselves, but if I start naming more names, I'm probably going to have to sit through another Official Municipal Approved Temper Tantrum filled with threats of Litigation, Torture and Slow Painful Death, which, while highly entertaining for the one newspaper that shows up at council meetings, is tedious beyond belief for the rest of us, council and staff included, who have to sit through such elongated childish bullshit.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.