Miller calls for Dart invoice

| 17/04/2012

dart shovels.JPG(CNS): The Independent member for North Side has called on the Dart Group to release the invoice that it received from government for the $5 million it paid recently before the ForCayman Alliance Investment deal had been agreed. Speaking at a public meeting in West Bay on Thursday hosted by activists against the closure of the West Bay Road and the crown land swap, Ezzard Miller challenged the developer to show the documentation explaining that cash payment. He said the proposed investment alliance was not a good deal and suggested that Dart was getting ten times the value that governmentand the people of Cayman would get out of the agreement.

Miller said the group’s failure to wait on the findings of the review and just go ahead and start work on the Esterley Tibbetts Road extension showed a lack of respect for the wishes of the Caymanian people. He said he wanted Dart to produce the invoice for the payment it made to government as part of this side agreement between it, the National Roads Authority and the government.

“I want Mr Dart to publish the invoice from government for the $5 million. If the government has not given him an invoice, it is a payment for something they don’t want us to know about,” he told the people at the meeting. “Produce the invoice for the $5 million so the people of this country can know why you paid the Cayman Islands Government $5 million in the middle of the review team reviewing the road project.”

He pointed out that the closure of the West Bay road would bring Dart billions of dollars in future as it would create significant beach front property for the group. Miller said it was time to start demanding a say in these issues. The independent member said the entire Dart deal was put together the wrong way because government should have spoken to the people of West Bay about closing the West Bay Road and giving away land before it spoke to Dart, Miller stated.

“It is time to start to do things for Caymanians … it is time to stop doing things for everyone else and we just tag along,” he added. Miller told the people not to back down on this fight and to stand up for their children and grandchildren. The independent member pointed out that through perseverance, the Eastern Sea Port had been stopped, the referendum had been announced and so the fight to stop the closure of the West Bay Road had to continue until that was won.

Miller took aim at the premier and said the people could not place any trust in anything he was telling them. Bush had stated just a few weeks ago that the referendum on one man, one vote would be too expensive; the premier had claimed that the proposed November ballot held separately from a general election would cost around $750,000. However, on Wednesday the premier revealed that the referendum he was now planning for July would cost only $300,000, Miller noted.

Compared to previous meetings and the recent motorcade, the people gathered on the empty lot opposite Fosters were largely supporters but the activists pressed on with their presentations regardless. Railing against the deal government is proposing to enter into with the islands’ biggest developer, the speakers vowed not to give up the fight.

The meeting brought together representatives of the West Bay Action Committee, Save Cayman, the Concerned Citizens Group and the Coalition to Keep Bodden Town Dump Free — the four major campaign groups opposed to the Dart deal — as well as East End MLA Arden McLean and Miller, who both called on the people not to accept what government was proposing.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    This post saddens me too because the author is right. It is time to leave Dart out of your MIX-UP.

    It saddens me to see Ezzard continue to pull the Dart group into his political game after all the good they’ve done for us. Ezzard could care less about this silly road. We should be very thankful to have an investor who has lived in this country for many years and CHOOSES to invest a portion of his net worth here. There are a lot of wealthy people who live here who choose not to get involved in local investments as the payback is poor and the involvement is too visible. It’s much easier, and the returns are much greater, to simply invest in the global equity markets where you wouldn’t stand out from the crowd. How much benefit would the Cayman Island receive if that same money was invested overseas? Zero! Quite simply, many other investors, local or foreign, are free to step up and develop these types of projects but they choose not to.
    So when you step back and see the numerous charities that this group supports, the thousands of people they directly and indirectly employ and the resources they contribute to make this island a better place for everyone to live, its easy to see why, apart from a politician who is against everything, 99% of residents here are very appreciative of everything that the Dart group has done for Cayman. Every other island in the Caribbean is lining up to attract this group to their country so let’s not make their job easier for them.

  2. anonymous says:

    If Jesus came into this forum healed everyone of you, raised your dead, opened your deaf ears, loosed your tongues, and grew limbs on your torso;  you all would try to crucify him all over again instead of loving him for who he really is !  Our savior.

    Ezzard and Arden are putting themselves on the line to bring  real democracy to the people of Cayman,

    You say thanks to Ezzard  by "Stoneing him? without a doubt   we have some very sick people in our society and  you fit the description of a people that get the government you deserve.

    Perhaps Ezzard and others who have worn themselves thin fighting day and night for your freedim and for jobs for Caymanians should reconsider and instead let you all suffer. You would like that better.  Maybe you should all stay under McKeeva Bush as premier and continue to be jobless, homeless and hungry, while he makes room for expats to work and support themselves, something we have been deprived of under this UDP for the past 3 years.

    Caymanians have lost all dignity under this UDP government and I can not believe that there are people in this forum still supporting them. You have got to be those that hang out in the UDP broffels where you prostitute yourselves for handouts from the UDP and Dart while big Mac slaps you around, sending you home  with nothing in your hand at the end of the day.

    Stop the madness and get behind Ezzard and support him in his good leadership into the democratic process.

    You are making history.

    • Anonymous says:

      Perhaps you should take the log out of your own eye before the splinter out of others eyes. Those that you are holding up are wolves in sheeps clothings.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I think Dart should lock up his town, fire everyone of them and move to Jamaica with me.  We need him down there to pump some money in the country. And trust me Star, he will be respected in Jamaica.

    • Anonymous says:

      Certainly not according to some of the things we hear happening in Jamaica.

  4. Anonymous says:

    If the Dart Company is legitimate, the the due Deligience should be revealed to the people of this Country. You owe us that much Mr. Dart.  This Government is giving the Dart Group so much for little in return, the lease the Dart Group can do is to give us what we asked for….the detailed Invoice.  We want the Company to be considered compliant and give us the facts in details.  We also need to know if the money Mr. McKeeva Bush is spending so freely as his own, is that what the Dart Group intent was?

  5. Anonymous says:

    I dont see anything wrong in an MLA requesting a copy of an invoice detailing why large sums of money was paid to Government.

    • anonymous says:

      Ezzard know that funds exchanged were part of a NRA agreement document and there is no "invoice" or at least he should know how these agreements work…Ezzard is now just playing a nasty type of politics asking for something that does not exisit. We have enough of that type of politics with the present government.

      We need to get rid of all these old folks in the LA and bring in young educated Caymanians.

  6. anonymous says:

    Why are you people in this forum jumping on Mr. Ezzard Miller the ony legislator

    that is fighting for the rights of the people. He and Mr. Arden McLean is working day and night to allow Caymanians to finally move towards a system of democracy with the one Man One Vote petition.

    Why is it that  all of you are making negative comments against him? I think it is the same person or UDP members and idiotic supporters making these comments.

    Come on guys lets get some momentum going,Mr.Miller put the Jordanian Unofficial ambassador  in his place yesterday really goud , 'Cayman style' on Rooster, perhaps its his camp making these comments?

    I think I'm right.

    Long live Mr. Ezzard Miller and may he receive the strength from God to continue his quest for freedom of democracy in these three islands.

    Of course freedom is something the UDP and its leader do not intend the people of these islands to ever enjoy!

    One Man One Vote is the UDP's "Waterloo!"

     

    • Anonymous says:

      One thing you made clear is the the OMOV is political and about changing governments and not about fairness and equality.

      • Anonymous says:

        Both the Premier and the Leader of the opposition have said that OMOV will not result in a change in govt. That may well be that particular poster's desire but the obvious reason for OMOV is basic fairness and equality.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I think Dart should justpull all of his investment offers and start thinking about investing somewhere else. Cayman obviously does not want him around. If I were him I'd drop out of the For Cayman Investment thing forget the Dump offer and just leave it to Cayman to handle, eventually they will have to do something about it and the people can pay for it. He can always biuld a beach front hotel or condos on his Seven Mile beach front land.

  8. Anonymous says:

    I was astonished but not surprised to hear the so call Honorable Miller voice his outright racist opinions on the Rooster on Tuesday by calling out a caller by his Arab name. This encouraged other racists to do the same. Well done Miller. You are worthless and hateful. Not sure what Northsiders see in you besides your appetite to disagree (oh ya and heavy cake)

    Keeping rolling Dart for the sake of all the others.

    • Anonymous says:

      I have heard such ignorant things said on Tuesday morning on Rooster that I cannot listen to it anymore. The "n*gger" word was used by the MLA and then explained away as Caymanian slang. Cruise ship visitors were referred to in extremely negative terms by the same MLA. The radio hosts are silent when these rants occur giving passive approval to the ignorance. Bashing the Jordanian does not suprise me, and Ezzard pretends to support peoples rights.

    • Anonymous says:

      So it is racist to call someone by their name rather than "the Jordanian"? How absurd. 

    • Knot S Smart says:

      And will you please tell us which Arab is calling into the radio station trying to create political strife? That I believe is against the conditions of his PR or Cayman Status.

      If he is so motivated towards politics, why dont he just go back to his own country and join the riots and fighting there?

      Please tell me his name so that I can bring his conduct to the attention of Immigration.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Ezzard is running around the country giving his opinion on the issues of West Bay, George Town, Boddentown and East End. It is a wonder that he has any time left to deal with the business of North Side. He better be looking after his own constituents as an election is coming and none of these issues impact North Side.

    Are all his opinions those of his constituents from North Side or are they his own?

  10. bear baiter says:

    So, the referendum will now cost $300,000. Does that mean either Mad Mac or Ju Ju will have to give up one of their luxury junkets to the other side of the world?

  11. Anonymous says:

    Where is that Anti-Corruption Law? What is the latest on that? We need to activate that fast, Mr. Attorney General.

  12. TennisAce says:

    I just want to hear what plans Ezzard and Arden have for this here country. If Dart decides that they are not going to go ahead with any of the ForAlliance projects and all those Caymanians who are now employed on various job sites or who have submitted applications for jobs, I wonder what Ezzard and Arden will be telling them. 

    When the Shetty hospital was announced, Ezzard and Arden were against it.  When the sea port was announced Ezzard was against it.  When the Premier was going all over the world signing these agreements to ensure that our financial industry was able to continue to do business and continue to employ Caymanians, Ezzard was against it, notwithstanding that if the Cayman Islands government had not signed on to these memoranda, our financial industry would be in deep poop. 

    It is time that Ezzard starts standing up for the Caymanians that he loves to talk about so much and tell us what his vision for the country is.  Come on Ezzard you must have some plans for how to grow the economy, or do you think that your position is just to be the voice of NO

     

    • Anonymous says:

      "When the Shetty hospital was announced, Ezzard and Arden were against it".

      False.

      "When the sea port was announced Ezzard was against it".

      What sea port was announced? If you mean his criticism of the suspicious dealings with CHEC regarding the building of a cruise port then he is quite right to do so. Even many of McKeeva's own party members part company with him on that. If you mean the mega quarry then there was never proposal by Mr. Imparato himself to build a cargo port. He only provided some nice pictures of what the area could look like if someone else built a port if only he would be allowed to dig a massive hole in the ground for his quarry.

      Both Ezzard and Arden supported the Special Economic Zone.  

      Ezzard and Arden are doing their jobs. They are critically examining the govt.'s proposals to see if they are in the best interests of this country. No doubt in the coming year as we near elections you will hear much more about their proposals for the country.       

       

       

    • Anonymous says:

      they have no plans…….. the ppm has not offered one alternative policy suugestion in 3 years…..

      p.s. i hate the current administration

    • Anonymous says:

      you're right…but look at all the thumbs down….and on other posts as well….its purely blind sheep agreeing with exxard and arden, with zero alternative offered

      anyone can moan, anyone can protest, anyone can say no…..but how about offering alternatives….we cannot have our cake and eat it too

      dart wants to invest, and wants to help, and wants to make money himself whilst doing it….there's nothing wrong with that…..and all we see are massive objections to the loss of part of a road??!! where were the objections when the rest of the same road was built upon?

      none of this makes any real objective sense, its purely subjective, astonishingly naive blind-anti-dart stuff….anti-mckeeva….anti-everything…….thats great…..but what do you suggest instead?

      put up or shut up……cause we're dying out here…..

  13. Anonymous says:

    It saddens me to see Ezzard continue to pull the Dart group into his political game after all the good they’ve done for us.  Ezzard could care less about this silly road.  We should be very thankful to have an investor who has lived in this country for many years and CHOOSES to invest a portion of his net worth here.  There are a lot of wealthy people who live here who choose not to get involved in local investments as the payback is poor and the involvement is too visible.   It’s much easier, and the returns are much greater, to simply invest in the global equity markets where you wouldn’t stand out from the crowd.  How much benefit would the Cayman Island receive if that same money was invested overseas?  Zero!  Quite simply, many other investors, local or foreign, are free to step up and develop these types of projects but they choose not to.   

    So when you step back and see the numerous charities that this group supports, the thousands of people they directly and indirectly employ and the resources they contribute to make this island a better place for everyone to live, its easy to see why, apart from a politician who is against everything, 99% of residents here are very appreciative of everything that the Dart group has done for Cayman.    Every other island in the Caribbean is lining up to attract this group to their country so let’s not make their job easier for them.

    • Stiffed-Necked Fool says:

      "Every other island in the Caribbean is lining up to attract this group to their country" – are you for real Star? Try go check your history on this group and their owner and you will find out how many Islands and Countries turned them away until he found a greedy, corrupted person who would give him everything he wanted. Get your facts correct before you let people read your Gibberish!

    • Anonymous says:

      Dart invests here because it legitimises his use of Cayman as a private 'tax haven', because it gives him access to our politicians, because it helped him get citizenship, because he can see that there's money to be made, and because like most billionaires, he's bored.

      • Anonymous says:

        I'm not sure who is thumbing this down because it's spot on.

      • Anonymous says:

        You forgot to mention that many feel he also wants to be able to sit back, point at Cayman, and say prouldy "I bought that country it is now mine!"

    • Anonymous says:

      He chooses to invest here for TAX reasons…because the Americans want theirtax $$$$$$, because it is in his best financial interest.

       Are you living in a bubble?

      The man is not doing it out of the kindness of his heart.

      If you think he is, I have goose I would like to sell you.  She lays golden eggs, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year…

    • Anonymous says:

      Well said. Thankyou Mr. Dart for investing in Cayman. You have created a beautiful, world-class town, and fund and support many other local projects which employ hundreds if not thousands of Caymanians directly and indirectly.

    • Anonymous says:

      Maybe the others didn't want to destroy all the mangroves !!

  14. Anonymous says:

    Is Ezzard's need for constant press and attention really helping the country? He has had some good ideas and I give him credit for that but this constant need to escalate conflict with the issues of the day is getting old. Every issue throughout the country and Ezzard it there making sure he gets his CNS and Rooster coverage.

  15. Unison says:

    CNS, as a Caymanian, I tell you the truth, I can't bother stress myself over the politicking that is going on. Such news is not worth taking to heart. It is with certainty that whoever we know that is Premier, will receive praise and/or blame for what happens to the country. If Ezzard was the Premier, he will be receiving praise and blame. If Alden, Arden or some other was Premier likewise. There will always be someone or a news outlet that will rally the people and have some greviance. And you all know too well there will always be an unscrupulous politician and/or business man wanting control and more wealth. It is an endless story that goes around in circles. I tell people they have a choice to get caught up in the tornado, read an article and become all upset about it.  But what happens when you get caught up?  The twister ends up destroying your life. You are so drenched in politics you forget integrity, family, and prone to strife. You are all for change, but change for what??  We live in a world of sin. As for me, I will serve the Lord and one day there will be a judgement day. I will do the good I can, love others, avoid the evil, and place my sole trust in a Supreme God. There is a saying, "every tub sits on its own bottom" and that applies to journalist as well as politicians and businessmen. Regards

    • Anonnymous says:

      Thank you "Unison".  There's an old saying surrounding politics – "same train – different engineer, director and passengers".

    • Anonymous says:

      LOL  so when the end of the world come according to the mayan calendar in december 2012, can i have your computer?  :))>  Opppss… Is your Lord a Christian or Mayan?

      • Anonymous says:

        It will be the PPM's fault according to Mac when the world ends.

      • Anonymous says:

        The Mayan calendar didn't account for leap years… the world should've ended already…

    • A. Pastafarian says:

      Unison, you are correct in saying that the Premier… whoever he is….. will receive praise and blame.  You are VERY correct in mentioning, "there will always be an unscrupulous politician and/or business man wanting control and more wealth".  It's that way now.  However, I think you might be stretching it a bit in saying politics "ends up destroying your life".  I am concerned with certain factions of politics and certainly don't feel "destroyed".  I also find it strange you say, "You are all for change, but change for what??  We live in a world of sin".  Personally, I would welcome a change reducing sin…. andI believe many people think as I do.  All this being said, I commend you  on your desire to do good, love others, avoid evil, etc…… a good path to follow.

    • Anon says:

      You seem to be saying, don't sweat the political stuff, it's always like this, and nothing ever changes, so why worry? Unfortunately that is precisely the sheep-like mentality that has for decades allowed the likes of McKeeva to be elected and then reign supreme over his flock. Stand up for something and make your vote count, that's what I say, and DO be involved in the shaping of your own country.

      • Unison says:

        I am not saying to not stand up for what you know to be right. What I am saying is, you don't need anyone to tell you or guide you as to when, how, and what to stand up for. I have my own timing and God has blessed me with the freedom of choice. What I see is a government movement and political opposition on matters that don't concern my family and I at all. What is right is subject to my personal definition. Moreover, I don't need to rely on politicians or activists in order to take a stand for what I know is right. People take too many things to heart and call it "right." 

    • Anonymous says:

      I agree completely with what you are saying but at the same time we are called to be good stewards.  We cannot close our eyes .

  16. anonymous says:

    Dont be silly Ezzard, Government does not issue an invoice. An signed agreement is all that is required and I think we can all see that was done with the NRA. Pick real fights.

    • Anonymous says:

      Proving once again that Mr. Miller is good at rhetoric (and no I am not a UDP supporter) and not a businessman, nor even knowledgeable about government processes within a government he sits within and represents.  I am sure his position will allow him access to the information regarding procurement processes, and other dealings, perhaps he could spend some time studying them.

    • Anonymous says:

      Absolutely agree with that.  Miller's accusations and suppositions are just baseless hot air that only serve to prove his ignorance and inability to ever become a leader in this country.

  17. Anonymous says:

    talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth…………

  18. Anonymous says:

    Ezzard is starting to sound like a real buffoon. He is so happy to constantly have the (free) press on him to start his campaign that he can't help himself..makes me sick to my stomach…

    UDP, PPM, Ezzard..politics as usual…

    • Dred says:

      But Thank God he speaks up. Cause without him I am not sure if we would have any OPPOSITION.