Until yesterday we were caught unaware that on tonight’s Wellington Village Council agenda there would be:
1. A discussion regarding the Settlement Agreement that follows your “ Shade ” meeting; and
2. Consideration of the First Violation issued to Wellington Equestrian Partners.
We’d like to offer the statement below to the Village Council and we wish to hear your comments. Please respond via Facebook or equestrian.forum@live.com.
First the First Violation. It seems inconceivable that the legal mechanizations and political agendas have lead us to a point where someone is issued a violation for stabling horses in a new venue in the Equestrian Preserve because it is not yet November 1. And that a Certificate of Occupancy had been issued without a start date restriction makes the issue even more bizarre. Please think about all this.
At this point in the Forum’s development, we prefer to mobilize our resources and members to work with the Village and others to promote Wellington and our equestrian industry. We want to help create equestrian related jobs and income and to help taxes flow to the Village. We want to help Wellington maintain high levels of service for which it is known while keeping taxes low. Your predecessors accomplished this by working to enhance the equestrian industry.
We do not want to mobilize our resources to fight our own government (that will be using our money to fight us) to preserve the equestrian industry.
Regarding the Settlement Agreement, we are not going to ask for a specific action. We are not that pretentious to offer specific language for an action. However, we have made our positions on matters well known. We support the growth and enhancement of a family oriented equestrian industry. We wish that economic and recreational opportunities are available to the greatest number of people possible. Of course we understand that growth of the industry must occur in a manner that protects the character of the Equestrian Preserve.
We ask that if you take action tonight, please keep these goals in mind:
1. Put an end to the costly litigation as quickly as possible; and
2. Allow the Equestrian Village venue to be used year round as quickly as possible. Put an end to the punishment of year round residents, equestrian organizations and non-profits.
There has been considerable discussion about the divisiveness that exists in Wellington. Indeed, there are operatives who are trying to foment distrust. The past few days anonymous operatives on equestrian blogs were asserting that ESP had committed an egregious violation of the rules. It was obvious someone from the Village had fed them information that most of us were unaware of. These anonymous operatives were asked to provide specifics but none were provided. As it turns out they were probably embarrassed that the “egregious” violation was horses being stabled by the Palm Beach Riding Academy at the Equestrian Village venue.
We believe that the divisiveness within Wellington is diminishing. People, businesses and organizations are becoming more unified in their desire to reverse the actions that have been taken to diminish the equestrian industry. And every day we hear from people who are returning home from the international equestrian circuit who are looking forward to join our efforts to support the equestrian industry.
We look forward to tonight being a turning point for Wellington.
Equestrian Forum of Wellington Board of Directors
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