By Eve Samples
February 24, 2017
TC Palm
Bud Jordan is not a radical.
He has been an investment broker in Stuart for more than four decades. He’s a member of the “business hall of fame” at Florida State University.
He co-founded the Economic Council of Martin County, a pro-business advocacy group, in 1985.
But last month, Jordan resigned in protest from the council he helped create.
The reason: He thinks the council’s priorities have gotten all mixed up — specifically as they relate to water policy.
“My opinion is the Economic Council is not doing what it should be doing for expanding the economy of Martin County,” Jordan told me during a phone interview Wednesday.
Water-related businesses are a primary driver of the local economy, he said. But, even after last summer’s toxic algae crisis in the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon, the council has refused to back a proposal from state Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to curtail discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee to the estuaries.
“This river is a national resource just like the Everglades, and we’re killing both of them,” Jordan said.
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