Exhibit 4
Warwick Group Consultants, LLC
February 24, 2015
C. Marty Cassini
Legislative Counsel
Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Professional Standards
[email protected]
Dear Mr. Cassini:
This Letter of Transmittal and its attachments are in response to Broward County’s General Interest
Questionnaire for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Advocacy Services. Warwick Group
Consultants seeks to provide the County with comprehensive federal government affairs representation
that achieves the goals described in the Scope of Services.
Warwick Group Consultants (WGC) is the only public affairs firm in the nation that specializes in
coastal water resource policies and funding. Since 2000, we have secured nearly $177 million in water
resource appropriations for coastal storm damage reduction and navigation maintenance projects.
Furthermore, within the State of Florida alone, WGC has guided the City of Venice, Lee County, St.
Augustine Beach St. Lucie County, City of Sarasota, Flagler Beach, and Walton County’s shore
protection projects from the initial feasibility study through congressional authorization and (for all but
the last three) construction. Our knowledge of Corps policies and vast experience assisting clients
navigate the Corps process and acquire federal funds
Our firm has had the privilege of providing Broward County with Corps advocacy services from 2002
to 2005. During that time, we helped the County to secure $7.5 million in funding for its shoreline
protection projects. In 2005, we secured inclusion in the Senate’s Water Resources Development Act
of a provision that assured that the Broward County and Hillsboro Inlet Shore Protection Project would
be made retroactively eligible to receive full credit for in-kind contributions by the County. A similar
provision was adopted in legislation signed into law in 2007, replacing the policy of giving non-federal
sponsors in-kind credit for only one-half of their non-federal share of the cost.
An experienced team of Federal governmental affairs experts led by our Principal, Howard Marlowe,
and Daniel Greene, our Senior Public Affairs Advisor will provide our services to the County. This team
has access to the expertise of all the firm’s other government affairs specialists whose biographies are
provided below. Cumulatively, this team has over 120 years of experience in the water resources policy
realm.
Given our record of accomplishments and intimate knowledge of Corps policy, I believe that our firm is
the best qualified to achieve success on your behalf. If you have any questions or need additional
information, I can be reached at [email protected] or 202-787-5770.
Sincerely,
Howard Marlowe
President
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Firm Overview 1
Warwick Group Consultants is a nonpartisan Federal government affairs firm that offers lobbying and
other governmental affairs services to local governments. Our mission is to assist local governments
with their water resource project and policy needs. We were established in 1984 and have maintained a
commitment to provide the highest level of personalized service to our clients.
Warwick Group Consultants is the only federal government affairs firm in the nation that specializes in
assisting local governments plan, fund, and implement water resource projects. We have guided more
than a dozen clients from the initial congressional request for a study through project implementation.
WGC has also secured the authorization of 14 new coastal projects and studies over the lifetime of the
firm. Lastly, despite the congressional earmark moratorium, WGC continues to procure construction
and study funds for our clients’ projects. Since Fiscal Year 2000, we have acquired nearly $200 million
dollars in Federal funding for our clients’ shore protection and navigation projects.
Throughout our history, we have been able to assist clients overcome the most daunting water resource
obstacles and achieve success. For instance, in 1990 the City of Sarasota hired us when its coastal
protection project’s feasibility study had been deauthorized by Congress in 1988 for failure to initiate
the study. While Sarasota’s study has yet to be approved due to regional political issues related to the
sand source, when it is completed, it will be pre-authorized for construction due to a provision that we
drafted and succeeded in getting included into legislation passed by Congress in 2000.
Of course, Broward County has well-established shore protection projects. In fact, Segment 2 of the
County’s project will be the third in the nation to experience the end of its 50-year period for federal
fiscal participation in 2020. Warwick Group Consultants spearheaded the effort, including the drafting
of legislative language and the development of the strategy, to secure inclusion of a procedure to
reauthorize those projects.
The port’s long-awaited channel deepening project is set for a Civil Works Review Board hearing on
February 27th. When that occurs, the issues of any possible relationship between the port’s jetties and
the erosion of County beaches will only increase the contentiousness of this problem, especially the
environmental issues that have been raised by the Corps and others. We are no strangers to these
challenges.
In response to Question 5:
List the legal name of the firm, principal business address, Federal Employment ID number,
telephone/fax numbers and email addresses for key personnel, type of business, and authorized contacts
for the firm.
Name: Warwick Group Consultants, LLC
EIN: 47-2805382
Phone: 202-787-5770
Fax:
202-776-0136
President: Howard Marlowe (sole owner) [email protected]
Chief Administrative Office: Teresa Jamison [email protected]
Broward County Team Leader: Daniel Greene [email protected]
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Note - On March 1st, our firm’s name will change to Warwick Group Consultants, LLC from Marlowe & Company, LLC.
The change in the firm’s name in no way affects the firm’s ownership or personnel.
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We are a District of Columbia Limited Liability Company
Howard Marlowe and Daniel Greene are authorized contacts for purposes related to the substance of our
work for the County.
Teresa Jamison is our authorized purpose for all contractual and administrative-related matters.
Previous Contracts
Warwick Group Consultants has served many clients with similar needs and desires as Broward County.
Among these are New Hanover County and Lee County.
New Hanover County, North Carolina
•
Client Name: New Hanover County
•
Description of Work Performed and Results: On the behalf of New Hanover County, Warwick
Group Consultants regularly acquires federal funding, implements legislative changes, and
negotiates bureaucratic hurdles to ensure that the Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and Kure
Beach Shore Protection Projects receive proper maintenance and improvements. Since 2005,
WGC has acquired over $23 million for these three projects. We have done so by continually
conveying the significance of the projects to Members of Congress and the administration.
Notably, most of this funding has been acquired under the earmark moratorium. With Congress
only able to allocate funding for shoreline protection generally, it has become essential for
shoreline protection advocates to collaborate directly with the Corps in order to receive federal
funds. WGC is particularly successful at acquiring federal funding in the absence of earmarks
due our many Corps contacts and impeccable reputation.
WGC has demonstrated its legislative ingenuity, congressional tact, and intimate knowledge of
Corps Policies under the New Hanover County contract. The Carolina Beach Shore Protection
Project’s federal authorization was to expire in 2014, meaning the federal government would no
longer contribute funding for renourishments. As such, WGC leveraged our knowledge of Corps
policies to develop legislative language that extends that project’s authorization and only one
other for 3 years and authorizes the Corps to implement a study to assess the feasibility of
extending the authorization for 15 years (our original request was for 50 years). We worked
closely with two Senators and committee staffers with whom we have long-term relationships to
ensure that this provision was included in the 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development
Act (WRRDA).
After passage of WRRDA and the directive and authority it gave to the Corps to conduct a study
to assess the feasibility of implementing shoreline protection projects for an additional 15 years,
WGC has been working closely with the Corps to develop formal policy guidance for the study’s
scope. On behalf of our client, we independently drafted a study scope that was designed to
provide the appropriate level of study that would meet the requirements of WRRDA without
necessitating a three-year, multi-million study that would assure that the County’s project would
not be able to be reauthorized by its newly-extended deadline in 2017.
•
Approximate Per Month contract Value: $4,000
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•
Contract Term: Annual
•
Primary Contact and Phone Number: Layton Bedsole, Shore Protection Manager: 910-7987104
Walton County, Florida
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Client Name: Walton County
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Description of Work Performed and Results: On the behalf of Walton County, Florida, Warwick
Group Consultants performs U.S. Army Corps of Engineers consulting, federal government
lobbying, and federal grants services. In regard to Corps Consulting, WGC has ensured that the
Walton County Shoreline Protection project navigated the Corps’ complex feasibility study
process by providing strategic guidance and ensuring that the County received all necessary
federal funding on time. Furthermore, WGC has leveraged our congressional and Corps contacts
to assure that the Walton County Shoreline Protection Project received all $1.25 million needed
to complete the feasibility study and the Preconstruction, Engineering, and Design (PED) phase.
For example, when the County’s federal project did not receive the remaining $300,000 needed
to complete PED in FY 14, WGC collaborated with the Corps’ Division and District in order to
secure $300,000 of study money from unallocated funds.
WGC’s legislative ingenuity enabled Walton County to secure over $289 million for a bridge
widening project in 2013. For over 30 years, Walton County had been unable to secure state or
federal funds to widen the County’s State Route 331 Bridge. Widening of the 331 Bridge was
crucial because this road is the primary hurricane evacuation route for the County. Upon
notification of this priority in 2012, WGC began drafting legislation for the impending surface
transportation reauthorization bill that encourages State Departments of Transportations to give
high priority to roads that serve as evacuation routes. Leveraging our contacts and our intimate
knowledge of the legislative process, WGC was able to secure this language in the 2012 surface
transportation reauthorization bill. A mere eight months after the bill was passed with our
evacuation route language included, the Florida Department of Transportation allocated over
$289 million for Walton County’s 331 Bridge Project.
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Approximate Per Month contract Value: $12,000
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Contract Term: Annual
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Primary Contacts and Phone Number: Dede Hinote, Executive Assistant to the County
Manager; 850-892-8155, [email protected] & Jim Bagby, Executive Director, Walton
County Tourist Development Council; 850-267-1216, [email protected]
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Firm Clients during the Past 3 Years
California
BEACON (a Joint Powers Authority of county and city governments in Santa Barbara and
Ventura Counties); Water Resource Policy Lobbying & Corps Appropriations
City of Solana Beach: Solana Beach - Encinitas Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, Corps
Appropriations & Grants
City of San Clemente: San Clemente Shore Protection Project, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations &
Grants
Florida
City of Flagler Beach: Flagler County Shore Protection Study, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations &
Grants
City of Palm Coast: Lobbying, Corps Appropriations & Grants
City of Sarasota: Lido Key Beach Shore Protection Project, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations & Grants
St. Johns County: St. Johns County Shore Protection Study, St. Johns County Beach Erosion Control
Project, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations & Grants
City of Venice: Venice Beach Renourishment Project, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations & Grants
Walton County: Walton County Shore Protection Study, Lobbying, & Corps Appropriations Grants
Georgia
The City of Tybee Island: Tybee Island Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, Corps Appropriations,
& Grants
New Jersey
Borough of Avalon: Townsend Inlet to Cape May Inlet Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, Corps
Appropriations & Grants
Massachusetts
Town of Newbury and Village of Newburyport: Plum Island Regional Sediment Management Project
North Carolina
New Hanover County: Carolina, Kure, and Wrightsville Beach Shoreline Protection Projects,
Lobbying, Corps Appropriations & Grants
Town of North Topsail Beach: Surf City and North Topsail Beach Shoreline Protection Project, West
Onslow and New River Inlet Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project, Lobbying, & Grants
City of Hickory: Lobbying & Grants
City of Lumberton: Lobbying& Grants
Carteret County: Carteret County Shoreline Protection Project
South Carolina
Town of Atlantic Beach: Grand Strand Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, & Grants
Horry County: Grand Strand Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, & Grants
City of Myrtle Beach: Stormwater infrastructure, economic development, and Grand Strand Shoreline
Protection Project, Lobbying, & Grants
City of North Myrtle Beach: Stormwater infrastructure, economic development, and Grand Strand
Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, & Grants
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Town of Surfside Beach: Grand Strand Shoreline Protection Project, Lobbying, & Grants
National
American Shore and Beach Preservation Association: Public Policy Lobbying
Experience with Shore Protection and Dredging Projects
Following is our response to Question #4:
Q. Describe the firm’s understanding of, and experience with, major port dredging and beach nourishment
projects and what unique quality the firm can provide which makes the firm different than other potential
proposers.
A. There is no other firm that has had more experience with beach nourishment projects. We have taken
projects in Florida (Venice, for example) from planning to authorization to construction. In some cases,
getting through the feasibility study has been our main task. That has been the case with Sarasota,
Florida and the communities of San Clemente and Solana Beach in California. We have helped to solve
questions of parking and public access (Bogue Banks, North Carolina and Pawley’s Island, South
Carolina). For Carolina Beach, North Carolina and Tybee Island, Georgia we have written a new policy
provision to enable them and others such as Broward’s project, to be reauthorized when their 50-year
period for federal funding of renourishments ends. We have stopped a previous Administration from
changing the cost-share for projects from 65% federal to 35% federal. Two of our clients had shore
protection projects that required that we use a new reimbursable provision to get them constructed (Fort
Meyers and Panama City Beach, Florida). We made use of a Regional Sediment Management program
we successfully got included in law to maximize the use of sand from a federal navigation channel (a
river in Massachusetts and a port in North Carolina) to nourish a shoreline.
In all of these cases and the many other projects we have worked on, we have secured the funding to
construct or renourish our clients’ beaches. This has been a case of working with Congress (prior to
their earmark ban) and now working with the Corps from District to Headquarters levels, with an
emphasis on the latter. In the past, when we represented Broward County, we helped to get
reimbursement from at least one segment of your shoreline.
We have worked to get channels dredged (The Jefferson County (Beaumont, TX) Navigation District;
the Merrimack River, Massachusetts; Morehead City Harbor, North Carolina; and several smaller federal
inlets in North Carolina. We have not, however, represented a port but we do have a strong working
knowledge of ports and have a team member, Rich Ring, who worked on the deepening project for
Boston Harbor, among other projects, when he worked for the North Atlantic Division of the Corps.
Conclusion
Warwick Group Consultants also has experience with other issues mentioned in the County’s
Questionnaire. For example, we have worked with Lee County on Everglades issues and Walton County
on the impacts of the BP Oil Spill. An attachment to your Questionnaire includes others issues, including
water and wastewater infrastructure, for which the federal government provides very little assistance.
Nevertheless, we have been successful in authorizing a set of stormwater projects in the Myrtle Beach
area for the Corps’ Section 219 (“environmental infrastructure”) program. Also, in the wake of
Superstorm Sandy, we became involved in efforts to create a more regional approach to dealing with
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water resource needs that span Corps “business lines” (i.e., navigation and shoreline erosion) as well as
local and state government jurisdictions. The needs to manage coastlines for resilience in the near-term
and sea-level rise in the long-term are second only to the glaring lack of a regional approach this Nation
takes to managing its coasts. WGC wrote the statutory language that forms the basis of the Corps’
Regional Sediment Management Program, and we are working with Corps Districts such as the one in
Jacksonville on ways to make the so-called beneficial use of sand a standard, rather than one that exists
primarily as a concept.
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