MiamiHerald

Published Tuesday, December 4, 2001

American Media may leave Florida

`I would consider staying in Palm Beach, but if we're not going to be treated like a good corporate citizen, we're not staying.'

-- DAVID PECKER,

CEO, American Media

BY WANDA J. DeMARZO wdemarzo@herald.com

American Media's CEO, angry that business leaders oppose a county proposal to help pay for the anthrax cleanup at its headquarters, said the company may leave Florida.

CEO David Pecker said the tabloid company -- which employs 390 people and reports annual revenue of $40 million -- has received no help from the county, the state, or the federal government for the cleanup.

The Boca Raton building was quarantined after the death of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens in early October. The company publishes six supermarket tabloids, including The National Enquirer, Globe, Weekly World News and Sun.

AMI is looking at sites in Broward and Palm Beach counties, he said.

``I would consider staying in Palm Beach, but if we're not going to be treated like a good corporate citizen, we're not staying,'' Pecker said.

Since the anthrax infection, the company has spent $10 million to hire cleanup experts, buy new equipment and rent facilities, Pecker said.

``We were the company that was attacked, it was our employees that had to go on antibiotics, it was one of our employees who died,'' Pecker said. ``We only want to know that someone cares about our employees ... and would be willing to help pay for the cleanup and show some decency.''

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency released results of samples taken from the three-story building in late October and early November. Of 462 samples, 84 came back positive for anthrax.

Pecker, visibly agitated, held a folded copy of The Palm Beach Post, which reported Sunday that Palm Beach County's chief corporate recruiter, Richard Rampell, accused AMI of extortion because it threatened to leave town if the county doesn't help.

The Palm Beach County Commission preliminarily decided last month to give AMI $390,000 as incentive to stay. Commissioners had planned to vote Tuesday on final approval, but Pecker withdrew the request saying he may not keep the company in Boca Raton, or even Florida.

``They can keep their money,'' Pecker said. ``We'll look for other states who maybe want large publishing companies.''

``The person who made those comments was appointed by another organization whose term had expired Sept. 1,'' Larry Pelton, president of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said of Rampell's remarks. ``He was not representing us.''

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Answers

This media company does deserve sympathetic consideration. After all, they publish my favorite periodical (The Weekly World News).

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

"CEO David Pecker said the tabloid company -- which employs 390 people and reports annual revenue of $40 million -- has received no help from the county, the state, or the federal government for the cleanup."

What an outright, damnable lie! Your federal tax dollars paid for the EPA to do the cleanup.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Well, they paid for at least some of it...

http://web.tallahasseedemocrat.com/content/tallahassee/2001/10/23/loca l/1023.attacks.flaanthrax.htm

Tuesday, October 23, 2001, updated at 12:54AM

Feds to pay anthrax cleanup

Tabloid publisher allocated half-million

By Amanda Riddle

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOCA RATON - Room by room, the federal government plans to scour the headquarters of a tabloid publishing company to find the extent of anthrax contamination, officials said Monday.

The federal government has allocated $500,000 from its Superfund program to pay for the total cleanup costs, which have yet to be determined. The decontamination represents the largest civilian anthrax cleanup to date.

Carl Terry, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman in Atlanta, said the building has not been designated a Superfund site because it requires only a short-term emergency cleanup.

EPA officials said they can rid the building of anthrax spores during its decontamination process, expected to last at least one month at the headquarters of American Media, Inc.

"We think we can decontaminate so it's safe to go back in," said Fred Stroud, the EPA's coordinator of the cleanup.

American Media, however, said last week it will not return to the building. The company is operating out of temporary offices in Delray Beach and Miami as it looks for permanent space.

The FBI turned the building over to the EPA last weekend after agents spent two weeks collecting evidence in the offices. The building was closed Oct. 8 when anthrax spores were discovered in the mailroom and on the keyboard of The Sun photo editor Bob Stevens, who died from the inhaled form of the disease.

The FBI gave the EPA results of its environmental testing on about 10 percent of the building, mainly in the mailroom and around Stevens' desk on the third floor.

A 50-person decontamination team led by the EPA will conduct more extensive environmental testing this week to determine where anthrax spores are located, Stroud said. Cleanup will begin once the testing is complete and a decontamination plan is formalized.

"We need to know the status of the complete facility, not just the areas where the crime may or may not have occurred," he said.

Stroud said crews Sunday took 20 samples from the ventilation system on the first floor, where the mailroom is located. Tests done Monday on the samples were inconclusive and results from additional tests are expected this afternoon, said EPA spokesman Peyton Fleming.

The EPA is weighing several methods to decontaminate the building. One is a standard bleach solution that was successful last week in getting rid of anthrax spores at a Boca Raton postal facility that handled American Media mail.

That was the first civilian anthrax decontamination cleanup in U.S. history, Stroud said. The 67,000-square-foot, three-story AMI building is the largest so far.

The EPA is also considering the use of a bacteria-killing foam developed at a government laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M. And the agency may sterilize the employees' personal items with vaporized hydrogen peroxide, Stroud said.

The decontamination crew will conduct tests after the cleanup to confirm the spores have been killed.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001

Brooks, tax dollars couldn't have been spent to clean it up since it hasn't been cleaned up yet.

Frankly, I am not sure tax dollars should be spent to clean it up. I think the Feds should require AMI to clean it up, and then the Feds can check to make sure it was done.

How in hell is the .gov going to be able to pay to clean every freakin' company building that gets infected? Can you imagine if the wtc towers were infected? Or the Sears tower? Or all of them and a few more across the country in maybe 15 different cities?

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001