Home
End Stonewall at Fort DuPont
FightDECorruption.com continues the effort to penetrate the secretive culture at the Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation (FDRPC). The Fort Corporation almost never issues a press release. Major events occur with no formal announcement. Memo’s are “Privileged and Confidential”. No virtual link is available for board meetings which rely excessively on Executive Sessions. Even board members aren’t informed of critical events and decisions. The response to criticism has been to stonewall.
The new FDRPC leadership team should acknowledge that the past approach has not been effective. Through FOIA, leaks, and the press there has been an increasing flow of Fort Corporation information. Because of the stonewall, FDRPC loses control of information flow and secrecy breeds suspicion.
The Power of FOIA
Lacking normal information flow, FightDECorruption.com depends heavily on FOIA responses. A FOIA can only request documents—not information. This type of research resembles the childhood game of Battleship with blind guesses about what documents might exist and what information they might contain. FOIA research can have an upside. Sometimes the requested information is only available as part of a much larger and more revealing document resulting in a FOIA “jackpot.”
Virtually all the information compiled on this website was assembled through the cumbersome FOIA process. Nevertheless, through diligent effort over the past 18 months, a robust dossier of Fort Corporation information has been assembled.
Call for Grassdale Investigation
Eight years following passage of the original enabling legislation in 2014, FDRPC has hopefully reached a turning point with a new Executive Director, a re-structured Board of Directors, and revised enabling legislation.
This shakeup follows the controversial sale of the 133-acre Grass Dale parcel of Fort DuPont State Park at a price of $3.6 million for development as a private upscale RV campgrounds for 422 vehicles.
This project was not part of the original Master Plan for the Fort Dupont complex and has encountered significant community opposition. With no public announcement, construction of the RV Park began early in April 2022 and was mysteriously halted two months later.
Advocates are calling for the new Fort Corporation leadership team to undertake an investigation of the Grassdale sale to determine whether the sale was valid and resolve a host of contradictions arising from the sale of protected Open Space Land for private development.