Congressman Brad Sherman - Who Killed The Cutter Storis? Part I

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif)

The retired Coast Guard Cutter Storis was sold by public auction in June, 2013 to failed businessmen Mark Jurisich and Dr. John Bryan owners of US Metals Recovery, LLC. of San Diego.

In late October, 2013 after Mark Jurisich allegedly failed to extort $250,000 from the Storis Museum group in exchange for the ship, Jurisich finally managed to get the ship moved to a ship breaker yard in Ensenada, Mexico. As the Storis was being moved, news broke that the ship contained illegal levels of PCB's contained in led paint, electrical wiring casing, etc. and the EPA was notified to prevent the ship from leaving the United States.

The cutter Storis, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had hundreds of supporters working to save the ship in order to have her serve  the public as a maritime museum where she was built over 65 years ago in Toledo, Ohio.

Politicians and elected officials were contacted by Storis supporters and asked to intervene in order to keep the ship in US waters. This blog post is devoted to all the politicians and government officials and agencies who were contacted with pleas for help in the situation and did nothing.
This blog post is my way of thanking those who did nothing to save the Storis by creating a public record for anyone to see. You won't see anything about their lack of attention in the matter on any of their websites or in their press releases because, they dropped the ball and it wouldn't cast a positive image of them in the public eye.

The first public official this blog would like to recognize as one of the many who assisted (indirectly) with the killing of the Coast Guard cutter Storis is...

Congressman Brad Sherman 

who represents (quite poorly, I might add) the 30th Congressional District which is the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

Rep. Sherman was contacted and asked to help with the Storis situation but, he did nothing to help. In fact, he would have at least served himself better had he ignored the email he was sent but, he sent a reply to the Storis supporter. As you can see in his response below, he did not address the situation with the Storis. He didn't even mention the Storis at all. How nice of Rep. Brad Sherman to essentially slap the Storis supporter in the face by responding with a self-promoting FORM LETTER!
Here's hoping that someone will see this blog post and forward it to Congressman Sherman.

Thank you very much for contacting me. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me. Hearing from you is very important to me because it provides me with insight into your thoughts and concerns on the major issues facing Congress today. I look forward to your continued input and will keep your concerns in mind. 
Only part of my job is voting in Washington. Another important part of my job is helping resolve problems that constituents are experiencing with federal agencies. If you are interested in any of these services, please contact my district office at (818) 501-9200 or visit my website athttp://BradSherman.house.gov/. You can also follow me on Twitter by visiting Twitter.com/BradSherman, or become my fan on Facebook. My official government Facebook page is registered as "Congressman Brad Sherman." Again, thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your views. I hope to hear from you further in the future. 
Sincerely, Brad ShermanMember of Congress

Thank you, Representative Sherman! Thank you for all of your help in trying to save the Storis... Even though you ignored the call for help. So, I hereby recognize Congressman Brad Sherman as one of the players responsible for the killing of the Coast Guard cutter Storis.

A note to Storis supporters: If you contacted a public official or government agency and your pleas for help were ignored or cast aside, please contact me, Jim Watkins with the information you have and I will add it to this blog in a future dedicated post.