These pages contain transcriptions of newspaper articles pertaining to Scientology's intelligence operations against individuals and other organizations. This site is not affiliated with the Church of Scientology.
[Main Scientology Index] [Internal Scientology Documents] [Cazares Operations]

(St. Petersburg Times -- January 5, 1990)

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Times Staff Writer

      CLEARWATER -- It's time for the city of Clearwater to crack down on the Church of Scientology, former Mayor Gabe Cazares told the City Commission on Thursday.

      Cazares appeared before commissioners to express his outrage over the Church of Scientology, which has its spiritual headquarters in the city.

      Cazares, speaking during a time when residents are allowed to address topics not on the commission's agenda, read a litany of complaints about the Church of Scientology, which he called an international paramilitary organization.

      Cazares was mayor when the organization secretly bought the landmark Fort Harrison Hotel in 1975, its first foothold in Clearwater.

      The former mayor, who also was a former county commissioner, was on a Scientology enemy list that was seized when federal agents raided the organization's offices in Los Angeles and Washington in 1977.

      He pointed out Thursday that organization leaders have been arrested in Spain and the United States on a variety of charges, and said the organization has not changed its practices since those events.

      He urged the commission to put pressure on congressional representatives and Florida's governor to investigate the organization, he said.

      "I urge you to fight back and I wish to join you," Cazares said.

      Humberto Fontana, spokesman for the Church of Scientology, said in a prepared statement afterward: "The Church of Scientology has been in Clearwater for 15 years now and is one of the largest economic assets of the Clearwater community and will continue to be so because Scientology is improving life in a troubled world."

      The organization is called a religion by its members, but its detractors call it a cult. It bases its teachings on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

      Mayor Rita Garvey said city officials did try to spark a grand jury investigation in the past by contacting the state attorney's office.

      "We tried that in the past and got absolutely nowhere," she said.

      "We feel that the grand jury should investigate illegal drug running in Florida and should investigate money laundering in Florida banks," Fontana countered.

      Commissioner Don Winner said the city has little power over many of the issues Cazares said he is concerned about.

      He pointed out that Cazares and other commissioners have "all tried to rid the city of Scientologists and nobody's come up with a way to do it."

      Cazares said he's concerned that the Scientologists have bought several downtown Clearwater properties and taken them off the tax rolls, on the grounds that it is church property.

      Winner said the city can't prevent the sale of property to someone because of their religion.

      "You can't prevent that," Winner said. "We've got laws in this country against that."

      Cazares' pointed to several areas in which the Scientologists have extended their influence in Clearwater, including a party for foster children given by the Scientologists and a downtown teen-age nightclub that is owned by a Scientologist.

      In each of those cases, the Scientologists have said they were acting as private individuals, independent of the church.

      "It is true that the church has helped foster children and it is true that we have gotten over 100,000 people off drugs. It is true that we have restored the education of millions of children including 2½-million children in South Africa," Fontana wrote.

      Cazares and his late wife, Maggie, sued the Scientologists for $1.5-million, alleging that the Scientologists invaded their privacy and maliciously prosecuted them with a frivolous lawsuit.

      The case was settled out of court.

      "The integrity of that agreement will be maintained by the church," Fontana wrote in his statement.