Community Development District 7 Supervisor Jerry Vicenti ruffled some feathers last week when he tried to take a first step to wrest control of Villages government from commercial property owners in The Villages.
The often-outspoken supervisor, who also serves on the Project Wide Advisory Committee, called for a special meeting to discuss The Villages Developer’s “dictatorship” over PWAC, which currently includes representation from CDDs 5 through 11 and the Brownwood Community Development District.
It’s important to note here that Vicenti was following up on something that clearly has been bothering him for a month. In June, he and fellow CDD 7 Supervisor Bill VonDohlen voted against an interlocal agreement that would lock in PWAC’s “advisory” status for 20 years. In reality, that agreement cedes complete power to the Developer’s handpicked Sumter Landing Community Development District Board.
Vicenti’s goal at the meeting was to get his fellow PWAC members to revisit the resolution that clearly ensures the committee’s subservient status.
“In my opinion we have two forms of government in The Villages. We have the SLCDD board, which consists of owners of commercial properties, a very small minority of The Villages that CONTROLS The Villages government and they don’t have to answer to no one but themselves, are elected within themselves by themselves. To add insult to injury, some of them DON’T live in The Villages, which controls millions of dollars of the residents’ funds,” Vicenti said. “This is really a hot-button and nobody wants to go near it.”
He was certainly correct about that, as his colleagues shot down his proposal and he couldn’t even get a second to his motion for a meeting. And then, to make matters worse, Vicenti took some guff from several members and was even labeled as “disrespectful” because he didn’t support PWAC’s vote earlier this year to remove the cap on amenity fees paid by residents.
At one point, the suggestion was made that Vicenti (you can read his entire statement by clicking HERE) might want to stop serving on PWAC if he doesn’t like the taste of the Developer-stirred Kool-Aid. And Ken Stoff, the Brownwood Community Development District PWAC representative, actually went so far as to question whether Vicenti’s behavior violated a recently adopted code of conduct.
Stoff, by the way, lives in Fruitland Park and is the treasurer for the Holding Company of The Villages Inc. So let’s understand that he’s bought and paid for by the Developer and we all know where his loyalty will lie at any given moment.
Frankly, we’re a bit miffed by the reaction from PWAC members to Vicenti’s proposal. As an elected official of CDD 7 serving on PWAC, we think he and his colleagues should feel comfortable bringing up any issue they want to discuss.
Like many of you, we believe that’s the job of elected officials and we’re not sure why Vicenti’s fellow board members don’t see it that way as well. And we won’t even get into the complete nonsense of Developer-controlled Stoff’s suggestion that Vicenti broke some silly code of conduct by asking pertinent questions that others apparently were too afraid to ask.
We know that Vicenti isn’t always the most popular CDD supervisor or PWAC member. But we also know that he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. And we think he was right on target, especially when he pointed out that the Amenity Authority Committee, which manages amenities north of County Road 466, is an elected body accountable to residents and could well serve as a model for what PWAC could become.
At the somewhat heated June 13 CDD 7 meeting, Vicenti said that former District Manager Janet Tutt set up PWAC as an advisory committee “on purpose” so the SLCDD Board would keep control. He also rightly pointed out that unlike CDD supervisors, those board members aren’t elected by residents.
“What really gets my goat is that you can’t vote them in. You can’t vote them out. Some of them don’t even live in The Villages,” he said.
Again, we agree with Vicenti. But let’s take a quick glance at the SLCDD Board so you can draw your own conclusions:
- Michael Berning, a longtime Villages Sales executive who lives at Glen Hollow Farms at the Morse family compound on County Road 466.
- Joseph Nisbett, long tied through Acorn Investments to the operation of country clubs in The Villages. He lives in Orlando.
- Brad Brown, who for many years headed The Villages Insurance.
- Gerry Lachnicht, of Sabal Trust Company.
- Randy McDaniel, head of The Villages Charter School. He lives in Oxford Oaks.
Whether you like Vicenti or not, we believe he brought up some excellent points and was one of the few to see through the ruse the Developer is pulling on residents through his hand-picked SLCDD Board.
If you ask us, residents should be outraged about the way things currently are set up. They shouldn’t hesitate to make their feelings known. And they should call the Developer on the carpet for maintaining the real power through five puppets instead of actually ceding it to the folks who live here – not in some gated compound overlooking the commoners – and know what’s best for their community.
That said, we applaud Vicenti for taking a stand and we hope he’ll continue to do so in the future. He was elected by Villages residents to represent their best interests. And we believe he takes that charge quite seriously and is doing just that when he asks tough questions and refuses to shy away from hot-button issues.
