Community Development District 7 has deadlocked in a vote for a replacement supervisor.
Supervisors on Thursday morning at Savannah Center interviewed four candidates who applied to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Supervisor Ron Ruggeri.
Supervisors whittled down the field of candidates from four to two – John George and Edward Coleman.
The hot topics during the interview process were CDD 7’s acrimonious relationship with the Project Wide Advisory Committee and the board’s desire to hire legal counsel independent of PWAC and other CDDs in The Villages.
“We have authority over very little in our budget. We are losing our voice,” said CDD 7 Supervisor Jerry Vicenti, who serves on PWAC.
He pointed out that the majority of the money in CDD 7’s budget, funded by maintenance assessment fees collected from residents, is surrendered to PWAC.
Coleman, a longtime financial analyst who lives in the Village of Hemingway, won Vicenti’s vote throughout the balloting process and appeared to sing from Vicenti’s hymnbook. During the questioning, Coleman echoed Vicenti’s concerns that CDD 7 isn’t getting its money’s worth out of PWAC.
George, who was making his third appearance in 14 months in hopes of winning appointment to the board, zeroed in on the question of hiring an independent legal counsel.
The Village of Hadley resident said CDD 7 needs to hire a “hotshot.” He suggested the money spent on specialized legal counsel would be “peanuts” in relation to CDD 7’s overall budget. The CDD 7 budget for 2020-21 will be $2.5 million.
The board voted three times and each time the balloting ended in a 2-2 tie.
Vicenti and Steve Lapp voted for Coleman. Board Chairman Dennis Broedlin and Supervisor Willian VonDohlen voted for George.
The selection process was hampered by VonDohlen’s “attendance” at the meeting by phone. His attempts to hear and communicate by phone was awash in technical glitches.
The board agreed to attempt to break the tie at its next meeting. It is hoped VonDohlen will attend the meeting in person, bolstering the supervisors’ ability to communicate with each other.
