The Property Owners’ Association’s stated mission is to “act as a watchdog to ensure that the Developer and local government are responsive to the needs, interests, and rights of residents.” For years, The Villages Developer had packed the Sumter County Commission with five puppets, who in turn gave the Developer not only a sweetheart impact fee worth hundreds of millions of dollars — which money comes out of the pockets of the residents via their property taxes — but also gave the Developer anything else that he wanted. Finally, in 2019, in order to protect the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee, the puppet Commissioners enacted a 25 percent property-tax increase on the residents.
THE POA’S SUCCESS IN THE 2020 ELECTION. As a consequence of that massive tax increase, in the 2020 election (thanks in large part to the efforts of the POA in encouraging, vetting, and endorsing challengers), the three puppet Commissioners running for re-election were thrown out of office in a landslide. That was accomplished despite dirty tricks and massive spending by the Developer. Nevertheless, after the election, the Developer continued his fight to have the residents subsidize his business through the combination of their higher property taxes and his sweetheart impact fee. The Developer’s measures in this regard included a propaganda campaign in his newspaper and a fishing expedition by attorney George Angeliadis intended to harass and intimidate both the new Commissioners and their supporters–including Cliff Wiener (President of the POA), Reed Panos (head of Fair Government for Sumter), and myself. See https://www.villages-news.com/2021/03/24/how-are-the-fish-biting-george/
THE DEVELOPER’S SUCCESS IN FRUSTRATING THE POA. But what capped the Developer’s thus-far-successful attempt to maintain his sweetheart impact fee and frustrate both the POA and the residents whom the POA represents was the Developer’s having State Representative Brett Hage on his payroll. Hage’s 2020 disclosure form shows that he received $350,000.14 from the Developer, ostensibly for a part-time job. Hage, in turn, sponsored state legislation tailored to protect the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee. That legislation is worth, as indicated above, hundreds of millions of dollars to the Developer by making it impossible to raise the Developer’s impact fee. [While it is pretty obvious what Hage really did for the $350,000, the question remains: What did he do for the 14 cents?] In the Senate, the legislation was supported by Senator Dennis Baxley, who, like Hage, is part of the local political apparatus controlled by the Developer.
THE NEED FOR POA ACTION IN THE 2022 ELECTION. In light of these facts, the POA, in order to continue its mission, needs to do the following with respect to the 2022 election:
1. Encourage challengers to run against the two remaining puppet County Commissioners (Gilpin and Breeden), against Representative Hage, and against Senator Baxley in the upcoming Republican primary (realistically, it would be very difficult for a Democrat to win the general election);
2. Once challengers emerge, vet them; and
3. Endorse the most-qualified ones.
Scott Fenstermaker is a resident of The Villages and a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com.
