Historic Flagler County is located on the east coast of Florida about 100 miles south of the Georgia state line.  It encompasses 571 square miles of real estate and is home to approximately 105,000 residents.  A total of 13,000 students attend Flagler County’s five elementary schools, two middle schools and two public high schools.

To put into perspective how provincial Flagler County is, the City of Miami Gardens is home to about the same number of residents and public schools, yet its land mass is only 20 square miles, or 1/30 the size.

The Flagler County seat is the City of Bunnell, which has a population of 2,676.

Flagler would be the Mayberry R.F.D. of Florida … if it weren’t for the insidious corruption going on at County Hall.

Like many other municipalities, Flagler County is insured by Preferred Governmental Insurance Trust.  According to its website, PGIT is “an insurance program dedicated to the public sector.”  Insurance claims by member municipalities are handled by PGCS Claim Services, which “is solely dedicated to providing claims administration to over 450 public entities.”  Among other items, PGIT’s municipal insurance policies cover reimbursement for legal fees for defending public officials.

Last fiscal year, PGIT billed Flagler County for premiums in the amount of $938,403.00 (the same approximate cost of the total annual salaries of 20 police officers), which was an increase of nearly $200,000.00 over the previous two years.  To offset rising insurance premiums and other expenses, Flagler County commissioners increased property taxes by 2.3 percent this year even though property values have risen steadily for the past four years – 6.16% alone since last year.  At the same time, County Commissioner Craig Coffey “trimmed about $75,000 from courthouse security costs by using part-time reserve officers instead of full-time deputies to patrol the courthouse,” according to a September 16, 2016 article in the Daytona Beach News Journal.

But, at least county commissioners will have their legal bills covered when they’re served with complaints and lawsuits.

After all, priorities!

After numerous public records requests made earlier this year by Flagler County residents John and Carole Ruffalo, they finally received the information they requested regarding thirteen claims made to PGCS for nearly $40,000.00 in legal fees paid out on behalf of that county’s public officials.  As noted in an email exchange on April 20, 2016 between John Ruffalo and Flagler Community Services Director Joe Mayer, Mr. Ruffalo was attempting to obtain the names of the parties for whom those thirteen claims were paid.  Mr. Mayer was unable to provide those names.

In a subsequent email on May 2, 2016 from John Ruffalo to Bill Ritzmann of PGCS, Mr. Ruffalo noted that Flagler County’s insurance premiums had “increased by almost $200,000 over the last two years” and that he still received no information about the claims that had been paid.  In response, Mr. Ritzmann finally sent an email on May 9, 2016 with the names of the public officials associated with those claims.

One of those claims had to do with a complaint against Flagler County Commissioner George Hanns.  In 2014, Commissioner Hanns was serving on the county’s canvassing board.  One of his colleagues, Frank J. Meeker, was running for re-election.  The Supervisor of Elections had requested that Mr. Hanns step down from his position on the canvassing board because of his involvement with Mr. Meeker’s campaign.  Mr. Meeker even sent out a campaign mailer of a picture of himself with Mr. Hanns and others, including “a quote from Commissioner George Hanns endorsing Candidate Frank Meeker.”  Mr. Hanns refused to step down, claiming that he “didn’t put the endorsement in writing.”

According to the complaint, “Several weeks after the advertisement was delivered by US mail, and after thousands of voters voted early or by absentee ballot Candidate Frank Meeker sent out a retraction by mail.  This retraction was done after thousands of voter’s had voted early or voted absentee by mail, and the retraction was not sent out until just days before election day; therefore the retraction had little to no value.”

He was eventually removed from the canvassing board “against his will.”  In fact, the complaint against Mr. Hanns goes even further to state, “The removal of Commissioner George Hanns from the Canvassing Board took place in the presence of Officials from the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections who were observing the process at the request of the county administrator Craig Coffey as is described below.  The actions of Commissioner George Hanns and Craig Coffey were an embarrassment for Flagler County.  It is believed this is the first time in history such action was taken during a county canvassing board meeting in the state of Florida against a County Commission Chairman. The public’s confidence in fair, accurate, honest elections is now diminished all because one county commission risked everything to help his fellow county commissioner and kept it hidden and was not forthcoming and transparent.”

In several emails to me from Dennis McDonald, an associate of John Ruffalo, he wrote [emphasis mine]:

“This complaint is about George Hanns personally using his position to endorse for a fellow commissioner in a RE ELECTION campaign. This complaint was sent to his home address because it was outside the scope of his job description but yet the county is providing legal coverage through it’s insurance carrier. The carrier plays along and just raises rates as required and the county commissioners never object. Why, because it’s on the taxpayer dime and nobody knows.”

“I think we can all agree that nothing is more personal than running for political office, election or re-election, and that it can not be found in any of the job descriptions for County Commissioner. The Taxpayers of Flagler County have been footing the legal bills for county commissioners’ personal actions related to re-election violations by filing claims through county manager Coffeys’ office, which is allowing the submission of the claim. The insurance company then hires Mark Herron, author of the Herron Memo that attempted to disenfranchise 143,000 military ballots in the Florida election of 2000. Herron then represents the commissioners at the Ethics Commission, that he was once chairman and now has made into a Million Dollar business. With this in mind, ask the question, do you think anyone could get a fair hearing at the Ethics Commission, especially when only Million Dollar Mark is allowed to speak ?”

Despite all evidence of wrongdoing, the Florida Commission on Ethics found no probable cause.

Then again, Mark Herron, the former chair of the Commission, was hired to defend Mr. Hanns before the Commission.

Is anyone else sensing a pattern here?

I know I am.

Ironically, the now former Flagler County elections supervisor, Kimberle Weeks, who forced Mr. Hanns to step down from the canvassing board, had suspected illicit activity by the commissioners for years.  Unfortunately, she didn’t report her suspicions to the authorities.  Instead, she obtained evidence of their “illegally reading ballots” by secretly recording “communications involving at least 12 individuals — including Palm Coast City Clerk Virginia Smith, Flagler County Judge Melissa Moore Stens, Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed and Florida Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner.”

On January 6, 2015, she stepped down from her post and sent out an email to multiple media outlets claiming she resigned after “being forced to deal with ‘(six) years of obstruction and manipulation that I perceive as voter fraud,'” according to DemocraticUnderground.com.  After a “months-long investigation” by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Weeks was arrested on May 6, 2015 on twelve counts of illegally recording private conversations.

On March 24, 2016, Ms. Weeks appeared in court “for the latest in a series of still-inconclusive pre-trial hearings on the 12 felony charges she faces,” according to Flagler Live.  In her defense, her attorneys argued that she had disclosed the content of the recordings at a public meeting of the canvassing board.  FDLE forensic inspector Philip Lindley also confirmed that the so-called “illegal taping” of a conversation between County Attorney Al Hadeed and County Commissioner Charlie Ericksen took place at one of those public meetings.  During this “whispered” conversation, Hadeed allegedly told Ericksen that he had observed another commissioner committing third degree vote fraud.  Although prosecutors claimed that neither Hadeed nor Ericksen agreed to be recorded, the defense argued that there was a noticed posted at the entrance of the elections supervisor’s office “that stated explicitly that anyone on the premises could be recorded.”

Interestingly, the identity of the commissioner who allegedly  committed voter fraud has never been revealed, nor did County Attorney Hadeed report his witnessing of the felony to the authorities.

Ironically, despite all the evidence of illegal activity collected by Ms. Weeks, she’s the one who was arrested and is now on trial.  Apparently, no good deed goes unpunished.

And finally, earlier this month the Flagler County commission voted to reimburse Commissioner Barbara Revels the sum of “$1,037 for legal fees she paid to defend herself against one of three ethics complaints filed against her in 2014 that was dismissed,” according to the Daytona Beach News Journal.  This farewell “gift,” courtesy of Flagler County taxpayers, was bestowed at her last commission meeting after having lost her bid for re-election two weeks earlier.

County Attorney Al Hadeed (the same individual who allegedly  covered up illegal activity by a commissioner earlier this year), suggested that the commission approve this payment since “it was well past the deadline for the county to, in turn, file a petition with the ethics commission to recoup legal fees from [complainant] Stevens on the dismissed complaint.”

Because Flagler County commissioners are particularly fond of spending their constituents’ money, they again brought in Tallahassee lawyer Mark Herron to defend her against three complaints filed by a Palm Coast resident that she violated state conflict of interest laws.  Ms. Revels, who “voted to advance the county’s plans to purchase the old Memorial Hospital-Flagler building in downtown Bunnell for $1.23 million,” failed to disclose that she was a business associate of the owners of the property.  Nor did she disclose that she “owned $100,000 worth of shares in Intracoastal Bank,” of which one of those owners is the president and CEO.

Nevertheless, “County commissioners approved the request, determining that Revels was acting in her capacity as a commissioner when she voted in favor of the hospital acquisition in May and August 2013.”

Interestingly, it apparently was of no concern to her colleagues that while she was “acting in her capacity of a commissioner,” she blatantly committed a conflict of interest violation when they voted to pay her legal bills with tax dollars.

Then again, it’s not their money.

Even though the Florida Commission on Ethics upheld two of the complaints and fined her $2,500.00 in civil penalties, it dismissed the third complaint alleging that she did not cast her vote in return for “something of value,” i.e., “an increased line of credit Intracoastal Bank opened for her just days prior to her approval.”  Although clearly a “pay for play” scheme, the Ethics Commission declared it was “accidental or insignificant.”

Then again, as they did with their colleague on the dais George Hann, Flagler County commissioners hired Mark Herron to defend Ms. Revels against the complaints filed with the very same Ethics Commission of which he was previously the chairman.

Conveniently, as noted in the article, “Herron is a Tallahassee ethics law attorney who has represented Flagler officials in more than two dozen ethics claims filed against county officials between November 2014 and June. He continues to litigate on the county’s behalf in the commission’s efforts to recoup legal fees for those claims, many of which the ethics commission tossed out.”

Flagler County residents might want to question their commission why they insist on hiring Tallahassee lawyer Mark Herron, whose office is 231.8 miles from the Flagler County seat of Bunnell, Florida.  This 3 hour and 26 minute road trip, for which Herron is reimbursed by Flagler County taxpayers, costs taxpayers a pretty penny.

It would obviously be more convenient – and a whole lot cheaper – to use a local attorney.

Then again, no attorney in Bunnell has ever chaired the Ethics Commission.

Only Mark Herron can claim that distinction, which is apparently why he’s on retainer by Flagler County commissioners.

But, no worries.  The Flagler County commissioners will be able to file claims for legal fees with the county’s insurance company, Preferred Governmental Insurance Trust, which also hired Mark Herron to represent Flagler County and its commissioners.

What a racket, huh?

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this is nothing short of legal organized crime.

The rampant corruption going on in the “sleepy little hollow” known as Flagler County is just one of the reasons that Florida is one of the top ten most corrupt states in the nation.

Tallahassee lawyer Mark Herron has long been on my radar for his use of numerous political committees to steer local elections.

Until recently, I knew absolutely nothing about the municipal insurance industry, Mark Herron’s involvement, or its massive ripoff of taxpayer money.

I do now.

And now, so do you.

This type of corruption is not limited to Flagler County.  Countless other municipalities in Florida contract with Preferred Governmental Insurance Trust for liability and property insurance coverage.

Find out if your city is one of them.  All you have to do is make a public records request.

Oh, and good luck with that.

Stephanie