If you followed the egregious abuse of Brevard’s EEL program, including the plagiarized appraisals that were used to attempt to justify the $25 million purchase of land at Hunter’s Brooke, you might be interested in reading the transcript of what actually transpired when your elected officials on the County Commission were informed of the falsified appraisals by Clerk of the Courts Scott Ellis. Here is the complete transcript in PDF format. A few key quotes are below. Keep in mind that this purchase was the largest land purchase in Brevard County history.
These are reactions from various commissioners upon learning that there is a serious question of fraud in regards to the appraisals. What little concern they exhibit seems highly contrived.
Jackie Colon: And also, with all due respect to that Committee that has those eyes, I think I would feel more comfortable still, with Land Development and Holly, who’s got 30 years of experience in the industry, because I do not consider myself – I’d be a fish out of water when it comes to those kinds of discussions. That discussion will be held for another day, because those are the kinds of things that we all have to be very clear. I am very supportive of the fact that we have been able to identify a piece of property with that much land; and the connectivity is what’s exciting, because it’s not just being able to look at that. So, I know personally…I’m very supportive of it. That discussion you’re hearing about appraisals, that’s coming back….. don’t want to muddy the waters, very concerned, very concerned, in regards to how we’re doing these kinds of appraisals.
It’s exciting, she says, that they’ve been able to identify this piece of land, and she’s “very supportive” of that fact, but she’s concerned about the appraisals.
Helen Voltz: Yes, thanks for bringing this up, Scott. I just now got it, I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet, but certainly, the things that you talked about I think are very important, and while I think this may be a good purchase, I’m not so sure that I’m ready to make a decision, because I was in full support of it – I’m probably going to support it eventually – but, I think the fact that we all know that appraisals are not scientific, I mean, we know that. The Program is scientific, and so, we have to match the two of those up, but some of the things that Scott brought up, I feel like I was blindsided today in that, you know, not knowing some of the things, because I certainly – I mean there’s a lot of information here reading the appraisals without something that I chose to do – I assume staff is going to be looking at that.
She just found about the appraisals, but she’s probably going to support it anyway. But she doesn’t read appraisals because she “assumes” staff is looking at those. On a $25 million purchase? How do you show up for a meeting and get “blindsided” when the reports were available for her prior review? Laziness? Incompetence?
Despite the vote to delay the purchase based on the evidence of forged appraisals, the county voted to make the purchase two weeks later.
12 comments.
on January 6th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Perhaps, the true colors of Mr. ELLIS are starting to come out. Beware, BREVARD, he’s got you fooled. Mr. Ellis is nothing more than a carpet bagger from the north who thinks he can blind-side we Southern Folk…….you better pay attention………and BEWARE, ignorance is bliss. Mr. Ellis LOVES IGNORANCE………….it’s how he “proves” himself.
on January 6th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Scott Ellis was not operating in the citizen’s of Brevard Countys best interest when he made his report to the commissioners.
As a long time resident of Brevard County and one who has had numerous dealings with appraisers in various capacities, because two appraiser’s “word” their document’s the same way does not lead one to the ultimate conclusion of their collusion.
Mr. Ellis, is as stated in a “SallieMae” comment, is a carpet bagger from West Va. He proceeds to get involved in various legal cases and has NOTABLY been reprimanded by the 5th District Court Of Appeals for interferance in Civil Cases.
The sale price is acceptable to we “Brevardians” and will greatly benefit Brevard County with recreational facilites, as well as protection from development of our areas surrounding our wetlands. Mr. Ellis may have intentions that more than meet the eye. Does Mr. Ellis have developers as political backing for any new position with our county goverment he may choose????
I am shocked by Helen Voltz comments re: being “blindsided” during the recent commisioners meeting. Does she not keep informed of developments in this county? Does her staff not keep her appraised before meetings? It was pointed out during the meeting that appraisers were “State Certified”…….. is this not sufficient enough for Mr. Ellis??????
on January 10th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I am shocked by the two previous comments. If Scott Ellis is a carpet bagger, pigs can fly! Who else in county government is looking at the bottom line for the taxpayers? The present commission is spending money to buy votes quicker than they can raise the taxes to cover their spending. We need a whole new commission. However, I must admit, after fighting with Chuck Nelson over the parks fiasco since 2001 I am impressed with his performance to date as commissioner. Mary Bolin, on the other hand, seems to see which way the wind is blowing before taking any stand. Truman is gone and so should be Jackie Colon and Helen Voltz. That was great politics by Jackie to “reconsider” the Waste Management contract. Now she can run for tax collector as a hero. If any of these spend crazy commissioners get elected to another county office heaven help us. There is no review of the constitutional officers’ budgets so how much of an increase do you think they’ll grow? Doubling in five years like Jackie did with the county budget during her tenure! The only course for the taxpayer is vote her out of office.
on January 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Well, I see the minions are back at work. The ‘carpetbagger from the north’ who went through local elementary, junior high, and high schools, and has had the same local phone number for over 40 years. West Virginia is my birthplace, but anyone who has ever been through coal country would have a hard time calling it ‘the north’. I have never been reprimanded by the 5th DCA, that one is pretty ludicrous, we lost our appeal. The appeal was on the CAPIT tax cap amendment and the results of our loss have been runaway county spending and debt. As for ’state certified’, that does not mean a whole lot. They have a license, big deal. I do not need a certificate from the state to know cow pastures in Titusville and Scottsmoor have not doubled or tripled in value since their purchases at the peak of the real estate bubble, especially when prime properties on the river and beaches have fallen. I like the other comment as well, “because two appraiser’s “word” their document’s the same way does not lead one to the ultimate conclusion of their collusion.” Well, if it is not conclusion when we have EXACT copies of the same passages, should we instead label in mental telepathy? As for developers backing me, the Board of Realtors and the Homebuilders Association have backed my opponents in each race I’ve run. Now I do take great pride in trusting individuals over government to make decisions for their lives and businesses, but often trade associations do not really want what they claim, a principled proponent of free markets. I am sure it is just a coincidence Ms. Mae and Mr. Roberts posted within an hour of each other.
on January 21st, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Turns out that the first two comments were by the same person. That person lives in Tampa and also submitted yet another comment after Scott’s comment above - full of vitriol and hate.
I did not approve the comment. That wasn’t because it was full of senseless nonsense, or that it was from someone in Tampa who has an unhealthy interest in Scott Ellis that sort of creeps me out. No, if that’s all it was, the comment would have been approved. It was because the person chooses to use multiple usernames and bogus email addresses - trying to pretend they are three different people, instead of just making their points (no matter how weak they might be) as one person.
I’ve added a bit of language below to further “discourage” those who like to play games and can’t be forthright on the internet.
I don’t have a problem with someone who wants to remain anonymous, but remain anonymous consistently. Don’t try and be a different person (Richard Roberts, Sallie Mae, Richard Cranium). If you are in the minority on a topic, that’s okay… be in the minority and be proud and make your points - as one person. Feel free to argue vehemently, but don’t just be stupid. Chances are there’s probably someone smarter than you.
Personally, I think they lurkers and worms on the internet who make any anonymous comment (or send anonymous emails) are just sort of cowardly, meek types. Everything I do on the internet is under my own name - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I don’t try to use different usernames, and I especially wouldn’t do that on a single thread and try to pretend I’m three different people.
If that person still wants their comment approved, they can email me from a valid email address and I’ll approve it - and change all their comments to a single username (doesn’t have to be their real name).
It’s okay to have a healthy debate, or even an unhealthy debate. But let’s make it a debate - not a juvenile attempt to smear one person by pretending to be three people. Lame. Very lame indeed.
on January 21st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I think the person from Tampa using multiple names to stab people in the back is the former Palm Bay lobbyist, it is a modus operandi over here. Just another Minion plugging away! Whomever it is knows some information from Brevard County, it is not some random blogger.
on January 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 am
The Tampa Poster most likely is an associate (or is) a prior Lobbyist for the City of Palm Bay.
The context and style of the writing is the same as other anonymous posts on other sites. It seems that this is just political maneuvering and is not intended to provide any rational debate.
on January 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Once again the minions are coming out of the woodwork in order to taint the reputation of good viable leaders in the community. This individual sounds like a person who has ripped off the citizens of Brevard and the citizens of Palm Bay for several years, yet nothing was ever done to him. He continued to cheat the citizens without any remorse yet he is still attempting to take shots from across the state. I feel bad that this individual has so much hate in his heart that he cannot let things go…it’s a shame but I will offer a bit of advice, let the hate go it will consume and you will lose everything without ever satisfying it…
on February 12th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Mr. Salberg,
I have never sent any emails or any type of correspondence to you from any email address ever before today. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Isnardi and Mr. Ellis all have posted accusations that I sent some type of emails or blog posting to you. You also indicate that it is a person from Tampa which has been sending you emails or blog posts and that some were profane. To all of you sir I say this, I have never emailed or posted anything on this site before today and nothing I have ever emailed or posted anywhere has contained profanity. I read a post on FT by Mr. Ellis, referencing this website, stating that you had my ip address and that you had outed me as the person from Tampa. Well sir, I would respectfully request that you:
a) provide the ip address from the earlier emails if you have them
b) provide the ip address from my email if you have it
c)provide a retraction of the earlier accusations
d) refrain from posting false and malicious accusations against me, or anyone else for that matter including Mr. Ellis, without providing the proof that is claimed.
Also, you make reference to cowardly, meek types in your attempt to link me to those emails. Well sir, if you knew anything about me other than the lies spread by my enemies then you would know that I in fact have stood in many public meetings where I freely spoke my mind knowing the opposition I would be facing and yet I spoke my mind anyways without remorse. At times I have freely spoken my mind knowing full well it would cost my family financially yet speaking my mind was the right thing to do so I did it and let the consequences fall where they may. I have no problem standing in the arena and taking the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with it.
For the record Mr. Ellis, I have NEVER supported the EELS program. If you had done a little research you would know my long standing opposition to the EELS program. It is one of the issues you and I both agree upon. If I choose to oppose you and discuss what issues I disagree with you on, it would definitely not be on your EELS position.
Mr. Isnardi assaulted me in front of a Palm Bay police officer and accepted a plea agreement which allowed him to plead to disorderly conduct instead of assault. He was fined and sentenced to anger management classes. (Brevard County Case Number 05-2006-MM-039343) Mr. Isnardi is very bitter because he could not coerce me into dropping the charges against him. Mr. Isnardi still cannot comprehend that it was his own inability to control his temper and his own actions that resulted from his anger management issues which are to blame. Because of this, Mr. Isnardi continues to maliciously attack me with every false accusation he can think up in order to get pay back against me for pressing charges against him. Mr. Isnardi would like to think that I am the boogie man behind everyone who doesn’t agree with him. Mr. Isnardi, I say to you that perhaps you should heed your own advice and let go of your hate and anger before it consumes you.
on March 7th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
In regards to the above comment by Mr. Barrett, I confirmed this was in fact him via email with a valid email address, let him know that I even more so suspected he were the one making the earlier comment attempts, and moreover, gave him an opportunity to retract this comment for three days before approving its post.
I told him that once I approved his comment above, I would not later remove it, even at his own request. While we are all free to disagree, I informed him that considering his career choice of being a consultant to cities, that I thought the comment above, if found by potential clients on the internet, would be a detrimental to his future opportunities. He declined to retract his comment, and so it is posted above.
The exact text of my email to Mr. Barrett is below (for the purposes of full disclosure):
———-EMAIL TO BILL BARRETT———–
Okay. I don’t know you from Adam, and we never mentioned you by name at Brevard Outlook - either myself or those who have commented. Naturally, I can’t control what goes on at other websites so you’ll have to address them individually.
Anyway, I spent a few minutes today googling you to see who the heck you were and why everyone is in such a fuss about this.
I’m not sure you understand that if I approve this comment (which I’m more than willing to do), it will stay on Brevard Outlook indefinitely. That could be 10-20 years or more. Are you sure you want these comments of yours out on the net? As best I can figure, you make your living as a consultant to various cities. It strikes me that a simple tirade like this (right or wrong) would likely cost you some future business.
So, just to cover myself, I’m taking the unprecedented step of giving you the right of first refusal. I don’t even know what the hullabaloo is all about (nor do I really care). But my professional advice would be to not post this as you will likely suffer economic consequences at some point as a result of this post. So, if I receive a request within the next 48 hours asking me not to post the comment, I won’t. After that, I’m approving it - and not removing it short of a judge’s order.
As for the other posts, I’m happy to give you the IP address when and if I ever get sued. Prior to that, in the unlikely circumstance that the prior three comments were NOT from you, I would be violating someone else’s privacy. I’m pretty sure they are you though, after reading Scott’s and others comments (plus seeing your own below). As you can see from your own comment that I forwarded to you (below), WordPress (like all major blogging platforms) uses the server Post command to capture the IP address and time/date of the comment. There is no reasonable way to spoof that (unless you are an uber-hacker - ).
Since the other 3 comments are all from the Tampa area (all Brighthouse customers, too), I find the coincidence to be a bit overwhelming for my own beliefs.
But regardless of my beliefs, just know that if I had to, I could subpeona Brighthouse to confirm/deny you as having access to the prior 3 IP addresses at the time of the prior comments. Certainly nothing wrong with you making those comments (as crazy as they were), but I’m hardly worried about your not-too-well veiled threats here. I’ve spent enough time toying with legal issues on the net that I’m pretty confident you have nothing to gripe about here. And don’t think that a public terminal (library/internet cafe) is sufficient to hide behind, since their router records are subject to the same procedure - and will be tied to a library patron ID, a credit card xaction, or even a MAC adaptor from a laptop/wi-fi card.
There will be no retractions, in other words. At least not about anything you referenced here. In fact, according to you, the entire article doesn’t have anything to do with you. But, you are starting to look awfully guilty as the tiresome fool behind the interference into the matter. Oddly, the article has to do with the sale of Hunters Brooke - which is pretty much five counties away from where you live. What is even your interest (anymore) in Brevard? Do you own land in the affected area? You’re not just still bitter over the whole refusal of the county to hire you, are you? That would be interesting (as a story) if anyone cared around here, but other than a few affected parties, I think we’ve all moved on. Might be a good idea if you do, too.
There is a great hyperlocal blog in the Tampa area you might find of interest (and more relevant to your needs) called Sticks of Fire (http://www.sticksoffire.com/). A good guy named Tommy runs it - but he won’t hesitate to call you out if you send the same kind of comment spam to him as you did me. Yeah, I know I’m kind of just “assuming” you were behind those comments (you or your alter-ego) and maybe that riffs you a bit, but oh well…. that’s just the way it is. I don’t think you changed my opinion a bit by sending this - if anything, you strengthened it.
— Lawrence Salberg
on March 8th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Mr. Barrett is consumed over the fact that I allegedly verbally assaulted him…the truth of the matter is simple. Mr. Barrett, lobbyist for Palm Bay at the time and I had a verbal altercation. He felt threatened and filed charges; I was charged with both disorderedly conduct as well as assault (assault was nol-prossed). I never denied the fact that I was disorderly in my use of language and aggressive stance. I have always admitted that and never denied it. Mr. Barrett would not be man enough to discuss this matter with me and wanted his day in court. Mr. Barrett is right, I plead to the disorderly conduct only because I was guilty of it, read the statements from Barrett, and he alleges he was in fear for his personal safety. I attribute that to a school yard stance…talk all the trash you want, the second someone calls you on it, you run and go tell. I bet you feel like a real man now!!
The fact of the matter Barrett, you hide in the shadows and take pot shots at all who know you for who you are…you do it on all the forums in your efforts to slam your political enemies, be a man-Use your Name! We all know it’s you…The truth be known I am just a private citizen that works hard in my community to make a positive difference. I am the only private citizen that continuously gets slammed because I call out flaws in our government and call it for what it is…I wear those attacks like badge of honor…if I get people attacking me, I must be hitting close to the truth.
Mr. Barrett is not on my radar screen anymore, he is a non-player here where I am raising my family. He still has political ties to one of the members of our delegation; I will pull schedules to verify their meetings and speak with office staff to ensure that my delegation in Tallahassee is representing us well, if any fall into the trap of Mr. Barrett, they will pay in the form of public opinion. I will make sure that the word gets out there loud and clear that those that meet with Barrett in an official capacity will answer to those back here in Brevard County.
The EELs issue is an entirely different matter…there has only been one elected official that has come out with responsible spending of our money, and that is Scott Ellis. I don’t believe that I ever heard Ellis say the program was bad, from my impression he wants to ensure that monies are being spent appropriately and fairly for the citizens of Brevard. Why is Ellis involved? It is his Duty as the County’s CFO to ensure that the Board stays within compliance with their spending habits. When a commission is weak on an issue they have tendency to rely on staff…as a member of Staff I can assure that this staff has an agenda, which is dangerous to those of us that have elected people to do a job…now we are having to deal with staff’s agenda, not those of the people that we elected to perform the job.
I believe that county manager is doing what she can to curtail this but she is only as good as her commission, and she must rely on what the commission wants. EELs is not something that we can just do away with, it is program that was voted on by the citizens of Brevard, but that still doesn’t it mean it should not be run with the best interest of the citizens in mind, from what I can gather it is not.
I am a private citizen with an opinion, if the minions come out to attack-at least use your real names…be man/woman enough to do that much!
Dave Isnardi
on August 7th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Well here we are August 2008 and EELS deals are back in the news as questions fly about price and place (and in this case,pasture land which has had Titusville poo dumped on it for years - “endangered” alright!)
Scottsmoor, for those who do not know, is the tiny little northernmost spot in Brevard. If you blink, you’ve passed it.
We have no traffic lights, no real shopping; we do have our own post office and a great postmaster named Steve.
We also do have 5-A, an entrance,exit to and from I-95. We learned this week why 5-A is one of the most neglected interstate connector roads in the state…EEL and Nature Conservancy (and of course, their developer partners) have been hard at work for quite some time priming the area for a “corridor from the St. Johns to Merritt Island”.
The plan is to have a corridor large enough for bear (and wolves and panther?) According to Mike Knight,EEL czar, DOT has monies available to build an underpass or overpass so the critters won’t become road kill.
The 5-A purchase this week takes in nearly the entire south side of this interstate approach.
There is a move afoot to also purchase much of the north side of 5-A. When this is accomplished, it will be the first interstate approach to be utilized for critters instead of commerce to my knowledge. This move is the death knell for Scottsmoor…RIP
Well, you know Brevard County politicians - big spenders, small mental process and bigger taxes to promote their petty empires.
What do you think?
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