Below is an article in www.GulfshoreBusiness.com Magazine published April 21, 2021 about the apparent conflicts of interest Commissioner Bill McDaniel has in representing or not representing all the residents of District 5 in Collier County.
Go to www.Gulfshorebusiness.com and read the entire article.
Could We Do Better?
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The questions comes down to "do you have to own land at the time of a vote to have a conflict of interest?"
County Attorney Klatzkow left this issue open. "Believe" is attorney code for "maybe, maybe not."
Perhaps Commissioner Penny Taylor could request that the newly formed 2020 Naples Ethics Commission could look at this issue as their first case, or
Maybe Collier County Government should have an Ethics Commission............
CLICK HERE FOR INFO
ON NAPLES ETHICS COMMISSION
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Collier County Commissioner’s Business Deals Spark Questions of Conflict
by Brett Blackledge, Gulfshore Business Magazine
bjblack35@gmail.com
April 21, 2021
Editor’s Note: This article was produced in partnership with The Florida Center for Government Accountability, a nonprofit legal and journalism program advocating public access to local government.
When William McDaniel ran for Collier County Commission in 2016, he campaigned on his business experience in real estate and as founder of an excavation company. He won the election, despite a history of business problems, including unpaid tax liens, property foreclosures and personal liability for multimillion-dollar business loans.
After taking office, McDaniel’s fortunes changed. He helped set up the sale of his business property to a developer planning a rural village in north-central Collier. The deal erased his obligation to pay $42.7 million owed on two defaulted loans and gave the development crucial access to Immokalee Rd.
Some Collier County residents have questioned McDaniel’s interests in the transaction. The deal allowed Palm Beach County developer Jeff Greene to buy McDaniel’s former excavating company’s land for the Immokalee Road Rural Village plan. New details about the deal and how McDaniel benefitted have renewed those concerns.
McDaniel had a business relationship with Greene before the sale, recommended him as a buyer for his land during the foreclosure negotiations and insisted that his personal responsibility for the
defaulted business loans be erased as part of the deal to quickly sell the Collier land, according to court records and interviews.
In March, McDaniel voted with his fellow commissioners to start the approval process for the Immokalee Road Rural Village project. Commissioners in the coming months will consider changing the county’s growth plan and rezoning the property in the environmentally sensitive rural area for the new homes and businesses promised by Greene.
Critics of the plan argue McDaniel’s connection to the land deal serves at the very least as an example of how some commissioners are too cozy with developers. At worst, McDaniel’s case serves as an example of a commissioner personally benefiting from a development project, some residents argue.
“There’s a huge issue here of quid pro quo,” said Michael Ramsey, president of the Golden Gate Estates Area Civic Association, which represents the community just south of the planned development.
“They both have interests,” Ramsey said of the developer and McDaniel. “He does have a conflict of interest.”
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE....