As a local businessman and political “influencer” JT Burnette on trial for federal extortion and extortion, it throws the spotlight on the indecent and allegedly corrupt and illegal way in which politics has been conducted in Florida’s capital for decades.
On Wednesday, former Tallahassee City Commissioner Gary Yordon testified for over five hours, describing his role in a plan in which the former mayor and commissioner of Tallahasseee Scott Maddox set up a back door to transfer money from a company building a hotel in Tallahassee to a Maddox-controlled lobby company.
Two years ago, Maddox pleaded guilty to wire fraud, postal fraud, and tax fraud conspiracy. Once described by the former Vice President Al Gore as a “climber” in the Demorat party, Maddox was an ambitious politician. He served multiple terms on the city commission and as mayor, was chairman of the Florida Democratic Committee, and was running for the Florida Senate when he was arrested after an intensive FBI investigation and charged with 44 bribery and fraud charges. He is currently awaiting sentencing.
McKibbon Hotel Group (MHG) was a client of Governance Services, a lobby firm that was once owned by Maddox before Maddox was elected to the City Commission in 2012. Yordon, a governance employee, testified how Maddox sold his seat in commission he publicly sold the lobby company to his partner, Paige Carter-Smith. But privately, Maddox still retained complete control of the company, according to Yordon.
In 2006, before Maddox was on the commission, MHG submitted a proposal to the city to build an office building and parking garage on the corner of Monroe and Tennessee Streets. After several delays, the market for office space deteriorated. The MHG turned to the city commission to build a hotel on the site instead of an office building.
Maddox was now on the city commission. Yordan testified that Maddox realized that his commitment to governance and MHG would attract the attention of an outspoken critic of Tallahassee City Hall. Erwin Jackson.
Jackson, the self-proclaimed “Tallahassee truth teller”, has railed against political corruption in Tallahassee since the 1990s. He frequently raised conflicts of interest and filed ethics complaints against those on the city commission who appeared to transgress the limits of proper political behavior.
Maddox and Jackson had a particularly hostile relationship at the time.
Yordon testified that Maddox, Carter-Smith and Yordon, with the intention of creating “a smaller target for Erwin Jackson to shoot,” decided that Yordon would register as a lobbyist using the name of Yordon’s former company, The Zachary Group and apparently represent the MHG before the commission. In fact, governance would continue to represent MHG.
Under a contract that Yordon said was drafted by Maddox, MHG paid $ 25,000 upfront and then $ 3,000 a month. Yordon testified that these checks were paid to The Zachary Group, but through an agreement with the bank, the money went directly to Governance.
MHG apparently had the impression that Maddox was going to vote on the hotel group’s proposal, although Yordon said he had told them many times that he would not vote. Maddox’s vote was critical in the adoption of the proposal and MHG feared it was “DOA” without his vote, as evidenced by admissible evidence in the process.
Both prosecutors and defense showed a video of Jackson speaking in front of the city commission and correctly explaining how Maddox was still in charge of governance and that Yordon was acting through governance under Maddox’s direction and that the Zachary group only a shell to avoid the appearance of a conflict.
Around the same time, Yordon said, Burnette’s company filed a “quasi-judicial petition” against the MHG project, effectively halting the project. Burnette had bought the nearby DoubleTree hotel and reportedly wanted the MHG project to be stopped to eliminate competition.
As he testified, Yordon said Burnette’s lawsuit forced the project to halt progress.
The federal government argues that Burnette bribed Maddox to kill the MHG project.
On the first day of the negotiation Melissa Oglesby, former owner of KaiserKane, testified that her cousin and mentor Burnette received loans through her company, sometimes for millions of dollars. Some of these loans have been repaid. Some weren’t. Oglesby testified that Burnette also had her pay a $ 100,000 bill from Governance for Maddox’s help with DoubleTree.
During the initial vote on MHG, Maddox left the city commission chambers and then withdrew from all votes on the project, drew the wrath of MHG and eventually cost the company approval of the hotel project, according to Yordon’s testimony and reports from Tallahassee Reports this time.
Burnette’s lawyers, cross-examining the witnesses, attempted to portray the KaiserKane loan as a common practice for a “family business” and to show that there were many other problems with the MHG project that led to its defeat.
The process should take several weeks. It is widely believed that Maddox and Carter-Smith will testify.
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The post Trial sheds light on the ugly side of Tallahassee politics first appeared on Daily Florida Press.
from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/trial-sheds-light-on-the-ugly-side-of-tallahassee-politics/
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