June 11 Alachua County Commission Regular Meeting
Press release from Alachua County
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Alachua County Commission will conduct its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. The regular meeting is in the Jack Durrance Auditorium on the second floor of the Alachua County Administration Building (12 SE 1st St., Gainesville). The daytime portion of the meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. The evening portion of the meeting begins at 5 p.m. The evening meeting includes the Annual Report presentation, the FY25 Budget Development, and the County Manager’s Budget Presentation.
The meeting can be viewed on Cox Channel 12, the AC TV app (Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku), the county’s Facebook and YouTube sites, and the county’s Video on Demand website.
During the regular meeting, the public can make comments at the meeting in person or call in during the 12 p.m. (noon) comment period. Callers will have 3 minutes to comment on anything not on the agenda and 3 minutes to discuss anything on the agenda. Callers can choose either or both. Those commenting on items on the agenda will not be allowed to comment again on agenda items if attending the meeting in person later in the day. The call-in number is 1-929-205-6099. When prompted, enter meeting ID 873 5974 1977. Callers can hear the meeting while on hold and can use the system to listen. If you wish to comment, “raise your hand” by dialing *9 (star nine). Once you are called on by the last four digits of your phone number, unmute your phone by dialing *6 (star six).
Daytime items of interest:
- 2024 Alachua County Citizens Academy Graduates
- Approval of a Proclamation Declaring May 15th as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Awareness Day in Alachua County, Florida
- Advisory Board Update – Arts Council
- World Masters Update from the Local Organizing Committee and West End License Agreement
- Discussion of BoCC Investment Policy
- EcoLoop Project Proposal Presentation
- Solid Waste and Resource Recovery Facilities Update
- Heirs Property Presentation
- Buck Bay Flatwoods Preserve 10-Year Management Plan Update
- Little Lake Santa Fe Preserve 10-Year Management Plan
- Z24-000002 A request for a special exception to allow agricultural services on parcel 07411-003-001
- Parker Road Cottage Neighborhood Preliminary Development Plan
Evening items of interest:
- Annual Report Presentation
- FY25 Budget Development County Manager Budget Presentation
- Board-Initiated Charter Amendment: Ordinance Adoption Public Hearing
Wear your hip boots to this meeting.
Consent Agenda Item 3b. Approval to Retain Special Attorney for Celebration Pointe Bankruptcy Proceedings – 24-00549. County to pay $50,000 as a starter, and could be unknown additional amount, to hire an outside lawyer to “monitor” the bankruptcy of Celebration Pointe.
On March 14, 2024, three of the fifty plus shell LLC corporations which exist as “Celebration Pointe” filed for Federal bankruptcy. Case 2024-bk-10056. They owe primarily out of state banks $250 to $300 million and can’t make payments. There was a hearing on May 22 in Gainesville and all interested parties had a lawyer there representing their financial interests EXCEPT Alachua County, which is owned money.
Three corporations are in the Federal bankruptcy filing. Facts from Public Records:
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1. SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC owns no property under its own name. However it owns and manages a few shell corporations to keep a lot of lawyers and accountants employed.
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2. Celebration Pointe Holdings LLC owns 6 parcels. None of the 2023 property taxes have been paid on them. Due by May 31. The bankruptcy filing prevents tax certificates from being sold.
6820-2-18, 6820-4-1, 6937-4-0 are tiny and of little value. However
-6820-2-0 owes $36,500 for 2023 taxes.
-6828-7-0 owes $26,700 for 2023 taxes. In addition, it never paid its 2022 taxes and a tax certificate was sold for 33,206. CPH owes this investor repayment plus interest.
-6818-0-0 owes $23,000 for 2023 taxes. It never paid its taxes for 2018, and a tax certificate for $17,677 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2019, and a tax certificate for $21,486 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2021, and a tax certificate for $27,402 was sold.
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3. Celebration Pointe Holdings II LLC owns one parcel.
6820-3-0 owes $24,000 for 2023 taxes. It never paid its taxes for 2018, and a tax certificate for $29,714 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2021, and a tax certificate for $28,759 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2022, and a tax certificate for $28,003 was sold.
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Not counting the fifty other shell corporations, just the three bankrupt companies owe $110,200 for 2023 taxes and owe $186,247 to redeem the tax certificates for taxes they never paid between 2018 and 2022. (Many other Celebration Pointe shell corporations are behind on property taxes, including the one that owns Spurrier’s Gridiron Grill.)
On May 26 2024 the BOCC voted to write a check TO Viking for about a quarter million dollars to unnecessarily buy out Viking’s option to buy the West End Golf Course for $3.8 million, and the county would pay for the environmental contamination cleanup on the property. They are setting up to give a $645,000 (agenda item I1) no bid contract to Viking for to build the WMA improvements on West End, and I predict they will funnel their new $13 million state grant to Viking to build their Archer Braid Trail.
Now they are paying $50,000 plus to a lawyer to monitor the bankruptcy. The World Masters was once estimated to cost $14 million. Will the Alachua County taxpayers be asked to pay $1 million a month for the next 10 months to subsidize this boondoggle? Appears so.
Question 1: Why does the BOCC continue to write checks to Svein Dyrkolbotn when he owes them money and never pays his county property taxes?????
Question 2: Does anyone know how much information a private citizen needs to provide to the State or Federal DA to force them to empanel a RICO Grand Jury? Just asking. In general. No particular reason. . .
The Archer Braid Trail has already been built. The new grant was just to expand certain portions of the trail and the expansion will be handled by the DOT and the County.
“the expansion will be handled by the DOT and the County.”
You just proved my point. The County is the problem. The county manager needs to register as a lobbyist for Celebration Pointe. The entire BOCC needs to resign, as they are not needed. Just hand the county checkbook to Viking on your way out the door. And something that is “already built” does not need $13 million more to finish it.
I predict the county will no bid hire Viking and hand them the $13 million. Like they did with the Sports Center. They gave Viking $30 million no bid and Viking built a cheap $20 million building and pocketed the rest. Yes, this is RICO stuff IMHO.
On May 28 the BOCC voted to give $355,000 to the Gainesville Sports Organizing Committee to “market” Alachua County. Why do they need so much money, and what will they spend it on? Prediction: the GSOC folks and the WMA LOC folks will spend this money to “market” Alachua County in person, by spending it going to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. Paid for by the taxpayers.
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Evidence? In Alachua County Circuit Court there are two open lawsuits against the Viking empire.
Case 2023-CA-004161 is some folks who claim they invested $2 million to build a student housing building east of Tigert Hall. Building was never built, the site is today a parking lot. The investors claim Viking refuses to return their $2 million and the lawsuit uses the word “fraud.”
Case 2022-CA-003014 is some folks who were business partners with Viking Student Housing, LLC, another shell corporation, to build a housing high rise north of University Avenue. Their lawsuit claims that Viking refuses to give them copies of the internal corporate documents they are entitled to by law.
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In both cases, on 5/20 Viking’s lawyer sent a letter to the court to not schedule any court activity from August 7 to August 13, as Viking would be “Unavailable.
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Paris Olympics July 29 thru August 11. You do the math.
Item I 1 on the June 11 BOCC agenda is a request for more public money for the taxpayers to subsidize the 2025 World Masters track meet, pretending it is run by the Alachua County Local Organizing Committee, or LOC. The LOC is millions of dollars short of the cash needed to put on the WMA, and the BOCC and county taxpayers will pay and pay and pay. (For those who do not know, the President of the LOC is Svein Dyrkolbotn, the bankrupt (case 24-bk-10056) founder of Celebration Pointe who has defaulted on $300 million of bank loans, and has two local lawsuits (2022-CA-3014 and 2023-CA-4161) against him by his own business partners, one claiming theft and fraud. He is over $110,000 delinquent on his 2023 county property taxes, yet the BOCC continues to write six figure checks TO him. WHY?)
The Alachua County WMA Local Organized Committee is a bunch of greedy arrogant folks who don’t think the rules apply to them. They are not hosting the WMA because they love sports, for them it is a pure money making enterprise to “hose the Europeans.” However, low cost housing is a necessity per WMA requirements.
2025 WMA Bid Specs:
“F. HOUSING AND MEALS Housing must be available for up to 5-10,000 visitors for a period of 5 to 10 days for Indoor Championships. A wide variety of accommodation must be available, such as university dormitories, as well as large and small hotels. WMA will insist that there be a limit on any increase in housing rates from the time the bid is made until the actual conduct of the event. This stipulation will be contained in the Contract, together with a firm written commitment relating to rates, meals, and amenities. The Local Organizing Committee should empower a travel agency to handle the arrangements for accommodation of the athletes and their families and a representative of that agency should be in attendance when the bid is presented.
However, the Local Organizing Committee, not any other entity, will be responsible for ensuring that housing costs are reasonable and in accordance with the bid. Housing represents the greatest expense, after transportation, for the average competitor, and its cost will affect attendance.
A successful bid will include low-cost housing options. Dormitory housing, with inexpensive cafeteria meals available, or cooking facilities in the rooms, is a prime requirement. Many of the competitors cannot afford to participate without such facilities.
A range of hotels and motels—from budget to luxury—MUST also be available to the competitors. (See appropriate Contract Section.) Some participants may wish to stay in non standard housing (campgrounds). Examples of campground availability and costs should be included in your bid.
The following information, included in the Bid Application, will need to be confirmed in the Contract. 13 WMAC Indoor Bidders Guidelines Table:
Range of Hotel Accommodation available
Number of Hotels Number of Rooms
Maximum Number of Beds/Rooms
Minimum Price $/Room
Maximum Price $/Room Luxury Hotels
First Class Hotels
Economy Class Hotels
Family Hostels
Camping Sites Schools/Dormitories etc
Location and cost of available campsites and/or amenities hook-ups should be included.”
The Alachua County LOC has a website. Under Housing it lists nothing but very expensive hotels:
Name WMA Price per night June 19-20 2024 price per night Expedia
Hotel Indigo Celebration Point $290 $132
(Hotel owned by Svein Dvrkolbotn, LOC President, and owner of bankrupt Celebration Pointe)
Homewood Suites Hilton $206 $118
Hilton Garden Inn $195 $110
Best Western Gateway $200 $110
Hampton Inn Gainesville $177 $110
Holiday Inn Express Gainesville $164 $127
Comfort Inn University $193 $89
Red Roof Inn Plus Gainesville $144 $62
Hom Hotel by Wyndham $189 $106
Courtyard by Marriott Gainesville$188 $101
Country Inn Radisson $160 $99
Doubletree by Hilton $168 $118
Drury Inn Gainesville $205 $113
Sleep Inn Shands $193 $81
Super 8 by Wyndham $132 $64
Springhill Suites Marriott $195 $125
Fairfield Inn Marriott $211 $131
Aloft Gainesville $222 $105
Hilton UF Conference $233 $129
La Quinta Wyndham $177 $116
Townhouse Suites Marriott NW $199 $114
Comfort Suites Gainesville Univ $188 $103
Home 2 Suites Hilton $222 $127
Hotel Eleo $244 $172
AC Hotel by Marriott Downtown$278 $164
Holiday Inn Gainesville $268 $164
Hyatt Place Gainesville $166 $116
Hampton Inn Downtown $195 $115
Hampton Inn Alachua $171 $118
Holiday Inn Express Alachua $199 $138
Every one of them has nearly DOUBLED the rates for the WMA event to gouge the Europeans. There is no medium or low cost housing. The WMA are fools to be suckered in by the LOC and Celebration Pointe. They will regret the day they got fooled into selecting Gainesville for the 2025 WMA event, a disaster in progress.
Alachua County got the WMA as the only bidder. No other city in America would sign up for this financial disaster, because they did their homework, looked carefully at the financial numbers, and said “Oh He!! NO” and ran.
Like WMA said, “Housing represents the greatest expense, after transportation, for the average competitor, and its cost will affect attendance.” By having no affordable housing, attendance will be small. In fact, the Participants should object to being gouged for housing and organize a total boycott of the 2025 WMA event.
Remember the Newberry Slaughterhouse? Well the ghost of that dead pig has arisen.
Alachua County was going to build a slaughterhouse, a fire training facility, a rural garbage collection center, and a hazardous waste collection center on the Newberry Environmental Park south of downtown. Newberry only paid a few thousand dollars an acre for this pesticide contaminated Superfund site. Newberry was going to provide the land for free to the County, and Newberry was going to install the water and sewer lines at their expense.
The location for the rural collection center will be a traffic nightmare. The center needs to be built on Highway 41. This location was a scam by Newberry, because the county facilities are only accessible from Hwy 337, which is in need of upgrading. Newberry tried to claim the County facilities, not their own massive subdivision approvals on 337, would overload 337, thus the county needed to spend $30 million to fix 337.
When the BOCC cancelled the slaughterhouse, the Newberry commission got so butthurt they refused to have any future joint meetings with the BICC. Those who know him know it takes a lot to make Mayor Motormouth quit talking.
Update to the June 11 BOCC meeting Agenda item I 4. Appears county staff and Newberry folks have been having backroom meetings again to shaft the county taxpayers. The Newberry collection center is come back to life, only worse.
The offer of free land by Newberry has turned into the County paying $35,000 an acre to buy 5 acres, or $175,000. The “Newberry paid for utilities” had turned into the county paying $474,400.
Why is the county giving all this money to a city that will not even have a joint meeting?
Could it be spending of county money in Prizzia’s single member district in an attempt to buy votes in November?
I would like to think that the county is getting its revenge on Newberry by building in this bad location to deliberately create a traffic nightmare for the good citizens of Springs County.