In Wellington, Ethics have been put out to pasture

By Rhonda Swan

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wellington Mayor Bob Margolis and Village Councilor John Greene are thumbing their noses at the very ethics they campaigned to uphold.

Mr. Margolis said former Mayor Darell Bowen’s nonchalance toward a government contractor giving village employees gifts prompted him to challenge Mr. Bowen last year. “That really started my vision and my desire to return to council,” he said, “to clean it up.”

Soon after the election, Mr. Margolis accepted $6,500 in gifts from Victoria McCullough and Neil Hirsch, lobbyists who had business before the council, for his legal defense fund. So much for that “vision” to clean things up.

The Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics found probable cause that Mr. Margolis violated the county’s ethics code by accepting $4,000 from Ms. McCullough, but dismissed the complaint because he said he would return the money. The commission bought the dubious claim that Ms. McCullough’s July check was a replacement for one she wrote in March that would not have violated the code.

In fact, Mr. Margolis was a member of the Planning and Adjustment Board in March, and accepting a gift of more than $100 in that position violated the ethics code. Ms. McCullough’s attorney had lobbied the planning board. Also, why would Ms. McCullough write a check in March to a legal defense fund that Mr. Margolis didn’t set up until May?

Mr. Greene actually did get a $4,000 check from Ms. McCullough in March. The ethics commission cleared him because he had yet to be sworn in, and Ms. McCullough supposedly had yet to meet the definition of a lobbyist. Mr. Greene also was excused for accepting thousands of dollars in gifts from Mr. Hirsch because he allegedly had resigned as a director for the Wellington Equestrian Preservation Alliance. The alliance, which opposes an $80 million village project proposed by developer Mark Bellissimo, employs a lobbyist.

That project, and their disdain for it, unites the councilors, Ms. McCullough and Mr. Hirsch. The commission failed to note that Mr. Hirsch backdated his resignation, filed with the state in August, to June 8 — one day before Mr. Greene took his gifts.

“I just want to make sure that the council is doing their due diligence,” Mr Greene said as a candidate, “and disclosing their relationships.” Why, then, did he not disclose to the ethics commission that Ms. McCullough and Mr. Hirsch are board members of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Foundation when he sought an opinion on whether he could accept employment as a fund-raiser? Mr. Greene earns $5,125 per month plus bonuses for the nonprofit as a consultant. As board members, Ms. McCullough and Mr. Hirsch are his employers.

Mr. Greene did not respond to requests to disclose details about these relationships. Mr. Margolis also did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Greene promised “zero tolerance for unethical behavior” and backed Mr. Margolis because he “has the values that would restore some of that faith and public trust in government.” Residents and employees of the village would beg to differ. Sources tell us that Mr. Margolis, Mr. Greene and Matt Wilhite, the new council majority, get involved in personnel matters best left to the village manager and his department heads. Ethics? That’s so last year.

Rhonda Swan

" Wellington's Gang of Three Waging A Vindictive War "

Commentary By Mark Bellissimo

Regarding the article “Village warns permit problems risk fest’s closure,” the Jacobs “spin team” has been aggressive in communicating the permitting challenges for this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF.) We have had our challenges, and we made some mistakes that didn’t occur in prior years. What has not been discussed is a decision made by Wellington that affected this year’s permitting process.

The WEF is the largest equestrian festival in the world. It contributes more than $200 million to Palm Beach County’s economy and provides thousands of jobs. Preparing for this 12-week event involves, among other things, permit requests, design and architectural review meetings, building, engineering and fire inspections, landscaping reviews, and water and land management permits.

John Greene, Bob Margolis and Matt Willhite, the Gang of Three who form the majority on the Wellington Village Council, point to a former council they claim was “lax” and an “out-of-control” developer as the reasons for this year’s permitting issues. The true explanation is the elimination of a critical coordinating process called the Equestrian Response Team (ERT).

These vital meetings have been in place every year that we have run the festival. Starting each October, every other Tuesday the ERT would assemble all our building contractors and personnel from the village. Up to 25 people would attend. The goal was to navigate from permitting and reviews to final inspections, while identifying potential problems and addressing them.

Even with the ERT, there were still challenges related to a village code that was not designed to address an event of this complexity or scale. But there was always a spirit of cooperation between a competent village staff and our organization. As a result, over the last five years our partnership invested more than $40 million, and the festival doubled in size and economic impact. All of this occurred during the worst financial climate in most of our lifetimes.

Enter the Gang of Three, propped up in last year’s election by more than $600,000 in campaign-related contributions from the Jacobs family, Neil Hirsch and Victoria McCullough. Their first effort was an unprecedented revocation of the Equestrian Village dressage venue development. That matter is the subject of litigation.

Next came a failed attempt to revoke rights on the main Palm Beach International Equestrian Center show grounds. led by Ms. McCullough. Her property abuts the grounds, and she is holding competing shows, sponsored by Jacobs interests.

Finally, without notice or explanation, the ERT meetings were eliminated. By doing so, I believe that the Gang of Three intentionally created a massive coordination problem, with the intent to cause failures that would embarrass me and my organization. Only through the efforts of the village staff and Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue were we able to get the festival up and running this year. For the first time, our collective focus wasn’t on growing and enhancing the event but on struggling to get it operational.

I believe that the Gang of Three is using village money to wage a vindictive private war as payback to its small group of wealthy political allies, whose primary “preservation” interests are preserving their great estates. Unfortunately, the collateral damage extends beyond our organization and includes Wellington’s international reputation, the local economy, village and their declining morale, higher village operating costs and legal bills, and continued inconvenience to festival customers.

Now that we know this agenda, we can better plan and manage future festivals. However, the question we face in this community is whether we can stop the Gang of Three before they do irreparable harm to this vital industry, to Wellington and to Palm Beach County.

Mark Bellissimo is President of Equestrian Sport Productions, which stages the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Ethics Commission Should Have Sanctioned Wellington Mayor



By Rhonda Swan

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics was wrong to dismiss complaints against Wellington Mayor Bob Margolis and village landowner Victoria McCullough last week on the grounds that a $4,000 donation that violated the ethics code was inadvertent and unintentional.

The cover story is that Ms. McCullough mailed the check last March to the mayor’s legal defense fund before he was sworn into office on April 9 and before she became a principal of lobbyists, but the check never arrived. The violation occurred when Ms. McCullough wrote a replacement check on July 22. By that time, the mayor had been sworn in, and she had hired a lobbyist to represent her interests before the village council.

County ethics laws prohibit elected officials from taking more than $100 in gifts from lobbyists or companies or people employing lobbyists. No stop-payment order was issued for the supposed missing, first check. No one asked why it took four months for Ms. McCullough to issue a new one.

Ethics Commission member Ronald Harbison noted correctly that the existence of the mystery check is irrelevant. “It doesn’t mitigate the fact that a $4,000 check was issued by a lobbyist as a gift to the mayor,” he said. “And that’s the bottom line.”

Commission staff recommended a finding of probable cause and a letter of instruction, because Mayor Margolis reported the donation on a gift disclosure form and did not try to hide it. Commissioners pointed out, though, that they had forced former Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson to return $300 to a donor who had given him $400 worth of event tickets.

Facing that probable cause finding, Mayor Margolis volunteered to pay back Ms. McCullough the $4,000. That supposedly made everything OK.

Commissioner Dan Galo pointed out that the commission has heard several complaints involving Wellington residents and officials since last year’s divisive elections gave the council majority to Mayor Margolis, John Greene and Matt Wilhite, all of whom opposed Mark Bellissimo’s $80 million equestrian village project. The three owe their election to billionaire Jeremy Jacobs, a part-time Wellington resident who opposed the project and whose family poured more than $500,000 into a campaign supporting them.

Ms. McCullough, whose property abuts Mr. Bellissimo’s, also opposed the project. She gave $4,000 to Mr. Greene’s legal defense fund. She also gave $4,000 to the organization that paid Mr. Wilhite’s legal expenses after a technical malfunction assigned the wrong vote totals to several candidates in last year’s election, forcing a recount.

Mr. Galo rightly noted that the commission should consider Wellington’s political context when hearing complaints: “This financial overtone continues beyond the election and the sitting of these council people. None of these facts are ever addressed. They’re continuing to involve themselves in these councilmen’s lives financially, and we’re saying because it’s campaign-related it’s not applicable. That’s not how it looks in the real world.”

Indeed. That makes the commission’s decision even worse. We won’t be surprised if Mayor Margolis’ refund check to Ms. McCullough also gets lost in the mail.

Rhonda Swan

Village of Wellington At odds Over Equestrian De-Annexation

Posted by Miranda Grossman / CBS12 News

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_5193.shtml

Video  

WELLINGTON, Fla. -- Wellington is the equestrian capital of the world. But lately, it's been more like World War III because of a major battle brewing between horse owners and the village of Wellington.

Jack Mancini is with the Equestrian Forum of Wellington. His group supports de-annexation, splitting from the village, for two reasons: Equestrian property owners pay taxes for municipal services they don't need, and what they say is meddling by the village government in the equestrian industry.

"We feel majority of village council has been detrimental to the equestrian industry," said Mancini.

Mark Bellissimo is the managing partner of the Wellington Equestrian Partners, and runs the Global Dressage Festival. He's ran afoul of Wellington Code Enforcement recently. But that's a small part of the bigger picture.

Bellissimo is behind the $80 million equestrian village project that was supposed to include retail space, a hotel and dressage facility located at South Shore and Pierson. But the project is in limbo as the he and the village engaged in a legal battle.

"What they're saying is 'nope, blank check, I'm gonna spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money.' Not present a settlement that will end all this controversy," said Bellissimo.

"The village of Wellington has the obligation to protect its interest," said Councilman Matt Willhite.

Willhite, along with councilman John Greene and Mayor Bob Margolis helped revoke approvals a previous council granted for the equestrian village project. It was a lightning rod during the last election, during which the trio got big support from the Jacobs family, which owns property abutting the festival site and a 300 acres estate a couple miles down Pierson Road.

"At this point none of the settlement offers have answered all the questions and requirements needed in it," said Willhite.

Mancini said while de-annexation is the goal, he knows it's a difficult process.

"It's not just something you just flip a switch and one day you switch over, it's a process," Mancini said.

Victims of Wellington's Horse Wars Are Residents, Businesses



Editoria By Rhonda Swan

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In the latest episode of Wellington's ongoing soap opera, As the Horse World Turns, village officials warned Mark Bellissimo that his Equestrian Sports Partners could lose its Global Dressage Festival if the group again violates a court-ordered agreement. ESP put up a tent without permits, it is the latest cliffhanger in a drama that needs to be canceled.

Mr. Bellissimo and his supporters are rightfully upset at their treatment by the new anti-equine majority on the village council. Mayor Bob Margolis and councilmen John Greene and Matt Wilhite have revoked approvals a previous council granted for an $80 million dressage and commercial project in the equestrian overlay district. Still, that is no excuse for Mr. Bellissimo to flout village rules. Simiarly, councilors cannot use the fact that they were elected based on their opposition to the equestrian project as an excuse for opposing everything associated with Mr. Bellissimo. They were elected them to govern, not to punish.

Mr. Greene has steered events away from ESP-owned Palm Beach International Equestrian Club. Mayor Margolis failed to act on a request by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, which supported the equestrian project, to hold its annual Winterfest at the village amphitheater. The event had to be moved.

In a letter to the mayor, the chamber’s president, Alec Domb, expressed frustration at the division that last spring’s election created. The billionaire Jacobs family, which opposes the equestrian project, spent $500,000 on a mostly negative campaign backing the new majority. “We never expected that the vindictive nature of the new majority on the council would actually spill over into civic events that have become popular with the local community,” Mr. Domb wrote. “These events have nothing to do with politics, or any dispute relating to public policy.”

Mr. Bellissimo and his crew have been just as petty. Mike Nelson, the husband of former Mayor Kathy Foster, a Bellissimo supporter, filed an ethics complaint against Mr. Greene for obtaining a parking pass for the gated community where he lived temporarily. The Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics dismissed the complaint. One member called it harassment. Mr. Bellissimo has filed public records requests for a voluminous amount of information, including all emails and cell phone records of councilors and several employees. That also amounts to harassment.

In an interview, Mr. Domb rightly noted that the victims of this millionaire-billionaire feud are the residents. “It’s not good for our economic development,” he said. “It’s not good for any of the things that matter to the business community here.” Indeed. Who will be first to act like an adult?

Rhonda Swan for The Post Editorial Board

Jacobs Competes at Show Grounds He Wants Torn Down

Charles Jacobs on Leap of Joy riding Sunday at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center's Stadium complex made up of the grass derby field and the Global Dressage Festival grounds. He has filed suit in Circuit Court to have the Stadium facility torn down that incldues the dressage barns in the background. The lawsuit also asked the court to undo an agreement between the horse show organizers and the Village of Wellington allowing events to be held there this winter, such as Sunday's $50,000 CSI2* in which he competed.

Courtesy - Ken Braddick, dressage-news.com