Chaos erupts at commission meeting

By John Labriola - A discussion over the Betz Farm land sale descended into chaos this past week as Citrus County commissioners accused each other of being corruptly influenced by developers' campaign contributions, while an altercation involving Citrus County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Josh Wooten led Commission Chairwoman Diana Finegan to call for his arrest.

The commission voted 3-2 for a motion by Commissioner Holly Davis to rescind its earlier cancellation of the $6 million sale to Bravo Land Group, as both Davis and Commissioner Rebecca Bays changed their earlier votes, saying they were not aware that it could cost the county more than its $100,000 insurance deductible if there is a lawsuit, including $360,000 in commission fees to the listed realtor and over $1 million in damages that the developer is now claiming.

Commissioner Janet Barek, who made the original motion on April 14 to cancel the sale to preserve the 350-acre property, based on County Attorney Denise Lyn's finding that the developer had breached the contract, accused Davis of bending to the will of developers who have funded her campaigns.

"I'm pretty sure she's had pressure from the builders and the people that supported her," Barek said. "Any commissioner that accepted contributions should recuse themselves from voting for this whatsoever because they've been paid by developers to vote in favor of developers, and that to me is wrong."

Finegan and Bays accused each other of lying when Finegan brought up financial contributions to Bays from the family of the developer, referring to Steve Lamb and his wife Jewel, the stepmother of Bravo Land Group's manager James Dicks. Bays, who is up for re-election, has received a total of $3,000 in contributions this year from the Lambs and their commercial real estate holding company Lamb Investors LLC.

"The family sure has been doing everything that they can financially and otherwise towards your campaign," Finegan told Bays. "It's a bad look."

That prompted Bays to accuse Finegan of accepting plane rides to President Trump's estate at Mar-a-Lago, which she angrily denied. 

"Stop lying," Finegan said.

"I'm not lying. You lied," Bays shot back.

At that point, someone in the audience shouted that there were children in the audience, and Bays ended the confrontation.

Earlier in the meeting, someone in the audience had urged Bays to resign, to which she snapped back, "Move!"

But the meeting's most dramatic moment came when Wooten, who had just blasted Finegan for how she was running the meeting, got into a noisy physical altercation with a member of the audience. 

The incident caused Finegan to pause the meeting and call for a deputy.

"I saw that. You just accosted somebody in this meeting," Finegan said. "Mr. Wooten hit those people. Deputy, you need to arrest that man that did it."

As a deputy escorted Wooten out of the chamber, he shouted that he would sue Finegan for defamation. The sheriff's office has not arrested him but is reviewing evidence to decide what to do.

Earlier in the meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 against allowing Sheriff David Vincent to take over operations of the county jail from private contractor CoreCivic. Commissioners Bays, Davis and Jeff Kinnard said they needed more information on what it would cost. Finegan, who had backed the takeover along with Barek, said she thought Vincent had provided the board enough information to make a decision.

Commissioners also unanimously approved a motion to impose a 12-month moratorium on data centers, which will be brought back to the commission at its next meeting on May 26 in the form of an ordinance. The moratorium will not cover an existing application by The Deltona Corporation to expand Holder Industrial Park and allow for heavy industrial use, with data centers as a potential use. That application is set to go before the county's Planning and Development Commission on June 18 at 9 a.m. in the Lecanto Government Building. The County Commission will consider the application at its July 14 meeting.