I met with an SAO investigator and told him what really happened. He could tell I was being completely truthful. Plus, I gave them a copy of the other guy's Letter to the Editor (Key West Citizen) of one year ago when he claimed to have been threatened by the Mayor, showing he has a past history of claiming people threaten him. (Click here to view his letter.)
First it was the Mayor, then me... good grief, who's next.
Now... I'm free to share with everyone what really happened during this meeting.
This is a statement I prepared for the SAO, in case they asked for one.
For legal reasons, I've censored the names of some people who were mentioned and weren't present during this meeting.
During the 2005 campaign for the Key West City Commission’s District 6 seat, I served as Clayton Lopez’s campaign manager. During the present 2009 campaign for the same seat, I’m serving as a consultant to Commissioner Lopez’s re-election campaign. I am not, nor have I ever represented myself as Lopez’s current campaign manger.
About two months ago, I received a telephone call from a James Marquardt. Marquardt told me he was intending to run for the same District 6 seat, challenging Lopez. Marquardt asked me to be his campaign manager.
I told Marquardt I had been under the impression that Wheeler Winstead was his campaign manager, and expressed my concern that Winstead might be inappropriate given that as an employee of the Bahama Conch Community Land Trust (BCCLT), Winstead had received a large and very controversial financial bonus. Marquardt told me Winstead was planning to be his campaign manager, but had subsequently moved out of town and was no longer available. He said [name censored], the executive director of the BCCLT had urged him to run for this office in her place.
I told Marquardt, I was planning to assist another candidate (not Lopez) with his run for another seat on the city commission, and declined the offer to be his campaign manager. Marquardt said he was very disappointed and hoped I wouldn’t decide to help Lopez.
During the following 45 or so days, several people’s concerns about the financial integrity and management of the BCCLT came to my attention; concerns that I found, if true, to be rather distressing. Among these concerns, was that Marquardt and the ED had used this non-profit organization’s funds to pay for a full-page newspaper add attacking Commissioner Lopez, who was only trying to do the right thing for the community. Further, that the land trust's Board of Directors was unaware the organization's monies were being spent for this purpose, and had no knowledge of it until they themselves saw it in the newspaper.
I told Marquardt, that I had concluded he was likely a shill or proxy candidate for the BCCLT’s Executive Director, [name censored]. It was then I decided to assist the Lopez campaign as a consultant.
A few days prior to August 18, 2009, I had a conversation with Commissioner Lopez about the direction this race was likely to take. I explained that it appears that Marquardt is going to run on a platform of “Accountability.” If so, we’d be forced to address the severe lack of financial accountability that occurred at the BCCLT under his watch as its Treasurer and ultimately its President.
The Commissioner told me, he was concerned that the campaign could disintegrate into a battle about the BCCLT rather than who is best qualified to be the city commissioner. Lopez and I discussed that it was possible the BCCLT could collapse like a house of cards, and a good organization with lofty goals - that should benefit the community were it operated as originally designed - could be lost forever.
I offered to meet with Marquardt to see if there might be some common ground that would prevent a nasty campaign that might forever damage attempts by the BCCLT’s new Board of Director’s to revamp its policies and procedures.
The Commissioner agreed, saying his only reservation was that when Marquardt had met with him a month or two earlier, Marquardt had assured the Commissioner that the campaign would only be about the issues. However, immediately following that meeting, Marquardt left and began making personal attacks against the Commissioner; thus the Commissioner had reservations that his opponent wasn't an honorable person.
This was further aggravated by a recent encounter Marquardt had with Lopez' ex-wife of some two decades ago. Marquardt had assumed that the separation had been adversarial - which it hadn't - and attempted to solicit from the ex-wife, anything controversial that he could use against Lopez during the campaign. The Commissioner's former wife immediately telephoned her former husband and warned him this guy was seeking some dirt on the Commissioner and just up to no good.
I telephoned Marquardt and asked to meet with him, saying that since we had last talked, I had decided to help the Lopez campaign. Marquardt, sounding upset, asked what we would have to talk about if I were helping his opponent’s campaign. I said that concerns about what may have occurred with the BCCLT’s finances had convinced me to help the Lopez campaign, and that the Commissioner was concerned that a nasty campaign exchange might forever damage the BCCLT’s worthwhile purpose, which is something he wished to avoid.
Marquardt agreed to meet me at his
I explained to Marquardt, that the Commissioner was concerned that the BCCLT could be irreparably damaged by a negative campaign, and wanted to see if there was a way to avoid that.
That if he, Marquardt, touted being “Accountable” as a campaign platform, then as the opposition, we’d be forced to point to his very window of severe accountability during the time he served as the BCCLT’s Treasurer and President. By default, this could be a very nasty exchange that ultimately could hurt the BCCLT, at a time when its new Board of directors were tying to address shortcomings with its financial policies and procedures.
I explained to Marquardt, that I was aware of his future aspirations to run for the state legislature, and that he was running for this city commission seat to further those aspirations. Additionally, that were he seeking name recognition from this race to further future campaigns for a higher office, this may very well backfire on him, leaving him with negative name recognition.
Marquardt said he didn’t have any intentions to run for higher political office, but said Lopez might be under that impression, because he, Marquardt, told Lopez, this when they had met a couple of months earlier, when Marquardt announced he was “throwing his hat into the ring” by becoming a candidate for the District 6 seat. I told Marquardt that was confusing, even to me.
I told Marquardt, that from my perspective, he was simply a “shill” or “proxy” candidate for [name censored] and her BCCLT intentions, who couldn’t run for public office because of recent public disclosures regarding her financial dealings involving BCCLT funds between her, her [censored "relative"] and [relationship censored] (Winstead). Marquardt denied such.
Marquardt asked me what had changed since we last talked, to make me decide to help the Lopez campaign. I told Marquardt that I had helped Lopez compose list of approximately 53 concerns related to the financial and administrative procedures of the BCCLT dating back to its founding in 2006. That I wasn’t naive enough to believe that all these concerns expressed to the Commissioner were valid, and that it was the Commissioner’s belief that this list of concerns be given directly to the auditors (once selected), where they can be professionally investigated, rather than just tossed out in the open for public consumption as mere unfounded accusations.
I explained that from what I had heard, it was my belief that the BCCLT’s Board of Directors probably weren’t aware of many of the financial irregularities that supposedly occurred when these policies were, at best, very lax. That if any of the serious allegations proved to be true, the auditor’s report might ultimately be turned over to the State Attorney’s Office for further investigation.
That from what I had heard, the audit results may likely surprise the BCCLT’s board members, and be worse then they might ever expect. I also said that I didn’t believe there would be time for a full and complete audit to be conducted prior to the October 6 election.
That among the concerns that the board members weren’t aware of, were large unsubstantiated cash transactions given to the Executive Director’s [name & relationship censored "relative"], who was performing general contractor services for the BCCLT while he wasn’t licensed as a general contractor. That one of the accusations was that the ED’s [name & relationship censored "relative"], was given upwards of $5,000 BCCLT cash at a time, supposedly to pay undocumented alien workers at a rate of $20 an hour, when he allegedly only paid them $10 an hour. Further, that the BCCLT’s Executive Director, was also a principal in her [relationship censored "relative's"] construction company, and that this created a disconcerting conflict of interest.
That if even one of the approximately 53 concerns were true, then the BCCLT’s existence as a nonprofit organization, would be in jeopardy unless it made drastic policy and procedure changes.
Further, I told Marquardt, that I had recently met with two BCCLT board members, who had expressed their sincere desire to rectify these shortcomings within the organization. Toward that end, I had urged these board members to halt efforts aimed at thwarting the forensic audit, and publicly embrace the audit results as a tool to achieve their goal of complete transparency and financial accountability. I suggested that were he, Marquardt, to share this attitude, a great deal of negativity in this campaign could be avoided.
I told Marquardt that Commissioner Lopez had expressed to me that he didn’t intend to run for a third term, and that during the next four years, he, Marquardt, could either remain part of the opposition or become part of the solution. If he worked to help better the BCCLT as an organization, he’d be in a much better position to run for the District 6 seat in four years without Lopez as an opponent. Further, that fours years from now, whatever ultimately ends up happening with the BCCLT, will, one way or another, have been a thing of the past. That he could turn his present stewardship of unaccountability into something more positive, that would better serve his future aspirations for higher office and leave a revamped BCCLT in place.
Marquardt told me, that he had no doubt he would win this race for the District 6 seat and had every intention of asserting his past ‘accountability.’
I asked him if he had considered what the results might be if he didn’t win. That his name recognition would be negative rather than positive and that the BCCLT as an organization might be damaged beyond repair.
Marquardt said Lopez had already started going negative when he announced that he was running for re-election because Lopez had - among other things - cited he wanted to ensure nonprofit originations receiving city tax dollars be as accountable to the public as is the City.
I replied, that saying you wanted to hold such nonprofits accountable for their finances wasn’t the same as pointing out during the campaign that he, Marquardt, wasn’t the least bit accountable, especially when he served as Treasurer, during which time it was his responsibility to watch over the nonprofit’s money.
END OF STATEMENT
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