By: Susan Clark Armstrong ––
Unless you regularly detour around the Town of Orange Park (TOP) to avoid the red-light cameras, you know it’s the same tranquil picture-postcard town it has been for ump-teen years. It has beautiful tree-lined streets and celebrations, farmers markets, festivals and movies at the park in the center of town. Easter Sunrise Services are blessed on the banks of the St. Johns River, Halloween hayrides through the cemetery are still a thing and the town is magical at Christmas. Folks stroll, walk or run along River Road and Orange Park remains a safe place for the “Loose Moose” from the Moosehaven Retirement Community to ride their scooters to and fro without getting mowed down in traffic. This year the TOP, population of about 9,000, was on the list as one of the best places in the US to retire.
I don’t live in the town, but I happened to be at a town council meeting where it appeared several weeks prior all Hell had broken loose and I was the only one not privy to the pandemonium that was still prevailing.
Fascinated to find out what happened, I watched recorded council meetings and stay glued to an Orange Park citizens Facebook site called Orange Park Hub (OPH). (Most of the documents I used for this story were posted on that website.)
Evidently, a short round councilman named Roland Mastandrea was at the center of the Hellabaloo. He has plans for the town that some believe will destroy their enchanting hamlet. I called the councilman and we had a long chat about those plans. I sort of dozed after the first hour-and-a-half, but I recorded the whole conversation and have listened to it numerous times. (All the councilman’s quotes and his rendition of events came straight from the recording.)
Roland is man of words…many, many words. Florida sunshine laws say he can’t speak directly to other town council members about town issues except during council meeting. So, he likes to have pre-town council meeting before town council meetings to make sure the mayor and other council members know what he is thinking, feeling, wishing, hoping, dreaming and some of the things he is planning. Those pre-meetings do not always happen. But given the councilmen’s amount of rhetoric and War and Peace emails to town employees, council members, the local newspaper, county commissioners, county planners, developers, school superintendent, school board members, and others I’m sure I missed… most folks get the jist of what is happening in Roland Mastandrea’s world.
And thank goodness for Roland. He’s been on the council for about 2 years and said he personally discovered the TOP will have a shortfall in funds next year, which will result in big financial troubles for the town. He said the town is going to lose $900,000 a year in revenue from the county because the formula for funding has been changed. A representative from the county says it’s more like a loss of around $650,000, but that’s still a biggy because Roland said it costs the little town about $20 million a year to operate.
Folks on the OPH say there’s lots of ways to make up for the loss, but nobody would talk to me about it. I found out later the reason for their silence.
The councilman said some of the people in the town don’t know what’s best for them, but he does. He believes development is the answer to replace the lost revenue…lots and lots of development. Subsequently, unbeknownst to town residents, and it appears the council, Roland said since he was elected two years ago, he has taken it upon himself to seek out developers to come to the TOP. Some of this appeared to have happened even before news of the shortfall.
“I know business inside and out because of my business experience.” Roland assured me. Then he told me he had been rich but lost it all through bad investments.
I suggested to Roland that it seemed unusual for a councilman to drive such grand plans without direction from the people or the town government. He agreed.
“I don’t play by the rules. I never did.” He said. “I decided the normal way of doing things was not fast enough.”
He proudly told me he had accomplished all he had because he had a reputation in the county as the go-to man for development. “I’m the guy that will make it easy for you. And I have.”
Roland elaborated about his development plans. At the end of the year, the Orange Park Kennel Club will be required to stop racing dogs. He believes there is an opportunity to turn Orange Park into a gambling mecca. He said he has been talking with the owners of the Kennel Club about tearing down the race track and removing green spaces to build a bigger gambling establishment with a “first-class restaurant” on the vast property next to the river. He said there are plans for more hotels to accommodate the gamblers and said one new hotel was a “done deal.” Roland said he thinks the new gambling establishment will bring about $400,000 a year in new taxes.
The councilman said there is an automotive distribution center in the works and told me he is working with “the Chinese” for other development all around the town.
Roland’s immediate plans involve a mega-complex on Kingsley Avenue across from the post office, which may or may not cost about $70 million and may or may not bring in over $300,000 in new taxes. For the last approximately 19 months, he said he made it his mission to find a developer for the Kingsley property. After he found one, Roland said he was able to steer a change in the Comprehensive Plan to allow for “mixed-use” development and told me he was able to facilitate a reduction in the size of parking spaces in the town to allow for more dense parking for the project.
The councilman seems smitten with the development and developer Robert Jacobson of Provision Impact Ventures, L.L.C. (PIV). According to emails, Roland also assisted in arranging some aspects of financing for the project.
After the pieces to the project were in place, Roland said he announced plans for his and Jacobson’s project in January of this year. Residents and council members finally found out how busy the councilman had been. The mayor said he knew a little about the project, but didn’t explain how he got around the sunshine law. A contingent of citizens was shocked and dismayed and began to search for details on the project.
Some people think the project is a good idea, but more think it will be disastrous for their small town and peaceful way of life. Residents have gotten a petition against the project with 1,000 signatures on it.
Roland understands why some oppose his project. “Stupid people don’t take time to listen.” He said.
During the midst of all the catawampus, Roland said a person told him some townspeople said mean things about him. He threatened to sue about ten of the townspeople if they didn’t publicly apologize for things he thought they said. Coincidentally, most had been vocally opposed to his project. The councilman said “a couple” of citizens apologized.
Mr. Mastandrea told me he had filed a suit against Orange Park resident Sherri Snow because he was told she had said some uncomplimentary things about him. Snow had to start a GoFundMe (GFM) page to hire an attorney to fight him, he proclaimed. As soon as he is “finished with her,” he plans to sue four others unless he gets a public apology from each. He told me he will sue them one-at-a-time, because if he sues them simultaneously, they can use one attorney and it will not cost them as much money.
The GFM page is actually The Orange Park Citizens’ Legal Fund. It is for Snow and anyone else that is sued…presumably by Mastandrea. The page says Sherri is the single mother of a handicapped adult son. She has volunteered in the town for 13 years and is a Guardian ad Litem for Clay County children.
On the page, Sherri said she and others have been speaking out against the project. As a result, she said, residents had been “attacked, intimidated, harassed, threatened, humiliated, taunted” and warned of lawsuits. According to the GFM, on May 6, Snow filed a public records request to look at Roland’s private email account, which he uses to conduct government business. Sherri writes that on May 11, he filed a “false and malicious suite against me in retaliation for the public records requests.” Roland wants $1,000 for the email retrieval. The emails remain unretrieved.
Snow has stopped attending council meetings, so I found her phone number on her voter registration and called her. Although I dogged her with constant calls, she refused to talk with me because of fear of the suit. Others I tried to speak with about the issue were also in fear of Roland and would not talk to me.
My legal experience comes from reruns of Suits, but it appears the suit against Snow may be a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Florida law says a SLAPP suit is usually levied by a public official or public entity to intimidate and/or silence critics by burdening them with the cost of legal fees until they stop their criticism. In Florida, SLAPPs are prohibited. Florida Law protects the right to exercise “free speech in connection with public issues.” Statutes provides an “expeditious resolution” of a SLAPP suit and allows the party that is being sued to claim actual damages, reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in connection with the suit.
Mastandrea is no stranger to lawsuits. When he lived in Willoughby, Ohio, he ran for Mayor. During his campaign, a newspaper account of the incident said a political flier titled “Wake up Willoughby” was distributed by Roland and his supporters. The flier was very critical of the sitting mayor and other city officials. Things got nasty.
Mr. Mastandrea, at first, said he had nothing to do with the flier. Shortly after, he circulated a letter in which he took “full responsibility” for the flier. A reporter at the News-Herald said Roland “admits he and several campaign supporters distributed” the fliers. He said he told the reporter he only took “moral responsibility” for the flier.
The whoop-de-doo was covered in the parlors and the press of Willoughby. Mr. Mastandrea lost his bid for mayor. Ohio had no SLAPP laws. Roland sued 11 entities, including newspapers, newspaper publishers and reporters. The legal issues dragged on for seven years.
A state trial judge dismissed the suit. Roland went to the state appeals court. They upheld the state judge’s dismissal. Mastandrea then went to the Ohio Supreme Court and they refused to hear his appeal.
Back to the talking.
Because of the complexity of Orange Park’s ordinances, the Planning & Zoning Board (PZB) has been typically made up of the “best and brightest” in the town. They are volunteers and are appointed by council members.
The town staff put together a packet for the PZB about the Kingsley Project and asked for a vote on the zoning. When the PZB met on May 14, they had lots of questions. Why had the council not ordered a traffic study when the project would certainly have a big impact on traffic in the town and local communities? The plans were not consistent with the surrounding area. Why? Parking study? School capacity study? Green spaces? Bus Stops? Access to the post office? Effect on home values of neighboring homes? And more.
The board members felt there were too many unanswered questions and voted 5-0 against approval for rezoning. This automatically sent the issue back to the council.
Roland was not happy! He said the PZB had no right to ask most of their questions because the town and Florida law states the PZB should have just voted “yes” or “no” based upon the evidence they had before them. PZB said he was wrong and their job WAS to ask questions. He called for resignations on the PZB, including his own appointee. PZB members refused to resign. There was name-calling. An attorney on the PZB said Roland called her “stupid.” Roland said he probably did.
If the project moves forward, different aspects of it will routinely have to go before the PZB for review. Since the PZB would not resign, Roland wants to have some of them removed.
Mastandrea sent an email to the council saying he had talked to the town attorney and the two of them were in agreement that the Florida Attorney General should be engaged to identify the May 14th “incompetence” of the PZB.
It appears Roland may have gotten a tad confused. Judiciously, the town attorney registered his legal opinion to Roland regarding the removal of members on the PZB in an email:
“I have advised that our Charter is silent on this matter. If (and only if) a majority of the Council desires to remove one or more of the PZB prior to the expiration of the member(s) term, my advice is for the Council to seek an advisory opinion from the Attorney General’s Office asking whether the Council has the authority under our Charter and the laws of the State of Florida before taking any official action.”
At a council meeting, the council was suddenly struck dumb and looked like they wanted to be anywhere but on the dais when his agenda item to remove PZB members came up. No one was willing to talk about it or vote with Roland. But it’s a safe bet Roland will continue talking and talking and talking about changes to the PZB.
Mr. Jerome Crawford, a non-profit developer who specializes in revitalizing blighted neighborhood had some disturbing information regarding a joint venture he attempted to do with Mr. Jacobson and PIV. Mr. Crawford wrote in an emailed letter that someone at PIV asked a general contractor to inflate the prices of the homes to give Mr. Jacobson more money without Mr. Crawford’s knowledge. Mr. Crawford said Jacobson used his financial information and created other cost items that would be paid for by the mortgage lender and the City of Jacksonville.
“This company should not be given consideration in developing the Orange Park Plaza as they have shown themselves to be fraudulent in their actions and has taken advantage of other organizations, members of our community, ruined the lives of families that put their trust and faith in what was to be a Christian partnership to rebuild and improve our community, but ended up as a loss to our community and neighbors.”
Click here to read the letter. *****It’s a doozy!
Crawford’s letters was read aloud in the June 2 council meeting for the record. Typically, the council votes with the PZB, but despite Crawford’s letter and questions about the project from the PZB, the Orange Park Town Council voted unanimously in favor of the project.
Citizens appeared to have marshalled their forces and one presented a document to the town council alleging some wrongdoing and inconsistencies have occurred with the sale of the property and development of the project. The council has not acknowledged the document or addressed the allegations.
Citizens have asked for the Governor, Attorney General, and State Attorney to intervene. They are also asking for Roland to be removed.
I have a feeling there’s going to be more Hell breaking loose with this issue, giving lots of folks in Orange Park…something to talk about.
