In 2008, the Romanik/Dunbar consortium initially tried to secure a Jefferson County “equestrian” venue–presumably for its cardroom pursuits. The evangelical community there opposed the proposal in droves, even when it became apparent that the County Commission had been “threatened with a lawsuit” if they didn’t heed the Romanik/Dunbar marching orders. Thanks to the
Florida Baptist Witness Church for providing this article. Read on . . .
From the article below: “Luther Pickle, employed by the Jefferson County Kennel Club told the commissioners he opposed the development because it would be unfair for the greyhound racetrack, which must conduct races over 200 days of the year, to compete with a Quarter horse track which would have to run about six days a year. More troubling, he said, however, is the talk around town about how the board is being told they need to vote in favor of the track else be threatened with a lawsuit . . . . Tuten told Romanik if he’d asked for a pari-mutuel instead of a horsetrack, he might have supported him, but questioned whether a person who was into horse racing could seriously consider only having six races a year.
“I don’t say that to embarrass anybody here,” Tuten said. “I have friends on both sides of this aisle and I am really disappointed that this item is trying to be hid behind a horseracing facility.”
Jan 22, 2008
JONI B. HANNIGAN, Managing Editor
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| David Hall, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Lloyd, stands near the proposed development which is three quarters of a mile from the church and two miles from his home. |
MONTICELLO (FBW)—As the hands on the clock swept past twelve over six times in the dignified courtroom of the Monticello Courthouse in Jefferson County, a gold state seal on the wall reminded: “In God We Trust.” It was the day the residents of tiny Lloyd took on high stakes lawyers for big time gaming interests. And won.
County Commissioners voted 4-1 after a Jan. 17 public hearing to deny a permit for the development of a Quarter horse racetrack on a 117-acre plot of land at the intersection of I-10 and State Road 59 (Gamble Road). The $16.4-22 million development proposed a track and a 25,200-square-foot building for a cardroom, lounge, restaurant and 12-lane bowling alley. The site also had four out-parcels for future development.
In courtroom “B” five commissioners sat poker-faced around a table for more than seven hours total—until 1:30 a.m.—while a parade of interested parties and residents packed every seat in the room and took over the mike as their names were called.
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| L-R: David Romanik, developer; an attorney for Smith family; and Marc Dunbar, pari-mutuel specialist. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan |
Eighty-eight signed up and nearly fifty spoke with the remainder yielding their time to others. About 200 stayed until the very end, while the crowd at times swelled to more than 300. A week before, about the same number crowded the chamber for a meeting of the county’s planning commission which turned a 5-4 vote against recommending the proposal to the commission. It still moved forward with a staff recommendation.
Among the “others” yielded time to were George Smith and David Hall—two David’s amongst apparent Goliaths in a fight that sometimes took on almost supernatural proportions. Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lloyd, and Hall, a Sunday School teacher in Smith’s church, are both credited with launching a grassroots effort to stir up the residents of Lloyd in about two weeks time to read, listen and learn about the developer’s effort.
Citing environmental concerns for the property’s wetlands and nearby sinkholes which they say could pollute the region’s water supply, the men also stood clearly against any form of gambling in their community via horsetrack betting or cardroom games.
Despite the property being zoned as a “mixed-use commercial” venue, Hall previously told the Witness a question has been raised about the compatibility of the proposed track and entertainment with community standards.
On the other side of the issue was the principal for the developer Equestrian Land Holdings LLC, David Romanik, himself a prominent South Florida gaming law attorney, and his attorney, a leading gaming and pari-mutuel expert, Marc Dunbar—and consultants who gave favorable opinions on environmental, traffic, building and other concerns.
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| Ken Smith, who owns 15.3 acres of the proposed development, said he has the right to sell his property. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan |
In the middle of their neighbors were the landowners who said they had a right to sell their property to a legitimate business. Among them, Ken Smith, a former Florida State Representative (1960-1969) and part-owner of Jamaro, Inc., which owns 15.53-acres. The other landowner, Rick Baker, operates Triple Creek Nursery.
Smith, in his eighties, first lived in Jefferson County as a young high school teacher and returned to the county about 30 years ago.
Commissioner chairman, Felix “Skeet” Joyner, handled routine commission business and conducted two other hearings on property matters before opening the hearing on the racetrack. Joyner, also a member of First Baptist Church in Lloyd, has been on the county commission for nine years and before that was on the planning commission for eight years.
Quickly pointing to what he said was a deficiency in the application, Joyner recommended it be returned to the planning department for completion. “It is my opinion that this application is not complete,” Joyner said before being outvoted by all the other commissioners.
“I’ve sat on the planning commission for eight years,” Joyner said after telling his colleagues they had just gone against their “own rules and regulations.” Further, the dark-haired and dark-suited man with reading glasses said he’d never seen an application processed so quickly.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t proper procedure. But if it is proper procedure, we have not treated these other applications fairly,” Joyner said.
After Joyner spoke, he invited Marc Dunbar to step up to a podium set up outside the railing facing the commissioners who were at a table inside the railing directly in front of the judge’s bench. The overflow crowd of residents and bystanders filled the jury box to the right of the commissioners, facing the courtroom.
Dunbar said the developers took seriously any environmental concerns presented in regards to area wetlands and had plans in place to work with the Jefferson County planning department to resolve any other issues that might arise.
Dunbar introduced Romanik, calling him the “horseman” who came up with the idea for Jefferson Downs. According to information provided under Florida’s Sunshine laws, Romanik is also a legislative lobbyist for two gaming interests and a racetrack. He told county commissioners he owns horses and for the first 12 years of his life rode them to include his uncle’s horse in Key Biscayne in Miami “when Miami was a nice place to live.”
Speaking fondly of the year he served as president of the Gulfstream Park Racing and Casino in Fort Lauderdale, Romanik said he focused on getting back “to the roots of racing.”
“I think the county fair atmosphere is important in all of this because I think that’s where racing started in America-that’s really what led to the development of the private race tracks,” Romanik said.
Discounting speculation the development was about pari-mutuel wagering (See Jan. 17 article “Proposed horsetrack in Jefferson County draws concern”), Romanik said he was “just interested in the horse part of this business.” He said in Orange County, Calif., the Los Alamitos racetrack has increased the number of races and Quarter horse racing is becoming more popular.
In addition, there would be a creation of about 60 new jobs at $30,000 annually, a grant to the county for infrastructure, an increase in business activity in the interchange, a facility that would benefit the horse community and an increase in entertainment options, Dunbar said.
Pastor Smith strode to the front of the quiet courtroom and noted that like in a Baptist church, there were a lot of opinions being expressed. He quoted from a story in the local newspaper which he said described small town life in glowing terms and posed the question: “Would it be so bad to actually live in Mayberry?” Continuing to read, Smith said, “We’re not just friends, we are family.”
“To me she just described Lloyd to a T. People want to come and live here, but how long will that last?” he asked. “Do you want to take this gamble and see if this pays off?”
Addressing the commissioners, Smith told them he had provided them with spiritual responses in a handout. “We are asking you to listen to your hearts and do the right thing,” he said. “I’m a concerned citizen who cares about my people and my church and my community.”
David Hall, who thanked many members of his Sunday School class for yielding their time, said he wasn’t going to focus on many of the environmental concerns he had already raised in the planning commission meeting the week previous—or the multitude of moral implications or issues of incompatibility—but instead talked about his idea of high standards for the community.
Hall, who lives two miles north of the proposed site on Gamble Road, told commissioners and the developers that if the race track proposal was passed he was certain the residents of Jefferson County would want to insure that their race track would meet the highest standards of any track built.
Reading aloud a list of recent restoration projects completed by private interests, churches and residents in the Lloyd area, Hall also read aloud Marc Dunbar’s long list of accomplishments as a gaming attorney, telling commissioners he believes there is a reason the developer brought in a powerful attorney.
“Are they just building a horsetrack as they are saying, or is there more behind it?” Hall asked rhetorically.
Local resident Mark Mahoney told commissioners to “look at the evangelical people in this community” and think about how pari-mutuel wagering does not meet their standards.
It will be too late to turn back once the permits have been approved and the development has proceeded Mahoney said: “You can’t just roll it off I-10 on wheels. When it’s built, it’s built.”
John Wesley, pastor of a Pentecostal church in the county said he’s not against horses. “I love horses,” Wesley said, but to build “another saloon, cardroom, or watering hole in our community” is doubtful.
Speaking of the new jobs promised for the kids of the community, he said wryly to loud applause: “I guess we need the school board to put into our curriculum bartending and card dealing so our kids will have a future in our county.”
Kari Beck, owner of Ten Oaks Farm which borders the proposed development, raised concerns over noise and damage to the environment. Ten Oaks, a private 220-acre farm, is run by United States Olympian Jill Henneberg.
Beck, who lives in Tallahassee and homeschools her six children, said she chose Jefferson County as a place to develop the farm because of its “pristine environment” while acknowledging the land does border an area zoned for “mixed-use commercial” business.
“Not all mixed-use is created equal,” Beck said.
Ken Smith, speaking as one of the members of the family-owned corporation, Jamaro, Inc., criticized neighbors for what he referred to as their “private playgrounds” and said wealthy people sometimes lose their “sensitivity to the people [they] don’t even know exist” and forget they need jobs. He launched into an oratory about his right as a landowner.
“…[W]hen I buy land I should be granted the same privileges to own that land and to dispose of that land or to do on that land anything I want to so long as it is legal,” Smith said.
Referring to the other opinions presented, Smith said passionately: “This country is not founded on inflammatory rhetoric and emotionalism; it is grounded on the law and when we reach the point when we forget that and we let emotionalism prevail and we let false arguments prevail … we are bordering on, and we are just one step short of anarchy.”
Attorneys representing Jamaro and the Beck family each gave the commissioners a different version of the interpretation of compatibility in the county’s land use code.
Luther Pickle, employed by the Jefferson County Kennel Club told the commissioners he opposed the development because it would be unfair for the greyhound racetrack, which must conduct races over 200 days of the year, to compete with a Quarter horse track which would have to run about six days a year.
More troubling, he said, however, is the talk around town about how the board is being told they need to vote in favor of the track else be threatened with a lawsuit.
“First of all, that’s the equivalent of political extortion as far as I’m concerned,” Pickle said. “The threat of a lawsuit has nothing to do with what you’re bound to do here. That’s the result of what you do.”
J. Lois Rodriguez, a Lloyd resident who bought the former historic Hale Place seven years ago and restored it, said he now breeds black angus cows there. He told the commissioners there’s apparently a “lot of misinformation” floating around. He said he wondered about how the proposal “came out of nowhere about a month ago,” and said the staff must have known about it for 5-6 months.
“Why all the secrecy?” he asked. “Why all this moving and fast tracking?”
Addressing remarks made by Ken Smith, Rodriguez, called him a “politician” and told him to not take personally the assessment of his property as a swamp. To which Smith quipped: “statesman” to replace “politician.”
“You’re a statesman and I’ve got 7,000 acres of citrus in Cuba that I want to sell you, too,” Rodriguez shot back laughing, while the crowd roared with laughter.
Rodriguez, who told commissioners he has served on 44 boards for various groups and corporations, said he was never told how to vote.
“So don’t worry about the lawsuits because he’s going to sue you if you vote against it and I’m going to sue you if you vote for it,” he laughed, gesturing towards Dunbar.
Lisa Alden, a resident who lives two miles north of I-10 on Gamble Road said she didn’t have any knowledge of the proposed development until her neighbor, David Hall, brought it to her attention.
A horse owner and self-described “red-neck,” Alden said she wasn’t convinced at first there was anything wrong with the proposal, but began to doubt the claims of developers that they were considering horses’ needs when she didn’t see the usual facilities in the plan.
“We love quarter horses,” Alden said. “We don’t love gambling. So, I guess if you approve it, I could get a face-lift and get a job as a stripper, because I guess that’s what’s coming next,” she said satirically to loud applause. “Bring me a Publix, bring me Cracker Barrel, but don’t bring me [strippers and a casino].”
After the hands of the clock finally swept past midnight and the residents, property owners, attorneys and other interested parties had their say, the commissioners began to question the developer, his attorney, county staff members and other experts present.
“I’ve always supported property rights,” Commissioner Tuten said, smoothing light hair ordinarily hidden beneath the cowboy hat sitting on the bench behind him.
Tuten told Romanik if he’d asked for a pari-mutuel instead of a horsetrack, he might have supported him, but questioned whether a person who was into horse racing could seriously consider only having six races a year.
“I don’t say that to embarrass anybody here,” Tuten said. “I have friends on both sides of this aisle and I am really disappointed that this item is trying to be hid behind a horseracing facility.
“Unfortunately, of what I consider personal reasons and morally, a fabrication, … I cannot support your request,” Tuten said. “Now I want to apologize to the Smith family because I cannot support their position and the sale of the property. I wish to God I could tonight and I apologize for being placed in the position I’ve been placed in. But six races a year does not constitute a horse race facility. I apologize, but I do not like what I consider being scammed.”
Commissioner Danny Monroe asked Romanik if he had any commitment from horse owners to bring horses to the race track. Romanik said he did not.
Commissioner Jerry Sutphin went down a detailed list he kept of speakers by number and name, critiquing their remarks and laughing outright at some.
Commissioner Gene Hall questioned Romanik about funds the facility might give to the public schools for education. Romanik promised only that there would be certain “charity funds” available as mandated by law—but he couldn’t make any promises.
Joyner concluded his remarks by calling the proposed development site an “absolute swamp.” Talking about the runoff from the facility getting into the wetlands and into nearby sinkholes, he cited overall concerns for the environment, and again, the lack of a completed application as reasons for denying the permit.
Finally, Joyner said: “I’ve been told by the attorneys that I couldn’t speak on gambling but I am going to anyhow.” Relating a story about how he placed a lottery machine in one of his businesses years ago, he said two longtime employees began to steal from him and he had to fire them.
“I never will have another one of them,” Joyner said of the lottery machines. “I do not want gambling in my community to destroy my community, so I’m going to vote against it.”
Urging the other commissioners to vote their own conscience and to do the “best thing for Jefferson County,” Joyner yielded the floor to a staff member who read the commissioners a list of their responsibilities in regards to voting.
Just before 1:30 a.m., Jan. 18, the Jefferson County Commission voted 4-1 to deny moving forward the application process for the development proposing a Quarter horsetrack. Afterwards, Romanik told the Tallahassee Democrat he didn’t know whether his company would appeal the decision.
“I really have to think about it and assess what happened,” he said.
Florida Horsemen 