Truth in Elections Inside The Villages

Open Forum in The Villages: Debunking Election Misinformation and Community Updates

In this episode of the 'Open Forum in The Villages, Florida' podcast hosted by Mike Roth, community leader Don Wiley addresses various claims from a circulating email accusing him of being a 'pawn of the developer'. They examine discrepancies in campaign contributions and impact fees between Sumter and Lake counties. Additionally, Don clarifies several misconceptions about infrastructure funding in The Villages. The episode also features Dr. Craig Curtis discussing the effects of alcohol on Alzheimer's and how listeners can contribute to the show.

Transcript

Don Wiley -Truth in Elections In The Villages - 7-5-24

[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome to the open forum in The Villages, Florida podcast. In this show, we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs, and interesting folks who live here in The Villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in The Villages, Florida. We are a listener supported podcast. 

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Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. This is Mike Roth.

I'm here on Open Forum in The Villages today with Don Wiley. Thanks for joining me Don 

[00:01:55] Don Wiley: Thanks for having me Mike 

[00:01:56] Mike Roth: Don I asked you to come back in the studio and record an extra show to talk about an email that's been circulating that really bothered me, okay? It seemed to have some outrageous claims that you were a a pawn of the developer.

Perhaps you can shed some real truth on that. 

[00:02:14] Don Wiley: Pawn of the developer. Wow. That's a pretty interesting claim. Now, yes, I did receive some contributions to my campaign from Mr. Morris and his wife and from his sister, Jennifer Parr. They each contributed 1, 000 to my campaign. And many of the businesses throughout Sumter County contributed to my campaign, as well as two of the other candidates.

[00:02:38] Mike Roth: What is your rough campaign total contribution so far?

[00:02:42] Don Wiley: It's right at 100, 000. 

[00:02:44] Mike Roth: Okay, and they gave, as a family, 3, 000.

[00:02:48] Don Wiley: 3, 000. 

[00:02:49] Mike Roth: That would hardly say that you're in their pocket. 

[00:02:51] Don Wiley: Where I came from We didn't judge a man's integrity by a price tag, okay? On submarines, you got 150 men whose lives are depending on you and your integrity.

And that's where I put my integrity. This tends to think that I can be bought for 1, 000. That's not a reflection of my integrity. It's a reflection of their own moral values, the people who have created this. 

[00:03:17] Mike Roth: Let's talk about some of the things that are in that particular email. 

[00:03:20] Don Wiley: Oh, this thing is awesome. 

[00:03:22] Mike Roth: First of all, let's read the claims of who it was from.

[00:03:26] Don Wiley: It says, Take back Sumter voters newsletter. Our mission is to help the voters of Sumter County make informed choices. 

[00:03:33] Mike Roth: And on the last page, it says something about they've taken no contributions. 

[00:03:39] Don Wiley: Oh, so it says Take Back Sumter is independent of all candidates and PACs and does not accept any monetary contributions.

[00:03:46] Mike Roth: Okay, so were you asked to contribute to this newsletter?

[00:03:50] Don Wiley: No, but there is one candidate in here. 

[00:03:52] Mike Roth: Oh, which candidate is that, Don? 

[00:03:54] Don Wiley: That would be Deb Butterfield, the editor of the news, the newsletters from the POA. 

[00:03:59] Mike Roth: How interesting. 

[00:04:00] Don Wiley: What's amazing, though, is when you read the bottom of her ad, it says Approved and Paid for by Deborah K. Deb Butterfield, Republican sumter County Commissioner, district 1. If she paid for this, but they accept no monetary. Something's not right here. 

[00:04:14] Mike Roth: Oh yeah. 

[00:04:15] Don Wiley: But it's consistent with the rest of the misinformation. 

[00:04:17] Mike Roth: And the amount of misinformation on it herculean. I couldn't believe it. So there's a cartoon in there that only appears in the POA. It was very interesting, because you got the same email I didn't you? 

[00:04:32] Don Wiley: Yes, I did, yeah. And amazingly, it went to an email address that

haven't used in a while, over five years. 

[00:04:39] Mike Roth: Amazing. Yeah. And who was the last person that, you gave that email address to? 

[00:04:44] Don Wiley: I used to use it quite a bit, but around here very few places, the POA was one of the places I used it. 

[00:04:51] Mike Roth: So this is a suggestion that the POA's email list got this Take Back Sumter email. 

[00:04:57] Don Wiley: That's pretty, pretty obvious.

[00:04:58] Mike Roth: And although there's one line in there that says it was paid for by a candidate,

In reality, that's not separated by a box to show that it wasn't an ad, it's the whole thing is an ad.

 Yeah, the whole thing is definitely an ad.

[00:05:14] Mike Roth: Good. So let's talk about some of the facts besides

campaign contributions, which I think we have now debunked for the amount of

sure. Fees and taxes. 

[00:05:23] Don Wiley: Okay so yeah. So they an

example number one, and it says, in Lake County, the total impact fee collected at the time

building permit issues is $12,978 on

a 1500 24 99 square foot home. The fee is for roads, fire schools, parks, and library. Sumter County is only $972 road impact fee for a new home in The Villages.

The rest of the new infrastructure funding is buried in the Sumter County millage rate

on all the property bills in the county, including yours.

Per the Village's real estate operation, they sold 3, 103

 New homes in 2023.

Assuming all those homes were built in Sumter, the developer avoided paying 37.3 million

million in impact fees compared to Lake County. The 37. 3 million is for only one year. So let's take a look at this first. 972 in Sumter County is for an age restricted community. They quoted a 1, 500 to 2, 500 square foot home.

But when you go down to active adult, which is a different line item, Now, the total impact fee is only 1, hundred and sixty six.

a big difference.

The other thing it includes is, we have one impact fee in Sumter County fire, we have a roads impact fee. In In Lake County, they have 

school, is which is exempt for those in an active adult community.

They have fire, which is three hundred and eighty.

parks. 211, library 215, and an admin fee of 37. But roads is only 424.

It's less than half of what Sumter County pays. Let's take this apart a little bit farther. Parks. The Villages provide their own recreation amenities. 

[00:07:10] Mike Roth: So we don't have a separate parks fee. 

[00:07:12] Don Wiley: We don't have a separate parks fee. So it's not needed. Fire. The developers building the fire stations, yes, the district is renting them back, but we'll get to that in a minute. That's in the second example that they give an admin fee.

We don't charge an admin fee in Sumter County. We start taking if we take out just the parks and the admin fee. We're already down to about 1, 000. That's only 25 off. Okay, library, we already have a very robust library system. Not a whole lot in need for them.

 Already basically equal at that point. So there's that fallacy in there. 

[00:07:47] Mike Roth: Yeah, but where were the houses built, these 3, 000 houses? 

[00:07:51] Don Wiley: You're being a good straight man. That would be

in the Newell, Lake Denim and Dabney. Those were the three villages that were built in 2023.

That was the primarily, there was a couple down in the Moultrie Creek area, I think that sold before then, but those were all in

Lake county. So they're saying assuming all those homes built in Sumter it wasn't. That's out 37 million. We've already debunked that because it's one 10th that and then they say the rest of the new infrastructure funding is buried in the Sumter County millage rate. Wait a minute. What other infrastructure, the water system, the developer builds that

out

of our bond money. They built the Gibson wastewater treatment facility that doesn't come out of Sumter County. They built the Gibson water facilities, which are the wells that feed the area down there. Once again, that's not coming out of Sumter millage rate.

The only thing that there is nothing out of the Sumter millage rate for the growth. Because the impact fee that we collect. It covers all the new county roads, which would be Bexley Trail and McNeil and these that are in the county road agreement.

The rest of the roads are built by the developer. And guess what? They're rolled into our bond again. 

[00:09:05] Mike Roth: That's why the bonds are so high down in the south area. 

[00:09:07] Don Wiley: That plus, if you're looking at your house, Mike, your house is 10 years old.

[00:09:11] Mike Roth: Sure.

[00:09:11] Don Wiley: My house is 10 years old. . The bond, what hasn't gone up in 10 years?

People like to compare it. oh, up north, the bonds are so little. But yeah, it was 20 

[00:09:19] Mike Roth: But the house is 25 years old.

[00:09:21] Don Wiley: Yeah, it was 20 years ago. Was a car as much as it is today, 25 years ago? No.

There's a lot of misinformation there and it's a shell game. The second one I love this one.

 The Village's public Safety Dependent District established was

a year ago by the Board of County Commissioners.

The VPSDDD, mouthful, plans for the massive expansion of The Villages in Sumter County. That expansion will require several new fire stations and fire equipment.

Funding should come from a fire impact fee paid by the developer and others on the new construction within the VPSDDD. However, the County Commission did not give the VPSDDD board the power to establish an impact fee. Therefore the current property owners within the VPSDDD will be taxed pay for the new fire station and equipment.

so Let's just back up to what the County commission did. They didn't have the authority to give

them that. It's not allowed If they if the village's public safety dependent district wants an impact fee They can submit to the county commission and the county commission will most

likely approve it.

so That kind blows the wind out of that.

Building in the fire stations, the developers doing that and they're renting them back or leasing them back, whatever word you want to use to the The Villages.

[00:10:45] Mike Roth: What about the new two or three fire engines

and ambulances that need to be purchased to operate those buildings?

[00:10:51] Don Wiley: And those are coming out with, they're all under the What do you call it? Lend lease agreement. Whatever. They're leasing all this. And at the end, after 10 or 15 years, whatever it is, then basically they write them a 1 check. 

[00:11:04] Mike Roth: Oh, it's a 1 lease. 

[00:11:05] Don Wiley: Yeah. I don't know what the closeout is, but basically it's a rent to

own, if you will. And the difference 

here is the cost. They're going to pay the

actual cost over 10 years, whereas. If they were to use impact

They wouldn't have the impact fees collected for the new areas. 

[00:11:24] Mike Roth: They'd have to take a loan. 

[00:11:25] Don Wiley: They'd have to take a loan. Guess what

pay with a loan? Interest. Guess what? It ends up costing you more. So this is a less expensive option. And it really is a very small impact on the the whole budget. 

They're just twisting words. You To, anyway so there's another rap, this is the next paragraph in example two. There is another rapid growth region in Sumter County in a portion of Wildwood located in the fire department service area.

Only if, only one new fire station

with new equipment is needed. The county plans

to institute a fire impact fee on build, on new buildings within the service area for that new station.

The

[00:12:03] Mike Roth: same fire impact methodology should

[00:12:06] Don Wiley: used within the VPSDDD so that the current residents would not be taxed for the expansion of The Villages. Okay, again, this

was a decision not made by the County Commission. This was

decision made by Villages

Safety dependent District, their board.

Whatever methodology they choose, hopefully the County Commission will support them. It's still open for discussion, but they didn't choose to use an impact fee.

Again, it's cheaper to pay the developer because they're just going to pay the cost. They're not going to pay the cost plus interest over 20 years. 

[00:12:39] Mike Roth: Of course, plus profit, less interest. Yeah, 

[00:12:41] Don Wiley: things like that, I don't believe the developer's making a whole lot

of profit because it's not a profit center.

Okay, it's something that's needed to make the profit center work. And that profit center is selling homes. You don't mark up things just to, just

the sake of marking it up. You do it for a reason. And in this

there's no reason to mark that up action is needed by the Sumter

County Commission to establish a fire impact fee inside the VPSDDD so that the current residents are not taxed for the expansion of The Villages. If the County Commissioners are developers puppets, this will not happen. I got news for you. The County Commissioners can't do it unless they're requested by the VPSDDD.

Thank you. So much for being puppets, we're just doing what was asked. They go on to talk about, oh how much money in campaign contributions that I got compared to Mr. Miller, that Todd Coon got to, compared to Mr. Estep, and that Mary Lazik, sorry, her name is difficult for me got compared to Miss Butterfield. I can't help it if nobody wants to support these other candidates. The businesses are trying to avoid the chaos that ensued three years ago when the County Commission got crazy and tried to raise impact fees. You know what's really interesting, Mike, about the impact fees? 

No. 

They wanted to raise them 70%.

Because they needed the money. Okay. Then the state legislature stepped in. Said you can't do that. You can't do that. You can raise it twelve and a half percent a year for four years, unless you want to do an impact study, unless you want to do a study. If you do a study, then you can raise it. So they had two options. They could do a study and raise it whatever they needed, need, key word here, yes, or they could raise it twelve and a half percent a year for four years. But they didn't either. I guess they really didn't need the money.

This wasn't about

need. This was about retribution. 

[00:14:41] Mike Roth: Explain what you mean by that.

[00:14:43] Don Wiley: Well, a couple of years ago, there was a 25 percent increase in the millage rate for property taxes on homes, right? The perception was that, oh, that's going to pay for the new roads. $11 million of the $21 million went to the resurfacing

of Morse and Buena Vista. It was something that the county needed

to do. It's their responsibility for maintenance. You cannot use an impact fee for maintenance. All you can use an impact fee for is expanding the current system. If you want to add a lane,

you wanna put a traffic light in improve an intersection, you can use impact fees for that. But. For maintenance and resurfacing?

No. That has to come out of the county's operating budget. It was a big project for Sumter County. It was literally 10, over 10 percent of their operating budget for the year. But it's two of the busiest roads in the county. It needed to be taken care of. There

were also other factors involved with that increase.

The county size is increasing. The state mandates certain levels of salary, as well as staffing, based on county population. We hit one of those thresholds. We had to increase salaries.

 Took care of most of it. There were some other things that needed to be done. But, it was played off as, Oh, this is going to fund the developer's expansion.

It wasn't. 

[00:16:05] Mike Roth: Resurfacing the entirety of Buena Vista and Morse Boulevard never seemed like a good project to me. I didn't, being a guy 

who's, 

We spent 25 years in Cincinnati. The roads were nowhere near as bad here as they were +there

 before resurfacing. 

[00:16:19] Don Wiley: We didn't have, we don't have frost heaves here.

Thank goodness. 

[00:16:22] Mike Roth: Yeah. We have sand heaves here. 

[00:16:23] Don Wiley: Yeah. But yeah, Morris and Buena Vista were getting a little rough. They'd been around for

10, 12 years and, eventually these roads need maintenance and being two of the busiest roads in the county, they needed it. 466 is how, has work going on it right now. It's another major artery that's got to be paid for by the county. We just had 44 redone, 

[00:16:44] Mike Roth: and why do they put in sidewalks that 

[00:16:46] Don Wiley: that was a state project. I'm

remember the name of the program, but basically it's to give everybody access.

[00:16:53] Mike Roth: They could made it a three lane road in each direction. 

[00:16:56] Don Wiley: They could have again,

it was a state run project.

I will

tell you that myself, And the county administrator, we had several long discussions about the stupidity of it all because that sidewalk will probably never get used and to

it down on both sides is absolutely nutso. 

[00:17:13] Mike Roth: Yeah. I saw one person on it, in the last three months, and it's grown over with grass and a lot of places. 

[00:17:20] Don Wiley: Yep. And it's the state's responsibility to maintain that sidewalk, not the county. So that's

good.

[00:17:26] Mike Roth: But, what about the intersection of Morse Boulevard and 44, where the traffic in Snowbird season gets backed up for more than half a mile.

On Morse, because there's no right hand turn lane from southbound Morse onto 44.

[00:17:42] Don Wiley: Right hand turn? Yeah, there's

there's two lanes that go south, and if you're in the right lane, then you can turn right, but 

[00:17:47] Mike Roth: There's no way to get rid of that exit.

Traffic, maybe 25 percent of the traffic wants to go towards Brownwood.

[00:17:53] Don Wiley: Yeah. That would be a county project and guess what? That's what you'd use impact fees for because of *growth. All they got to do is validate the need. Once the need is validated, the funds could be allocated and 

[00:18:07] Mike Roth: I was also reading paper today, these extra maps that were in the paper about.

Sumter County's urban usage plan. And again, the county is printing maps that are totally illegible. Who's responsible for that, Don? I 

[00:18:20] Don Wiley: wish I knew. 

[00:18:21] Mike Roth: It's a total joke. 

[00:18:22] Don Wiley: I know, the ones in the want ads and all that, and in some of the other sections where they have to do public notices. 

[00:18:28] Mike Roth: The public notices, if you can't see the map and you can't see where the major streets are, where their particular plot is that they're talking about, it's just ridiculous to put an out of focus map in there and claim that you're actually doing it.

The county is opening up. 

[00:18:42] Don Wiley: I'm not going to disagree with you, Mike, because, as a county commissioner I knew what was coming. I knew when these things were coming out and I would look at them in the morning paper when I'm drinking my coffee and feeding my dogs treats. And I would look at it and go, where the heck is this at?

And

I, I'd have to read it two or three times before I was, Oh, I know where this is only because I had looked at it before it, some of this, 

[00:19:04] Mike Roth: it's crazy. Maps are in there today or absolutely illegible. Okay, and the city of Wildwood maps, where they put in property annexation, their maps are poor, but at least they're legible.

There wasn't a single road name in there that I think was legible. It's like they're hiding something from us. 

[00:19:20] Don Wiley: Unfortunately, it's got to cover such a large area that the details get small. And, I, I agree though it, they need to improve it, part of that is the newspaper, part of it's the county's fault it's something that, that we can take for action once I get back in office in November.

[00:19:36] Mike Roth: Yes. Now the other thing that really bothered me about that particular email was that it's a A position paper for three candidates as a team. 

[00:19:44] Don Wiley: It's an endorsement. It's an endorsement for three of them.

[00:19:46] Mike Roth: It's more than an endorsement. It's position paper, endorsement, paid political ad. Yep. Okay, that's not represented as being paid political.

Is that illegal? 

[00:19:55] Don Wiley: I don't know. I, when I saw this, I was like, okay, who is this and who's running this? It's not listed as a political action committee on either the state or federal level or the county level. So I don't know who these people are other than based on the email list that they're using is the POA, know the fact that they're using POA graphics and everything else.

and but yeah I don't know if it's or not. It is definitely worth asking the question though. 

[00:20:21] Mike Roth: Don you served for a couple of years on the commission. Yes. Okay. If you knew then what you know now, would you've done anything different when you were on the commission? 

[00:20:30] Don Wiley: No, I think I did the right things when I was on the commission.

I was looking out for the best interest of all of Sumter County.

Yeah, right now we have some people taking the position. I'm for the residents. My question is which residents are they for?

Because are they for the residents just in The Villages? What about

residents that own businesses?

What about the residents that are employees of those businesses that they're trying to impact? It is one county. And either we survive and we thrive together, or if we take a position of favoring one over the other, We are going to fail miserably together. And I will tell you this, once you start down the road of failure, it is a very long, hard, and steep climb back up to success.

Now, we dodged a bullet three years ago when the state stepped in, shot down these impact fees, and then certain individuals had a problem with the truth and got caught. These things benefited the County and its recovery and the County is in good shape, but I'll tell you right now, the businesses in this County, they don't want to see a repeat of what we had three years ago.

That's why they're backing myself and Todd Kuhn and Mary. 

[00:21:42] Mike Roth: So you don't know whether it's legal to have a Committee or a position paper come

like that, an email that hit 30, 000 people.

[00:21:51] Don Wiley: Yeah 

I don't know. How they're getting away with this. This is obviously the actions that a political action committee would be taking or even a candidate might be taking, but this doesn't give any indication of either of those.

So it may or may not be legal. I don't know. It's worth taking though to the supervisor of elections 

[00:22:11] Mike Roth: and asking and don Just for our listeners

Why don't you tell our listeners what you would do if you get re elected to the commission? 

[00:22:19] Don Wiley: We start with I don't have an agenda. Okay Agendas are a politician's word for i'm going to spend your money.

I have a responsibility to all the residents

Okay every bit of Sumter County that they all be treated fairly and we deal with the one at a time as they come up. I'm not going to go in with an agenda to build a new dog kennel or do anything else. I'm just going to take care of the needs of the residents

and we're going to do the best we can for the least amount of money.

[00:22:53] Mike Roth: Good. Don, can you give our listeners

your campaign website is? 

[00:22:56] Don Wiley: Sure. It's Elect, and then Don, D O N, and then Wiley, W I L E Y, dot com, of course, yes. There are so many dots now. Yeah, just connect the dots. 

[00:23:06] Mike Roth: So I think that's what

to do about that

[00:23:09] Don Wiley: email

[00:23:09] Mike Roth: that came out recently. They need to connect the dots and figure out that The POA is attempting to control them again. 

[00:23:16] Don Wiley: Yes. And, you don't have to my word for it on the impact fees. All you gotta do is Google Sumter County, Florida impact fees.

And it'll take right to their website. And you pull up the same sheet I pulled up, and it shows you. They have it divided into four different zones.

Okay.

And we are, where the area that's concerned is in the western part of Lake County. And you

see for yourself the numbers. 

[00:23:40] Mike Roth: Great. Thanks for joining us, Don.

[00:23:41] Don Wiley: Thank you, Mike. Appreciate you having me.

[00:23:43] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth and Dr. Craig Curtis talking about Alzheimer's disease. Yeah. Dr. Curtis, can you talk about alcohol use and Alzheimer's? 

[00:23:52] Dr Craig Curtis: Yes, Mike. They have had studies out for years that show those with, that have one to two drinks a day actually have a lower risk of heart attack or stroke. And in a study published, 

[00:24:04] Mike Roth: That's interesting.

That means that people who totally abstain from alcohol Have a higher risk? 

[00:24:10] Dr Craig Curtis: That's a, difficult question, Mike. It's, yes, those that abstain from alcohol, not with Alzheimer's disease, but actually had a slightly higher risk of heart attack and stroke. However, so this was a study published in June of 2023 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in stress signaling in the brain.

So essentially they had less stress, which we've always known. is a risk factor for a heart attack or stroke. But the American College of Cardiology currently is not advocating for the use of alcohol to reduce your risk of heart attack or strokes because of other concerning effects of alcohol on health.

[00:24:49] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the Villages community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website. CraigCurtisMD. com or call 352 500 5252 to attend a free seminar.

[00:25:06] Emily: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9am. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mikeatrothvoice. com. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Paul Sorgen and major supporter Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in the Villages.

We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike at rothvoice. com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Rothvoice 2024. All rights reserved.