Controversial Flagler County Chair Joe Mullins faces Republican challenger in primary
Flagler County Commission Chairman Joe Mullins said voters should focus on what he said was his ability to get things done and not on the controversies that have punctuated his term on the commission.
Controversies as recent as June when the Florida Highway Patrol twice ticketed Mullins for speeding. In both stops, Mullins told troopers he was a county commissioner; in one stop, when Mullins was behind the wheel of a red Ferrari in Flagler County, he told the trooper “I run the county.”
Mullins, a Bunnell resident, is facing a primary challenge from fellow Republican Leann Pennington, of Palm Coast, for his District 4 seat, which covers Bunnell and everything west of U.S. 1.
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The winner of the Aug. 23 primary will go on to face Jane Gentile-Youd, who is running with no party affiliation, and Brett Borden, a write-in candidate, in the general election in November for a four-year term on the commission which pays $58,364.80 per year.
Mullins has $53,377.52 in his campaign coffers while Pennington has raised $13,919.65. Gentile-Youd has $2,665.39 and Borden has nothing.
Besides the speeding ticket controversy, Mullins is also fighting a federal lawsuit in Georgia accusing him of fraud for selling invalid badges to the Masters golf tournament.
There have been other controversies for Mullins, who was elected to the County Commission in 2018. During a commission meeting in 2020, Mullins verbally attacked two commissioners and stormed out of the chambers. Mullins was subsequently admonished by fellow commissioners.
“I think being a businessman and a sports entertainment agent,” Mullins said, “working in that has given me a lot of relationships, a lot of vision and a lot of experience to be able to run this county through the roughest times or to be able to help navigate this county, not necessarily run, but navigate, let's say that, navigate the county through the rough times.”
Mullins said his main sports agent business now is handling request from companies who call him to help them arrange trips for VIPs to attend big sporting events.
'Potentially bankrupt'
But a court filing in Mullins’ ongoing divorce case brings into question Mullins’ ability to run a business.
Mullins is “potentially bankrupt” according to disclosure form filed this year in the case, which states he has a net worth of negative $675,192.
The form reads "the husband is insolvent, manages debt payments in excess of his income, is subject to demands from lenders and IRS and is potentially bankrupt."
The court filing also states Mullins’ “business are essentially insolvent, riddled with debt that exceeds revenues.”
Mullins said those numbers represent investments he has made with different partners. He said he owns entirely or by himself nine different companies.
“If we were forced to liquidate stuff today, that's what it would liquidate at. And my goal is to sit there and work through it. COVID has hit us just like anybody else. A lot of it is my stocks have gone down in value," Mullins said.
The court filings of a negative net worth of more than half a million contrasts to a financial disclosure form filed with the state on June 16 which states Mullins has a net a positive worth of $515,602.
In a statement emailed to The News-Journal, Mullins said both documents are correct. Mullins' statement said the document with the negative net worth is a "complex tax document" which accounts for depreciation, carried forward losses and other tax issues. Mullins' statement also said that the tax filing was drafted nearly two months after the financial disclosure form and in that time his family's holdings changed and their portfolio dropped in value.
About the speeding tickets, Mullins said that in the Flagler County stop, his comment that he "ran the county" meant to convey to the trooper that he knew the process because he was involved in government. He added he was also aware of the process since earlier that month he had received a speeding ticket in Seminole County. In that stop, a trooper warned Mullins that if he stepped out of his SUV he would be arrested.
In the Seminole ticket, Mullins said he was "shaken" by the second FHP patrol car which drove up as another patrol car was behind him. Mullins said he thought the second FHP car was going to hit his vehicle. He said one of the troopers told him that they thought he was going to flee.
"That's when I showed him my card and said I'm a commissioner. I'm not going to flee anywhere," Mullins said.
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Lawsuit and condemned property
Mullins' sport and entertainment business is also being sued by Golf Travel LLC, which said it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when it included invalid badges for the Masters acquired from Mullins as part of golf vacation packages in 2018 and 2019.
“We're defending ourselves, businesses get in disputes. This same company that says we sold them badges that weren't any good came back the next year to buy more badges. So there's a lot of unanswered questions there and we're ready to go to court with it,” Mullins said.
Mullins is also having some problems with an apartment complex near Augusta in Columbia County, Georgia. Columbia County officials inspected the Clara Point Apartments in July and August and found numerous violations.
Mullins said that while he is part owner of the apartment complex, a management company handles the day-to-day operations. When first interviewed last month, Mullins said the only problems he was aware of were non-working smoke detectors, which were being corrected.
Indeed, inspectors found that all 56 units “were deficient for the required smoke alarms.”
But records released since then also show that inspectors condemned one apartment and ordered that it be vacated immediately. The violations included a leak from a bathroom sink flooding a hallway.
Inspectors also found violations in other apartments, including incorrectly installed water heaters, air handling units with exposed wiring or some other problem, leaky faucets, a non-functioning window and a “growth” and decayed wood in a bathroom.
Mullins said his company bought those apartments several years ago.
“We buy distressed properties when we go in, it takes us some time to fix up,” Mullins said.
He said residents sometimes were not allowing people into the units to make repairs due to COVID. Mullins also said his management company is working to evict some of the residents for unpaid rent.
Mullins' shares accomplishments
Mullins noted he was just elected vice president of the National Council of Republican County Officials. Mullins serves on three committees at the National Association of Counties, community economic and workforce development steering committee, rural action caucus and membership standing committee.
Mullins said his service in those organizations helps the county get grant money.
"I serve on several national boards. I bring awareness back to them about the grants," Mullins said. "I'm part of those national boards forming what qualifications come into the grants, how you define the grants, we push legislation to congress, so that's what I'm a part of, all that. I'm not saying I do it. I'm a part of the process."
Mullins said another accomplishment while he has been in office is bringing internet to western Flagler County.
Flagler County approved this year a contract with Charter Communications to provide Internet access to underserved areas mostly in the western part of the county. The approximately $7.43 million project will be funded largely through grants and the financial backing of Charter.
Mullins also said that the county is paving another road in Daytona North. Most roads are unpaved in the rural community in western Flagler. The 2 1/2 mile project will pave Water Oak Road between Mahogany Boulevard and County Road 2006. The project had been in the making for 10 years and will mostly be funded through the Florida Department of Transportation, according to a county press release.
“We just announced paving a road; we've got some that love it. Some that don't. And they're mad that we're paving roads out there,” Mullins said.
Mullins said he recently convinced a company to open a drug treatment center in a vacant building which served as the sheriff's office operation center in Bunnell, which was vacated by the sheriff's office after employees developed illnesses and mold was found in the building.
He said another one of his accomplishments is being part of a commission that has kept county taxes low.
"I've run businesses through very hard times," Mullins said. "And I think we're in a hard time in our economy. And we've got to focus on cutting back expenses. We got to keep our taxes low. This is certainly not a time to increase taxes."
Mullins said the priority for him is getting through the economic challenges.
“I really truly feel like the three top priorities that I'm focused on now is gas, food and living expenses. How can we help our residents get through this tough time.”
Mullins pointed to bringing development as an accomplishment, pointing to a 205-unit apartment complex being built west of Palm Coast City Hall. But he said he was concerned about over-development.
“I am very concerned about the growth that we cannot stop,” Mullins said. “But we can have smart growth and smart growth is making sure infrastructure is taken care of. And we've been able to do that through a lot of grants."
Leann Pennington
His opponent, Pennington, said she has heard from residents on the west side of the county who say they have seldom, if ever, seen Mullins.
"I just feel like that district needs very special, individualized attention. They have very different needs than the rest of the county. They're mainly agricultural out there and rural," Pennington said. "They are behind you know, with with drainage issues, road paving, all those issues out there that they have that the rest of the county doesn't experience so they'd like some on-site representation out in the area. More so than what they're receiving,
Pennington was born in Jacksonville, grew up in northeast Florida and now lives in Palm Coast. She works remotely implementing strategies to prevent fraud for a Canadian banking firm.
Pennington said she decided to get into politics after successfully fighting against the development of the closed Matanzas Woods Golf Course with residents winning a view protection zone, restricting where developers could build.
“I found it very difficult to get our local representation to listen to us and to just really uphold our rights, and it was an arduous battle and took close to two years, but we ultimately prevailed.”
If elected, she said one of her priorities is impact fees, ensuring that there is enough money to cover the services needed by growth.
She said the county needs more commercial growth.
“We've got a lot of residential growth during the last cycle, but we got absolutely no real commercial growth for it. And we need jobs up here. Very badly. We need well-paying jobs in that area," Pennington said.
She said the west side of the county needs more attention.
"I'm very passionate about agricultural land preservation as well. That's a big thing for me," Pennington said. "So those were my two main things was just about preserving … the look and feel of Flagler County as we go through this growth.”
Editor's note: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that Pennington said the county needed more residential growth. She said it needed more commercial growth. The story has also been revised to reflect that the apartment complex referenced by Mullins is 205 units.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Election 2022: Flagler Chair Joe Mullins faces GOP primary challenge
