Official Business or Personal Opportunity?

Today, we are going to chat a bit about county commissioners and their representation of Citrus County.

At the hearing for the Pulte Group project on Tuesday, Commissioner Holly Davis was pushing back on the idea that she was not really conservation minded due to members of the public questioning her voting decisions on development projects.

She went on to state that she had the credentials to show that she was "nature girl" and to show that, she mentioned that she was speaking at a national conference on land conservation in Denver.

I was intrigued by that and started to look into what conference it might be but gave up after not finding it. I missed the part where she said "Denver" and someone emailed me last night with a link to the event and asking me about it.

Here it is! It is called Rally 2026 and is being held at the Sheraton in downtown Denver.

Here is her speaker profile.

As you can see, she is listed as "District 5 County Commissioner Citrus County Florida".

So is this an "official" thing that she is doing on behalf of the county? Is she there representing Citrus as a County Commissioner? Or is she just there as a person who happens to be in government and is providing information?

She also appears to be the among the only elected persons on the speaker list. Weird. Very few government entities are represented. She is there and so is Dept of Agriculture with a few people... the IRS has someone there, likely to talk about tax implications of trusts... Someone from Massachusetts State House... but thats it.

So many questions.

Looking further, here is the entire course description.

Some interesting names are presenting with her. Heather Nagy, Pegeen Hanrahan and Remesh Buch. Sound familiar? If you do not remember them, they are from the North Florida Land Trust and Trust for Public Lands. This is the company that Davis collected donations for from developers and others in the county to pay for the Greenprinting study. They were awarded a contract with the county (no tax payer funds used) via a piggyback agreement.

Now, our county commissioner is doing a speaking engagement in Denver with this group? The presentation appears to be similar to what was done at the public input meetings during the Greenprinting process. They will walk attendees through the exercises that citizens here got to do.

Also part of this is a discussion on funding and how to raise funds for this initiative.

It is mentioned that first hand knowledge from "local government" will be a part of the presentation... which is likely where Davis comes in. She will probably talk about how it is important for local municipalities to preserve lands on their own, removed from state/federal control. She will also likely talk about raising the funds for this initiative and likely references the donations.

Pure speculation, but I can see it.

According to online information, the Governor's Square 9 holds 49 people. Not exactly a huge group of people to present to.

Digging further, it appears that this conference charges speakers to attend. I have been to a lot of conferences. I have spoken at a lot of conferences. Granted, this is for photography and not a land trust, but still... 1000s of people.

I have never once been charged as a speaker to attend the event. Generally, speakers get in free because they are the draw for the event. Here, they are charging $360 for speakers to register.

Then there is the lodging ($200ish a night for the host hotel), the travel (probably around $300-400) to get there and back, the meals, etc. All in, I can see this being a $1000+ trip or close to it.

I would be curious to see how this is being paid for. Is she using her commissioner's travel fund to pay for this (tax dollars)? Is she getting paid by North Florida Land Trust? Is she paying out of pocket for all of this with no re-imbursement?

Normally, this would be off the radar. Commissioners go to events like Florida Association of Counties all the time. Those are generally paid by tax payers. We have our tourism employees that fly out to international conferences to promote Citrus County. Those are paid for by tourist funds for the most part, but still... a trip outside the state to benefit Citrus.

Is this a vacation type thing or is it an "official" type thing... or something in between?

If "official" what is the benefit for Citrus County? More information for how to do a land trust? Has the board even voted to pursue a land trust? Is that something they can even vote for... at least in what is being floated by Davis?

Or is this a feather in the cap type thing for Davis... a personal accomplishment of sorts... getting to speak at a national conference?

But this raises other questions. Is this even legal?

You see, NFLT has a contract with Citrus County. They are a provider of a service... the Greenprinting. They were given a piggyback contract for this to avoid the RFP process due to time constraints for the sales tax discussion.

Can a commissioner go and make a presentation at a National Conference along with what is essentially a contractor for the county?

If she is being paid by NFLT to be a presenter with them, I am pretty sure that violates the laws regarding profiting from your position under Florida Statutes. How can an elected official be paid to do a presentation by a company that has a contract with the county they represent?

I could make the argument that even if she is not being paid, does she get picked to do this if NFLT did not get the Greenprinting contract? I tend to believe that this would not be a thing without the county hiring NFLT. This is an easily arguable quid-pro-quo... at least from the optics side. She got them a $30k contract with the county (not tax payer funded) and they get her a speaking gig at a national conference.

If she is paying for it with tax dollars from her travel budget, is it legal for those funds to be expended for something done in cooperation with a contracted vendor? Is there a defined benefit to the county and tax payers to be using their funds to pay for the travel?

Remember, she made the statement as something personal, not as something benefitting the county.

It was a... you do not think I am a conservationist, but I got picked to speak at a conference on conservation.... It was not a... I want Citrus to protect more land, so I applied to be a part of a national land preservation conference so I could learn more about how we can protect more land in Citrus County...

If she is using her own money, then all the power to her. Enjoy the trip and safe travels.

However, I would still question the connection with NFLT and the optics of joining their presentation as a member of a local government and using the title as such as well to give the appearance of something official.

This is clearly going to be something related to her role as Commissioner Holly Davis and not something related to her role as Citrus County Resident Holly Davis. Curious if that triggers public records disclosures for the entire trip... hmmmm.

Well that is it for today. Happy Friday and enjoy the long Labor Day weekend!