MARK SCHUMANN
“I don’t know where the man gets his facts. It is getting scarier and scarier,” said Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird, referring to a claim civic activist Charlie Wilson made that the County has “confiscated” a $1 million “deposit” from Windsor Development.
Last Tuesday, Wilson was on Bob Soos’ Morning Magazine radio program and said, “Indian River County should have a new theme. Instead of “Where the Tropics Begin,” is should be “No Deposit, No Return.”
Wilson claimed the $1 million in question was “a hedge on a park activity, or a park transfer of land.”
“Don’t they have to give it back?” asked Soos.
Wilson replied, “Well, they are supposed to, but no they don’t. They have now just taken that deposit and made it part of their personal capital, the same way they did with impact fees. They just confiscated that $1 million.”
In fact, the $1 million Windsor paid the County was never a deposit, but was partial consideration for a land swap that left the County with a brand new Golden Sands beach park, and Windsor with a larger piece of ocean front property. “They’re happy and we’re happy,” Baird said. “It was a win-win for everyone.”
Because the original Golden Sands Park, developed nearly 20 years ago, was acquired and build with state internal improvement funds, the land swap between Windsor and the County had to be approved by the state.
Baird said he had expected the state would want some or all of the $1 million paid by Windsor. Instead, the County was allowed to keep the money, with the one general restriction that it be used for recreation.
Because the money was encumbered in this way, it was first placed in a escrow account. Last year, an auditor with the Clerk of the Court’s office, which handles the County’s money, advised the $1 million be transferred to a general fund account restricted for recreation.
Contrary to Wilson’s claims, the money was not a “deposit” from Windsor, and it was not “confiscated” by the County.
Indian River Guardian 
I hope Mr. Soos has a disclaimer on his show – no doubt does – that anything said by anyone on that program – particularly Mr. Wilson – might possibly not be the truth….and that’s a fact.
Charlie should lighten up and check the facts. He could have asked me about that deal as I was on the County Commission when it came up. It was a good deal for everyone and the County got a brand new park and equipment plus the million. I’m saddened to see that it hasn’t been spent yet..
For a fee, Mr Charles Wilson might help the county sort out the matter of the 1 million dollars.
This is classic Charlie being Charlie. He should fact check first before he speaks.
I noticed you conveniently left out the fact that Mr. Baird also made those comments on the Local News Magazine….at my request
At your request? Doesn’t Joe Baird, like Charlie Wilson, have a standing weekly invitation to appear on your program, and doesn’t Wilson get about twice as much time as most of your other guests? Does it really take longer to serve baloney?
Your inviting Baird to set the record straight wasn’t exactly a display of Mark-Wallice-style interviewing skills. After what Wilson said earlier in the week, it was the only logical question to ask. You simply owned it to your listeners to let Baird set the record straight.
Maybe in the future you could encourage Charlie to serve something that doesn’t require quite so much cleanup.
When Charlie was caught after turning in forged voter petitions several years ago, I heard him on numerous radio shows blaming the supervisor of elections for his obvious scam. On the Lisa and Leo show, he called his son who was later convicted of forging the petitions a “political prisoner”.
He then uttered a phrase that I will consistently associate with him . . . “if you can’t attack the accusation, attack the accuser”. Having been a prosecutor for many years, I was quite familiar with that mentality and it is not a phrase that I associate with honor or integrity.
Apathy is the enemy of integrity in Vero Beach.