A complaint against five local water system board members was filed last week with the First Judicial State Attorney.
The State Attorney is reviewing the complaint which alleges that a possible Sunshine Law violation occurred when City of Gulf Breeze Mayor Matt Dannheisser meet with other members of the Fairpoint Regional Utility System at the Holley-Navarre Water System office.
The complaint in its entirety as provided to South Santa Rosa News follows:
URGENT Official Complaint
William Eddins November 6, 2017
Office of the State Attorney
190 Government Street
Pensacola, FL 32502
RE: This Official Complaint is Being Filed Against These Individuals:
1. Matt Dannheisser- Mayor of Gulf Breeze & Director- Fairpoint Regional Utilities
2. Buzz Eddie- Director Fairpoint Regional Utilities
3. Paul Gardner- Director Fairpoint Regional Utilities
4. Troy Bossier-Director HNWS, Inc.
5. Bien May- Director Fairpoint Regional Utilities
To whom it may concern;
I, and other employees of the Holley-Navarre Water System, Inc., located at Turkey Bluff Road, Navarre, Florida 32566, witnessed some very disturbing actions taking place at the HNWS, Inc. headquarters in a secret meeting, which occurred in the office of the HNWS, Inc. General Manager, Paul Gardner, also a Director of Fairpoint; and a resident of Gulf Breeze, Florida; involving the individuals cited below, all of which are Directors of an entity known as Fairpoint Regional Utilities, doing business with several municipalities, towns, cities, and/or towns in Santa Rosa County.
Please understand the serious nature of this matter, and that we fear for our lives and this is why we have chosen to bring this information forward in this manner knowing all of this can be confirmed and proven quite simply by investigating the persons mentioned below concerning these matters. In the past year alone, 2 employees; have died “suddenly”, with the most recent employee, dying in the last month! Please do not ignore this, help us, and this is why I feel it is necessary for me to remain anonymous at this time.
Under Florida Statue 286 Public meetings and records; the parties identified below violated the law by conducting an unannounced illegal private meeting with 3 Fairpoint Directors, including the Mayor of Gulf Breeze, Matt Dannheisser, Buzz Eddie,- President of Fairpoint, Paul Gardner, a Fairpoint Director on October 31, 2017 at the corporate offices of the Holley Navarre Water System to lobby a HNWS, Inc. Board of Director, Troy Bossier to reverse his previous “No” vote against the controversial bank refinance program for Fairpoint Regional Utility System, Inc.
Below, is a list of the individuals we witnessed in the unannounced illegal private meeting in the office of Paul Gardner at HNWS, Inc. on October 31, 2017.
1. Matt Dannheisser, Mayor of Gulf Breeze & Director FRUS
2. Buz Eddy, President FRUS
3. Troy Bossier, Director HNWS
4. Phil Phillips, MESI- Director/Engineer
5. Paul Gardner, Director FRUS
Fairpoint Regional Utilities must adhere to Florida Sunshine Laws, and these laws were violated blatantly in front of multiple witnesses.
Fairpoint Regional Utilities supplies wholesale water to utility water companies in Santa Rosa County, Florida and is owned by the three same water utility companies, each with a one third share. Two of three owners had formally agreed to a multimillion dollar bank refinancing program for Fairpoint. Unanimous agreement of the three owners was required to conclude the refinancing and the purpose of subject private meeting was to convince the reluctant Holley Navarre Water System to approve the refinancing. One of the three Fairpoint Regional Utilities owners is:
South Santa Rosa Utility Systems
City of Gulf Breeze, FL
Subject statue is applicable and the meeting clearly violated the Sunshine Law. I respectfully request that you review this complaint and initiate appropriate proceedings.
Background Information & Facts;
These acts, which I and other employees have witnessed, and overheard; concerning the individuals below, involved secret discussions to manipulate the outcome of a Board vote concerning a request for HNWS, Inc. members to encumber a very large debt for the next 20 years, that had been previously not approved by the HNWS, Inc. board of directors in their meeting in the month of October 2017. The HNWS, Inc. Board of Directors requested that the necessary pertinent financial information, a list of the parties involved in the debt transaction, all financial documents, and board minutes of Fairpoint Regional Utilities, the list of any and all relationships of parties to the transaction to be provided; so that they could meet their fiduciary responsibilities in accordance with the Bylaws of HNWS, Inc.
We believe that Bien May coordinated and directed the unannounced illegal private meeting with Phil Phillips, Buz Eddy, Paul Gardner – Fairpoint Directors, including the Mayor of Gulf Breeze, Matt Dannheisser to achieve this goal.
Based on conversations overheard and what was witnessed, the mentioned above, were meeting to conspire and plan actions to lobby Troy Bossier to change his vote in favor of the Fairpoint debt refinancing, so that Bien May, President-of the Board of Directors- HNWS, Inc. could request another Special HNWS, Inc, Board Meeting to reverse the previous board vote against approving the debt.
The attendees of the meeting could have personal financial benefit from the outcome of implementation and execution of this debt, involving $10 million over a 20 year period, which was voted down in previous meeting.
Edward Gray’s Capital Service entity, the Gulf Breeze Mayor’s law firm, the agents of the bank, and the Gulf Breeze municipality, all that could benefit from this transaction with Fairpoint Regional Utilities Services. It was overheard that after the loan is made, the agents of the bank can and will sell the loan to Capital Services, and they in turn will convert the debt to bond like indentures for investor purchase, enabling the profiting of hundreds of thousands of dollars to be paid to themselves in the form of “due diligence” fees, initial bond sale commissions, and residuals going forwards without any boards knowing nor the members of the water & sewer systems as well as the residents of all communities. They seem to have all these money and power and still hunger for more, never having enough at the expense of the hard-working people in our community.
The individuals that this complaint is being filed against have performed these actions multiple times in the past, concerning debt placed upon the community, with millions of dollars never answered for; because those monies were allocated to them in the form of lender fees, due diligence fees in bond conversion, and initial and residual commissions.
Please understand that we are pleading with you to end this corruption and bring these “good ole boys into the Sunshine”.
We believe, one individual, Buzz Eddie, who is an ex-employee of the city of Gulf Breeze where the transactions are executed is now being paid significant monies by the city of Gulf Breeze, as a consultant to make this transaction occur by acting as the spokesperson (front person) pretending to represent all parties, when in fact, it is obvious -he does not. We believe that Gulf Breeze would receive an immediate windfall payment from the deal of approximately $567,000.00.
Buz Eddie is representing the city of Gulf Breeze; where the loan would originate in that bank, while Edward Gray is the major partner/owner of the Capital Services entity that the loan is believed will be then sold to by the bank, and then converted to a bond, and the third individual; the Mayor of Gulf Breeze, Matt Dannheisser is the lawyer that became quite rich from these transactions, specializing in them. Matt Dannheisser is an officer of the court, and his acts are outrageous, and belligerent beyond comprehension. We believe he is the legal counsel that will handle the legalities, and enrich himself further with legal fees as in the past deals; such as the previous $7 million dollars debt loan involving all of the same individuals including the management employees at HNWS, Inc., which make it all possible by setting up and having the secret meeting at HNWS, Inc. in direct violation of the Florida Sunshine Laws assisting in the conspiring of and execution of the above actions. All individuals listed above play a key role in these acts with blatant violations of the Sunshine Laws of Florida.
In addition to those violations cited above, several of these individuals have assisted in the past in enabling these actions, keeping in mind the current President and Secretary/ Treasury of HNWS, Inc. have refused to function appropriately according to the Bylaws, and attack those members and directors that are requesting information to meet their fiduciary responsibilities.
We believe a full investigation needs to be performed immediately with regards to the Mayor of Gulf Breeze-Matt Danheisser, Buzz Eddy-President Director, Paul Gardner-Director, Troy Bossier-Director, Bien May-Director.
We have spoken with and shared the above matters with the Vice President of the Board of Directors, HNWS, Inc., James Calkin and Ricki DeSantis-BOD, and Brian Kelly-BOD, who conveyed their support for our efforts to bring these irregularities to their attention, and speak out on these issues, assuring us that they will protect our identities, and has conveyed to us that they will support any request by you in regards to this investigation. They also informed us that they are available for you to contact for information concerning these matters.
Again, to reiterate, it is our understanding that under Florida Statute 286 Public meetings and records; the parties identified above violated the law by conducting an unannounced illegal private meeting with 3 Fairpoint Directors, including the Mayor of Gulf Breeze, Matt Dannheisser, a Fairpoint Director, Buzz Eddie,- President of Fairpoint, Paul Gardner, a Fairpoint Director, on October 31, 2017 at the corporate offices of the Holley Navarre Water System to lobby that HNWS, Inc. Board of Director, Troy Bossier to reverse his previous no vote against the controversial bank refinance program for Fairpoint Regional Utility System, Inc..
HNWS, Inc. Board of Director List
• Bien May- President
• James Calkin- Vice President/Chair Election Committee
• Gaius Bruce- Secretary/Treasurer
• Robert Coley- BOD/Chair-Personnel Committee
• Brian Kelly- BOD/Chair Finance Committee
• Troy Bossier- BOD
• Ricki DeSantis-BOD
Fairpoint Regional Utility Systems, Inc Holley Navarre Water System, Inc
8574 Turkey Bluff Road 8574 Turkey Bluff Road
Navarre Fl 32566 Navarre Fl 32566
850 939 8686 850 939 2427
Very truly yours,
Concerned Employees and Members of HNWS, Inc.-
