Public official Mike Moran spent $36,000 in taxpayers’ money on lavish travel, steak dinners, and booze

by Michael Barfield, Florida Trident

Sarasota County Commission chair Mike Moran has slashed funding for early learning and childcare programs, calling them “socialism.” Now running for county tax collector, his campaign emphasizes a focus on “making government accountable to the taxpayers.”

But a ledger obtained by the Florida Trident through a public records request raises questions about Moran’s accountability. According to the records, Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots.

Moran amassed those travel expenses – which include multiple thousand-dollar-plus dinners – at his second publicly-financed job as executive director of the Florida PACE Funding Agency, known as FPFA.  

FPFA is the controversial government special district formed in 2011 to help economically disadvantaged homeowners finance improvements like wind-resistant roofs, impact-resistant windows, and energy-efficient solar panels. Excerpts from the financial ledger dating from January 2023 to June 2024, show Moran’s $36,000 spending spree during that time.

Between his two tax-funded positions, Moran’s salary totals $299,791. A company controlled by Moran also received additional compensation from FPFA. Moran’s employment contracts included an unusual provision from July 2020 to February 2023 that allowed additional compensation of 0.20% on every project financed by FPFA. 

According to data from FPFA’s website, over $276 million of projects were financed when Moran’s company was entitled to the .20% bonus in addition to his salary. Public records reveal that Southern Sky Energy, a Florida entity registered and owned by Moran 360, LLC, received over $55,000 in payments during the first three months of 2023 from FPFA.

Moran 360, LLC is controlled solely by Moran according to online records of the Florida Department of State. At the time of publication, records requested by the Trident of all payments FPFA made to Moran-controlled companies had not been provided.

Moran’s most recent financial disclosure statement for the 2023 reporting period does not mention any income from Southern Sky Energy or Moran 360. When questioned, Moran explained that he did not make a profit from those entities during that period and further stated in an email that he “did not personally receive all those funds.”

The disclosure instructions on the website of the Florida Commission on Ethics state that “income,” includes “gross income from business.” 

Ethics and state government experts questioned both the lucrative bonus deal and the eye-popping travel expenses incurred by Moran on the public’s dime. Leon County Attorney Chasity O’Steen, who has worked with special districts across the state, said the bonus deal is far from standard operating procedure. 

“I’ve never heard of a special district compensating an executive director like that,” O’Steen said. “It’s unheard of.” 

The $36,000 spent on lavish travel was troubling to Ben Wilcox, the executive director of the non-profit government watchdog group Integrity Florida.  

“It raises a lot of red flags and cries out for an independent audit to take place,” Wilcox said. “He has no sensitivity to how the public would perceive this.”

In a phone interview with the Trident, Moran argued that because FPFA’s money comes from private individuals paying special assessments on their property tax bills, the money spent on his travel should not be considered public funds. 

“It’s private money,” Moran said. “Where the governmental interest comes in is that we have the power and authority to put a non-ad valorem assessment on the property tax bill. It must be for a public purpose.” 

Chuck Perdue, President of the Florida Association of Tax Collectors, disagreed with that assertion. “To suggest that revenue flowing to these PACE entities from collecting special assessments are not public dollars is simply ludicrous,” Perdue said. 

What happens in Vegas …

Moran said one particular FPFA board member – Jim Ley – played a large role in his appointment as FPFA’s manager in 2019. Ley is the former Sarasota County administrator who resigned amid a procurement and purchasing scandal in 2011. 

“I’m a turnaround guy; systems and procedures guy. This is what I do,” Moran said. “Jim Ley was on the board and he approached me about taking the job.” 

When Moran began serving as executive director in 2019, the special district had annual executive and administrative expenses of $41,667. The most recent audit for the fiscal year ending in 2023 showed those expenses ballooned to $1,221,991, an increase of more than 2,800%.

The FPFA financial ledger shows Moran traveled to Las Vegas in February 2023. He said the purpose of the trip was to strengthen the agency’s relationship with the Florida Homebuilders Association. “I’m fixated on a hand-and-glove relationship with the FHBA,” Moran told the Trident. 

On the trip, Moran also met with members of DTA, a California consulting firm that contracts with FPFA to provide assessment and bond administration services. 

A photo posted on Facebook shows a gathering in Las Vegas at the same time Moran was incurring expenses for the public agency. The photo includes Moran’s wife, Lori, with a pair of top DTA executives, including CEO Kelly Wright. Also in the Facebook photo was Jon Mast, the CEO of Suncoast Builders Association, who would become a board member at FPFA in late 2023, and his wife Teresa Mast. The group attended a concert the same evening Moran spent $1,345 of taxpayer’s money for dining at a Caesars Palace restaurant.

Among numerous other expenses on that trip, more than $2,300 was paid for a Hilton hotel suite in Las Vegas. An additional $710.19 was reimbursed to Moran for an undescribed expense at Caesars Palace, according to the FPFA ledger. At the time of publication, no itemized documentation had been provided to explain these expenses.

“He’s taking money from people who can least afford it and spending it in Vegas,” said former Senator Mike Fasano. “It’s a joke. There’s a lot of questionable things that he’s done along the way that need to be investigated by the Attorney General.”

Four months later, Moran attended another conference in New York City, where he booked a private dinner for 35 at the upscale Smith & Wollensky, which bills itself as the “cathedral” for steak. The dinner cost $8,550, according to the itemized bill Moran submitted for reimbursement from taxpayers. Included in that sum was $2,279.75 for 11 bottles of wine and numerous cocktails.

FPFA paid $2,250 in advance for the private dinner. Moran paid the balance of the $6,350 bill on his credit card and was reimbursed that same amount by taxpayers. DTA later reimbursed FPFA $4,109.98, so taxpayers ultimately paid $4,440.02 for the steakhouse dinner Moran describes as a “banquet.”

Days after Moran spearheaded a Sarasota County Commission decision to cut childcare funding in September 2023, he flew to California with his wife, Lori, and FPFA’s director of operations, Wendi Leach. Moran and Leach met with DTA finance executives based in Paso Robles. Taxpayers reimbursed Moran and Leach $7,907 for the trip which included visits to a steakhouse, a brewery, other restaurants, and eight shots of tequila at one dinner.

In January 2024, Moran returned to Las Vegas for another conference. FPFA reimbursed Moran for a $1,281 dinner at CarverSteak, where prime cuts of beef can cost up to $275 each. 

Moran’s penchant for fine dining at taxpayer expense occurred at local restaurants as well, including visits to high-end Sarasota venues like Seasons 52, Osteria 500 at Waterside, and Pascone’s Italian restaurant. The receipts Moran submitted for reimbursement feature a roster of prominent local figures, including Senator Jim Boyd, Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn, Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis, former Sarasota County Commissioner Alan Maio, John LaCivita, vice-chair of Visit Sarasota, and Todd Josko, managing partner for lobbying firm Ballard Partners.

Several dinners were with Mast, whose wife, Teresa, happens to be running to fill Moran’s soon-to-be-vacant county commission seat. Neither Jon nor Teresa Mast returned multiple phone calls and text messages inquiring about the dinners and their trip to Las Vegas. Moran described Mast as a “recent addition” to his board. “He’s a great friend,” Moran said.

A comparison of the financial records of two other PACE special districts showed significantly lower administrative expenses despite higher revenues. For the fiscal year ending 2022, FPFA had administrative expenses of nearly 14% compared to total revenues. In contrast, FY22 administrative expenses of two other PACE special districts were well below 1% of total revenues.

According to FPFA board chair Mike Steigerwald, none of the reimbursements made to Moran were approved by the special district’s governing board.  “The responsibility for enforcing the day-to-day rules with regard to the travel policy falls on Mr. Moran and his staff,” Steigerwald said.

Philip Stoddard, chair of the largest PACE entity in the state, Green Corridor PACE District in South Florida, said Moran’s expenses ran counter to the way his district operates.  

“I go over the budget expenditures every quarter,” Stoddard told the Trident. “Our only unbudgeted expense was when a number of counties refused to pay because of one bad apple, so we had to get involved with lawyers.” 

Asked whether travel expenses for steakhouses and alcohol in Las Vegas were appropriate, Stoddard said, “We wouldn’t allow that.” The Trident reviewed the financial ledger of Green Corridor and found no expenses for travel or meals.

‘A Trojan horse‘

Moran’s spending habits may intensify the ongoing legal controversy surrounding the PACE program that has landed at the Florida Supreme Court as a result of an odd bond validation proceeding in October 2022. Much of the criticism is directed at FPFA for what many state officials describe as a power grab to expand operations statewide without local government oversight. 

In late 2022, FPFA obtained judicial approval to issue $5 billion in tax-exempt revenue bonds needed to finance a planned expansion. Without the bonds being guaranteed by property tax assessments, big money lenders would not loan money to the financing companies under contract with FPFA. 

The bond validation judgment contained unusual language allowing FPFA to operate statewide, without agreements and oversight from local county and municipal governments. That language would later be described as a “Trojan horse” that ignited the litigation now pending in Florida’s highest court.

The outcome of the court battle has huge implications for FPFA’s finance company partners, which include DTA. An adverse ruling could jeopardize the security of nearly $500 million in homeowners’ projects financed by the companies Moran wined and dined during the trips to Las Vegas, New York, and California.

Chris Nard, CEO of FortiFi Financial, a financing partner of FPFA, testified in court that the bond validation language was essential for accessing the New York bond market. “It would be nonsensical to try to market one of these bonds without the method of collection tied to it,” Nard stated. He also confirmed that FPFA informed him the bond validation’s purpose was to “expand the territory” in which FPFA could operate.

Immediately after the bond validation judgment, FPFA aggressively increased operations across the state, sending letters to governmental agencies declaring FPFA would operate without regard to local consent or other long-standing regulatory measures.

FPFA saw explosive growth following the bond validation compared to previous years.

Shortly after Moran returned from Las Vegas in February 2023, Pasco County Tax Collector and former Florida Senator Mike Fasano recounted a phone call with Moran. Fasano told the Florida Trident that Moran yelled at him, insisting that his special district “was going to do business in your jurisdiction whether you like it or not.”

Other PACE districts sought to distance themselves from FPFA. The Green Corridor PACE District disagreed with FPFA’s approach. In November 2023, it sent a letter to tax collectors across the state stating this was “a destructive method of operating” and that Green Corridor would continue to cooperate with local governments. Green Corridor filed an amicus brief supporting the position of the tax collectors and counties against FPFA.

Meanwhile, Moran continued to court the financing companies. On the evening before a hearing in front of a Leon County judge in February 2024, Moran dined at Il Lusso in Tallahassee with DTA’s CEO Wright who was present at the previously mentioned trips. James Vergara, the Chief Investment Officer at Home Run Financing, another FPFA financing partner, was also at the dinner. An itemized receipt totaling $622 included a $75 steak and several alcoholic beverages, including one aptly named “What Happens in Vegas.” 

The next day, a judge ruled in favor of FPFA, upholding the bond validation. Following an appeal, the case has now reached the Florida Supreme Court. 

Attorney General Ashley Moody added weight to FPFA’s critics by filing an amicus brief in the high court supporting the tax collectors and counties. As reported by Derek Gilliam in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Attorney General’s brief said FPFA “pulled a fast one” in the bond validation order to shield it from local consumer-protection regulations.

A $900,000 Lobbyist 

Amid the ongoing court battle, Moran also waged a costly fight to oppose Senate Bill 770, legislation aimed at upending FPFA’s aggressive statewide expansion. Championed by the Tax Collectors Association, the bill prohibits PACE districts from operating in any jurisdiction without local government consent and mandates strict adherence to Florida’s consumer protection laws against predatory lending tactics.

The FPFA board approved Moran’s request to hire a well-connected lobbyist to kill the legislation. When the bill passed, more taxpayer money was spent to urge Governor Ron DeSantis to veto the bill. DeSantis signed the legislation in June, dealing FPFA a critical blow, and a loss of nearly $900,000 of taxpayers’ money spent on the lobbyist.

Asked why taxpayers should bear the expense of fighting legislation to protect consumers from predatory lending, Moran vaguely replied, “There were a lot of variables – we decided to bring the lobbyist in.” 

Under legislation that went into effect July 1, all PACE districts must obtain written consent before doing business in a particular jurisdiction. The legislation also sets stringent requirements aimed to prevent predatory lending tactics.

Chuck Perdue, president of the Florida Tax Collector’s Association, voiced pride in the passage of SB 770. “It is essential that homeowners are fully informed about PACE loans and the consequences of non-payment,” he said.

When former Senator Fasano learned of Moran’s travel on the taxpayers’ dime, he didn’t mince words. 

“He’s taking money from people who can least afford it and spending it in Vegas,” Fasano said. “It’s a joke. There’s a lot of questionable things that he’s done along the way that need to be investigated by the Attorney General.”

This article first appeared on Florida Trident and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.