Time to Resign

One of the applicants at the May 4, 2004 Windover Heights Board of Review meeting was required to pay a special $15000 bond -- a first for the Windover Heights Historic District (WHHD). He was forced to do this since he was appearing for approval for a project already completed. The bond was the Town's "insurance" in case the Board did not approve the construction already completed. While that part of the story is interesting, the real story of the night was once again Board Chairman Steve Bukont.

This particular application caused an energetic debate between the Chair Steve Bukont and another Town citizen. This debate extended for nearly 30 minutes. During the debate, Mr. Bukont was the only member of the Board to speak.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bukont was less that forthright during the evening. After he vigorously defended both the District and this particular application, he then abstained during the vote citing a conflict. If Mr. Bukont had a conflict he should have recused himself from the beginning just as it is done at other Town meetings. Instead he led the discussion and influenced the vote only to back out when it was his turn to vote. This was flat out wrong.

Mr. Bukont said his conflict was due to a business relationship with both the builder and engineer of the applicant's project. Interestingly, it was later determined that Mr. Bukont had voted affirmatively for 5 past applications in the WHHD district where this same builder and engineer were involved. He did not recuse himself then. What changed now? We seriously doubt the three new Board members were aware of these 5 other votes.

Having a builder Chair a political body like the WHBR is wrong. Especially a builder with such close economic ties to Town Council members and Town staff. The Town would be well advised to do the right thing and ask for Mr. Bukont's resignation. It's one thing to be a builder, but his purely political actions of that night were a gross conflict of interest and present an image of back room dealing and an un-even playing field.

Watch this video to see the conflict in action.