Text messages signed by a little-known group alerted West Palm Beach residents to a news story about a proposal in late March to sell 55 acres to megadeveloper Stephen Ross for a private school.
“This land deal feels rushed and hidden from the public with no transparency,” the texts said. “No open process? No thanks.”
The messages urged recipients to call their city commissioner. Many did.
It didn’t stop the proposal from moving forward. But it raised questions about who bankrolled the effort to stop the city’s most prominent developer from entering into an agreement to buy surplus land from the city near Florida’s Turnpike.
Text messages reviewed by Stet News carried the signatures of Jane and Julie, both with the “Florida Committee for Accountability.” That’s the same name as a registered Florida political committee set up to influence elections.
While there’s no guarantee that the committee is behind the text messages, a committee by that name is run by Jennings DePriest of Bradenton, who has publicly acknowledged his success at conducting text messaging campaigns.
The committee’s treasurer is Melissa Power, wife of Evan Power, the chairperson of the Florida Republican Party.
DePriest, who did not return phone calls for this story, has bragged about his ability to reach people through text messaging.
“If you live in Florida and you’ve gotten political texts, there’s a good chance I’m behind it,” he said in a November 2022 podcast. “Sorry. Not sorry.”
In an October 2023 podcast quoted in The Bradenton Times, he added, “If you need to send mass political text messages, I’m your guy. You legally have to have someone click ‘send’ on every message, and we have a team that does that.”
In 2023, The Bradenton Times identified his firm, Top Lobster, as the source of communications sent to Manatee County residents concerning a controversial commission decision regarding wetland regulations.
Top Lobster billed itself as “an elite team of digital assassins who do what it takes to win,” the paper reported.
In May 2024, the Florida Committee for Accountability took credit for a texting campaign in Tamarac, urging residents to call commissioners concerning a garbage-hauling contract, Sunrise Talk reported.
It is against the law for such a committee to spend its money on issues rather than an election campaign, Tallahassee election law attorney Jennifer Blohm said.
“If it is the political committee, this is not a proper expenditure,” Blohm said. “You cannot use a political committee to lobby grass roots.”
A 1990 Florida Division of Elections opinion she cited says: “A political committee may not make any expenditures which are not made for the purpose of influencing an election.”
No city elections are on tap this year.
Spent $26,000 on text messaging in March
In West Palm Beach, commissioners were asked to declare the 55-acre site surplus and approve a term sheet with Related Ross for development of the property for a school.
When commissioners heard the proposal for the first time on March 31, several mentioned they had gotten a lot of negative feedback. They questioned the proposal and pulled back on one of its most notable terms, reliance on year-old appraisals to value the city land.
Financial reports filed by the Florida Committee for Accountability indicate that it spent $26,000 on texting and direct mail in March. The disclosure does not specify on which campaign the money was spent.
The group also collected $540,000 in March, most of it from Keep Florida Winning, a political committee chaired by DePriest.
Keep Florida Winning’s website says it is dedicated “to supporting conservative champions who will protect Florida’s FREEDOM and fight for our values in government.” It lists just one champion: first-term state Rep. Jon Albert, a Republican who represents Polk County.
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The Florida Committee for Accountability had about $190,000 on hand at the end of March after spending nearly $400,000 since its inception in September 2023.
State laws don’t require a clear link between who gave money to a committee and how that money is spent. Unless someone volunteers the information, there is often no way to know who is directly behind a committee’s actions.
Jeff Greene’s opposition
One local private school operator who opposed the proposal said he knew nothing about the text messaging campaign.
Billionaire Jeff Greene, who owns the Greene School on South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, attended the City Commission meeting and expressed his frustration afterward.
He disputed a point made by Assistant City Administrator Armando Fana that area private schools have a yearslong waiting list.
“There’s no waiting list,” said Greene, referencing a second local private school run by a Palm Beach billionaire, Bill Koch’s Oxbridge Academy. “Generally, we’re fighting for students.”
Fana said he based the comment on trends in the private school industry and the city’s pace of growth but did not conduct a survey of private schools.
Annual tuition reaches into the high-$30,000s at the Greene School, Oxbridge Academy, The Benjamin School. At Pine Crest School in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale it tops $40,000. Tuition is lower at other area private schools, such as Rosarian Academy, Cardinal Newman High School and The King’s Academy.
Greene took issue with the land price of $6.6 million. “Why would the city take some valuable land and sell it for a steep discount?” he asked.
Fana told commissioners that the buyer would be constrained from building anything but athletic fields on about 20 acres of the 55-acre site because the site is carved out of a 316-acre property devoted since the 1980s to the city’s western wellfield, which has 10 wells to supplement the city water supply.
“This isn’t a property that we ever thought about putting out there for any type of development,” Fana said.
The city also would retain an easement over a portion of the property in case it needs to drill more wells and it would limit the property’s use to a school, although commissioners were asked to allow for the possibility that a school operator may want housing there.
Additionally, an access road would have to be built, likely from Roebuck Road nearly a mile away.
Money would go to Roosevelt Elementary
Related’s Gopal Rajegowda told commissioners the company had not yet lined up a private school operator for the West Palm Beach site and it might take three to five years to do so.
Related is devoting about 30 acres of its proposed Wellington K-Park development to a private school, Education in Motion.
But Rajegowda said Related was prepared to close its deal with West Palm Beach within six months even if no school operator had emerged by then.
Still, commissioners pressed back.
“We have received several calls and emails from residents that are concerned about the timeline and I understand that concern,” Commissioner Christy Fox said.
Saying she liked that people are paying attention, Commissioner Cathleen Ward also referenced the emails.
“Every time I’ve opened my phone it’s been ‘Say no. Vote no,’” she said.
Commissioners insisted that the city and Related conduct new appraisals. Rajegowda committed to the minimum price of $6.6 million even if the new appraisals came in lower.
The proceeds of the sale would go toward a $12.5 million proposal to rebuild Roosevelt Elementary School north of downtown West Palm Beach. The school district has committed $4 million and Related Ross has pledged $1 million.
Still, the price for the school site rankled Greene.
“I would love to buy that land for $6 million,” said Greene, who did not publicly address the commission. “Maybe we would move our high school out there.”
Commissioners decided against seeking alternative bids for the property, instead they agreed to give Related Ross the exclusive right to negotiate a contract over the next six months.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
