Political Maneuvering Heats Up in Poinciana Incorporation Effort
By GREG PARLIER / LEDGER MEDIA GROUP
POINCIANA | The group was called “Poinciana Residents for Smart Change.“
That was before a director on the Association of Poinciana Villages’ controlling board took over the name because he thought their actions didn’t promote the smartest path for Poinciana.
He registered the name with the state of Florida, canceled the group’s Monday meeting and told the group’s president and founder, Keith Laytham, that he couldn’t use the name anymore.
“It should’ve been called ‘The world according to Keith.’ Everything was based on his opinion, and much of his opinion, in my opinion, is incorrect,” said Don Gordon, who is the director of Village 7 in Poinciana and the new president of the Poinciana Residents for Smart Change Inc.
The dispute, which seems to be centered on the drive to incorporate Poinciana as a city, has pitted the two men, who used to be allies, against each other.
Laytham supports incorporation, while Gordon is unhappy with the way it is being handled.
As for Monday’s meeting, Laytham said it is still on, including a scheduled appearance from state Sen. Darren Soto, and his group will carry on as usual under a new name, which he is waiting to release until he files for incorporation with the state.
For now, Laytham is calling his group a civic group.
Because Laytham’s group can no longer use the name, he said, banners and business cards as well as 79 pages of the website, which is branded with the Poinciana Residents for Smart Change name, will have to be changed.
Gordon is “re-engineering” his new group with the old name as a nonprofit corporation recognized by the state of Florida as of July 19.
He said the group will work with different organizations, including the APV, Poinciana’s large homeowners association; AV Homes, the developer of the sprawling planned community; and area nonprofits to advocate for what he calls “real smart change.”
“Originally, I believe Keith’s heart was in the right place. Now he’s carrying it to another level. With ‘smart change’ in the name, he’s been misinforming the uninformed,” Gordon said.
Gordon said he is giving himself 60 days to put together a specific plan for the new group.
Laytham’s Poinciana Residents for Smart Change was organized in September 2008 as a “civic group focused on making Poinciana a better place to live,” according to its website.
Laytham said the group is entirely run by volunteers and takes pride in its nonpartisan nature and openness to the public. All the group’s meeting minutes are posted on its website, prfsc.org.
The group does accept donations, which Laytham said help pay for the website and allow it to sponsor and advertise at local events, but since the organization was never incorporated as a nonprofit, donors couldn’t claim their donations on their tax returns, he said. No dues are collected and none of the meetings or events require fees.
The group has held monthly meetings since its inception at various locations, mostly the Poinciana Library.
Laytham said the group’s mailing list has about 150 names, and the website gets a couple of thousand hits a week.
Laytham said he always argued against incorporating the group as a nonprofit.
“Why spend money on a lawyer, when we could put the money towards the community?” he asked.
At the middle of the dispute between Gordon and Laytham seems to be the controversial effort of some to get the incorporation of Poinciana as a city on the 2014 ballot. Poinciana, a community of about 80,000 residents, straddles the Polk-Osceola county line.
Laytham is active in the effort, assisting Valentin Ramos, who is president of PINCHOS, which is the group pushing for incorporation.
Laytham helped Ramos with a feasibility study that Ramos released to legislators last month.
But Laytham said his group officially is not taking a position on incorporation, leaving Ramos’s group, PINCHOS, to lead that effort.
Laytham’s group, however, was active in a 2009 push for incorporation, which failed.
Gordon, meanwhile, said he is not taking a position on incorporation, generally, but he does not agree with this specific effort.
“This incorporation is not good for the community,” he said. “It’s going to polarize the community.“
Further, Gordon said, Laytham’s mishandling of the civic group proves the incorporation movement is doomed.
“When he begins to personally attack me, it’s not the classy way to handle incorporation,” Gordon said. “He didn’t even register his nonprofit organization. How’s he going to handle a city?“
Gordon insists his actions aren’t personally directed towards Laytham, but the two Solivita residents have a history of disagreeing on the best direction for Poinciana.
Their interaction started amiably early this year when Laytham suggested Gordon run for a seat on the APV board of directors, since Gordon’s real estate company, Gordon Companies, owns a significant amount of land in Villages 7 and 8 in Poinciana.
“At that time, here I thought this guy was going to do some good for the community,” Laytham said.
Gordon said he didn’t know what happened, but soon after that, he felt Laytham started attacking him both publicly and privately.
There also has been dispute between the two men over who was responsible for getting the park constructed in Village 7, with both claiming to have been instrumental.
“You can’t immediately attack the new board of directors and new management company and developer,” Gordon said. “You can’t begin to attack them. If Keith wanted to handle incorporation intelligently, he wouldn’t have done this.“
Laytham said advocating for Gordon to get on the board was a “big mistake” and Gordon is not acting in the community’s best interests.
“Every time he’s gotten involved in a project, it seems to be for his own good,” Laytham said.