Classic convertibles with candy paint sitting on white walls parked as props for the entrance. Inside, musicians entertain guests as they walk the red carpet to the luxury clubhouse. Retirees dressed in their finest pose for pictures with manikins set up as decorations.
The event was no wedding or upscale fundraising gala. It was a private party hosted and funded through a special purpose government that used homeowner assessments to help foot the bill.
Residents in a Manatee County special development district are pushing back against district leaders who have hired family members for top staff jobs, awarded no-bid contracts to other relatives and hosted lavish private parties on the district’s dime.
When they approached the district board about the apparent nepotism — then began circulating a neighborhood petition to other homeowners — they said they were then silenced.
The growing uproar at Harrison Ranch is the latest local example of unchecked power at these special purpose governments, including community development districts, which have the authority to levy fees, enforce rules and process liens on those who don’t pay.
An ongoing Suncoast Searchlight investigation has found more new special development districts are breaking ground across the region than ever before. The developers first behind these new local governments often float multimillion-dollar public bonds to finance infrastructure, then dictate terms on how future residents pay it off.
During the past five years alone, local districts bonded out $2.9 billion to fund neighborhood improvements from Parrish south to North Port. With little oversight on the spending, these developer districts have inflated the price of the land, used their own subsidiaries to profit from contracts and cut basic services from homeowners who fought back.
Even after control of these boards transition into resident hands, homeowners said district leaders often make significant decisions without any input or transparency.
At Harrison Ranch, a string of what many residents called frivolous spending — and contracts given to district associates without competing bidding — has them now questioning how their community is run.
“It’s a bit like a fraying rug,” Harrison Ranch homeowner Marko Krstic said. “When you pull at one thread, it starts to unravel. It just gets worse and worse.
“We’re in a situation where residents are paying more and getting less — and watching our tax dollars go to district insiders with no transparency or accountability.”
Harrison Ranch board members Julianne Giella and Susan Walterick did not respond to several requests for comment for this story. District manager Matt O’Nolan declined to comment, directing inquiries to the “corporate office.”
While Harrison Ranch leaders stayed silent, critics beyond the neighborhood see the issues there as part of a much larger pattern.
Among them, area real estate developer Hugh Culverhouse Jr. said he opposes CDDs and will not use them to fund his projects, like the Palmer Ranch master-planned community in Sarasota County.
He said the problems that can arise in subdivisions like Harrison Ranch underscore the power and secrecy of these districts, leaving residents saddled with bond debt and often wondering how their money is spent.
“People (in CDDs) can be taken advantage of, and they don’t even know it,” Culverhouse said. “If you don’t know what the money is being spent on, you can’t stop it.”
As costs rise at Harrison Ranch, homeowners begin asking questions
From retirees donning golf attire to working-class parents still in their medical scrubs, dozens of homeowners living in Harrison Ranch cramped themselves into the amenities clubhouse for hours on Monday evening.
In what are usually sleepy and routine board meetings, a bigger crowd turned out this month to vent frustration to the district on everything from pond and road maintenance to contractor bidding and soaring staffing costs.
“They’re spending money like it’s going out of style,” Harrison Ranch homeowner George Royle told Suncoast Searchlight. “It doesn’t really matter what you say or do, they just go off in their own direction. If we could find somewhere without a HOA or CDD, we’d probably move.”
Established in 2007 through a Manatee County ordinance, Harrison Ranch spans 955 acres of nature trails, community lakes and middle-class homes in Parrish — a hotbed for these kinds of community development districts.
Because the unincorporated area of Manatee County has no municipal government of its own — and historically lacked the infrastructure needed to transform miles of pastures into sprawling new home communities — nearly 4 in 5 homes to come out of the ground in Parrish in 2023 were inside a special governing district, according to a Suncoast Searchlight analysis.
At Harrison Ranch, a circuit court judge authorized the district to float $46 million in municipal bonds in 2007 to build the neighborhood’s basic infrastructure and amenities, like a 24-hour fitness center, heated junior Olympic-sized pool and new basketball court.
National builder Pulte Homes handed control of the CDD’s five-member governing board long ago to the more than 2,000 registered voters living there, who now elect representatives to settle issues like neighborhood rules or how homeowner assessments are spent — much like council members in a small city.
Krstic moved to the neighborhood amid the recent housing boom in March 2022. Listed at midnight, the house drew multiple offers within a day, forcing him to compete.
At the time, Krstic said, he had never heard of CDDs, relying on insight from his Realtor — who suggested that the additional assessments should not last forever and would eventually come off the tax bill.
Now, he points to a series of unchecked costs and frivolous spending that have made annual CDD assessments in Harrison Ranch among the most expensive based on what the homes are worth across the region.
A Suncoast Searchlight analysis of CDD bills found properties in the district ranged in value last year from just under $300,000 to north of $700,000. Some owners paid as much as $2,366 in CDD fees — nearly five times more than Manatee County levied for its general operating fund.
The higher fees come against a backdrop of general neglect — from a community pool closed multiple times by the county health department in the summers of 2023 and 2024, to street signs still missing or damaged a year after Hurricane Milton, to ponds plagued by fish kills.
“These districts have tremendous power to go out and continue to issue debt,” said Chris Jones, an economist at the University of South Florida. “As long as you’ve got willing buyers for that debt on Wall Street, there’s very little you can do other than changing the laws.”
Tensions over district spending spill over
The Harrison Ranch’s elected board has the power to set the community budget, authorize major purchases and dictate ongoing spending. From a utility vehicle to parties, residents contend the board has been frivolous with their purchases.
Among the complaints are substantial increases in district salaries. The staffing budget for fiscal year 2025 shot up by more than one-fifth to just over $171,000 to cover two full-time positions: the clubhouse manager and an assistant.
Krstic said the increase was justified by the board as a “one-time situation” because the two staffers were reportedly underpaid. But within a year, the 2026 staff budget ballooned nearly 30% again — this time, to hire two additional part-time employees.
Over the last five years, the CDD staff salary budget is up 75%, records show.
“The implication was that we wouldn’t see such a huge increase again,” Krstic said. “And here we are, one year later.”
Last summer, the board also spent nearly $14,000 on a utility vehicle from a dealer in Land O Lakes and another $8,000 on a storage container to keep it secured — without any record of competitive bidding, according to documents provided to Suncoast Searchlight.
The vehicle first was pitched as necessary to help clean up trash around the neighborhood so staff did not have to use their personal vehicles. Then, district leaders told residents the vehicle was needed for policing — to help get other ATVs off the walking paths.
Since then, it mostly just sits in the container, said residents, adding that it hardly ever leaves the clubhouse parking lot.
“They advocated for the vehicle, then it just didn’t get driven for an entire year,” Harrison Ranch resident Diana Wolf said. “I’m just outraged. Now, we’re hiring a part-time staff member to drive it around. It’s frustrating … We just don’t feel heard.”
The tension boiled over when the district hosted its latest “Downton Abbey” themed party for the neighborhood this spring.
During the past two years, the district has thrown big parties in the resident clubhouse, purchasing and renting ornate decorations, prop mannequins, red carpets and even carriages for guests. There’s usually live entertainment, food and even liquor. They also hosted a casino night.
The district insists these are not VIP parties, but instead fun activities for the community that are open to everyone. But the events have RSVP lists that max out around 100 people for clubhouse capacity and safety. The district board, staff, and their friends and family always seem to be there. As a result, many residents with intentions to attend often can’t.
There is a modest attendance charge to go, but that does not cover the full costs to host such elaborate events — so the hundreds of residents who do not participate still subsidize the bill.
Harrison Ranch homeowner Michelle Olds questions why so much money is spent on parties, when other aspects of the community, like the health of the ponds, are in decline.
Residents also pointed to issues of transparency. They said meeting minutes are often inaccurate and incomplete. At times, homeowners who spoke out against proposals were left off of the official transcript altogether.
“I’ve been in the community for three years, and there’s been a decline — you can see it and feel it,” Olds said. “Now, it seems the property manager is over-spending on these events, and when you go to RSVP, it’s always closed.”
From cleaning crews to holiday light: A web of apparent favoritism
Special purpose districts like Harrison Ranch are supposed to operate with the fairness of a municipality. Conflicts of interest should be disclosed, many major work orders require competitive bidding to weed out favoritism and all official business must comply with Florida’s government Sunshine laws.
But a web of family ties and financial benefits to associates of those running Harrison Ranch has many residents now questioning whether district leaders have abused the rules meant to curb insider dealing.
Members of the same family hold paid roles within the Harrison Ranch district, with no public record of disclosure or competitive hiring. When residents raised concerns, including through a petition, they said the district appeared to retaliate.
The supervisor staff at Harrison Ranch is outsourced to Rizzetta & Co., which manages 10 other special districts in Manatee County alone, including notable CDDs like Palma Sola Trace, Greyhawk Landing and Copperstone, according to state records.
The Harrison Ranch board approved a motion in 2023 to hire Helena Teixeira as the amenities and clubhouse manager. An employee of Rizzetta, her role is tasked with running the day-to-day operations of the clubhouse, as well as planning events.
Teixeira is married to Michael Rodriguez, a former Rizzetta employee whose daughter Mia Rodriguez works as the assistant clubhouse manager under Teixeira, reporting directly to her mother-in-law.
Residents said Rodriguez personally lobbied at a Harrison Ranch budget meeting last year for a raise benefitting his wife, but they claimed their relationship was not public knowledge at the time.
In September 2023, the district again turned to the same family for more paid work. Through a single-bid contract, the board hired Nick Knows Cleaning for routine janitorial services after the Ruskin-based company undercut the previous contract by $50 per month.
The business was hired several more times by the CDD over the past year for more than $10,000 worth of jobs ranging from painting to tennis court maintenance and fence repairs, according to the invoices.
Florida corporation records show the vendor is a business operated by Nicholas Rodrigues, Teixeira’s son.
As residents began circulating a petition citing nepotism and no-bid contracts to insiders, Rodrigues resigned. District leaders then blamed Krstic for thousands of dollars in increases from the new cleaning vendor contract.
When reached by Suncoast Searchlight, Teixeira declined to comment on the allegations, directing all questions to the district board.
“Due to safety concerns stemming from recent Facebook posts, our previous vendor made the decision to terminate their contract with the CDD,” the clubhouse staff wrote in a mass email to residents at the time. “While we respect their decision and the concerns raised, we understand this change may be disappointing to some. As a result, we have secured a new vendor to ensure continued maintenance of the clubhouse.”
Teixeira’s husband still serves as an assistant secretary at the Harbor Bay CDD in nearby southern Hillsborough County.
His marriage to Teixeira has opened a pattern of no-compete vendor contracts going back and forth between insiders at Harbor Bay and Harrison Ranch.
In October 2023, Michael Rodriguez presented a contract to the Harbor Bay CDD board for a three-year, $54,000 holiday lighting contract to Giella Designs, whose owner was the Harrison Ranch Chair at the time.
Then, Giella hired Rodriguez’s and Teixeira’s event planning business for at least one private event at the Harrison Ranch Clubhouse, deepening their business ties.
“If you’re friends or family with the right people, you get the job,” Krstic said.“If you’re a taxpayer, you get the bill.”
Suncoast Searchlight staff reporter Derek Gilliam contributed to this story.
Josh Salman is a senior investigative reporter/deputy editor at Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
