Sarasota Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Marlon Brown
PART I
A SARASOTA UNI PARTY OLIGARCHY HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF CITY HALL AS CHAMBER'S LOBBYIST BROWN JUNKET TO DELRAY BEACH HAS LEGAL ISSUES
An oligarchy is a form of government or power structure in which authority is concentrated in the hands of a small group of individuals. A few holds power, and most people have little
say in decisions, with politics serving the interests of the few instead of the majority.
No better example of a City of Sarasota oligarchy exists than the alliance of five local
organizations—comprised of Democrats and Republicans working together as a UNI
Party—to corrupt the Sarasota City Commission.
The leaders of this UNI Party serve the interests of a select few wealthy social elitists instead of the broader public. They conspire with each other calling themselves promoters of
"Sarasota Arts and Culture", as they operate “outside of the sunshine,” supporting
a Sarasota UNI Party oligarchy.
UNI Party supporters have used a dark PAC— Sarasota Arts and Culture Coalition (SACC) based in Tampa—to elect their handpicked candidates and seize control of City Hall.
Shugar/Clermont/Voelker
The PAC has UNI Party Democrats Dan Clermont and two UNI Party Democrat Downtown Sarasota bar owners, Chris Voelker and Ronnie Shugar, as the officers of the SACC PAC. UNI Party Democrats Clermont and Downtown Sarasota bar owner Voelker created ads that fabricated blatantly false profiles of their opponents for the Sarasota City Commission.
Bainter
Nancy Watkins, a Republican political operative based in Tampa, manages the SACC PAC. The PAC also has a major Republican operative from Ocala, Patrick Bainter, to manage the campaigns of their handpicked candidates for the Sarasota City Commission in 2024.
Voelker at her Downtown Sarasota watering hole on States Street where Sarasota Arts and Culture groupies hang out when not at Shugar's champaign bar or the Corona Cigar bar.
The PAC’s contributors are prominently involved with Sarasota City Commission politics, with an emphasis on representing their specific interests with City Commissioners stuffed in their
pockets.
Neal
Contributors include among many other "Arts and Culture" UNI Party social elitists Terri Hansen, Kim Githler, Robert Rominiecki, Ian Black, Pat Neal with $5,000, Shugar with $25,000 and $25,000 from a dark LLC named Friends of Sarasota's Arts & Culture managed by Watkins.
Voelker and Lynch
The SACC PAC is now called People for Arts and Culture Sarasota with Clermont as Chairman and Shugar as Treasurer. Voelker and Chris Lynch have recently created PAC Sarasota, working with Clermont and Shugar to promote the UNI Party agenda, no doubt in the 2026 election cycle.
Watkins
All ot Arts and Culture PAC's are managed out of Tampa by the Republican operative Watkins
Besides the PAC supporting the UNI Party agenda, there are five local organizations that function as part of a political machine, primarily representing the interests of certain individuals rather than the wider community, with activities that are operated “outside of the sunshine.”
The five local organizations forming the Sarasota UNI Party political machine who
supports this Sarasota oligarchy of a select few operating outside of the sunshine:
- The Sarasota Chamber of Commerce – led by Marlon Brown, former Sarasota City Manager and now a highly paid lobbyist for the Chamber.
- The Argus Foundation – led by Executive Director and former Sarasota County Commissioner Christine Robinson, wife of Eric “The Prince of Dark PAC Money” Robinson.
- Icard/Merrill law firm – led by William Merrill III, along with Brown and Robinson, this firm effectively controls the UNI Party City Commission.
- The Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation – led by Teri Hansen.
- The Gulf Coast Community Foundation – led by Phillip Lanham.
A clear example of this JUNI Party oligarchy at work is a recent junket of Sarasota City officials and Chamber of Commerce “guests” to Delray Beach ignorning possible Sunshine Law violations.
TAKE A DEEP LOOK WHO WERE PART OF BROWN'S ENTOURAGE TO DELRAY BEACH SPONSORED BY CHAMBER AND FINANCED BY SUPORTERS OF THE UNI PARTY OLIGARCY
TAKE A DEEP LOOK WHO FINANCED THIS BROWN JUNKET TO DELRAY BEACH. CLICK HERE TO VIEW.
The junket titled “Insights” appears to have been organized to provide members of the downtown master plan ad hoc committee and Sarasota City Commissioners with an opportunity to discuss outside the sunshine in Delray Beach the future work product of the committee. A discussion over 330 miles away from Sarasota, which could potentially involve risks related to Sunshine Law violations.
The Sarasota City official’s entourage traveling on this junket to Delray Beach were warned by the City Attorney that Sunshine Law violations could occur on their Delray Beach junket, yet they
appeared unconcerned about the ethical and legal risks of gathering city officials out of the public eye.
The trip was organized and led by the former Sarasota City Manager and now local Chamber
of Commerce lobbyist, Marlon Brown.
Three of the most unqualified Sarasota City Commissioners ever elected are UNI Party Commissioners Eric Arroyo, Hagen Brody, and Kyle Battie.
Brown is the former City Manager turned Chamber lobbyist, who effectively hung a “For
Sale” sign at City Hall. With the help of three “party-hardy” City Commissioners, dubbed the Three Bros, Brown let it be known to “Pay to Play” developers that City Hall was open for business.
This trip allowed city officials to travel across the state to discuss—out of the sunshine—how to keep “Pay to Play” developers swarming to Sarasota, preserving it as an enclave for
Brown’s wealthy, social "Arts and Culture" elitist patrons.
This two-day, 330-mile Brown junket demonstrates how the Sarasota UNI Party conducts activities outside of public oversight, raising questions about potential Sunshine Law compliance.
Originally slated to attend were City Commissioners Debbie Trice, Kathy Kelley-Ohlrich, and Kyle Battie. Kelley-Ohlrich, realizing that operating outside the Sunshine with other city
officials was risky, Kelley-Ohlrich along with Commissioners Ahearn Koch and
Liz Alpert stayed in Sarasota.
Trice
Trice—too politically naïve to recognize she was part of the UNI Party oligarchy and that Sunshine Laws could be violated—went along. Battie, who followed
instructions from his handler Brown, attended the gathering in Delray Beach at
the city’s expense.
Battie hanging out at Voelker's downtown Sarasota bar
The oligarchy’s leaders had no problem with their flunky Battie enjoying two days of wining and dining at the Opal Grand Oceanfront Resort—on the public’s dime. This came shortly after Battie was exposed for endorsing a City Hall project while accepting payment from the developer.
Members of the City of Sarasota’s UNI Party oligarchy, who may have been involved in possible Sunshine Law violations included on the Brown produced Delray Beach junket:
- Will Luera, who works for Anand Pallengerat DreamLarge
- Melissa Laughlin, president of the Rosemary District Association
- Jamie Still, board member of DSCA
- Bill Wadill, who now chairs the downtown committee while his firm Kimley-Horn is paid $40,000 a month to push for the SPAC
- Chris Voelker, on the board of the city’s downtown taxing district (DID). Voelker was the co-creator of the Clermont's SACC PAC attack ads on their endorsed City Commission opponents.
Jamie Still, board member of DSCA, who initially was going to attend, declined being part of Brown’s entourage, no doubt taking in account the City Attorney’s warnings of possible Sunshine Law violations.
The two-day Delray Beach visit by City officials began with a Thursday breakfast
hosted by the Icard/Merrill law firm for Sarasota City officials and Chamber
guests, highlighting the firm’—along with the Chamber’s—deep role in local “Pay
to Play” developers.
Icard/Merrill extended their hospitality with another breakfast Friday morning at the Opal Grand, where guests stayed in rooms valued at over $1,000 per night. Brown’s entourage
wasn’t exactly slumming it at a Motel 6.
Funding for the junket came from the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation, the Gulf
Coast Community Foundation, the Icard/Merrill law firm, the Sarasota Observer, Gulfside Bank, and the Willis Smith Construction Company.
Funded by major foundations, the local Chamber and businesses—like Willis Smith Construction and the Sarasota Observer—the Brown event in Delray Beach shows how the Sarasota UNI
Party works for local elites while city officials operate without transparency.
Is it realistic to believe that, after being wined and dined by “Pay to Play” development interests, these officials did not discuss upcoming City Commission matters?
Who among the City officials socializing from morning till night, especially after cocktails at the Opal Grand, would turn themselves in for breaking Sunshine Laws?
Barfield
Not Michael “the 68-convicted-felon” Barfield, the local Sunshine Law “expert,” who refused
Brown’s invitation to join Brown's entourtage.
Barfield—a political hit man for the UNI Party and one of its founders, along with Robinson and
others—wanted no part of an event that the City Attorney had warned could
lead to Sunshine Law violations.
Brown no doubt hoped Barfield would later declare that no Sunshine violations occurred—after being wined and dined for two days on the Chamber’s and local foundations’ dime.
Barfield, understanding Sunshine Law compliance, chose not to join the group of officials socializing over three hundred and thirty miles away, where discussions of upcoming Sarasota legislation could easily take place.
Chapman
Barfield learned his Sunshine law violations lessons when he unsuccessfully tried to take down his UNI Party nemesis, then–City Commissioner Susan Chapman.
Barfield failed in his politically motivated lawsuit to prove that Chapman privately discussed
upcoming Commission business with another Commissioner. He lost the case and
still has not paid the legal fees ordered by the judge to do so.
Brown asked the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (SHT) to send a reporter, aware that SHT typically cooperates with the Sarasota UNI Party and would tend to ignore possible Sunshine
Law violations. The SHT's reporter they sent was not there to investigate Sunshine
Law violations, even if he observed Sunshine Law violations occurring.
Robinson and Walsh at a Selby Gardens Gala
Someone who should recognize a Sunshine Law violation is Emily Walsh, the Publisher of the Sarasota Observer, who was part of Brown's entourage to Delray Beach. Walsh was accompanied by her husband, Deputy City Manager Pat Robinson, who is also expected to recognize violations and report them. Robinson being a Brown loyalist, that scenario is unlikely to occur.
DePino
Former SPD captain, Robinson, the Brown loyalist promoted to Deputy City Manager for helping remove former SPD Chief of Police Bernadette DePino, continues his go-along-to-get-along pattern of seeing and hearing no evil of possibly Sunshine Law violations in Delray Beach.
Walsh, who is a former Chamber president and was not only an invited guest but also a financial sponsor of the event, if she saw a Sunshine violation, it would not be reported in the Observer.
The Observer makes $millions in advertising from the “Pay to Play” developers creating
Sarasota as an enclave for the wealthy "Arts and Culture" social elite.
JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY
Rominiecki with the CEO of Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation Teri Hansen.
No clearer example of the Observer under Walsh’s leadership being part of the
support groups of the Sarasota oligarchy is her relationship with Jennifer
Rominiecki, CEO of Selby Gardens.
Rominiecki with her followers at a Selby Gardens 21st century Tara on the Bay gala
Walsh’s Observer have ignored how Rominiecki has turned Selby Gardens from a neighborhood-friendly venue into a gaudy playground eyesore for Sarasota’s wealthy "Arts and Culture" social elite.
Franklin
When neighborhood activist Kelly Franklin paid for a full-page ad in the Observer criticizing Rominiecki’s recent plan to remove numerous trees at Selby Garden site, the
ad was pulled down a day later.
Soon after, the Observer ran a puff piece praising the New York transplant Rominiecki and soon to be the next Chamber president, who is continuing to commercializing of a long time Sarasota jewel on the Bay.
Franklin presentation at City Hall concerning her objections to Rominiecki's continued commercializing of Selby Gardens. FraSelby Phase 2 Site Plan - Aggrieved Party - Sarasota City Commission - September 15, 2025
THE “BULLET PROOF” BROWN HAD NO PROMBLEM PUTTING JUNKET TOGETHER DESPITE SUNSHINE LAW VIOLATION CONCERNS
With UNI Party Walsh as President of the Chamber and UNI Party Rominiecki to be near future President of the Chamber this two-day trip to Delray Beach—the brainchild of Brown, the former City Manager turned Greater Sarasota Chamber lobbyist shows exactly how he can feel bullet proof putting together junkets for Sarasota City officials Outside the Sunshine.
With UNI Party 's Christine Robinson at Argus, Terri Hansen at the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation, Phillip Lanham at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and Attorney William Merrill at the Icard/Merrill law firm covering Brown’s back the following occurred:
A UNI Party junket for Sarasota City officials attended events hosted and financed by the supporters of the Sarasota UNI Party oligarchy and City officials discussed issues among themselves outside the sunshine over 330 miles from Sarasota, which was no problem for the UNI Party flunky, Brown to put together.
Unfortunately for the public, Brown is feeling bulletproof—as the flunky of Sarasota’s ruling oligarchy needed not be to asked the following questions before taking off on his vacation to
Italy.
- Will Icard/Merrill and the other special interests, who funded Brown’s 330-mile trip to Delray Beach cover City Commission costs if a Sunshine Law complaint is filed?
- Will Commissioners Battie and Trice and those on the Master Plan ad hoc Committee, who went on Brown’s publicly funded junket, be allowed to vote on the downtown master plan after two days of wining and dining in Delray Beach—outside the sunshine?
- Will the UNI Party "hit man" and supposed Sunshine Law “expert” Barfield investigate the Sunshine Law violations that may have occurred 330 miles away in Delray Beach, as vigorously he attemped to take down former Sarasota City Commissioner Susan Chapman?
- Will Deputy Sarasota City Manager Robinson continues his go-along-to-get-along pattern of seeing and hearing no evil of possible Sunshine Law violations in Delray Beach?
NEXT
PART II
WHY DELRAY BEACH WAS BROWN'S DESTINATION AND HOW THE SARASOTA UNI PARTY OLIGARCY HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF THE SARASOTA CITY COMMISSION
The Sarasota Phoenix team is the last media guardian in the Sarasota/Manatee area and beyond laying bare for all to see how the Sarasota/Manatee area and beyond is controlled by a UNI Party financed by millionaires and billionaires turning Florida into Paradise Lost...
"As usual, Jon Susce offers great insight found nowhere else in Sarasota and State of Florida Republican politics." Kevin Wright of the Manatee Republican Liberty Caucus.
Jon uncovers local corruption you will read about nowhere else. Vital and important information." Dan Lobeck President of Control Growth Now.
"Jon is easily the very best investigative reporter to ever work this market." Don Schilke a Director for Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections.
"Jon searches for the truth of the mater. He holds everyone accountable for their misleading actions or not. To God be the glory for what he is doing ." Valeria Buchand President of Newtown Nation.