VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4
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JANUARY 27 - FEBRUARY 2, 2023
Turkey trouble for the Sheriff By Rosemarie Dowell Rosemarie@Ocalagazette.com
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arion County’s top law enforcement officer broke a state law during the early days of Florida’s spring gobbler season in 2021. Sheriff Billy Woods and his wife were caught hunting turkey over bait while in a ground blind in rural Madison County on Good Friday, April 2, 2021, according to a report filed that day by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officer Randy McDonald. “As I approached the ground blind, I began hearing a turkey call that was coming from the ground blind,” wrote McDonald in the Incident Summary Report, recently obtained by the Gazette. “This confirmed to me that the occupant of the ground blind was turkey hunting. “At this time, I identified myself and asked the hunters to exit the ground blind,” McDonald continued. “Once out of the ground blind I advised the hunter, later identified from a Florida hunting license as William Woods that I was hear (sic) because I believed they were hunting turkey within 100 yards of bait.” Pictures included with the report show three
turkey decoys directly in front of the blind and cracked corn scattered on the ground nearby. There were no other hunters present. Woods was cited for violation of a state law, “restricting methods of taking wildlife,” a second-degree misdemeanor, according to the report. He also received a ticket for violating Florida Administrative Code 68A-12.002, which states, “wild turkey may not be taken if the hunter is less than 100 yards from a game feeding station when feed is present.” Second-degree misdemeanors are punishable by up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine, if convicted. Woods was issued a mail-in
By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
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See Sheriff, page A2
Corn bait was scattered on the ground in front of the hunting blind. [Florida Wildlife Commission]
Lawmakers eye oversight of local utilities By Jim Saunders Florida News Service
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lorida House members Tuesday raised the possibility of giving state regulators more oversight of municipal utilities. Members of the House Energy, Communications & Cybersecurity Subcommittee repeatedly touched on the issue as they received presentations about the Florida Public Service Commission and the state Office of Public Counsel. The Public Service Commission regulates for-profit utilities such as Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida but has little oversight of municipal utilities. The Office of Public Counsel represents consumers in regulatory cases at the Public Service Commission but lacks authority in municipal-electric issues. Lawmakers did not detail specific proposals for state oversight. But Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, expressed concerns about situations in which residents are customers of municipal utilities but live outside of city boundaries. He said they can be forced to pay surcharges but can’t vote for municipal officials — a situation he likened to “taxation without representation.” “Wouldn’t it be reasonable that if a municipal provider of … electricity stays within their boundaries, that would work,” Clemons said. “Once they venture out past their city limit or their boundary, there needs to be some way for citizens to be able to appeal something. Is there a mechanism whereby those citizens outside of the municipal boundary can come under the
Ryan Chamberlin’s checkered business background
years, including a major dispute about PSC or have some committee of the PSC a Vero Beach municipal utility serving that handles that jurisdiction?” residents in unincorporated parts of “I guess the simple answer, and Indian River County. Ultimately, Florida it’s not a simple answer, is no,” Public Power & Light bought the Vero Beach Service Commission Executive Director utility in 2018. Braulio Baez responded. “The reason I Interim Public Counsel Charles say no is because our governing statutes Rehwinkel said Tuesday his office in the don’t give the agency (the Public Service past has been asked to help in “vetting” Commission) that authority. Whether it’s reasonable or not, I think that is left to you ideas related to customers of municipal utilities. But the role was limited. all’s wisdom.” “We don’t have the authority under the Rep. Mike Caruso, R-Delray Beach, pointed to the possibility of the Legislature statute to represent those people that are in no man’s land, that’s been described,” addressing rate-related issues as he questioned Baez. Rehwinkel said. “We just don’t, because “It sounds like we might need some they’re not investor-owned (for-profit) legislation in this area to give you the utility customers.” authority to have jurisdiction over Florida has 33 municipal utilities, their rate structures, to make sure including Ocala, Tallahassee, that all Floridians are getting power Jacksonville, Orlando and Gainesville, based on reasonable rates and that they according to the website of the Florida (municipalities) are not supplementing Municipal Electric Association. some other venture that they’re putting on that is speculative, or whatever, in the municipality, with the utility rates,” Caruso said. “Because we need utility rates to be as low as possible for everybody in the state of Florida, like housing needs or water, it’s essential.” Debates about municipal utilities serving customers in unincorporated areas Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, is raising the possibility of more oversight of municipal electric utilities. [Colin Hackley] have flared over the
arion County Republican voters will head to the polls on March 7 for a special election to fill the recently vacated Florida State House District 24 seat. There are five GOP candidates in the race and because a sixth registered Republican is running as a write-in candidate and there are no Democrats in the race, the election is closed to nonRepublican voters. The five GOP candidates are Charles Stone, Stephen Pyles, Jose Juarez, Justin Albright and Ryan Chamberlain. Robert “Foxy” Fox is the write-in candidate. The winner of the March 7 primary will face the write-in candidate in a general election on May 16, which will be open to all voters. However, it is speculated that the write-in candidate will withdraw so as to cancel out the general election. Of the six hopefuls, Chamberlin stands out because of questions raised by his financial disclosures, campaign claims and business background, which includes numerous companies on paper that closed within a year and extensive experience in multilevel marketing businesses. This is Chamberlin’s second political campaign. He ran for Congress in 2020 and lost in the Republican primary to Kat Cammack, who went on to win the House District 3 seat. In that race, Chamberlin raised approximately $130,000 and garnered the endorsements of prominent Republicans State Sen. Dennis Baxley, Marion County Tax Collector George Albright, and former Marion County Commissioner Mike Amsden. The District 24 House seat became open when Ocala Republican Joe Harding resigned on Dec. 8 after being indicted by a federal grand jury on several counts of fraud based on illegally obtaining pandemicrelated loans. Chamberlin told the Gazette he jumped into the race immediately because he had been waiting for an opening. Chamberlin, 48, calls himself a “red-meat conservative” in the mold of Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He also promotes himself as a savvy networker, successful businessman, author, speaker, and “consultant helping thousands of entrepreneurs.” In the first campaign flyer mailed to voters, Chamberlin said that as “CEO of True Patriot Network, Ryan fought back against Woke Big Tech Corporations to deliver a social media option for conservatives.” The flyer also claims that in 2022, Chamberlin “and his organization helped raise money to support See Chamberlin’s, page A3
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