Fayette County developer and attorney Wayne Kendall has raised concerns about state Sen. Ronnie Chance related to an aspect of a larger issue where Kendall alleges to have received unfair treatment involving a senior residential living proposal he made for a Villages at Lafayette development on Ga. Highway 54 in Fayetteville in mid-2010. A similar project was subsequently approved by the Fayetteville City Council last summer on property adjacent to the acreage Kendall had owned until October 2010.
Kendall in an Oct. 19 email stated his belief that some aspects of Chance’s involvement with the Beverly J. Searles Foundation that will operate the senior development is unethical and possibly illegal. For his part, Chance says Kendall is mistaken in his assertions.
The property owned until October 2010 by Kendall’s company, Heritage Creek Development, received a rezoning approval in August 2008 for 175,000 square feet of retail, office and residential on 13.7 acres of property along the north side of Hwy. 54 immediately east of Lafayette Avenue. The impact of the recession negated the potential for that development to move forward. That proposal did not include the senior apartments.
A similar Searles project to be located on adjacent property was approved by the Fayetteville City Council several months ago.
Kendall said he had presented an application featuring a Searles senior residential living plan to the city in mid-2010 on property he owned but was quickly turned down. A minor number of aspects of that issue pertain to Chance, according to Kendall’s mid-October email.
Kendall provided The Citizen with his Oct. 19 email that outlined issues specifically pertaining to Chance. Among those, Kendall maintains that Chance was the point person on lobbying Fayetteville officials for the Searles senior living project that was approved for adjacent property last summer. Kendall in the email said he knew “for a fact that (Chance had) lobbied the mayor and city manager because I have been present in meetings between them when the matter was discussed.”
Chance in responding to that issue disagreed with Kendall’s statement.
“I frequently attend city council meetings in the five counties I represent and was present at a city council meeting when this issue was discussed,” Chance said. ”However, at no time did I lobby any locally elected official or city staff member publicly or privately on behalf of this or any other project, nor did I speak publicly or privately for or against this or any other project under consideration. The allegations are just not true.”
Kendall also stated that Chance employs or employed the daughter of a member of the Searles family. Kendall said he was told as much, noting that the woman is listed on certain websites as being an employee of Chance Public Relations. A listing on the www.spoke.com website for Chance Public Relations lists Christina Searles and four others as company employees.
Contacted on the issue, Chance said the listing on the website pertained to his 2004 campaign and that all five of the individuals listed on the site were non-paid volunteers.
“(Spoke) is a ‘phishing’ site that combines information derived from various sources. Apparently, they used my campaign website info from 2004 and cross-referenced the phone number which was registered to my company, Chance Public Relations, Inc. and then created a profile of my company. The phone number and address listed are incorrect and are seven years old,” Chance said. “None of those people listed are employees or have ever been employees of Chance Public Relations, Inc.”
Chance added that the Searles are family friends and that Christina Searles, along with her sister and mother, had volunteered on his 2004 campaign.
“Chance Public Relations, Inc. does not employ and has never employed any member of the Searles family. The Searles’ have been family friends since 1996 when Christina, Rebecca and Rene Searles volunteered on a congressional campaign I was managing. In 2004 the family also volunteered on my first campaign for state Senate,” Chance said.
Kendall in the email also referenced Chance’s campaign disclosure reports on the Ga. Secretary of State’s website, noting that a review of the documents shows that Rick and David Searles doing business as CRT Realty and Searles Consulting had made campaign contributions to Chance. Kendall said he believed that the Searles’ involvement with Chance is “certainly unethical and possibly illegal.”
Chance in statements to The Citizen referenced the contribution of $200 by CRT Realty president Rick Searles and a reimbursement of $826.82 to Christina Searles for office supplies and postage, adding that “CRT Realty and Searles Consulting have made campaign contributions to my campaign in the past, as have scores of other friends and constituents.”
Kendall in the email also stated that the senior residential living project is a tax credit-funded deal through the Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA).
“Ronnie Chance is chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee which oversees DCA. I learned that as recently as (mid-October) he has lobbied other state elected officials to write letters to the Director of DCA indicating that they support the project in Fayetteville. DCA will select which projects are funded. Therefore local support is critical in the scoring process to obtain funding,” Kendall said.
Chance in response begged to differ, saying that there is no connection between DCA and the Senate Economic Development Committee.
“The State Senate Economic Development Committee has no oversight or purview over the Georgia State Department of Community Affairs whatsoever,” Chance said.
Kendall also said that, though he was not completely certain, he understood that Chance is being paid by the company who is purchasing the tax credits, Affordable Equity Partners (AES), for the Searles development approved earlier this year on adjacent property at The Villages at Lafayette.
Chance in response disputed Kendall’s assertion involving AES, saying that, “Affordable Equity Partners is not a client of Chance Public Relations, Inc. and has never been a client of Chance Public Relations, Inc., and I stand to gain nothing financially or otherwise should this (or any other) project be approved, completed, etc.”
A message left at the Atlanta office of AES had not been returned by press time.
Kendall in the email said he still believes that the recently approved project itself is a good one for the community, though he “strongly detested the way business is being conducted where the city is playing favorites and picking the winners and losers.”
“My due process and equal protection rights were denied in the process and I intend to seek justice,” Kendall maintained.
The mention of Chance in the email is only the smaller part of another issue, one that Kendall insists was the unfair treatment he received by the city of Fayetteville in attempting to bring the Searles senior residential development to adjacent property he owned in mid-2010.
Kendall is the owner of Heritage Creek Development and the attorney representing the lawsuit brought by the Fayette County Branch of the NAACP related to the call for district voting in races for the Fayette County Commission and the Fayette County Board of Education.
