See Ralph Arza's wholly-owned Polk school board members risk your tax money while their Godfather watches

William Allen, Justin Sharpless, and the dearly-departed Lori Cunningham are Big Mad that Arza's boss and J.D. Alexander actually have to compete for a $100M school construction contract.

Most simple scandals require some mildly complex explaining and collection of exhibits. Such is this case in this story. Images here may cause this article to truncate in email. If so, click through to the web version.

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Charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza — the ubiquitous Forrest Gump of Florida education grifting; the convicted drunk-dialing witness tamperer, expelled from the Florida Legislature; the man once considered too abusive and racist to be seen with Ron DeSantis — is back in Polk County making absolutely hilarious mischief just by sitting in the same room as the Polk school board members he and his loose associates own.

For newer readers, here’s my best effort, from back in 2022, at trying to capture the full gooey essence of Ralph Arza in one place. He’s a cartoon — but real.

FDLE should put "disgusting" convicted witness tamperer Ralph Arza under oath in the Corcoran/DoE/Jefferson scandal

TL;DR: if something shady is going down in Florida education, you’re likely to find Ralph sitting in the front row, center seat while it happens. Indeed, he was sitting front row, center seat at a September Polk School Board work session updating the unusual procurement process for a $100M-plus new Polk County high school. You can watch it here, starting about 2:57:00.

After watching and then reading the backstory, ask yourself how much Ralph’s appearance mimics the Senate hearing scene from The Godfather, part 2.

A menagerie of inheritance babies, school construction grifters, and Frank Biden business partners

Here’s the backstory, as briefly as I can encapsulate:

A construction group called “Building Tomorrow’s Schools” (BTS) recently partnered with the Polk School District to build an eastern Polk County public K-8 school under a somewhat novel model. BTS financed and built the school facility and is renting it back to the district, under terms the district considers pretty favorable. It seems to have worked out fine for that school. More on that in a moment.

But first, note some of the key players in the BTS group’s org chart, whose names I’ve circled below:

Petulant Polk inheritance baby J.D. Alexander, absentee father of the 40-ish percent graduation rate farce that is Florida Polytechnic University, is/was the chairman of a BTS partner entity named “Public School Development Solutions.

Mark Rodberg and Lauren Hollander (brother and sister) were connected in a sketchy charter school business to Frank Biden of the well-known “Biden Crime Family.” (LOL, we’ll come back to them, too.)

Also note that BTS COO Lauren Hollander is on the board of the Florida Charter School Alliance (FCSA), for which Ralph Arza is the “director of government relations.” That makes Lauren Hollander Ralph’s boss, more or less. Ralph personally attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the K-8 school BTS built in Polk County.

Note also the April 2023 roster of officials for Public School Development Solutions (PSDS), especially the name Steve Cassidy, of the Cassidy real estate empire in Polk County.

Curiously, the 2024 version of the PSDS leadership report has pared itself down to just Hollander and Rodberg, the brother and sister. Where did J.D. and Cassidy go? Where does “Building Tomorrow’s Schools” end and “Public School Development Solutions” begin — and vice versa?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lori, William, and Justin are a great, cheap investment for J.D., Hollander, Rodberg, the Cassidys, Ralph, etc.

In any event, thousands of dollars in political money from various incarnations of/participants in BTS and PSDS in the last few years have powered the very small-time, status-thirsty careers of current (and former) Polk School Board Members Lori Cunningham, William Allen, and Justin Sharpless.

For example, in succession, the images below show:

• J.D. Alexander dropping $2,000 in max contributions on Justin Sharpless in 2022 (Atlantic Blue is also J.D.)

• The “Cassidy Organization” holding an event for Sharpless in 2022 that raised about $4,000, mostly from Cassidy-affiliated donors.

• Mark Rodberg dropping a max contribution of $1,000 on School Board Chair William Allen, who was a walking peg board for $1,000 max checks from shady out-of-county real estate/construction interests in 2024.

• Ralph Arza mailer, through a political committee, backing Lori Cunningham in 2020.

These little $1,000 max checks and “independent” mailers and bundled business entity contributions for thirsty local politicians are likely the best pure investment in American business.

They cost less than a pittance for people chasing $100s of millions in taxpayer corporate welfare/largesse. So they provide incredibly high return on capital’s loose change.

They especially pay off through people like Lori, William, and Justin, who care about status — about “being somebody” — infinitely more than they care about the job you unwisely hired them and paid them to do.

Status-obsessed people are easy and cheap to buy.

Ralph Arza has long been a crucial bagman for funneling all this entirely self-interested money into willingly thirsty school board wannabes. He tried to funnel me some money in my successful 2016 campaign; and I was like: “who are you and why do you want to give me money?” before hanging up with a chuckle, having kicked off a beautiful friendship.

But I was a pretty unusual public official.

Fair competition v. unsolicited sole source

Now, for the recap of what led to Ralph attending the Sept 24th work session about the $100M-plus new high school contract:

• Earlier this year, BTS came to the district with an unsolicited proposal to build a needed new high school in the fast-growing Poinciana area of Northeast Polk. A new high school in Florida costs $100M or more. So this is big money BTS wanted the district to spend on it, presumably without a bid process.

• BTS claims to have a school site it can donate; but it’s a little unclear if it actually has control of it. It’s also not exactly clear if BTS plans the build-to-rent model of the K-8 — or to use the more conventional, district-funded construction.

• After receiving the solicitation from J.D. and Hollander’s company, the Polk District, under guidance from outside legal counsel, quite responsibly entered into a formal state process called an “Invitation to Negotiate.” (ITN)

• It is the first time the district has ever used this process, as opposed to soliciting bids or proposals itself through the more traditional “request for proposal” (RFP) or similar competitive bid.

• Crucially, this ITN process is competitive. For those of you who know anything about procurement, think of it as competitive sole sourcing. It invited other companies to compete with BTS’ offer based on a collection of evaluation criteria.

• In using an ITN, the elected School Board and School District imposed a so-called “cone of silence” designed to prevent communication between bidders and the district that might corrupt the procurement process. Here’s a general statement from Florida Virtual School that encapsulates the “cone of silence” concept nicely. “The Cone of Silence is imposed upon all competitive solicitations and is designed to protect the professional integrity of the procurement process by shielding it from undue influences prior to the recommendation of contract award.”

• The elected Polk School Board signed off on this competitive ITN approach.

• It’s my understanding that only one vendor other than BTS met the requirements of the ITN — a company called Fortress Secured, LLC. Fortress Secured LLC includes Rodda Construction, a local Polk construction giant that has built many many schools in Polk County. (We’ll come back to the ubiquity of Rodda in a moment.)

• A Polk district committee scored the two proposals; and the Fortress proposal scored higher. This was the update brought to the School Board on Sept. 24.

• Despite the higher score for Fortress, the district staff decided to move forward with negotiations with both companies to create a “best and final offer” from both — to be finalized and evaluated at some point in the near future. Here’s the current scoring:

As a Polk County citizen and taxpayer, I applaud the district’s insistence on public competition for taxpayer dollars and value, rather than backroom dealing and sole-source, captive negotiation with J.D. Alexander, Lauren Hollander, Rodda Construction, et. al.

Silently smashing the “cone of silence?”

However, on Sept. 24, as Ralph Arza looked on silently on from the front row, later joined by Lauren Hollander of BTS, it became clear that not every School Board member was happy to learn that Fortress Secured LLC is providing the district competitive negotiating leverage with BTS — (and vice versa.)

Let’s start with the officially, literally ethically-challenged now ex-School Board Member Lori Cunningham. She retired recently in the wake of my successful ethics complaint against her for selling school uniforms to a captive market at Lake Wales Charter Schools.

The Sept. 24th meeting was one of Lori’s final meetings in her long grubby career of collecting taxpayer checks to do very little, while generally taking summers off from board meetings to travel abroad. Check out how mad — and ostensibly clueless about her own 20-year job — she gets about BTS having to compete for $100M-plus in taxpayer money. Here’s the key text; but you really have to listen to her tone. She almost snorts with incredulity.

Maybe it’s just me. I have no idea who Fortress Secured LLC is. Never heard of them. Where did they come from? How did they all of a sudden get in the mix. I thought we were working with Building Tomorrow’s Schools to try to move forward with this. What happened? Who is this other company?

Bonus fun quote, after she’s told that Fortress Secured includes Rodda Construction.

It’s kind of blowing my mind that now we have a second party. I’ve never heard of them maybe the rest of the board has, perhaps. I don’t know how they got stuck in the middle of this when I thought we were almost to the end.

For a Polk School Board member — even one as useless as Lori — to say she’s never heard of Rodda Construction is like the U.S. Secretary of Defense saying she’s never heard of Lockheed Martin. It’s utterly preposterous. This is just what I can fit in two screenshots. LOL.

School Board members William Allen and Justin Sharpless stepped up next. They were at least a little more subtle about it.

Sharpless complained that he did not know/approve the specific questions the district asked each vendor. And Allen second-guessed the scoring rubric used, thinking of it “like a professor.” See each guy express his deep, brow-furrowed concern about the process of creating actual competition for their patrons in building this very expensive new high school.

You know, if I didn’t know better, it almost sounds like somebody provided William and Justin anti-BTS-competition talking points. But I’m sure that could never happen. LOL.

It’s not clear to me — or really anyone else — if this very concerned colloquy violates the so-called “cone of silence” required in these sorts of competitive negotiations. Other district officials and acting School Board Attorney John Murphy warned the board against too much process-second-guessing chatter, citing “cone of silence” concerns.

But if I were Jason Rodda, of Rodda Construction and Fortress Secured LLC, I would definitely call my very expensive lawyers to check. Because I’m reasonably certain, Jason, after watching this meeting that BTS has at least two votes in the bag — even if Rodda/Fortress comes back with a BAFO price of $0.

What will Travis Keyes do?

Lori Cunningham clearly would have been a third vote. That almost makes me wonder if some smart staff member found a way to delay the process until Lori was gone. If so, I salute you. I should, perhaps, also note again here that Lori only retired because of me — and my successful ethics complaint against her.

The idea that I might help cost J.D. Alexander and Lauren Hollander and Ralph Arza a $100M-plus contract with a successful ethics complaint against Lori Cunningham makes me feel warm all over.

Full disclosure: the entire Polk County “leadership class,” in the midst of a tantrum, organized itself expensively around William Allen’s pursuit of personal status in 2020 as vehicle to rid itself of me. Here’s Ralph Arza’s rather lame contribution to that (bonus “Public Enemy #1” mailer from Orange County because the two simultaneous PE1s is just so funny):

And yet, I’m still, all these years later, much more influential than Lori or William or Justin will ever be. That’s the difference between caring about status and caring about morality and the public good for its own sake.

With that in mind, here’s J.D. dropping cash on Lori’s successor, Travis Keyes. We’ll see how thirsty he is:

Why might Ralph Arza’s silent presence matter so deeply to his wholly-owned board members?

If you want really detailed background on how deeply Ralph Arza — and Arza-ism — has had his hooks in Lori Cunningham and William Allen (and in Kay Fields in earlier days, although that seems to have changed), you can read these articles, three of which I wrote:

• Charter school turned down, lobbyist puts pressure on Polk school board

• “FDLE should put "disgusting" convicted witness tamperer Ralph Arza under oath in the Corcoran/DoE/Jefferson scandal”

• “Degenerate high school, pt 1: meet the geniuses behind the grifting of Jefferson County and the birth of Public Enemy Number 1”

• “115 East Park Ave., Suite 1, Tallahassee: the eye of Florida's gross grift hurricane”

As a bonus, here’s William Allen’s vicarious connection to “the Biden crime family” — LOL — through max contributor Mark Rodberg. First excerpt from ABC:

In 2009, the year Joe Biden took office as vice president, a local business executive [Rodberg] met the politician’s younger brother, Frank, at a Starbucks in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and later asked him to become the president and front man for a fledgling charter school venture.

Frank Biden, a longtime real estate developer in the state, accepted the offer, and over the years, he touted his famous last name and prominent connections in Washington to help land the company a series of charter contracts from local officials in Florida to open charter schools, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars over a five-year period from the company in the process.

In media interviews at the time, Frank Biden was unabashed – calling his last name “a tremendous asset” because of the family’s record of “taking care of people who need help,” and telling people it brought him “automatic acceptance” as he sought government approvals for the for-profit Mavericks in Education.

And this is from the Miami New Times. Also, if you’re a taxpayer; note the part in bold. I’d wager a hefty sum that this entire high school fiasco will end up in court, costing you bank either way.

Rodberg's sister, Lauren Hollander, later joined the company as manager of Mavericks. She's a real estate broker in Palm Beach Gardens and became a 20 percent owner of Mavericks in 2008 after lending Mavericks a cash infusion of $1.2 million. She says she didn't hear about the problems with White Hat. "I don't know any of that history, honestly," she says. Hollander says her brother got to know Thimmig while building several White Hat schools. …

… Meanwhile, back home in South Florida, Biden got involved with Mavericks after a simple chance encounter. He says he happened to meet Mark Rodberg in a coffee shop, and the developer told him about Mavericks.

At first blush, Rodberg's litigation record might give a potential business partner pause. He has had 49 civil cases filed against him in Palm Beach County Court in the past two decades. Most of the cases have been resolved, but one pending case, filed in June, alleges he stopped payment on a $4,000 rent check. (Rodberg could not be reached for comment. His only listed phone number is disconnected. When New Times asked Biden about speaking to Rodberg, he said questions should be directed to Hollander instead.)

L.O.L.

As I noted, William Allen’s 2024 campaign contributions are basically a roll call of $1,000 checks from distant interests in school construction. I don’t have the time or energy to track down all or even most of them. But that dude will take money from anybody.

And Justin Sharpless? Well, Justin is so thirsty for status that he literally left a School Board meeting earlier this year — the only real work you pay him to do — so he could be seen with Jennifer Canady at a fundraiser.

Canady-stalking aside, no one has contributed more to Justin’s unrelenting pursuit of status than the Cassidy Organization octopus, of which Steve Cassidy is a tentacle. Near as I can tell, various other Cassidy octopus tentacles dropped 15-ish $250 and one $500 contribution on the same day in 2022. It comes to $4,000. Example below:

I suspect those same day $250 checks came from this event, hosted, in person, by “the Cassidy Organization.”

I am quite proud that the all-powerful Cassidy Organization only went 1-4 on those grifting clown candidates. I had something to do with that, too.

You’re welcome, MAGAs and lib-haters.

Ya’ll may wake up each morning obsessing about other people’s genitals and banning books; but J.D. Alexander and Ralph Arza and the Cassidy Organization, and Rodberg/Hollander/Frank Biden et. al. wake up each morning thinking about your money — and how to get it. (Maybe they think about genitals, too. But I know they covet your money.)

So who else in Polk County is really looking out for you and your money — and the public good — but me? Be honest with yourselves. And also be honest about the fact that this shitshow is what ya’ll have put in power over you.

Is the voucher grift squeezing the charter grift into new frontiers of corruption?

You may ask yourself: why does Ralph “Mr. Charter” Arza have an advocacy role in public school construction?

I would answer: titles aside, Ralph has never been a “charter” lobbyist. He is an education grift lobbyist. He roams school district plains like a Mongol in search of taxpayer grift game to plunder. “Charter” is just the name of the horse he rides.

Indeed, you might ask yourself: all these people are “MAGAs” who hate public education and want to privatize/destroy it. Why are they spending time and energy to build a public school facility when they could not care less about filling it with quality educational experiences and caring, qualified adults to serve kids?

Obviously, the answer is: it’s the $100M payday for building a public high school, stupid. But it may go a little deeper than that, too.

My sense is the state’s pivot to cheap, education-quality-killing private vouchers as its anti-public school weapon of choice is actually damaging charter schools (as an industry) and private school quality even more than it’s hurting regular public schools. The BTS flirtation with Polk schools, powered by lots of public school-hating charter/real estate icons, may be evidence of that sense.

It’s important to understand the BTS K-8 partnership deal with the Polk District closely mimics a longstanding charter real estate grift: a developer and charter school operator go into business together, with the operator paying taxpayer money as rent to the developer (who are often essentially the same entity).

I think this works better as a cash cow for charter grifters because charter schools don’t have the same state construction rules and requirements that drive up the cost of new traditional public schools. Traditional schools generally have to double as hurricane shelters. So they are tougher, more expensive builds, prone to cost overruns.

Moreover, construction is a very powerful industry, which has zero political or economic incentive to lower the cost of the public schools its qualified vendors build with taxpayer money.

As a fundamentally GOP lobby, construction interests generally hate paying to operate public schools; but they damn sure want to be paid $100M to build public schools Florida cannot staff with qualified teachers.

As vouchers divert public money from charter grifting to homeschool and/or private grifting, I think the old school charter grifters likely see public school grifting as their new frontier. Polk County is likely a test run.

The scuttlebutt I hear is that BTS lost money — or at least didn’t make enough money — on the K-8 project, which did open successfully. (J.D. or anybody else is welcome to correct or confirm that for me.)

My question: do they consider the K-8 a loss leader to get deeper hooks into the district — and Polk taxpayers — through a massive, needed high school?

You’ve seen what it looks like when Ralph Arza and crew get their hooks into people. Do you want his hooks — and all those other hooks we’ve discussed — in you?

Offers they’re eager not to refuse

Florida has no actionable law to speak of in public ethics and money. I don’t think any of this is illegal in the sense that somebody could be prosecuted for it.

But it is obviously very corrupt — in the way that I use the word corrupt or grift— which roughly equates to “legal,” but indulgently anti-public-good bullshit. Key points to note about the silly speeches from Lori, William, and Justin:

• Not one of the board members involved here discloses their political debt in this matter. Not one (except maybe Lori, in her comical disbelief, at first) discusses their actual personal political or status interest in the outcome of this procurement process.

• They lie to the public about their actual concerns. If this was flipped — and BTS had the higher score — does anybody think Lori, Justin, and William would have any concerns about “the process?” Of course not. Everything coming out of their mouth is bullshit. And everyone in the room knows it, especially Ralph Arza.

• The merits of nothing matters here — only who gets paid and who gets status.

These elected roles are supposed to be a public trust, not personal vehicles of status. But because the public, under the influence of the money that fuels Ralph Arza, keeps choosing people motivated by petty status to represent it, the public keeps eating bullshit on behalf of tiny, very high return investments from people like J.D. Alexander and Ralph Arza.

This is the essence of MAGA: make cheap, fake offers of membership — on behalf of a club/mafia that will never have them — to grasping, social-climbing mediocrities who can’t even imagine refusing on behalf of the public they supposedly serve.