A new urgency galvanizes tax deed auction

The county told one of the bidders, a condo association near the tax-delinquent land, about the auction.

By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 23, 2002

Related video

56k | High-Speed

CLEARWATER -- Dozens of people gathered Wednesday in the lobby of the Pinellas County Courthouse to bid on land being sold because of delinquent taxes.

First up, 1.6 acres of submerged land and a sliver of uplands in Tarpon Springs. It is all that lies between a 15-unit condominium complex and the Gulf of Mexico.

"This is a Connolly special," someone cracked, sending chuckles through the larger than normal crowd.

It was a reference to real estate speculator Don Connolly. In recent months, the 44-year-old Valrico man has bought up dozens of properties at these sales, including a small lake that is surrounded by homes in East Lake, as well as the submerged land behind 61 waterfront lots in South Pasadena. Connolly has tried to sell the properties to neighboring homeowners at huge profits.

When East Lake homeowners balked, he blocked their view of the lake with a 6-foot-high fence. He painted it pink behind the home of its most outspoken critic. In response to the uproar, county officials Monday vowed to notify neighboring property owners of impending tax deed sales.

Connolly, a regular at other tax deed sales, did not attend Wednesday, but his controversial purchases influenced both that auction and a larger discussion taking place across town.

Among the crowd at the courthouse was George Kouskoutis, president of the Hanover Landings condominium association in Tarpon Springs.

Unlike other property owners who have complained they were caught by surprise, Kouskoutis got word from the county Tuesday night about the impending sale of the submerged land next door. He called another board member and they decided to spend the association's reserves on the property. He came to the auction prepared to pay $15,000, maybe a little more.

Kouskoutis quickly found he had two rival bidders.

One was Joy Wellman of Clearwater, who quickly bowed out when she found she was bidding against the condo association.

"I wouldn't want to do that to them," she said later.

The other bidder was Yvonne Ulfers, who said she wanted to buy the property to put in a private dock for kayak and small boat rentals. She also said she didn't know she was bidding against the condo association.

The bidding inched higher until Kouskoutis ended up the winner, with a bid of $9,500.

"Whew," he said. "Just saved our condo building."

Across town at the Grill at Feather Sound, legislators and county officials from Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas held a workshop to address situations just like that.

Pinellas Property Appraiser Jim Smith unveiled a map showing the location of 4,700 parcels of submerged land in the county. Another map showed 6,900 properties with delinquent taxes. There are 200 parcels of submerged land where taxes are delinquent, Smith said, but which are not yet up for sale.

"What happened in South Pasadena could easily happen somewhere else," Smith said.

State Sen. Jim Sebesta, who arranged Wednesday's workshop along with state Rep. Gus Bilirakis, called those numbers sobering.

"I certainly am glad we're having this meeting," said Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg.

The group talked about passing laws to require notification of neighboring property owners about tax deed sales.

Sebesta and Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, said another promising legislative proposal would allow county property appraisers to reduce to zero the taxable value of common areas such as retention ponds, recreation areas and small slivers of land left over by the developer. That would prevent such properties from falling into the hands of land speculators such as Connolly, Sebesta said.

Of course, Sebesta allowed, the Legislature isn't scheduled to meet again until March. But if Gov. Jeb Bush calls for a special session, Sebesta said, he will seek to have these proposed legislative changes added to the agenda.

"Obviously a lot of folks are very interested in this," he said. "Two and a half weeks ago, we never heard of this. Now, it's one of the biggest things on the lips of everyone in the Tampa Bay area, and soon around the whole state."

But Sebesta warned against legislation that would infringe on property rights. He noted that Connolly's land purchases were legal.

"This is nothing new," Sebesta said. "People have been buying properties for back taxes for probably a hundred years. What's different is that he (Connolly) bought property for 10 cents on the dollar and wants to sell them for 1,000 cents on the dollar."

Pinellas Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd said county officials are exploring a number of ways to help residents who own property next to Connolly's. One possibility includes seizing the properties through eminent domain. Code enforcement officials also will be checking regularly, she said, to make sure not one board is out of place on his fence.

"We want to make his life totally miserable," Todd said.

-- Robert Farley can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or farley@sptimes.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright