William C. Coleman III: Call him 'Wild Bill'

By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG and CONNIE HUMBURG, Times Staff Writers
Published November 25, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Special Report Soldiers of Fortune Sheila Anderson doesn't like being 'wicked witch' Stanley Beck: South Florida's king of hired guns St. Pete's David Zachem says colleagues do a poor job [Scott Keeler | Times] William C. Coleman, visits a Florida Senate committee meeting at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee during a special session on taxes.

The man called "Wild Bill" by fellow tax reps once showed up at a property assessment appeals hearing with a banana. With a flourish, he presented it to a county official who had called him "nothing but a fruit salesman."

William C. Coleman III got his nickname in part because he is a ferocious champion for his clients. In fact, he may have helped more companies cut their taxes than any person in Florida.

A plump, affable man with a handlebar moustache and shaved head, Coleman has run the Florida office of Marvin F. Poer & Co., a national property tax advisory firm, since he left the Orange County Property Appraiser's Office in 1983.

Last year, his team of Florida agents obtained at least $168-million in reductions in eight counties, about a $3.2-million tax savings for companies like Citicorp, Outback Steakhouse and the family business of former Sen. Bob Graham. In Coleman's home county of Orange, the firm trimmed at least 26 tax bills by more than $1-million.

According to a Times review, the firm's overall success rate in eight counties was 16 percent last year.

Coleman, 57, won't discuss his fees but says they're substantial. He and other tax reps would earn much more, he said, if Florida didn't make it so "close to impossible" to reduce an assessment.

In some small counties, there is "no interest" in listening to evidence, Coleman said at a hearing last year. "All they're worried about is you're going to take the police car away from old Jim Bob."

The man who would help build the tax rep industry in Florida is a real estate broker with a political pedigree; his father was a former Florida legislator and state transportation chief.

These days, the younger Coleman advises and lobbies politicians on property tax issues. His Dallas-based employer cultivates political ties as well, donating to George W. Bush's 2000 campaign and representing the Republican National Committee in Washington.

[Last modified November 26, 2007, 12:03:25]