Complaint filed with state Ethics Commission against Oakland vice mayor

A complaint has been filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics against Oakland Commissioner and Vice Mayor Mike Satterfield, alleging that he is “fraudulently” serving on the town commission because he “does not live in the Town of Oakland and has not for many years,” VoxPopuli has learned.

The complaint alleges that Satterfield, 70, who’s been on the board since 1998, mainly comes to Oakland, for town commission meetings and events.

Property records show that Satterfield owns an Oakland residence on Daniels Street, which has a 2025 homestead exemption. The home was purchased in 1995. Satterfield, a Republican turned independent, is also registered to vote at the Daniels Street address and maintains a PO Box at the Oakland Post Office.

Eighty-four miles east in Brevard County, Satterfield also owns two single family homes: one in Satellite Beach, on St. Lucia Court, and one in Indian Harbor, on Freddie Street. Both were purchased in 2000, and these addresses appear most often associated with Satterfield, public records show.

Satterfield also had two businesses in Brevard County: All Green Lawn Care & More LLC, which started in 2007, and Satellite Isles Apartments, which has been managed by both him and his wife since 2011. The lawn care company closed in February, but until it did, both it and the apartment management company were run out of the Freddie Street address until 2022 when they moved it to the home on St. Lucia Court, annual reports filed on Sunbiz show.

Other records show:

• Satterfield’s 2012 marriage license lists his residence as Satellite Beach.

• Satterfield’s 2011 hunting permit is registered with the Freddie Street address.

• A 2009 eviction notice Satterfield filed against a delinquent renter lists the St. Lucia Court address.

• Six traffic citations between 2001 and 2011 list the Freddie Street address. Although two traffic citations received in Orange County in 2004 and 2009 include his Oakland PO Box as his address.

Satterfield did not respond to VoxPopuli's requests for comment sent via text and to his government email address. 

Room for nuance

It’s not unusual for elected officials to have multiple homes, but they can only have one legal primary residence. During the 2024 primary elections, residency questions were raised about Democratic State Rep. Bruce Anton of House District 41, Democratic State Sen. Geraldine Thompson of Senate District 15 and her opponent Randolph Bracy. In Ocoee’s municipal elections last year, a candidate tried to challenge incumbent District 3 Commissioner Richard Firstner by renting an apartment in the district while her primary residence was in Orlando, a VoxPopuli investigation found.  Republican State Committeewoman Debbie Galvin is in court this week, defending against allegations that she lied about her address on her Candidate Oath. 

Oakland’s town charter states that one of the requirements to run for commissioner is to have “resided continuously” in the town for at least one year preceding the qualifying dates for office. That’s to prevent situations such as Ocoee’s in which a candidate who does not live in the city, rents an apartment just to run for office. Ceasing to maintain “permanent residence in the town” in Oakland is grounds for forfeiting one’s commission seat.

While that seems straightforward, words like “continuously” and “permanent” are not defined in the charter, so there is room for nuance, explained Cliff Shepard, a board-certified government law expert and founding partner of the Maitland law firm Shepard, Kohlmeyer, Hand & Brackins.

“Absent a definition of what continuous is, physically present is not synonymous with continuous,” he said in a phone interview. He added that he could easily argue that Satterfield had “continuously” maintained his homestead exemption in the town and that one’s “permanent residence” is where one’s homestead exemption is and where one is registered to vote.

Shepard said that this residency conundrum was not an ethics issue and that he was unaware of any Ethics Code violations that applied to residency.

“Something that’s clearly wrong is not necessarily a violation of the Code of Ethics,” he said.

Lonnie Groot, a Daytona Beach Shores attorney who specializes in government law, said that it is up to the town commission to determine if a commissioner should be removed from office. 

“ The [Oakland] charter ... says the commission shall be the sole judge of the qualifications of its members and shall hear all questions,” he told VoxPopuli in a phone interview. 

As with most commission business, a motion would need to be introduced; it would need to be seconded; and three commissioners would need to support it, Groot explained. 

“It takes three votes of the commission to say that he's forfeited his office on the basis of not maintaining a permanent residence. If it gets three votes, then he has been determined to have forfeited his office," he said, adding that an ousted commissioner could still challenge that decision in the courts.

Shepard  said this was really an issue for voters, adding that change could be made to the town charter and at the ballot box.

The town is currently advertising for volunteers to serve on the Charter Review Committee to update the town charter. Application deadline is 5 p.m., Jan. 10. Find applications here. Submit them to Elise Hui, assistant town manager/town clerk at 230 N. Tubb Street/P.O.Box 98, Oakland, FL 34760 or ehui@oaklandfl.gov.