Krull spars with Sykes
Mascotte mayor claims opponent violated election laws
Mascotte Mayor Barbara Krull was the only one of three City Council candidates up for election this year to draw a challenger. But she thinks she, too, should be unopposed in the Nov. 5 election over alleged election law violations by her opponent.
“I want to see him disqualified for this election, he is not following the election laws,” Krull wrote in an Oct. 4 complaint to the Florida Elections Commission about her challenger, Mike Sykes. “The law is the law, and cannot be circumvented by any would-be candidate.”
But Sykes, 34, said Krull’s interpretation of election laws — by, among other things, failing to include disclaimers on Facebook posts saying they were paid for by the candidate — is flawed and that he’s confident he has violated no laws.
One thing’s clear: the elections commission won’t be removing Sykes’ name from the ballot in the growing south Lake County city of 6,200.
“We don’t have that authority,” agency clerk Donna Malphurs said.
She said the elections commission is limited to imposing penalties of up to $1,000 per count. If the complaint is found to be legally sufficient, it could take six to nine months to render a decision, she said.
None of Krull’s complaint is public record now, she said, but Sykes posted it on his campaign’s Facebook site.
“I pride myself on not playing dirty and not trying to cheat to win,” Sykes, a disaster preparedness planner for Sumter County who’s lived in Mascotte for two years, wrote on Facebook. “I follow the rules and I expect others to do the same.”
He called Krull’s allegations “unfounded and untrue based on misinformation and/or a lack of understanding regarding campaign regulations.”
Krull, a 60-year-old retired Lowe’s customer-service associate, read a text message Sykes sent her that said he “posted it on social media to show you did not comply with our verbal agreement to have a clean election.”
She countered to the Sentinel, “He said to me that he’s going to run a clean campaign, but he’s got to still follow the laws.”
Another of her charges is that he began stating publicly that he was running for mayor before he qualified for the ballot in August. Sykes said he filed paperwork to open a treasurer’s account in January, which allowed him to raise money for a campaign prior to qualifying.
Sykes got a taste of politics last year in his unsuccessful bid against veteran Lake County School Board member Bill Mathias. As for this campaign, Sykes said one thing he emphasizes is the city’s management of finances.
He doesn’t credit Mascotte officials for approving a true tax cut for fiscal year 2019-20. That was accomplished by setting the property tax rate below the “rollback” rate, the rate that would generate the same amount in tax revenue as the previous year, except for revenue generated by new construction.
Only one other of Lake County’s 14 cities — Minneola — did likewise.
“My tax bill went up even though the millage [tax rate] went backward,” said Sykes noting that increases in property value for many seems to have offset any savings from the reduction in the tax rate.
Mascotte’s tax rate has been dramatically reduced over the past five years, from $9.30 for each 1,000 of taxable value in 2014 to $7.55 in 2019. Sykes paid 1.45 percent more in Mascotte taxes this year over last year because the value of his home increased by 2.5 percent. Mascotte officials don’t control the assessed value of property — that’s the county property appraiser’s job.
Sykes said if elected he would also work to make government more transparent and accessible to residents.
He said getting information is tough and but “understanding and interpreting information is harder,” noting that the budget doesn’t, for example, list the fire chief’s salary. He said what the city releases “meets the litmus test,” but it’s not enough.
“I think the people should be given the information in a more discernible manner,” he said.
Krull served on the council from 2002 to 2010, including a stint as acting mayor, before her election as mayor in 2015. She was reelected without opposition in 2017.
Mascotte has experienced a financial turnaround after years being deep in debt and struggling to provide services to residents, she said, adding that in addition to reducing taxes the council also hasn’t raised city fees.
“Right now the city’s in very good shape,” Krull said. “He [Sykes] would be paying more if we didn’t drop the millage rate. Hopefully we’ll be able to do another rollback next year.”
She said the city budget isn’t the place to list a breakout of, for example, individual salaries in the Fire Department.
“He has no clue what’s going on in this city,” she said. “He’s totally lost.”