Our community falls under certain rules of a special district which gives CWCD certain amounts of authority. Unless we maintain the correct Board of Supervisors this authority can and has been horribly abused.

Our area (Viking Estates aka the Prairies) falls within a "Special District" known as the Coquina Water Control District (CWCD). Unlike other elections in order to vote you must reside in the County or State however, in a Special District you only need to be a landowner. Therefore ALL landowners (you) are entitled to vote for Special District issues as well as for members of the Board of Supervisors of that Special District. All voting is in person and not via US Mail. Therefore to be heard you must be present or assign your voice via proxy to someone who attends the landowner meetings as well as the annual vote. I, (James Griffith), have been that person. I attend landowner meetings and vote on behalf of the silent majority.

Landowners of our community living all over the US (including the Prairies) have executed the above proxy (click on the top image) giving me authority to vote and maintain the correct type of people who have the same common goals and interests of the majority of landowners. We've previously changed out an entire rogue board with new highly qualified people along with a new Board Attorney. Through your proxies we've taken that control back from those rogue board members and put a stop to the past aggressions of the prior board against landowners!

(1) to Stop abuse by the Board of Supervisors. We suspected one such board member as having a questionable financial arrangement. The State has subsequently charged this board member with a charge substantially to the effect of self enriching. Through proxy votes we were able to take control of the Board and get State of Florida attention for an alleged crime that the local Sheriff and State attorney refused to prosecute - yes the good 'ol boy system is alive and well in Okeechobee!
(2) to stop abuses by Board and the Sheriff. This is ongoing. Here's the background...

In June of 2017, Coquina's Board of Supervisors voted to hire the Sheriff to enforce traffic laws throughout the Prairies. This was done against the popular Landowner's vote held weeks earlier for them NOT to execute the agreement as it contained too many issues. The Board executed this agreement anyways! This agreement has nothing to do with fighting crime, it's strictly a requirement to allow the Sheriff to enforce traffic laws on our private easements. The issues created include..

(1) Financial Abuse - The agreement obligated the landowners to reimburse the Sheriff for all expenses incurred without any limits. This was estimated to cost into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and landowners would have to pay for this. It would show up as additional taxes and failure to pay could lead to a tax-Deed foreclosure on our properties.
(2) Financial Liabilities - The landowners became financially obligated to "hold harmless" any of the actions of his deputies and provide liability coverage. It's not possible to estimate the totals this could have cost us with the right series of events.
(3) Abuse of Private Property Rights - The Sheriff has used this agreement to violate those who drive Off-Road-Vehicles (OHV's) on the easements or driveways (easements are driveways and not roads). For over 50 years the landowners and residences have enjoyed using OHV's on our private easements to pick up mail (avg round trip 2.5 miles), drop off children to their bus stop (avg 2.5 miles round trip), to take out the garbage - some residences travel as far as 18 miles round trip to the central garbage collection center for the community, to deliver feed to live stock, and to simply get around as the easements are often in very rough condition due to weather, and general use by residents. Some may ask why so far for the services mentioned above? The short answer is because our roads are actually easements and privately owned and maintained by landowners and not the County. The USPS, the County School board and the Waste Management will not authorize travel on private easements. Easements are actually driveways and can only be used by authorized people as defined in the recorded "Declaration of Easements". They are NOT open for general Public use.
(4) Abuse of Authority - Traffic laws do not authorize the Sheriff to stop landowners from using OHV's on private property. His abuse of power is noted by his authorizing the Deputies to attack citizens on their own or a neighbors property including CWCD's property. Landowners have been arrested from private property for using OHV's. These forms of transportation have been towed off private property for no reason other than to harass citizens who own the property and use OHV's. These attacks have extended to the issuance of drivers license points along with fines, probation, even arrests and jail time. For what??? driving an OHV on private property!

THIS NEEDS TO STOP! SO we voted that CWCD sue the Sheriff to stop what prior board members started!

Coquina Water Control District has authorized landowners (and guests) to use their surplus property for recreational use by landowners (and guests). The Sheriff Deputies have been trespassing on Coquina's property (as well as our own) to arrest, ticket and even tow landowner vehicles off Coquina's property. To defend against the Sheriff Deputies unlawful actions the Board rescinded the Interlocal agreement with the County and Sheriff. However, the current Sheriff (Noel Stephen) refuses to honor the rescission and continues to violate Coquina's and our private property rights and continues his abuse of our landowners and residents. As a result of the landowner's Proxies to myself and landowner's instructions to fight for our rights, CWCD had moved forward with this lawsuit against the Sheriff.

Think about it ... We can individually fight the Sheriff for allegedly violating State laws of trespass, unlawful towing, and FS 316, alleged violations of State and Federal Constitution violations of private property without due process or compensation, along with alleged inverse condemnation of our private property, or we can use CWCD to do so for themselves which benefits us all ... all 12,000+. The logical choice is for us to support CWCD in their efforts to stop these private property violations.

As a result, in 2019, with the overwhelming approval of landowners (via Proxy) CWCD filed a lawsuit against both the County and the Sheriff. The County reviewed the issues being sued over and issued a statement that they agree with our statements of facts and as such should not be included in this suit since there is no disagreement with CWCD's position. As a result they are not included at this time. However, the Sheriff has chosen to disagree and fight CWCD's claims...

(1) That the Interlocal Agreement has been rescinded. The County Attorney wrote a letter stating they agree it HAS in fact been terminated and no longer enforceable!!!

(2) That as a result of rescinding the Interlocal Agreement the Sheriff has no authority by law to continue enforcing traffic laws on Coquina's or our private right-of-ways and easements.

(3) Florida Statutes specifically permits CWCD to authorize recreational use of its property (which they do) but the Sheriff Deputies have arrested landowners and towed many vehicles off Coquina's property without Coquina's permission.

I asked the CWCD Engineer this question. He stated that "this board is far more interested in Drainage than other boards." The canals being rebuilt are actually being completed instead of being postponed year after year. These canals are five mile long each and take a lot of effort to accomplish.

Additionally road maintenance (aka easement maintenance) has improved considerably. Rain will always be an issue for pathways created from sand, clay and shell-rock but the effort remains strong, affordable and effective.

The grass swales which are all 1/2 mile long each side of the grass easmeents are being cleaned and re-sloped for drainage. Some of these haven't been touched in over 10 years. All damaged culverts are being replaced and the culverts connecting the swales to the CANALS are being replaced with correct flow control versions

The equipment is being better cared for. Better scheduling of maintenance along with holding empoloyees responsible for their vehicles and equipment and its condition

The board has installed gates at the one-mile dirt easements stating "WARNING Anywhere off the Pavement is PRIVATE EASEMENTS NO TRESSPASSING" signs on each gate and at the Entrance of Peavine and 101 Ranch Rd. .

As a result you've missed NO critical votes to restore our landowner rights - we all thank you! Controlling Coquina Water Control District (CWCD) is crucial to our continued success and forward motion!

I hope you agree - our community is a better place when we have the freedom of respectful ATV/OHV use. This mode of transportation is necessity especially for those who live here.

The Viking Estates Community can be the GEM of Florida once we've established our lawful use of these vehicles on our private easements on a permanent basis.

If you're a landowner then here's how you can help and it won't cost you anything other than a moment! Click on the very top image to trigger the downloading of a "proxy". Fill out what you can (be sure I can read your printed name as is on your Deed). I will fill in whatever is not conveniently available for you. Take a clear picture of it with your phone and text it or email it to me (email is preferable as it's clearer)! A copy is a valid version. It's a good idea to provide your email and telephone number so we can be in touch with each other and I can provide updates! Should I need to fill anything in I assure you I do not commit fraud! My name is on that Proxy - it will always be factual and verifiable! You can rescind it at any time and if you show up in person to vote just let me know so I pull your proxy and we don't both vote. You keep the original, it has my contact details. I will correspond upon receipt.