Code Enforcement Special Magistrate Hearing July 13, 2026 9:00 AM - Jul 13, 2026

welcome to Pinellas County code enforcement special magistrate hearings the special magistrate is charged with conducting hearings to determine whether an alleged violation of the county code has occurred in order to meet that obligation all parties of the representatives will be allowed an opportunity to be heard on matters relevant to the alleged violation of violations all witnesses offering testimony presenting evidence will be required to swear affirm that the testimony they provides the truth the order of presentation will begin with the county presenting their evidence of the alleged violation and then the respondent shall present his or case both parties shall have an opportunity to cross-examine all witnesses the special magistrate may question any witness the clerk will announce the names of the cases from the agenda when you hear your case called please respond by coming to the podium with your representative and or any witnesses to be sworn in when addressing the special magistrate please speak clearly into the microphone any person who decides to appeal the decision of the code enforcement special magistrate with respect to any matter consider this hearing will need a record of the proceedings and for such purposes may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceeding is made which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is based such record is not provided by Pinellas

county you can call the first case and I will be the deputy clerk for today's hearing the first item we have is item 2 department PC CLB matter unlicensed contracting code violation case number I'm sorry was item 4 item 4 department PC CLB matter under unlicensed contracting code violation advertising code violation case number CLB dash MG 26 dash 00184 CLB dash MG 26 dash 00185 citation number CLB dash CT 26 dash 00317 CLB dash CT 26 dash 00318 defendant Christopher Wicks notice address Christopher Wicks 1827 industrial boulevard Tarpon Springs Florida three four six eight nine Chris at global sign company dot com and PC CLB investigator and Nichols plaintiff's witness Pinellas county code enforcement six three one chestnut street Clearwater Florida three three seven five six and Nichols at Pinellas dot gov and Kirby Kreider Esquire assistant county attorney for PC CLB in care of Natasha Creedon legal secretary Pinellas county attorney's office three 15 court street sixth floor Clearwater Florida three three seven five six K Kreider at Pinellas dot gov and a Creedon at Pinellas dot gov violation address corner of u.s. 19 north and county road nine five and global sign company dot com please come up mr.

wicks yeah please come up warning council if you could identify yourself for the record yes

sir Kirby Kreider assistant county attorney and and with me as investigator Nichols

I'm going to be your witness yes sir okay and state your name for the record sir good morning Christopher wicks and your connection to global sign company I'm the president of the company uh will you have any witnesses no sir okay mr. wicks the Nichols if you could raise your right hand do you swear firm that any testimony you'll give today be the truth and nothing but the truth yes sir I do mr. wicks I presume the county is going to put some evidence in some documents okay you could stand there off to the side if you want to she does and I'll give you an opportunity to object to any one of them or you could have a seat no boy yeah whatever you do you could

proceed counsel good morning mr. Nichols can you please say your full name for the record

good morning investigator Norman Nichols with the Pinellas County construction licensing board and what is your title I am a licensing investigator for PC CLB and did you

receive any training in conjunction with this role yes I received administrative and field training and were you the investigator that handled the citations that were just listed I am I'm going to show you the first citation number CLB CT 26 00318 can you take a look at that for me okay can you recognize the document I do that's not a fair and accurate copy of the citation that you issued in this case it is at this time I'd move I'd ask to move this in as it is it won the citation I'm going to accept it at the evidence it's a it's a part of the actual filing as opposed to a document so I'll accept it

we're going to call these number one c1 yes sir go ahead c1 do composite c1 with the other citation that was issued do you recognize the citation as well I do and did you issue the citation in this case I did and this is the one for this is I apologize this is

it's ct covct 26 00317 this was a violation listed under 22 14 1 failed to have the contractor's licensing number on a sign advertising sign or this the web page first one's the sign right the first one is the web page 318 is the web page you're on the web page yes you said sign that's why I'm asking yes the second citation is the web page first citation you put in was 17 that was the sign

this is the sign I tried to put in 18 first but that's fine you didn't back the other way that's all right it's it's c2 yes it's c1 really okay that's this is c2

and may I approach this come balls to get this here zoom you've seen these mr. wicks right to the citations you got I'm going to show you some photos that you took in the course of your investigation I'm first going to show them to mr. wicks

yes I do and can you describe for the record how you found this sign yes so during the duties and my travels throughout the day I came upon a sign that was on the right of way in the county and I stopped to investigate to see whether or not if this was a company advertising so obviously what I did I scanned the barcode and when I scanned the barcode and when I scanned the it it came up for the global signs awning in this case it's advertising for a position to be hired on to the company at this time when I did that I did notice that he is advertising the name of his company and with that the contractor's license number was not listed I use our database in the vehicle to identify the contractor's license number so I was able to determine that this company is a licensed contractor's license number failed to put their contract on the sign on the sign of the contractor's license on the sign that was in the

right-of-way. And this photo that I'm showing you on the time stamp, it has an address listed. Can you read that address into the record, please? Yes. So

the camera we use basically time stamped the address of the location. In this case, it did stamp 2644 to 2668 County Road 95. So basically it's just giving you a broad address of the area where it was. And in this case, it was in front of King's Pharmacy. So it lists different addresses. To narrow it down, it's basically U.S. 19 North and County Road 95 where the sign was

placed on the right-of-way. At this time, I'd ask to move this as

County 3 into evidence. Mr. Wicks, do you have any objection?

So that means objection to it? Just putting it into evidence. No objection.

C3 is admitted. And you can cross-examine and argue

and I don't know where it's going. We'll call that C3.

I'm going to show Mr. Wicks my next intended exhibit. It's the property appraiser information. Mr. Nichols, do you take a moment? This is a couple pages. Can you flip through this and tell me if you recognize it? Yes, I recognize it. And this site address of 31201 U.S. Highway 19 North, does that accurately reflect where you saw the sign? Correct. And is that in Pinellas County, Florida? Yes, it is. At this time, I had asked to move this as County 4 into evidence.

C4, Mr. Wicks, any objection? No, sir. C4 is admitted into evidence.

What was your next step in this investigation?

So the next step, what we normally do is we take photograph, evidence the area where the violation occurred. Once that takes place, I would do an initial investigation. I would return back to my office and I would do a brief investigation into the company. And a lot of times what we do is we check our databases, several databases actually, to verify that the company advertises in the right of way if they are a licensed contractor. At that time, I was able to check DBPR and our database to find that the actual business holds a certification for contractor.

And I'm going to show it to Mr. Wicks, so to keep up, do you recognize this document, Mr. Nichols?

I do.

And like you just told us, this is how you were able to determine that there is a certified specialty associated?

Correct.

At this time, I'd ask you to move this in as County 5.

Do you have any objection, Mr. Wicks? No, sir. C5 is admitted to evidence.

What was your next step after you checked the licensing? Did you prepare any type of affidavit?

Yes. So once we do that, I would definitely prepare an affidavit of licensure. A couple of things we can do is to verify through not just through our database, but there's times we would call DBPR to confirm that the license is active and the name it's under. So at that time, I was able to use the affidavit we have in our system to verify that it is an active license that is currently active.

And you prepared an affidavit in this case. Is that true? I did. I'm going to show this to Mr. Wicks.

I'm going to have that here. Okay. Do you have any objection to C6, Mr. Wicks? No, sir. C6 is admitted to evidence.

Thank you. You issued two citations in this case. We talked a little bit about the sign that was in the right-of-way. I want to turn to the citation that focuses on online advertising.

Sure.

Can you just walk us through, and then we'll go through some photos that have been provided, how your investigation goes in regards to online advertising?

Okay. So we further our investigation by not just looking at the advertising. We also checked to see if the company contracted a business is advertising, whether it's through the signage banner or online. I was able to go onto their website, and I was able to just briefly review the website to see the type of services they offer. And it does reflect installation, electrical signs, and I was able to determine that they are advertising in Pinellas County because it does reference certain cities in the county. And with that, their contractor's license number was not displayed on the website. So due to that, I was able to determine that they were advertising via social media platform through their website without their certification number listed on the website.

I have two sets of photos that I want to show you. The first set I'm going to show to Mr. Wexford, and Nichols, I'm just going to go through this page by page with you. This first page, do you recognize it? I do. And what is this?

It's basically once you put their web page in on social, on Google website, it brings up their business.

Okay, and you know it's their business because up here it says global, is that correct? Correct. So this is a pull from one of the pages. Next, I'm going to show you the second page, and it goes on to talk about permitting, fabrication, installation, final inspection. Is this also from their website? Correct. And we see again this global logo up here. Correct. And the 727 phone number, is that an area code associated with Pinellas County?

Correct.

This isn't just more from their website, but is this a very accurate copy of what you viewed off their website?

Correct.

And let's talk about this page. It has architectural earnings, installation, digital signage, architectural graphics. We see their company logo. Is any of these services something that would need to have their license number?

That is correct.

Okay, which one of them?

One that would definitely require would be the digital signage. As far as when you're installing anything with electrical, it requires that you are licensed in Pinellas County.

At this time, I'd like to move these documents in as composite 7.

Any objection, Mr. Works?

My only hesitation with these is it does not show the full page. Now, when I get my chance to speak, I have more detail in it. Do you have pictures and stuff?

Yes, sir. Okay, I'm going to accept it into evidence. Fair enough. Accepted. What number is this?

Composite 7.

Thank you. That's the three pages, right?

This is four pages, I believe. Two pages? Four. Four.

All right, so I've got the front page of the website.

So page one is the front page. Oh, okay. And then I have page two as those four boxes with the permitting, fabrication, installation, final inspection. My third page is just further from the website. I didn't stress too much about it. And the fourth page, I did ask Mr. Nichols questions regarding what of these services would require a license. So I have four pages.

Okay, I got it here. Thank you. All right, C7 is accepted.

Did you do any, aside from their website itself, are you aware of any other means of publishing an advertisement?

To my knowledge, once you enter their business name into social media or Google, it brings up the page that shows that they are actually located here in Pinellas County. It gives an address, the phone number, and I think the location of the map where they're located.

Regarding that search you just told us about, is this, do you recognize this document?

I do.

And is this what your search resulted when you put their address in, or when you put their name in? Correct. Okay. And you said that it shows us a Pinellas County address, and is this the address down here that you're referring to in terms of TransPlorida? Correct. At this time, I'd ask to move this in as C8.

Do you have any objection, Mr. Wicks, to this document? No, sir. C8 is accepted into evidence.

That's all I have at this time.

Mr. Wicks, is your opportunity to cross-examine Officer Nichols or anything he testified to? Do you want any questions for him at this point? No, sir. Okay. Counselor?

All right. Yes, Your Honor. Based on the testimony and the documentary evidence that has been submitted, the county believes that we have established a violation of both the citations that were, have established that the citations issued, the violations did occur. If the magistrate has specific questions, or would like me to just go right into closing?

No. No. I want to hear from Mr. Wicks first. I may have some questions for Mr. Nichols. Yes, sir. After Mr. Wicks' testimony. Okay. Mr. Wicks?

Yes, sir. Good morning.

This is your opportunity to, you know, when I say argue your case, make your case, but if you have any documents, you know, you can bring them up. You saw how they did it. Yes, sir. So tell me what happened here. Tell me. Of course.

So we have two citations. Yes, sir. Which citation is for the website?

The 318 is, oh, the website is 318.

318. Okay.

So why don't we just call that the website one? Yep.

In regards to that citation, we agree. Our license number is not published on our website. We recently updated our website, and it was a detail that was overlooked. Okay. It's something that has already been sent back to our website company to add to the site, and we hope to have it up there before the end of this week. Okay. And that's a $500 fine, Counselor?

Is that correct? Okay.

My request for that one is that the fine be reduced to a warning, given that we can provide evidence that the license number is added to the site before the end of this week. Okay. Go ahead. In regards to the now hiring sign, we understand as a licensed contractor that our license number has to be displayed on all advertisements soliciting our services. But per Florida statute, 489.119, our license number does not have to be listed on now hiring advertisements as we are not soliciting our services as we are soliciting an opportunity to join the team. I have a copy of that because I might have it here. What was 489 what? 489.119. Yeah, I have that right here. Yep. And what's your reference? I'm sorry. Because it's a now hiring sign. It's a pretty long one. Yep. Because it's a now hiring sign. I understand it.

Do you have the whole thing, or should I read this whole thing? I don't know specifically which paragraph it is in there.

Okay.

But I do know that simply because it's now hiring, it's not required to have the license. In consolation, and not to be difficult, I have had our team. I'm trying to help you here. Absolutely. Yeah, go ahead.

I understand your argument. Okay. Go ahead.

I've had our team add our license number to all of our now hiring signs just to be safe. So we were unaware that it needed to be on there for our now hiring sign because we are just providing opportunity to join the team. We're not soliciting our services. The QR code on there links us to the website where they fill out an application. So I agree. We did not have our license number on our site, and I agree that is soliciting our services. But I'm asking that the now hiring citation be dismissed under the compromise and understanding that to go above and beyond what is required of us, we've already added our license number to the now hiring signs just to avoid any gray area.

So with regard to the 318, you admit that, but I think it should be a warning and with regard to the, for the reason you said, with regard to the license on the now hiring signs. Yes, sir. Yep.

Okay. 318, we agree to. I'm asking that it be reduced to a warning. Again, providing that we deliver evidence to them before the end of this week that it's been made compliant.

I understand your request. And the other one is you feel it's, it's not what the law is regarding.

Correct. But again, to not be difficult, I respect and appreciate what they're doing, and I agree with the licensing board to be out there making sure that things are compliant. We've gone ahead and put our license number on our now hiring signs.

So you're not doing this as a matter of principle. You just found out this is what their position is. Yes, sir. Anything else?

That's it. Oh, well, I can show that we do, yep, we do include our license number on all of our estimates. So if you can see here, we have our license number on all of our estimates. And then I did not bring a set of our drawings, but our license number is also on our plans that we give to the clients. Thank you. Can I add this as evidence?

Yeah, sure. Just stamp that and put R1. R1. R1.

Okay.

Council, do you have any objection to R1?

If I just have a moment. No objection.

R1's accepted as the evidence.

Do you want it in red?

Yes. Yes. Red?

Okay. Secondly, this photograph was taken this morning before I left. We also display our license number on our trucks to the proper size. I believe it's four inches in height, which is required by the code. So we make sure that we have our license number on the truck as well.

This infers the fact that this isn't some matter of principle with you. Do you do it regularly with just with regard to the now hiring? Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

We put it everywhere that we can where we know for sure that it's supposed to be there.

I'd like to add this to evidence as well. As counsel, save it.

Thank you. Okay. Would you like them to combine this one? That's two pictures. Let's do the two photographs together. Go ahead. So then here's the second one of another truck in our lot. Roll it up the other way.

Okay. Offering it for the same reason. Any objection, counsel?

No objection.

Okay. If you could mark that C2 collectively.

I'm sorry, sir. Do you mean R2?

R2. Thank you. And stamp it in red. This is R2, Carolyn.

Okay.

Thank you.

That is all the evidence and documentation that I brought with me today. Understood. Anything else? That's it. In closing, again, I appreciate you guys. I value you guys genuinely. We apologize for the mistake on the website. We do agree to that. And we ask that it just be reduced to a warning. We'll get it cleaned up. And we'll make sure that our license number is on everything that we publish in the future just to avoid any gray area. This is a warning with regard to the webpage and the other one.

And do you feel they shouldn't, you know, it's not really what they're intended by the state statute? Yes, please.

Counsel, any cross-examination? Because he did testify as to some facts.

No cross-examination, Your Honor.

Okay. Well, then you can do your closing if you want. Yes, Your Honor. Go ahead.

So the county is sympathetic and does recognize, and the testimony is very credible, that there has been steps taken to correct the issues. However, the statute and the provisions don't provide for a warning from the investigator's standpoint. I'm not saying it doesn't exist in the statute. I'm not sure what subdivision of 49 Mr. Wicks is referring to. But for the county's argument, I would direct report to 49-119-5B. The registration or certification number of each contractor shall appear in each offer of services, business proposal, bid, contract, or advertisement, regardless of median, as defined

by board rules used by that contractor or business organization in the practice of contracting. The county's argument is, we interpret this to say, the business of contracting includes

hiring and firing, and there's all the normal kind of staffing issues that any business would have. Yeah, that is, let's see, the registration number of each, certification number of each kind shall appear in each offer of services, business, offer of services, business proposal, contract, or advertisement, regardless of medium as defined by board rules used by the contractor or a business organization in the practice of contracting. I don't know if the, well, I'm going to have to do some homework on this to make a decision. I might hold on. I don't know. I understand. And I did look for a definition of the practice of contracting because that's what the county's I'm sitting here.

But I understand.

No. And plus there's also the, and the county has its code, you know what I mean, which kind of references, but I don't think it's as specific as this. That citation is 2214.1, which references, so it's the recursive loop. I was looking for my 2214.1. I don't know if I have it here today. Let's give me a second here, Mr. Wicks. Excuse me, I have that section out when I'm reviewing all of these codes. Okay.

Anything else, Councilor?

No, sir.

Anything else you want to add? Just in regards to that, I agree that all of this is for solicitation, and I feel that it's not specific enough in regards to all the preceding items before the word advertisement or for solicitation to consumer, like a bid, a contract, an estimate for us trying to hire or win a project, but not in regards to hiring or employing people. So I'm just, there's some gray area there, but I feel that the specifics that we'll find in regards to hiring advertisements would protect us from having a citation on a hiring advertisement. Again, if I put a sign up that said, call Global to buy a sign today, and it didn't have our license number very much as our website, I agree 100%.

Council, anything you want to say to that? Not that you have to.

No, sir. I'll go for the argument.

I'm sorry? No further argument. Okay. That's my question. Any further argument? No, sir. Okay. Let me just take a five-minute break. I want to do a little homework here. Communications. Before I start the next case, I'm going to rule on it now.

Sure. Communications, please stop recording.

I think it's, I think you're advertising for help, but, you know, I think it's borderline, and I don't want to start a policy because technically they might be right, but I believe it was, you know, somewhat, you know, understandable. So I'm going to make the food just to find $500, of course, to be awarded to the county. Anything else?

No, sir.

I agree. The clerk will explain their process. Thank you.

Do you have your email? You do. So we'll be sending payment instructions, and we'll go ahead and you can have a great day. Bye-bye.

Well, next one, if you want.

Item 2. Item 2, Department PCCLB, Matter Unlicensed Contracting Code Violation, Case Number CLB-MG26-00145, Citation Number CLB-CT26-00255, Defendant Samuel Tolson, Notice Address Samuel Tolson, 10852, Hamlin Boulevard, Largo, Florida, 33774, Stolson at Ymail.com, and PCCLB Investigator N. Nichols, Plaintiff's Witness, Pinellas County Code Enforcement, 631 Chestnut Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33756, N. Nichols at Pinellas.gov, and Kirby Kreider, Esquire Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB in care of Natasha Creedon, Legal Secretary, Pinellas County Attorney's Office, 315 Court Street, 6th Floor, Clearwater, Florida, 33756, K. Kreider at Pinellas.gov, N.A. Creedon at Pinellas.gov, Violation Address, 2825 West Valencia Lane, Palm Harbor, Florida, 34684. Please come up.

Kirby Kreider, on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board, I have as my witness investigator, Nichols.

And your name, sir? Sam Tullison. Samuel. The Tullison, and what is your connection to Tullison Construction?

Yes, sir. I'm the qualifying agent for the company, so I'm the licensed contractor that qualifies this company to do permitted and licensed construction.

Okay. If you could raise your right hand as well as Mr. Nichols, please. Do you swear or affirm that any testimony we give today be the truth, nothing but the truth? You saw how we just did the last case, so it's just...

I'm actually going to try having you over here as I'm not waving around, because you can still see the screen. I'm going to start by showing... Tullison? Tullison?

Yes, sir.

Mr. Nichols, can you state your name for the record?

Yes. My name is Investigator Nichols with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.

And did you receive any training and experience particular to conducting these investigations related to construction licensing board issues?

Yes, administrative and field training.

I'm going to put up on the screen a single citation, citation CLB 2.6255, a violation of Pinellas County 22-14-1. The narrative says, Tullison Construction, omitting contractor's license number from the sign advertising for public as property in Pinellas County, Florida. Do you recognize that? I do. Is that a fair and accurate copy of the citation that you issued?

It is.

At this time, I asked to do this in evidence. It wasn't the record.

I'm going to accept it as part of the record anyway, the citation. Yes, sir. Mark at C1, please. Yes, sir. This is the only citation, right, in this case? Yes.

Mr. Nichols, how did you become aware of this violation?

In my duties, I was in the area, and I noticed a sign that was placard in the right-of-way in a neighborhood, so at the time I stopped, I got out in the vehicle to basically do an investigation to find out the company's name to see whether or not if it's a construction contractor who's advertising. No license number was listed, so at that time I was able to check their database to see if this was an actual contractor advertising to the public without its license number. The database did come back to Mr. Toulson that he's a licensed certified contractor.

Okay, I'm going to show Mr. Toulson some photos. I'm going to show you two photos. Mr. Nichols, do you recognize this photo?

Yes, I do.

And over here on, how do you recognize this photo? Did you take it? Yes, this is a photo we normally document, take with our cameras and upload it into our

system.

And this is a fair and accurate depiction of the picture that, or the images that you saw when you were there?

Correct, it is.

And then on the left-hand side, we see this sign in the right-of-way for Toulson construction with no license number, is that correct? That is correct. And then I have a second photo for you. Do you recognize this photo? I do. Is that just a closer image of the previous photo I just showed you?

Yes, just to make sure that I did not miss the licensed contractor's number, because a lot of times the numbers are so small that you're not able to see it from the vehicle. So we normally try to get a close-up shot.

At this time, I'd ask to move this in as composite, too.

Toulson, do you have any objection to the two photographs? C2 is accepted into evidence. And the addresses on these, are they 2825 Valencia? I have other photographs, right? Is that what's up top of these?

Mr. Nichols?

Yes, it is, Your Honor. I'm sorry. Magistrate.

Mr. Nichols, that address that was on the photographs, did you do any research regarding where that property is located?

I did.

And what information did you access?

So the sign, even though it was in a right-of-way, it was basically, I would say, in front of the house. When I photographed, the camera image picked up that address, and this was the location in front of the house where the sign was located.

Now, Dr. Knight, do you recognize this?

I do.

And is this the property appraiser's information that you accessed during research for the citation? Yes. And this address we see here, 2825 Valencia Lane, that's the address that you took the pictures at, correct? Correct. And is that address in Penelope County? It is. At this time, I ask to move this in as three.

That would be three. How many pages is it? One, two, three, four pages, right? Mr. Tolson, do you have objection to C4? C4 is accepted.

What did you do next in your investigation after you determined the property was in Penelope County?

Once I was able to verify that Tolson Construction is a licensed contractor, I basically, ran the business, his name, in a couple of database, Google search, such as SunBiz, DBPR, and other database to confirm and to verify, put together to make sure that the license number belongs to that individual with the name from SunBiz. DBPR did show that the license number, excuse me, contracted license, came back to Mr. Tolson, and it was active, current and active.

I'm going to pause you right there to show you another document. You were just talking to us about your searches of DBPR. Is this a fair and accurate representation of the information you found?

Yes, it is.

And it's showing us that Mr. Tolson has a certified building contractor license, is that correct? That is correct. At this time, I'd ask you to send a C5? Six. Five.

Five, I think. I think five. Mr. Tolson, do you have objection to C5?

No.

C5 is accepted into evidence.

To finish our conversation about the research you did, Mr. Tolson, another search result, you said that part of your investigation is verifying the information on SunBiz? Yes. Did you do that in this case? I did. What does this tell you?

I recognize that SunBiz, it came back to the business itself, Tolson Construction, came back to Mr. Samuel Tolson. So I also verified that, cross-checked his name to make sure everything matches that the business belonged to Mr. Tolson.

And then we see on the annual report that it's addressed to Mr. Tolson as well. Is that correct? That is correct. It's three pages. I'd ask to move this in as C7. Three pages?

Seven or six? What are we up to count?

We are going to seven. No, six now.

Yes, I thought it was six. Any objection? It's SunBiz document C7. No objection. C6 is admitted into evidence.

The last document I have is an affidavit of licensure, which I'm going to first run to Mr. Tolson. Mr. Nichols, do you recognize this document?

I do.

Do you prepare this document after researching all the methods that we just discussed?

I did.

And what is, can you just read this last sentence for us, then you had a contractor's license registered with the board?

Yes.

Hold on a second here. I'm going to read that whole sentence out. Yes, sir. A contractor's license, and there's a number registered with the board for the search dates of May 5th, 26th to May 5th, 26th, in all fairness to Mr. Tolson.

Yes, sir. I would still ask to, I agree with that, I'm not arguing about that, I'd still ask to move this in.

You want to put it in? Is it, well...

Actually, I don't. Aside from this licensure, this affidavit, when you looked at DPPR, when you looked at SunBiz, were you verifying that those were active licenses at the time of the offense?

Yes. I normally checked all database up to the day of court, and Mr. Tolson has been licensed for a while. We normally try to go back up to a year to see that he is licensed, and he still holds a license. He is current and active.

So, you would have done it on May 5th, 26th, and you would have looked back a year?

Yes. So, there's times that the database... It's a clerical error. I got that. Okay. I'm not... Okay. It's a clerical error, so I got it.

Go ahead.

I don't have any questions.

Mr. Tolson, do you have any cross-examination of Officer Nick? I want to ask him any questions about what he testified to. Then you can come up and put on your case here. I know you have some documents here.

I am a licensed contractor, so it is... I'm not good enough to expose that anyway. That's not an issue in this case, right? Half of my case is around being... Thank you. Make my job easier. So, it's not... I guess I'll just get going with the first piece. This is just to create a baseline of detail for you on who I am.

Go right ahead, sir. Do you want to do this as a package or do you want to do it one at a time? Let's do it one at a time. It won't be long, yeah. That's all I'm in. No rush.

Okay.

So, we have your license.

Yes, sir. So, my name is Sam Tolson. I am a licensed contractor. So, it is family-owned and operated, so we're a small group doing things the right way. You can see here we have a license number. I've already done the continuing education credits to re-up this because you'll notice in August. It expires next month. Right. And actually, I'll have the opportunity to upgrade from a CBC to CGC, which is exciting because we can start doing more pools.

So, that's quite exciting. Understood. Can we mark that R1? You got a red sticker here.

On the other side, the other one.

Oh, I got my one.

Yes.

I don't know the significance of the red from the other, but it's always red. And here's a pen for you. Fingerprints. Something like that. There you go. And label it as such. Just put an R1 in there, otherwise the clerk will do it.

And interestingly enough, the address that we were referring to was actually a permitted project that's in flight. So, this one's stapled, so I'm going to go ahead and take it apart. So, the first, I don't know if you can see this.

It's kind of sideways, but let me ask you this, just in light of what you just said. So, this sign that they put into evidence, that's your sign, right? That's my sign. It's a project you did, right? Yes. It changes things in terms of simplicity. Go ahead. Right, exactly. I can see this here sideways. Mr. Tolson. It's my permit, right? Mr. Tolson, just put it like if you're reading it. There you go. There you go.

Thank you.

So, you'll see the record number. That's the permit number. And at the very bottom here, you'll see 2825 Valencia Lane. So, that's the address that correlates with what they were referring to with the signs being at the address, and what you'll notice here is this is basically just record details on the bottom of a permit. When you go apply, they continue to add information in there, and you'll see, so I'm a licensed professional pulling the permit. To the right, there's a project description, which is basically just, we're just changing out cabinets and countertops, and I have a plumber and an electrician to basically demo out the existing outlets and the P-trap, put it back in, and we're done. Very, very simple work.

So, you're putting this in to show that you're doing things the right way?

A, yes, doing things the right way, and B, also to clarify, you know, my license number is basically everything for us, right? As you know, like, this is super important, so it's sad whenever this stuff happens, and so I guess my only argument is, you know, at the site, we have trucks with our own signs with a license number, right, doing the work, and this, my printer just isn't great, and I ran out of color, but on that truck, there are probably three foot by two foot stickers on there that has all of our company information, and that's on site. And then my last piece is, we have, on every job site, we have a sign with license number and a permit placard with also, that's taped to the inside of the window. So, I guess, I'm just trying to create a trail of, yes, we're doing things the right way, and this was a slip up on the signs, we've made adjustments, and it's something that, you know, we let slip once, and everywhere else it's documented because we have to. And so, this sign also was, I don't even remember where we got that sign. I think it was a long time ago, and we happened to whip it out of the shop just for this project, and we got caught red-handed, and so I guess I'm asking for a little bit of leniency, showing that we made the correction that we're also doing all the things the right way, because I think we both agree, you know, there's, this is a good problem to have in the county. I mean, there's a lot of really bad stuff, and we're doing things, I think, the right thing, the right way, so I'll pause there.

Well, since you've looked at, I've looked at these, do you want to put them into evidence collectively as C2, whatever? Whatever the process is. Let's put it in, in fairness to you, let's call the top one, and we'll take the package of all of these documents, and that would be the proof of the, the proof of the, I'm just for the record, the C2 would be the, R2, thank you, I missed that twice today, yes, that's correct, will be the permit, I guess, and the sign they generally, the truck sign, and then the sign they generally use, which has the number on it, right?

And the ones you have on the side there, if you could just put them, like, lining over and by these. So I have R1 as them's number?

Yeah, perfect. Yeah, and just the others, you could, R2 is the, uh.

Well, R2 put all the things you were talking about, you had to start at the Markham, you had your permit, you had the sign that, you had the truck, and you also have the sign that you usually use.

Yeah, R2, they're both R2?

Yeah, they're all R2, they're all, yeah, but they're all R2, yeah.

They're together, yeah, there you go, thank you.

Yeah, that's fine, yes. Might as well, right? Just the top one, you're doing great. That's something else, right?

Yes, something else. Oh.

Any argument, anything else, Mr. Tolson?

There's no argument, right? It's very simple, it's, uh, there is.

You made a mistake using that sign.

It's our sign, it's our project, we know better, uh, we do things right, 99% of the time, right? Obviously, there's that 1%, and we've already made the correction, so it is what it is, and I guess my only ask is we make the correction, we prove it to the court, and, um, and maybe a reduced fine would be really, really great.

Counsel? Do you have any argument?

No argument, you're honest.

What do you feel about a reduced, I think it would be setting a precedent? This is the first, uh, violation, right?

It's, to my knowledge, it's the first violation, um, obviously. Obviously, I'm going to defer to the magistrate's description. No, I'm not pressuring you. I.

Generally, it's always a $500 fine the first time, right? Yes. They raise them, it's usually what goes on. Yes. Is that right?

Yes, actually.

Okay. It doesn't leave me a lot of latitude here, and I'm trying to figure out some way I, I believe your testimony, and it's a mistake. I could tell you this, uh, Mr. Nichols, uh, Officer Nichols, come on, come back up. Can you come back up? Yes, sir. Now, who determines how much of the fine, uh, in other words, when you do these cases? How do you determine whether it's a repeat offender and things, right?

So, we determine if it's a repeat offender by checking the database to see if he was cited prior before and if he has paid, and if that's the case, the fine doubles. Now, we have no jurisdiction over how much are they reduced and defined. It's something that is said, I think, by the, um, board. Okay, and everybody gets the same, right? Correct. I, I, I know the answers to what I'm asking.

I just wanted him to, you know, that's generally what happens, what he's testifying to is, uh, this isn't gonna, you know, if you did, you did it again, depends on how much time goes by and whether it happened again or whatever like that. It's, uh, we come up as a repeat. If you keep doing it, it keeps getting bigger. Now, you've defended this and come in here. I really don't have much, uh, you know, latitude to change it, you understand what I mean? Because we do this all the time. If I make yours $100 because you did it by mistake, the room would be full, you know what I'm just telling you. But, uh, anything else you want to add to that? That's pretty much what you do, right? That's policy.

That is correct, your magistrate. Okay.

Council, anything you want to say? I don't want to put you on the spot.

Anything else you want to say? I guess that would be the point is I've made a point to come out here, you know, show face and present and say this is what I'm doing.

And, uh, I guess that's why the room isn't full. People aren't doing that. Understood. Uh, I'm going to consider the public portion of the hearing closed.

I'm going to find that the, um, respondent is in violation and impose a $500 fine and counties awarded the costs. And Carol will tell you. With the corporate processes.

You'll receive your order via email as well, via your email address, as well as, uh, certified mail. And I'll give you the instructions on how to pay your fine, okay?

Can I ask for a brief comfort break before the last case?

Sure. Why don't we, what do we have, one more case?

Uh, present, yes. Present, yeah. Yes. Then we do the others.

All right, why don't we just go to 10 minutes, is that good?

Perfect.

Minutes, and then we'll start with...

Communications, please. No, do somewhere.

Communications, please stop recording. Item 3. Department PCCLB. Matter, unlicensed contracting code violation. Case number CLB-MG26-00108. CLB-MG26-00109. Citation number CLB-CT26-00144. CLB-CT26-00145. Defendant Matthew R. Gullow. Notice address, Matthew R. Gullow. 2-6-2-9. Bruton Fort, Clearwater, Florida. 3-3-7-6-1. Golf Co. Construction at Yahoo.com. And PCCLB Investigator N. Nichols. Plaintiff's Witness. Pinellas County Code Enforcement. 631 Chestnut Street. Clearwater, Florida. 3-3-7-5-6. N. Nichols at Pinellas.gov. N. Kirby Kreider, Esquire. Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB. In care of Natasha Creedon. Legal Secretary. Pinellas County Attorney's Office. 3-1-5. Court Street. 6th floor. Clearwater, Florida. 3-3-7-5-6. K. Kreider at Pinellas.gov. N. A. Creedon at Pinellas.gov. Violation Address 2501 Bayshore Drive, Bel Air Beach, Florida 33786. Please come up.

Identify yourself.

Yes, sir. Kirby Kreider, Assistant County Attorney on behalf of the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board. I have with me and I'm interested in in Nichols as my witness.

And I presume you're Matthew Gullo? Yeah, yes, sir. And what's your connection to, I guess it'd be Gulf Co. Construction?

I'm the owner.

Okay, so you're the corporate shareholder, whatever, is the corporation?

Excuse me?

You own all the shares and everything? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, do we have any other witnesses here today?

No, no, it's just me.

Okay, if you could raise your right hand as well as you, Mr. Nichols. Do you swear or affirm that any testimony you give today be the truth and nothing but the truth?

I do, yes.

Okay, sir, I think you've seen the other cases, but they're going to put some evidence on and I'll give you an opportunity to object to any of the evidence. Okay. And you get an opportunity to cross-examine this gentleman on anything he said.

Investigator Nichols, can you state your phone name for the record?

Yes, my name is Investigator Nichols with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.

And in conjunction with your role as an investigator, did you receive any specialized training or field experience?

Yes, I would be administrative and field training.

In regards to the citations, I'm going to start with citation CLB CT 26-00144. It's a violation of Zone Code 22-14-1 and it's for failing to display a business license or contractor's license on 38 DSXP.

Is that correct? That is correct.

And the second citation, CLB CT 26-0145, another violation for a different vehicle

of understanding, and that vehicle tax is 98 FUEB?

That is correct.

I'd like to set them into the record.

They're already part of the record as the citations. Yes, sir. I presume you've gotten the citations, correct?

We'll focus first on the citations I just talked about. How did you become aware of these violations?

While out and about conducting duties, I noticed that Mr. Gullo's construction vehicles was located on Gulf Boulevard, or Drive, I believe it was. The vehicle was at the residence. They were working at the time. I remember this from two months ago that I spoke to Mr. Gullo. He was cited before in regards to the not having his contractor's license number listed on the vehicle on the left or the right side. I came upon this job site again, and there was two vehicle, one in the driveway and one on the right of the road. There were no vehicles at – there was no license number listed, and I believe I contacted him then and there to inform him that the contractor's license number is not listed on his vehicle and that he will receive another citation. So at that time, I was able to photograph the vehicle, both vehicles, with the different license plate to show that there were two vehicles on the property without displaying the contractor's license number.

I want some photos. Do you want to help me? I see. All right. Quite a few photos to show you. I'm going to start one at a time. Do you recognize this? I do. And is this a fair and accurate depiction of what the vehicle looked like when you observed it on the property?

Yes, it is.

Another angle, also a fair and accurate picture? It is. And we can see there's no contractor's license number viewable in this picture.

That is correct.

This one, the license plate is viewable 3-8-E-S-X-P.

That is correct.

Anywhere on this vehicle, in the pictures or not, was the contractor's number, license number listed?

No, there was no licensed, contractor's license number listed on the rear or on the side of the vehicle.

Was it listed anywhere else at any location on the vehicle?

No.

And the same type of question for this photograph, it's the other tag number, 98FQED.

And that is correct. There's no license, contractor's license number listed on the vehicle, either on the side or on the rear of the vehicle.

Anywhere on the vehicle, there's no contractor's license?

There was no contractor's license. And then the carpenters wanted below that? That's not, you didn't put that on the photo, right? That's what it was.

Yeah, this is, I'm sorry, I understand. Mr. Nichols, did you alter this photograph?

I did not.

You didn't add any text?

I did not. So what's below carpenters wanted is how the vehicle was, right?

Yes. I just photographed the vehicle in the same fashion the way it was on the property. Okay. I'm sorry, counsel.

No, it's fine.

It's unusual that that was like that.

At this point, I have to move this in as composite.

Three, oh, two, yeah, C2, four pages, four photos. Any objection? Mr. Golo? I'm sorry, any objection to these photographs?

Oh, no.

Okay.

C2 is accepted into evidence.

Before we get further down to this investigation, was this your first contact or interaction with Mr. Golo?

No, it was not.

Okay. Describe to me how you knew Mr. Golo from the past.

So back in January of this year, 2026, same scenario where I was doing my duties in and around the Bellier Beach area and I came into contact with the same company doing work and the vehicle was on the property and there was no contractor's license number listed. Again, I contacted him. One of his workers was able to call him via telephone and I spoke to him and we basically had a communications that must be listed and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, he said that he didn't need to list it or he didn't want to have it listed but don't take me for face value but we did have a communication with that. I informed him that it has to be basically on the left side and the right side, three inches or higher and I also placed a paper on the vehicle or give it to one of his workers explaining to him that under Chapter 122 that it should be listed on the vehicle and I informed him at the time back in January that he will be receiving a citation for that infraction.

I find her a thousand

or I find her yes the first one.

Do you recognize this document?

I do.

Is this citation number CT2611 was this the citation you were talking about issued prior to the people we're here today about? Correct. And was that paid in full?

It was paid in full.

And I noticed that on this earlier citation the penalty is $500 but on the citations in front of us today it's $1,000. Why is that?

So he received the first citation he was issued a $500. The second offense normally the citation doubles. The third offense it doubles to $2,000. So this is his second offense so that means the citation increases to $1,000 per violation.

At this time I'd ask to move the citation in as C3.

Any objection? I think it's part of the public record but not in this case so I'm going to give you a right to object to it if you want.

Now objecting to

everything here? No, just objecting that this is a county citation that was issued by them. That's all they're putting it in for.

Well, I mean I'm here to

Do you object to this document coming into evidence?

Oh, which document? This one? No, no. Okay, I'm going to accept. The Barbarella one? Correct. Yeah. No, I'm not.

You can mark that. And could I see I haven't seen that yet I don't think it's in this package I have.

Sure.

Please. May I see it first? I'm going to accept it but I just want to check and find it in here. So the address on this previous one this one here C3 is 2504 Bayshore is where it was and then the one we're here today on is 2501 Bayshore same place. Am I getting that right? Yes, Your Majesty. Okay. That's a different building like a different portion of construction or something?

It's just the further he moved on to the construction it's two months later. I got it.

It's the same project. Okay. I'm just trying to get the big picture. Okay.

Go ahead, Counselor. You're saying that both times with the same time? Mr. Gullow. Mr. Gullow, you don't have a right to cross-examine it. Just make a note of it and I'm going to let you ask them that.

And if you're speaking you need to speak into the microphone, okay?

Go ahead, Counselor.

Thank you. Turning back to the citations issued in this case what did you do next Mr. Nichols or Investigator Nichols in your investigation?

So my next step since I was familiar with this case or this construction company obviously I went back to look at my previous citation previous case and then I went into our database because Mr. Gullow is a C license meaning he is licensed through the county. So I checked to make sure that his license contractor's license is still current and active which it did show that it is active. I did contact Mr. Gullow again to explain to him what was going on. He was a little upset in regards to when I explained to him that each citation will be $1,000 each and the unfortunate part is I explained to him we have no control over what the citations is. I reviewed SunBiz. SunBiz showed that he is still current and I did a little background on him and everything stays the same. He shows that he is the owner and operator of his construction company and he is still a license C license contractor and at that time I issued the citation to the business.

Thank you. Mr. Gullow. Investigator Nichols, you just testified that part of your research involved visiting the division of corporations SunBiz and doing research. Do you recognize this kind of item

that I understand? I do. And it's for cultural construction. Is that correct?

Yes, it is.

Registered from Alpha Pulo? Correct. And then turning to the third page he's also the registry agent. Is that correct? That is correct. At this point in time I ask to move this as composite 4 into evidence.

Any objection, Mr. Gullow?

No.

C4 is accepted to evidence.

Do you want to see the evidence?

Yes.

So it's he's saying he's a research to distance if I see and that you have a license to know the evidence. Investigator Nichols, do you recognize the document I'm planning in front of you?

I do.

And it's an application

of licensure?

Yes, it is.

And is this

something that you

prepared after your research that you just testified to? Yes. And this last line says had a contractor's license number C6322 registered with the board for the search date for April 2nd, 2025 April 2nd, 2026. That is correct. And that was during the time frame where the violation was issued. Is that correct? That is correct. At this time I ask to move this NSC-5.

Any objection Mr. Gullough? C-5 is accepted into evidence.

Very much again, Nichols. Did you also visit the property appraisers website to do your research you testified to?

Yes, I did.

And is this a fair and accurate copy of what you saw?

Yes, it is.

And the address on the first page is 2501 Bayshore Drive, Bella Beach, Florida. Is that in Pinellas County, Florida? Yes, it is. Madam, I'm just going to flip through. It's one, two, three pages. Did you make any alterations to any of the information that came from the property pages? I did not. At this time I'd ask you to move this NSC-6.

Any objection Mr. Gullough? No. C-6 is accepted into evidence.

I have no further questions at this time.

Mr. Gullough. First, do you have a right to ask this officer any questions regarding his testimony? Now, he had a question before so you can cross-examine him. He's said many things so if you want to ask him any questions. Yeah, yeah, sure.

I mean, well,

I'm not an attorney but I disagree with some of the things he said.

I got it. Right now, if you have questions for him then I'm going to let him sit down and then you can give me all the argument or any additional documents.

Excuse me?

This is your opportunity to ask him questions. Okay. When you're done asking him questions he's going to sit down and then I'm going to ask you about your argument and anything else you have to say. Okay. So do you have any questions for him?

Well, I don't know how to form it a question but the first time we ever spoke, I believe you had been to that job which you had the evidence for. I think it was like January 12th or the 18th. I'm not too sure. And you had called me that day. You might have been checking to see if I was licensed with Pinellas County. I'm not too sure if you couldn't find me or not.

That's correct.

Okay. And then you talked about having my license number three inches tall on the vans. And through that whole conversation I was under the impression that you were just calling me with a warning that you weren't going to find me. That's because you never said that. You never said that once. Or should I ask him? Does he think that he said that? Yeah, I'm going to let you ask him whatever

you want.

Let me ask you this. Do you remember telling me that you were going to fine me? Because I don't remember you saying that.

Yes, I recall that conversation in communications when I called you. I did tell you that it was a $500 fine and you said, why do I need to be fined for that? Can I just get a warning? And I said that we don't give warning. And I said that it will be mailed to you. And normally we mail it out via first class and certified mail.

Well, I mean, I don't know how this goes, but I disagree because I was shocked that I got a letter like, you know, four or five days later with the $500 fine because I thought I was just getting a warning. I don't know how long that rule has been in place and I don't even know where to find it to this day. And I've been a licensed contractor with Pinellas County for like 30, 35 years and I've never had anybody approach me saying that I had to have this, these, my licensed number on my van. So I was just sort of shocked about that.

I just wanted to also let the courts know that when he received the citation, inside that citation it lists, there's a paper that shows the county code that you have to have your license number listed on both sides. Which is true.

That came in the mail with the citation little brochure.

Correct.

But I wouldn't know where to find that. I don't know

how long those rules have been in effect with the licensed number. How many years?

It's always been in effect. It's not something that's new. So for 35

years I drove around and nobody ever caught me.

Well I can't speak for that with my time here with the Pinellas County Construction License Board. I could only go with the

county ordinance that's in effect today. And it was in effect the day that I cited this. So then I get the

$500 fine and then I sort of feel like you were like going after me to stick it to me because then you come back around a month and a half later and I haven't gotten the signs made yet and then find me again with two vans and

I thought you could have just done one van and not and then so now I'm paying $1,000 times two so now I'm paying $2,000 for a five letter sign.

Correction it is two months it was more than 60 days and I did have a conversation with you that you must have these signs on your vehicle within 30 day period 30 days have passed 60 days have passed and there were no signs for the court I was not targeting you I was out and about doing my duties as an investigator and I came across the property where your vehicle were and I stopped and spoke to the workers hence and I called you.

So you're saying I've been driving around for 35 years and then never been caught and now you catch me twice in a month and a half period?

I can't

speak for how many years he's been in business with Gulloch Construction I only can speak for the time when I caught the vehicle under property when it became a violation then. The violation date is when I was there at the time photographed the vehicle and contacted Mr. Gulloch to inform him that these are violations and we don't give warning that he will be receiving citations in the mail. So for the 35 years I cannot speak for that it's only can speak for the time I was on duty doing my job. Well

all I can say is I disagree that you only called me the first time.

Mr. Gulloch should I ask him a question

or?

That's argument is there any mean would you have any other questions for him? I'm going to let you argue it you know what I mean he's obviously has a different recollection of the facts then. Do you have any other questions?

I guess I'm done then.

Go ahead now. Tell me what happened.

All right so you know like you heard with our discussion here that you know he came and saw one of my vans on the 12th of the 18th and it didn't have my license number C-6322 We're talking about

these citations or the previous

first one was for $500 on January 12th of the 18th Could I see that

one again

is that back up there or do I have it?

The very first the first issued citation No

the C-6 or something the second citation he is six months ago

when that

says somebody wrote paid on the side so this previous citation the date of the incident was in January of 26 is that right? Yes sir Tell me what you think this says you paid it did you pay it? I did pay it yeah So you got this citation and you paid it Yes sir Go ahead what's your argument

Okay and then I believe it was March 5th I believe so it's a month and a half I wasn't aware of what the time frame was for me to get the signs put on my vehicle it was either 30 or 60 or however many days I wasn't too sure but it's not like I can go to like 7-11 to get the signs and I went and got the signs and you know you have to find a place order it pay them have them manufacture it and put it on the van so then it hadn't gotten to my van and then he came back I believe on March 5th and then at that point I had come back to that particular location to do some punch out work for the contractor and he came by and saw two vans and then issued me you know another fine which I which I'm to understand now is doubled and since I had two vans on location he cited both of them so now I'm paying two thousand dollar fines which come up to two thousand dollars on top of the five hundred dollar fine I just think it's a little excessive I thought I could have caught some some sort of a break here you know because I've been a good contractor for Pinellas County for like thirty thirty five years and I just feel like he's just out to get me I thought it could at least be like maybe one for a thousand dollars not two for a thousand

dollars is the license numbers on there now

yes sir I didn't bring proof of that in I probably should have but it's there I'm sure Inspector Nichols can find me but I'll bring in proof if you want me to

we can't do that just give me a second okay anything else no sir any cross examination

tell me more about you said you had to order the signs where did you order them from

I don't remember it's a sign placed on 19 in Palm Harbor

okay when did you place that order

when did I place it remember that either

okay and did they do the installation no

it was just a magnetic sign

okay and do you remember receiving with your citations I'm going to show you a document that was provided to you yeah all right and it says on here it describes to you in detail the height that it has to be three inches and at nowhere on this worrying your conversation when the investigator Nichols if he said you have to order a sign baby he said your number has to be on there right right so what do you

want to get a magic marker

he didn't say anything he didn't say anything yes ma'am at this point in time I'd like to move this into what do you remember how much you paid for the signs

I think it was like a hundred dollars

per vehicle

no no no no I got I had three vehicles I got nine of them made for like a hundred dollars a hundred and ten dollars something like that it was fairly cheap okay yeah

and do you remember I know you don't remember the exact date but do you remember how long from when you placed the order to when you got the signs they were ready

it was about a week week or so week and a half

and best guess when did you put the numbers on the vehicles

real shortly after I got the citation for the two thousand dollars I think I put it in like you know super mode to make sure I track those vans down and put the signs on there

the three vans

yes ma'am three vans

are those the only van or vehicles you have with the company

yes

nothing further

anything else no that's it council you could step aside for a second I have a question for Mr. Nichols if you could bring him up in the documents in the file in all fairness here is a document here Pinellas County licensing board says summary undated and it's from you to the defendant the respondent here PCCLB have reissued the citation these two citations to update description of violation to reflect your contractor's license number so no do you want to I

know what you're referring to and I

want clarification of that okay because this might have delayed him getting the citations in terms of time frame no fairness to Mr. Gullow

yes you want to

discuss it with him what's it I was going to show it to Mr. Gullow

please

just show it to Mr. Gullow Mr. Gullow come up to the microphone here Mr. Gullow have you ever seen that before

it looks familiar I remember getting a letter and I wasn't too sure what it meant and then I saw where there was a citation for like a thousand dollars like the same exact one I'd received like you know like a month or two before and I thought he'd like gone out and got me again or something like that and I had the numbers on there so I didn't know what was going on and then I just thought he was just he was just sending me some sort of a duplicate okay that's what I ended up thinking

go ahead counsel I interrupted you

yes so Mr. Nichols based on that when you said you reissued the citation what did that entail the reissuing

so the reissue is basically as Mr. Gullow says just a duplicate it went from just changing his the scripted error from business to contractors we just wanted to make sure that the Mr. Gullow was aware that when I said business license it should say contractor's license okay so this

this document here which we're here on today okay

was violations March 5th and it was March 11th sent out did that delay the sending of this out the changing of it or is that something beforehand do you understand what I'm asking right yes did he get it later

so this he received later but it was the same citation everything stayed the same the statute the cost so he got it twice it was just a duplicate and I can show

well it's obviously not a duplicate you changed something on it

yes when you say

you had asked them you mean this was what time frame I'm trying to figure out the time frame when you change this okay this gentleman saying look I didn't even have enough time to get it done so I believe

the time frame I mailed it out is also the date should also be well the date here is

March 11th I want to know what your process is regarding that letter I just sent you out there where you said you're changing it so did it get sent out again or what happened

yes so I reissued the citation so he got two of these correct

okay so he got two of the citations you're just explaining I just make it more for whatever reason you did to make it more exact in all fairness to him or whatever correct okay Mr. Gullick come up here for a second do you remember getting both of the citations yes okay when I say both of the citations I mean two citations and then two citations again

yes

okay what was the time the time between those two

I don't know about a month or so but I realized that it was just some sort of a duplicate I mean at that point I had already had the signs on my vans and I was good to go

you already had the signs on the vans they just pictures of them that's why we're here when that

duplicate got sent it was like you know like a month or so a month or two after the fact

wasn't it well this hang on a second this violation that we're here today on is for something that happened on March 5th 5th I believe 26th

right and then I got a letter like a week later for the January one right January no no no I paid I paid the one in January for $500 and then I got when did you

pay the

one in January when did I pay it yeah I don't know exactly I paid it within a couple weeks of receiving it so I must have paid it somewhere around the end of January for the $500 that was the first one

right so you paid it at the end of January and then you were in violation again on March 5th

right

and so you've taken care of this now

oh yeah

and when do you have any proof of when you did it or

I not not

not with me sir

I have I you know I guess I'm not very I'm trying

to be open here and everyone's you know being very open about it if your defense was that you took care of this and did it okay and then your testimony now today is I just didn't think it would be important to bring when you did it you see what I'm going at

yeah yeah well call me stupid then sir

I'm not trying to call you stupid I'm just trying to be fair to you yeah

I mean I feel stupid because I should have brought in proof that yes you know I paid for it and I did it you didn't

give me enough time I've done it you know

yeah yeah I see what you're saying okay all right yeah

anything council

no nothing further

all right I'm going to consider the public portion of the hearing closed I'm going to reduce one of these two fines to $500 okay

so let's

do the with regard to CLB CT 26 00144 I'm going to do a fine for the county reduce that fine to $500 and with regard to CLB CT 26 00145 I'm going to leave that at $1,000 as a second offense or whatever and include costs on both of that okay those will be mailed out I guess those yes

Mr. Gullo you'll receive it through your email as well as certified mail and regular mail

thank you

thank you council

which one reduces the 4-4 and the 4-5

the 4-4 and it's going to state that in your order as well and their payment instructions are on the order as well the payment instructions will be on the order as well

you're

going to get it emailed but you're also going to get it through certified mail the emails are courtesy so if you don't get it through email certified mail and first class mail you're going to have 30 days from date no 30 days from today's signature so today he's going to sign it okay you're welcome thank you for the comeback

we have

uncontested right

we have

uncontested ones to do

well they're contested but the person is not present item number five so item one was paid yeah

just the one of them right

correct item number five and then the rest of the cases are on 130 docket

okay so we do that one this

is

five so

item five department PCCLB matter unlicensed contracting code violation case number CLB dash MG 26 dash 00146 citation number CLB dash CT 26 dash 00265 defendant Roderick A. Custer notice address Roderick A. Custer 4121 Pecos Drive Newport Ritchie Florida 34653 rainbow stucco inc at gmail.com and PCCLB investigator C. Furland plaintiff's witness Pinellas County Code Enforcement 631 Chestnut Street Clearwater Florida 33756 C. Furland at pinellas.gov and Kirby Crider

Crider

Esquire Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB in care of Natasha Creedon Legal Secretary Pinellas County Attorney's Office 315 Court Street 6th Floor Clearwater Florida 33756 K. Crider at pinellas.gov NACREDEN at pinellas.gov Violation Address 205 Silver Moss Lane Tarpon Springs Florida 34688 Is there

a Roderick A. Custer here today? Anyone here regarding 205 Silver Moss Lane Tarpon Springs let the record reflect that no one left in the gallery Council we're going to put it on

the

documents in that

would be up to you

I'm fine they don't want to hear it I'm fine I really don't need to hear it it's

up to them

okay that's fine we'll do the order it's a default we'll enter the default

and we're done with the docket

okay that's good there's no reason to go

communications please stop recording

okay Wicks

welcome to Pinellas County Code Enforcement Special Magistrate Hearings the special magistrate is charged for conducting hearings to determine whether an alleged violation of the county code has occurred in order to meet that obligation all parties or

the

representatives will be allowed an opportunity to be heard on matters relevant to the alleged violation of violations all witnesses offering testimony presenting evidence will be required to swear or affirm that the testimony they provides the truth the order of presentation will begin with the county presenting their evidence of the alleged violation of violations and then the respondent shall present her case both court parties shall have an opportunity to cross examine all witnesses the special magistrate may question any witness the clerk will announce the names of the cases from the agenda when you hear your case called please respond by coming to the podium with your representative and or any witnesses to be sworn in when addressing the special magistrate please speak clearly into the microphone any person who decides to appeal the decision of the code enforcement special magistrate with respect or any matter considered at this hearing will need a record of the proceedings and for such purposes may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which

is CLB-CT26-00166 CLB-MG26-00167 and CLB-MG26-00168 citation number CLB-CT26-00299 CLB-CT26-00300 CLB-CT26-00301 CLB-CT26-00302 and CLB-CT26-00304 defendant John Ross N. Briscoe notice address John Ross N. Briscoe 3535 4th Avenue South St. sorry 3535 4th Avenue South Street

St. Petersburg Florida 33711

John Ross B2 at gmail.com and City of Seminole attention Jim Reeves building official plaintiff's witness 9199 113 Street North

excuse me Seminole Florida

33772 building official at my seminole.com and Robert Caruse 11715 Ridgeview Lane Seminole Florida 33772 MPCCLB investigator Jay Padgett plaintiff's witness Pinellas County Code Enforcement 631 Chestnut Street

Clearwater Florida 33756 Jay Padgett at pinellas.gov

and Kirby Crider Esquire assistant county attorney for PCCLB in care of Natasha Creedon Legal Secretary Pinellas County attorney's office 315 Port Street 6th floor Clearwater Florida 33756 Kate Crider at pinellas.gov N.A. Creeden

at pinellas.gov

violation address

Wood Ridge Boulevard Seminole Florida 33772 and Facebook Yelp Google brisco fencing solutions dot com please come up

Mr. Brisco

Council

if you could identify yourself for the county

yes good good afternoon sir Kirby Crider I have with me Jim Reeves or James Reeves Robert Cruz and investigator Padgett

they're going to testify

yes sir

I'm Chris Lewis I'm turning for Mr. John Ross Brisco and this is Mr. John Ross Brisco Chris Lewis we have any other witnesses testify no sir if all of you could raise your hand next side of council of course you're right do you swear affirm that any testimony to give today be the truth and nothing but the truth yes I do the county's going to present a case Mr. Lewis you can stand there he's going to put evidence on I presume at least evidence documents first you can do documents first yes okay and then you can object or not object and then we'll get into testimony of course examination and everything okay

I'm just going to do documents first yeah do we do documents first just like we always do investigator

Padgett right

you just

give them a little room I think that's what they're looking for yeah that's what they're tight space

let me take a seat if you guys like

yeah you can have a seat if you wanted to just if you

have any objections just make sure you come up to the microphone because it could be heard if it's a no then you just say no when you're good good

afternoon sir can you state your full name for the

instructor licensing investigator with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board

in regards to your appointment did you receive any specialized training or field experience

yes field and administrative training

the case that was

just announced how many

citations

were written

five

and I'm going to walk

through them with you

I'll go to the council first I'll show my entire staff the citation

first citation CLV CT 2600301 violation of code 22 14 1 for unlicensed contractor holding

himself out as a licensed contractor while engaging and fixing the installation of the house county yes I do is that a fair and accurate copy of the citation it is

which number

was that

that is 00301

okay

no no I was

just going with the lowest number working my way to the top go ahead 299 is the lowest but that's okay we're going to do this one 301 first all right

next is CLV CT 26 299

okay let's do it that way in order here because the files in that order okay 299

299 is for a licensed contracting engaging in fence and de-installation at Pinellas

at a property in Pinellas county offense date of August 22nd 2025 that's correct

yes I issued

that citation

as well

that's correct yes I issued

that citation as well

that's correct

yes I issued this citation as well

correct that's correct

that's correct

yes that is the

sumbiz account for briscoe fencing solutions LLC listing mr. briscoe as the sole person on that company

is that a fair and accurate representation of the information you did during your review

it is

at this time I'd move this to county 2

mr. lewis

c2 is accepted as evident

did you have an opportunity to prepare an affidavit in this case

I did

do you recognize this document I do is this a document that you prepared based on your research yes it is and the last sentence says

there is no evidence that the above has been licensed with the board for the search dates of january 1st 2024 to june 4th 2026 and that individual above is john ross briscoe is that correct that is correct is this a fair and accurate representation of the affidavit you executed it is at this time I move this into evidence as c3

mrs. lewis any objection to c3 c3 is admitted to evidence no objection

you had the opportunity to take some photos in this case

I did

I'm going to show this composite to opposing counsel quite a few pictures here so I'm just going to walk ask you to walk

me through them one by or page by page

sure

this first page can you describe to me what we're seeing

so this is the front entry of the woodbridge condo apartments located in Seminole Florida which is in Pinellas County these were taken the day of my site visit which was April 30th of 2026 sorry it's a little faded here at 4 27 p.m so the above caption that's the gate that was installed on the property at the time of my site visit and the below caption is just another caption of the work that was being performed and a worker that was currently working on site that day

yes these are

photos that I took the day of my site visit the above caption is a worker for Mr. Briscoe that was on site you know currently working on the gate on the property for the condo association and the below caption is the concrete that was removed as part of the gate structure and various tools and toolboxes on site

not to interrupt you but you said that was a worker for Mr. Briscoe

that's correct sir this was one of the vehicles on site on the day of my site visit yeah so while I was on site I made contact with a representative of the board named Robert Caruso while on site he had copies of the contractor invoice with Briscoe fencing solutions and I obtained a photo of that paperwork that he had on site yes another caption of the paperwork that Mr. Caruso had on site with Briscoe fencing solutions listing John Ross Briscoe on that invoice and description of the gate access control installation equipment costs and the dollar amount total job being $46,200

yes I

arrived on site with the building official for the city of Seminole Jim Reeves and this was Mr. Briscoe who was sitting adjacent to the front entryway of the condo association and I once on site I subsequently made contact with Mr. Briscoe to discuss the work that was being performed

who recognized Mr. Briscoe have you had interaction with him prior to your site visit

I had seen social media postings of Mr. Briscoe prior to that point I had only corresponded with him over telephone and via email

he did

that is the other entry point for the condo association I conducted a follow-up site visit to obtain photo evidence of the other gate that was part of the scope of work with the contract with Briscoe fencing solutions obtained these photos on May 5th of 2026

yeah so

it's an automatic gate so you know you see the motor over here there's electrical components to that there's an access system involved with the installation of that automatic gate

it does another

caption of that secondary entry to the condo association I believe this is Ridge Road just another vantage point of that gate

composite C4

no objection C4 is admitted to evidence the photographs

part of your research did you access information from the property county property appraisers website I did

I do

yes this is the property appraiser listing for the Woodbridge condo association which is located in Seminole Florida which is within Pinellas County

C5

is accepted it

I do

correct John Ross Briscoe so during my investigation I requested payment documents from the association the property management provided those documents this was within those documents and it's my understanding that this was made with the association created by John Ross Briscoe showing that there was still a final payment of $17,000 for this contract

time I'd ask

to move this into

evidence as 6

it's up to 6 or 7 we're up to 6 or 7

we are 5 so that's 6

thank you

I do have some further questions for investigator pageant but that's what the documentary you can

recall them for questions I got

ahead of myself you also cited Mr. Briscoe for advertising is that correct that's correct yes this

is the Google listing for the company Briscoe fencing solutions fence contractor specializing in the installation repair of wood vinyl and metal fences areas serve clear water and nearby areas

that's

correct that's from the Facebook page for the company Briscoe fencing solutions advertising a gate installation in Largo Florida listing himself as a fence and gate contractor with the area of operation of St. Pete

yes

you need a license to advertise those services in Pinellas County

yes this

is from Yelp advertising the company Briscoe fencing solutions serving St. Pete area

yes

that's correct so fencing gate installation or services offered and that would require a license here in Pinellas County

yes that's

the web page for Briscoe fencing solutions

so part of

our investigation we look for any type of online advertising and this led me to his website Mr. Briscoe's website Briscoe fencing solutions which is his company

there is no

license number displayed on any of these pages

yes the

services offered all types of fencing access control system installation fence installation and repair gate installation and repair and then the contact information for the company

correct

yes that's also from the web page areas that the company serves Clearwater Tierra Verde Kenneth City Lelman Indian Shores St. Petersburg all within Pinellas County

was there a license number available on any of those advertisements there was

not

at this time I'd like to move this into evidence as composite seven

there be no objection in composite seven composite documents admitted into evidence

so when

I reached out to the condo association for payment information with Briscoe fencing solutions the property management company resource property management provided payments to Mr. Briscoe's company Briscoe fencing solutions this was one of the payments

yes I

received this from the association this is an invoice with Mr. Briscoe's company Briscoe fencing solutions made August 9th 2025 for gate access control installation back gate on Ridge Road front gate with aluminum installation total amount for total bid I should say for $46,200 dollars

dollars

that's

correct

no there being

no objection to C9 C9 accepted and to evidence the invoice

yes this is

another invoice with Mr. Briscoe's company Briscoe fencing solutions built to Woodbridge condominium association in Seminole August 9th 2025 for the installation of approximately 271 feet of PVC fencing

there is not that's correct at this point I'd ask to move this document as C10 being no

objection to C10 C10 is accepted to evidence

can I have a moment

yes

do you recognize this document I do

can you

describe to us what we're saying

this is from our database Acela that we use for our investigations it holds all of our licensing information and our citation information these were the previous citations issued to Mr. Briscoe

all of the information is accurate

yes

at this point I'm asked to move this document as C11

C11 is accepted no objection except previous violations do you recognize

this document

I do this is the final order for Mr. Briscoe's previous violations that went uncontested and unpaid

review writing this current citations

that's correct we look to see if anybody has been cited before if it's their first or second or third offense then we elevate the fine

and is that why the fine was elevated in this case

that's correct he had been Mr. Briscoe had been this was his third offense

is this in addition to the list that was just the previous exhibit this in addition to that list

that's correct they correspond with those

citations so it's not in addition it's the same

supplement just further proof just further proof okay

just trying to look at the amount okay

yes I move the final administrative order assessing fine for CLB NG24-228 and CLB NG24-00230 there'd be no

objection to county 12 being the final administrative order that judge foolish order yes

very similar document do you recognize this

thank you

and it's the final administrative order assessing fine for Mr. Briscoe for previous violations as discussed that's correct at this point in time I would move into evidence county 13 okay

there'd be no objection to the final administrative order I think did you say 13 that we're up to

yes

accepted it's accepted so the

questions I have for now but if I could just reserve a right to recall or ask for the right to recall Mr. Paget it's not a problem thank you you don't get

away so easy I'm going to have Mr. Lewis call up do you have any cross examination questions

I would call Mr. Reeves

I apologize it's Reeves

Reeves

Reeves

R-E-E-V-E-S

good afternoon sir could you state your name for the record

James Reeves

and how are you employed

building official city of Seminole

what is the job responsibility of a building official

I oversee I run the building department administrative staff and inspectors

and do you have any experience as a contractor

I've been a licensed contractor since 1996 or 97

and for you did you have the opportunity to review documents and connection with Mr. Briscoe's case

yes I did

how did this case come to your attention

well there was a permit issued on the property for a fence replacement and I noticed one weekend evening that there was guys out working at the entrance working out of the trunks of cars working on gates so I went back Monday and I looked at the permits saw that it was only for fencing on the permits and I sent inspector Todd Meyer out to find out what was going on out there and at that point we found out there was more work involved than just fencing it was a gate involved

let me pause you right there so I can show this document this document is a couple pages do you recognize I'm going to start with the first page do you recognize this

yes I do

okay and is this permit project the relevant permit that we were reviewing for in connection with this case

yes it is

okay and let me walk backwards a little bit you said that you were driving by on the weekend

yeah we work weekends too doing things I live in the area so we see things at night on weekends basically as the building official when I leave my house I'm the building official so just similar no matter what day and time never off the

clock what did you observe that weekend that made you think that it was outside the scope of the permit

well just the odd hours and then there was no vehicles that had it commercial vehicles there nothing had any identification who the contractor was on the vehicles etc so that usually leads to suspicion that something is a little bit different going on

and you said when you got to the office on Monday you had one of your investigators go out

I had inspectors what was

that inspector's name

Todd Meyer

and are you aware of the result of Mr. Meyer's investigation yes

and what

was that

well the gate was never on the permit it was just for fencing it had been installed there had been concrete poured etc etc electric wires run no inspections so it was basically the permit called for fence and there was a lot more going on than just a fence

and I'm going to flip through the rest of this permit for you we see here on the second page Britannia construction was Britannia construction actually involved in this project at all

well it came to light you know we're not the licensing board so we look at the building code but we run across a lot of different things in the courts of that so I visited the property myself and Mr. Briscoe and the worker was out there and actually Mr. Cruz who's the representative from the homeowners association handling the project he approached me and you know kind of asked what was going on and I told him the situation and he was carrying a file folder and had all the information and we started looking at it and I had stuff on my computer that said I think it was Mr. Nash who's the owner of Britannia and he had a contract from a Briscoe fencing solution so first of all that you know that doesn't match up I talked to Mr. Briscoe about it he basically told me I don't know what's going on I don't understand how it works and I told him I really do know how it works from both angles and Mr. Cruz he was pretty pretty unaware of the whole situation and we had to have him you know we needed engineering we had to get the fences fence permit updated with Gates but we had a problem with the contractor because the guy working out there I could tell he wasn't a licensed contractor by his work and his demeanor so that's when I called the investigator to take a look at this for me because that's more of their expertise understood

but based on your training and experience it was enough to kind of tell you that something wasn't right here that this person was unlicensed

I could tell by driving by

and the rest of this just for the record is this a fair and accurate representation of the permit that you reviewed my question is you didn't make any changes to it did you

no they had to come back and add the Gates on to the contract and then we find out later there was another Gate involved on the east end of the property that it was kind of every time we turn around and we find something else that they were doing so that's when it really I think that's when from what I understand that's when the Homeowners Association they stopped the job and proceeded to take care of what they had to take care of and then I think we put someone else on the permit at some point here you know another contractor that they put on

and when you say they you mean the Homeowners Association yes at this point I'd ask to move this permit into evidence at C14

C14 the permit is accepted to evidence no objection other questions

I have for Mr. Reese right now

Mr. Lewis do you have any crosses Mr. Reese he testified other things besides the document or you can do it later it's up to you

later

you have a right to recall him if you want to cross

call Mr. Caruse

Caruse I know you said it before your name sir

Caruse

C-A

K-A-R-O-U-Z

thank you

good afternoon sir thank you for being here could you please state your name for the record

Robert Caruse

I know you've heard a little bit about the testimony we're here regarding allegations against Mr. Briscoe that took place at the Woodbridge Condominium how are you connected to the Woodbridge Condominium

well I was head of the committee for going up to see for seeing overseeing the project

and did you have the opportunity to like review any payments that were made by the condo association oh yes

they were all you've already brought that up yes

an email that was sent from the property management group it says that Bonnie Bob she's talking about you is that right ask that I provide you a copy of the check payments please see attached the four invoices paid with check 1258 and check 1292 is that an accurate statement that that's how Mr. Briscoe was paid are you aware of the condo association paying any other individual other than Mr. Briscoe while Mr. Briscoe was still attached to the project at this point in time I'd like to move that email into evidence of C-15

any objection Mr. Lewis C-15 I believe this is the email is accepted

do you have other questions for Mr. Cruz but they are not document related so I don't know you can do

it either way we heard

a little bit that you had interactions with Mr. Reeves I kind of if you could just give us like a timeline of your interaction with the project how did this come to be the condo association decided that you needed a gate to replace the gate

well no there was an existing gate on the ridge road at the east entrance and we as a community in general decided we wanted to make it a gated community so we were going to add the gate on 102nd to make it full and at the same time we discussed well the gate that was there on the east entrance was 35 40 years old so if we're going to do it maybe we should do them both together and Mr. Briscoe said you asked I can save you some money like I don't have an exact number might have been 1800 if we did them both at the same time as I recall so we the board approved it and we decided to do them both at the same time

and did Mr. Briscoe ever did you get the impression that he was licensed to do this work

that brings up a good question initially he had mentioned that John Nash from Britannia Britannia construction was qualifying him or the company so I didn't think much of it but I did look up his information and I did contact John Nash to confirm what Mr. Briscoe had said and he said yes he's done work with him and he is not a problem he gave him a good rating as far as his workmanship and that he was he did work with him qualifying with different aspects of different work so I didn't think much of it and I said well he's pulled the permit and I thought everything was above board and we went along along those lines

and at what point did you start to suspect that something wasn't quite right

well we had a lot of different issues coming to work not coming to work coming in on Tuesday and not showing up to whatever different days and the timing was off late in the afternoon 4 or 5 o'clock even if it's dark or on the weekend so I didn't you know I didn't think anything of it honestly because he had the permit so he was working with other work and he had other jobs he was doing so I just okay well that's the way he operates so I didn't think too much of it until the inspector had come by and seen it and that's when everything came to light

okay you're saying everything came to light that's when you found out that he wasn't actually qualified like he represented

correct

and that my next question is are you aware of any payments that the condo association ever made to an individual or entity other than Mr. Briscoe not for this

project no

I don't have anything further

Mr. Lewis I'd like to

ask one question just one simple question what's your understanding of he's qualified mean to you

qualified being a licensed contractor okay I've been a licensed I presume that I've been since 1982 I would want to know if he just meant he

could do the

job well yes two different

things right

yes in terms of witnesses or documents and documents okay if you have documents you want to put in we could do those first and I'll give you plenty of time to put on your witness and whatever unless you want to do them both at the same time I'll let you do them both right now

I'd like to do both at the same time okay so all right

I'll ask them to put their witnesses on now and then I'll have to do both

I know you had testified earlier that you did involve the Pinellas County licensing board because that's more of their specialty do you have any knowledge about whether or not Mr. Briscoe was qualified

wouldn't be so qualified as far as

as being able to work under Mr. Nash

no he wasn't qualified his company Briscoe Fencing Solutions is not qualified by I think it was Britannia for Mr. Nash's company that requires applications credit reports paperwork that gets submitted to the DBPR to become a qualified entity and listed on their website with a license number so it wasn't qualified it wasn't qualified you checked

that

yes and that being said when we're out on the job working that means the city of Seminole we have no record of liability workers comp for anybody out there so it's kind of breaking all the rules of what we do in the city

thank you that's all I have

any questions okay

one question as part of your investigation do you determine whether or not whether Mr. Briscoe was qualified

I determined that he was not qualified

and you did an independent investigation aside from what Mr. Reef looked into you didn't just take his word for it that's

correct yeah I did that was part of my investigation interestingly enough I had just emailed Mr. Briscoe a couple weeks before this incident because I saw that he was still advertising online and I inquired about qualifying if he got qualified or because he was not licensed with us or the state and he said that he was working under a licensed contractor and I told him you know basically ran him through the proper procedures of getting qualified

and aside from being qualified is your understanding that Mr. Briscoe is not a W-2 employee of Britannia or Nash or any other

that's my understanding yes I inquired about that as well I asked him are you a W-2 employee to work under Mr. Nash's license he said he was not a W-2 employee

thank you nothing further

Mr. Lewis no correction that's the county's case I'll give you time for argument later Mr. Lewis

I'm calling Mr. Briscoe good afternoon everybody can you please state your name

John Ross Briscoe

all right and is Briscoe fencing solutions LLC your company yes sir you understand we're here today to discuss or for hearing on citations charged against you by the Pinellas County licensing board yes sir all right the board sent you some documents in advance yes sir did you see

did you see

the five citations living against you today yes I did do you recall that four of those concern the am I correct in saying that four of those concern the Woodbridge project and the other one is for online advertising yes sir did you do work on that Woodbridge project yes yes

yes I did

okay what were you hired to do

we were hired to replace two gates install two gates in the front with motorization

oh what else

and the scope of the work changed in the middle that we did a concrete pad in the front

okay did you were hired to do any fence work

yes we also did we extend the fence on the wall so the wall around the property some of it was like four feet tall so the association wanted us to bring the fence up to height with the rest of the fence around the property so we were on a two feet vinyl fence around on top of the wall around the property

okay did you

pull a permit for that work no but Mr. Nash did the license general contractor Mr. Nash pulled a permit for that project

okay and you understand his company is Britannia in construction

yeah Britannia construction yes

did anyone

supervise your work Mr. Nash Mr. Nash supervised the work

okay I'm going to show you a document did you speak with Mr. Nash before this hearing

yes yes

did you ask Mr. Nash about attending today

yes I asked Mr. Nash to come here but he said he couldn't meet it because his wife is very held so he sent the affidavit over to me

okay is this the affidavit that he sent you yes when did he send that to you

Friday

do you mind reading I guess those paragraphs 1 through 4 for me

1 through 4 yes okay I am over the age of 18 and otherwise competent to make this statement and have personal knowledge of this fact state hearing I am a licensed general contractor in the state of Florida although they were not a direct subcontractor of me or my company I personally supervise the work of John Ross Briscoe and Briscoe Fencing Solutions LSE on the Woodbridge Condominium Association project because of my wife's illness I am unable to attend Mr. Briscoe's hearing in person

all right thank you I'd like to offer this as a respondent's exhibit 1

is there

a stamp for me

was that in this package Mr. Wells I feel like I've seen that if I could just look at it for a second it's in here oh no that's okay I'm sure it's in there let me just look at one for just give me one second here whoever I saw this couldn't put my hand on it it's going up here

on the other side

on the other side we'll have there

okay

one's in R1

all right Mr. Briscoe I'm going to show you another document do you recognize this document yes

that's the document that Mr. Nash sent out to the attorney for the condo association

okay and how did you come into the

possession of it Mr. Nash emailed it to me

I'm sorry you said that's why Mr. Nash emailed this to you yes Mr. Nash emailed it to me okay and you're understanding that this letter concerns your work and your history with Mr. Nash yes okay I'd like to mark this as respondent's exhibit two

it's just dated this letter it's on the top May 20th right

yes

yes I have to copy everything you have yeah R2 is accepted okay

Mr. Briscoe do you have a fencing license

no I don't why not because most of the work that we're done that we have done in the past was supervised by Mr. Nash and from the research that I've done online it basically stated that the county is not required to offer a fencing license from my knowledge

okay Mr. Special Magistrate I've got a document that I found due to my own research so I don't have a witness to discuss it with but perhaps I could save it for argument I guess well let's do it this way

you can do it well during an argument or whatever I'm pretty loose on accepting documents I was just trying to make it you know orderly that's all

let's well

my intention is going to be to add this as respondents exhibit number three I can you know as an officer of the court that I looked up Mr. Nash's licensing details on the DBPR website

and this is

that information Mr. Nash for Britannia construction and I'd like to answer that as respondents exhibit three

I'm just going to say I'm not going to I accept those all the time I think

Ms. Kreider

was good because she had a witness for everything she showed

so no I understand that but it's yeah I'm accepting that document from the

tough act to follow the state

yes

okay so I think was your testimony that it was your understanding that the county couldn't require a license for fencing

yes that's from my understanding

where did you get that understanding

research that I've done online and also when I called the DDPR they say that I should the state doesn't recognize Florida Florida doesn't recognize fence contractor as a license trade anymore

okay here's what they told you in Tallahassee

yes they told me that the Florida doesn't recognize fence contracting as a license trade I'm sorry go ahead

earlier previous citations against you were discussed and Sean do you recall that

yes

were you aware

of those yes I was aware of those fines but I was also wasn't aware that there was a limit or a timeline of me to pay those fines but I'm working on it I should pay those off by Wednesday I was going to pay it off before I got here today but it didn't work out that way

okay and you understand those are citations from before yes mid-year 2025 yes and that your time to appeal those has passed yes okay so your intention is to pay them and I'll get them paid off by Wednesday okay all right let's go back to the citations that we're here to discuss today do you believe you've violated licensing laws no why not

because the work that we have done that we had done from the Woodbridge Association was supervised by a licensed general contractor

any other reason

and when we when I do the research online it also states that the requirement for fence the fencing license it's not really a requirement for a fencing license based on the law that was passed

from my knowledge sure have you performed any fencing work in Pinellas County since receiving

those citations no because I was trying to wait to get this hearing cleared up first before see which direction I can go in

sure have you advertised to perform any fencing work in Pinellas County since receiving the citations no have you told anyone that you have a license

I never told anyone that we have done work for in the past or that I have a fencing license

never before

never before never prior never told anyone that I actually I'm a licensed fence contractor

okay since receiving these citations have you done anything as it pertains to the Woodbridge project

yes we reached out to a few members from the association to trying to minimize the damage that happened on the association by having Mr. Nash personally come down and physically do the work or if you wasn't able to physically complete the project hire someone else to complete the project what damage was that so well we received a letter I received a letter from the association lawyer stating something about property damage and stuff like that right breach of contract property damage

a different issue we haven't we're not discussing and I'm asking you is that the case that some some other issue

I think it was I'm not sure if it was the same issue but once I received that letter we start reaching out to the HOA to try to get Mr. Nash to physically finish the project okay I'm just trying to follow okay yes

so let me clear this up have you performed any physical work at the HOA since you received the citations no

we haven't performed any physical work okay but you've reached out to the HOA but I did reach out to the HOA sorry if I get that wrong

all right I'm going to show you a document after I show it to opposing counsel Mr. Briscoe do you recognize this document

yes I do recognize that what is it that's a text message that I sent to I think that was I sent to Bob K and who's Bob K

do you recognize whether Bob K is in the room

yes

easier right now I think it's Robert

Caruse yeah

Robert Caruse the gentleman is in the back okay

these are text messages right yeah okay

what was the purpose of sending this text messages just trying to

like I said before just trying to minimize the damages to the HOA and trying to let Mr. Nash physically finish the project and when you say damages you mean

yeah trying to like go ahead go ahead with your question sorry

there was can you agree that there was an impact to the project because citations were because the board got involved and citations were issued against you yes so were you trying to minimize the impact of that

yes we're trying to just minimize the impact and get the project complete to the best way that we know how

okay and when you say that you mean get the project complete by helping transition things to Mr. Nash

yes

okay I'd like to enter that as respondent Exhibit 4

respondent Exhibit 4 no objections except the evidence

all right Mr. Briscoe do you recognize this document yes that I do recognize that document what is it that's also another message that I send to the president of the association Rick

Rick is the president of the association

yes from my knowledge yes

okay what was the purpose of sending these messages

I send those messages the same thing that I stated before with Mr. Robert just trying to you know minimize the damages and trying to get Mr. Nash to come down and physically you know perform the work or get someone else to complete the job

all right so respondents Exhibit 5 if that's may answer it as respondents Exhibit 5

R5

is accepted into evidence there being no objection

to your knowledge was any of your work performed defectively on the project

not from my knowledge we had engineering plans and we also had engineering guidelines that we were followed based on what the engineering plans and guidelines were so from my knowledge the work wasn't defective

okay Mr. Briscoe please scan through these documents are these engineering plans you just referenced

okay

so is your position that you did perform the work in accordance with these plans yes I'd like to offer these as respondents Exhibit 6 R6

R6 is accepted into evidence no objection Mr. Briscoe yes sir just looking at those engineering plans the gates on there right

yes the gates are out there

do you know how to read those plans

very well yes you do so you knew what electric

was needed and everything

yes the electrical was done by a licensed electrician we have a permit in there as well for that

Mr. Briscoe did you perform any electrical work

no what we did we dug the ground footing and we run the conduit and then the electrical came in and do what you have to do afterwards all right

Mr. Briscoe have you seen this document before

yes what do you understand it is from my understanding that's a letter from the engineering

okay and what does this explain

explain the depth of the post that was installed

the post you installed

yes the post that we installed

does it does this explain what the requirements are

it explain what the requirements are yes

what depth is required according to the engineer according to

the engineering plan it's supposed to be four feet four feet yes where on this does it say that

here it's just

explaining the 4x4 4x4 post quarter inch wall thickness and foundation it doesn't it doesn't say that it has to be four feet okay what does

this report say then

the report just basically say that the engineer oversight the depth of the post and then we did the installation correctly

okay I'll offer this as respondents exhibit 7

I see 7

is accepted at the evidence

and Mr. Briscoe do you recognize this document

yes that's another document from the engineer

okay take a look at this one tell me how it pertains to your work

this the the engineer this document stating that the engineer inspect the installation of the concrete pad that we installed in the front for the access control keypad and barcode reader

is his conclusion that you did it right

yes all right thank you

I'd like to offer this as respondents exhibit 8

exhibit 8 no objection except that evidence

mr. Briscoe is it after all this is sorted out is it important to you to be able to do fencing work in Pinellas County

yes it's important for me to continue doing fencing work in Pinellas County why is that one that's how I feel my family and two I believe that we've done more good to the community than that

what's your plans regarding doing licensed contracting work in the future

well my plan was initially my plan was to take my general contractor test I've been studying for it for the past year but I wasn't so much focusing on the fence erect license based on the understanding that I had when it comes to the the state doesn't recognize fence contract as a license trade so I was mostly focused on trying to get my general contractor license

if it turns out that a fencing license is required what's your intention with that

well since this citation since everything came since I received the last citation I went online I didn't I didn't sign up for the fence erect tests as of yet but I did buy all the books I read through them already a couple times and my intention was if I really do need the fence license I will go ahead pay the fines and get the fence license

okay that's all the questions I have for you so you might have a couple okay okay

Briscoe if you could stand over here thank you thank you makes it easy for me to follow so it's good

good afternoon Mr. Briscoe I do have some follow-up questions for you

yes

you testified that you're no longer advertising online is that correct

no we're not advertising online at all

so you took down your posting well my

Google my business page is still there

but we took down the other stuff

okay when did you take down the Yelp

Yelp Yelp is still there I can't delete Yelp

you can't remove your own business from Yelp

so the thing is with Yelp how would I say this now the Yelp business page when I went there to try to remove it they didn't give me access to remove it I tried to remove that but I didn't try to remove the Google My Business listing

and you have obviously more control over your own website is that correct

no so this this website that you're looking at I don't know if I can let me plug this

in so

show counsel let's just look at it should be showing I see oh okay now it went off now it's on so this is your website

that is my website but we don't I don't personally have the credentials for those websites for that website I was marketing with a company called Town Square and I wanted to have control over my own website Town Square before it was paying monthly fee for the website but I transferred the credentials to a company called City Local and the thing with the website was we wasn't able to add like keywords and stuff to the website so after they built the website about three four months go by and I was like hey the rankings for the website it's not moving I need to be able to add keywords so we had a disagreement so with that being said we stopped using them they hold on to the credentials and the website is still up there if you go all the way down to the bottom my email is not the same and my only thing is the same is my phone number I can't take it down the credential is not the same I don't have access to it

are you still paying this company

no

okay have you filed a complaint against this company

I haven't filed a complaint but if you can if you go to go back to the front and type in only thing is there it shows a landing page of mine on the website if you go back to Google and go to Briscoff Fencing the only thing that you're going to see is a landing page that shows me and it doesn't say anything about gate access and all that stuff if you don't mind

I googled it and this is sponsored as well right

hold on hold on click on website well it says right here

fence contractor specializing in installation repair of wood right

you click here no sir can you answer me does it say that yes it does say that alright where do you want me to click click right here the only thing that pops up is a landing page that's the only thing that I have access to

okay you have access to this yes white PVC fence installation say feet

white PVC fence this right here was done in March

okay but you have access to this I have access to that and you're aware of the allegation against you today about unlicensed advertising

I'm aware of it yes

and you still left this up

yes okay

thank you I'd also like to talk about these text messages if I could retrieve them and the affidavit let's start with the affidavit this is the affidavit from John Nash yes when did you reach out to him to ask him to attend today

uh no I can I go on my phone

if this is okay with the magistrate

yes go ahead what do you do when you dial him yeah I'm looking up the day when I reach out to him to come come here okay if that's okay with you yeah go ahead okay and then here's right here all history I talked to him on the 6th and I also talked to him on the 9th

when did you stop working on this project

I stopped working on the project I think it was sometime in April

okay so after you received the letter from the condo association yes yes all right in this affidavit Mr. Nash testifies that he was directly supervising you right yes personally supervised the work

yes he came down a couple times in the end of the job yes

okay so when we were talking about what prompted these text messages that I'll show you now to refresh your recollection R4 and R5 yes part of your motivation for sending these text messages was to ameliorate or smooth things over yes and you were trying to get Mr. Nash to come down was your repeated testimony yes so how is he supervising you if you're having to get him to come down when I say come down

to speak with the HOA

okay come down to speak

with the HOA because Mr. Nash lives in Dunn Island so he comes to St. Pete every so often like three times a week Mr. Nash comes to St. Pete

how long does he spend on the job sites

sometimes two hours three hours something like that he don't stay there for the whole day

okay but every two to three weeks every two to three times a week you said yeah okay and he was coming down to the job site

so he come down to the job site and then the job site's at

the condo association

the job site is also at the condo association so while he was down there

any of those times he was personally supervising you he couldn't stop by and talk to either of these individuals

well Mr. Nash wanted me wanted me to reach out reach out to the association before before I he goes and talks to the association since I was doing a lot of the communication he wanted me to reach out to the association first and then he goes over there and speaks to the association

to the best of your knowledge did he ever speak to the association

no I know that he speak to Bob through email from the best of my knowledge but that's that's all I know

are you a W-2 employee of Mr. Nash

no I'm not a W-2 employee of Mr. Nash

two this is a letter your counsel introduced and it's dated May 20th

yes

and it references in there I am in receipt of your letter dated May 15th regarding so this letter was after the citation

that's after the citation yes

right

because after the citation the lawyer from the association send me a letter and also send Mr. Nash a letter that's why Mr. Nash responded to that one

you also testified that the work was done up to the permits requirements and the plan's requirements

up to the plan's requirement yes all right

so I am not an engineer and I am not a building inspector so explain this plan to me

okay fine tell me exactly what what from this plan you said that

I think you specified at least that you correctly installed the post

yes the post is correctly installed please explain to you please turn it around and put it on the seal oh sorry thank you so can you just

walk me through

walk me through the whole project

well where does it talk about the post

right

go ahead and move that one on top of the seal whatever page you're talking about just try and put it on the seal okay

see if that one can I use your pen make it okay I hear it so right here is the motor the pad for the motor the post is right here so the post is the thickness of the post is 8 feet of an inch thick and the size of the post is 4 by 4 so 4 by 4 square feet okay yes and then

well let's talk about the footer did you put the concrete footer too

yes we put the concrete footer and you're testifying that that was up to the code I'm testifying that myself okay

what else can you show me on here that you were responsible for

the pad

and your testimony today is that all the work you did was up to

yes so the value the value goes in there two feet into the ground

then we pour it

pour it solid

have a wire mesh inside and it's like 5 inches thick based on what the plan cost

okay so let me ask you this if the work's going well you're all up to code you're all up to the plans why all of a sudden is the condo association mad at you okay why do they want to get rid of you

so from my from my knowledge there was a few changes that was made to the project that wasn't initially on the scope of the work

so your understanding is that the condo association made changes to the plan and that's why they were upset and saying that your work was bad

no so okay so everything was going smooth okay then there was a couple changes that made it to the job scope who made those changes the association okay so like

did you become aware of those changes

because they brought those changes to me like for example there was a stop they wanted stop stop like a three-way stoplight right here like a stop and go light okay right so once we get the stop and go light those lights are not something that I can just walk into Home Depot and grab those lights okay so we had to order those lights and those lights take a little bit to come in so by we waiting for those lights we end up and do something else so

what else did you do in that time

we went somewhere else

at different job sites did you communicate that

um I well they know that the lights we can't just sit there and wait for the lights to come there's nothing else to do so we had to go somewhere else

okay what was Mr. Nash thoughts about how you should use your time since he was personally supervising you since you couldn't be on that side what was Mr. Nash doing

what was Mr. Nash doing yeah well I

you work with him all the time

yeah I work with him all the time I communicate yes I understand that my communication at the time I even explained it to Bob as well that I'm trying my best to work on my communication okay but there was also a time where the gates when we brought the gates there's a specific place that we always engaged to get them powder coated so I fabricate the gates with a raw metal and then we bring them to a company in Sarasota we had to wait for the gates for like four to five weeks because the company at the time they had a lot of stuff going on

right

so from waiting for the gates and the changes the jobs start doing this and it starts stretching out that's where the disagreement comes in between us from the association

from the best of my knowledge I'm going to take this back and you'll talk to us another thing oh wait before I do that the fence is on there right the electrical fence yes and that work you did

so this right here explains the electrical fence so there's a shed here

so there's a wire from here to here let's put it on the seal

so we can all see

oh sorry thank you

it's okay

so this is the shed here there's an underground channel like 18 inches going around the wire from here to here this is where the main communication motor is right and then from right here to here to here is the communication path so from here to here is high high voltage like 120 volts but from here to here it's only communication it's like 20 volts

right

so

this first part sounds dangerous right

it does it does sound dangerous but it's 120 volts

something that you would need a license for

the licensed electrician

okay but you did the gate portion

we did the gate portion

and when you say we what does that mean who's we

all of us me and Mr. Nash and everybody Mr. Nash personally

did that work

no he didn't personally did the work we was there while we was doing the work I personally physically have the job doing the work

okay

yes

all right thank you

okay and then I guess you want to show

I'm actually done talking about this unless there's something else that I've asked that you want to clarify based on my questions in this document

did I clear up everything on the question that you asked

I don't have any other questions about this

okay all right

do you have any idea why the testimony from the building inspector today was that your work was sufficient I mean he's not affected by the delay timeline

okay so I would say when the building official came there right we we had a disagreement based on what the engineering plan states so when we pour when we pour the concrete for the fence most of the time when you do a fence job and you ask for a it's permitted they come out they check the height they come out they check the guidelines of the fence right and they check for a few things what we did we poured the footer for the fence the footer for the fence for the gates and the building official wasn't involved that was a mistake on our hand because he wanted to see the depth of the post so when he came out we dug around it and what we did was we break away the concrete around the post so you can see the depth of the post and also depth of the footer as well so you can actually visually look at it so at that time he was saying to me why did you break away the concrete and I explained to him I said I want you to see that the post went down to the correct depth and then we had a disagreement there

about the depth whether or not the depth was correct yes

and then there was an easement there the channel the post brought up right next to the easement so we how did you

determine where that easement was

well the easement is right there

did you get a survey done

the survey we have a survey from the building official yes but did you measure we did measure yes

how did you measure

in what sense how did we measure like from the street no we have we have a hundred foot lever we have a hundred foot tape measure and we also have a laser level yes that tells you the dimensions of everything okay yep

I'm almost done

okay

your council submitted these were documents R7 and R8 they don't have a business header on them they don't appear to have an email address on them how did let's just take this first one R7 we'll go one at a time how did you come to hire Evan Kennedy well that's a good question did you come to hire Evan Kennedy to look at the site and type this up

it was a it was an engineer that we we've been using for a very long time

who was we

me and Mr. Nash

okay so did you contact him or did Mr. Nash

I reached out to Mr. Nash okay and then Mr. Nash pointed me into the right direction

okay and this was on April 30th yes so after you're having the disagreements with the condo association you're having the disagreements with the building inspectors you're prompted to reach out yes is this how these reports normally look

from the best of my knowledge this is the report that we received from them

did you get well how did this come into your possession

I got it emailed

you got it emailed so someone sent you an email and it was attached yes right where did that email come from who was that was that Mr. Kennedy or was that Mr. Nash sending you this attached document

no it came from Mr. Kennedy

okay what's Mr. Kennedy's email address

I can pull it up

I would like that if that's okay with the magistrate

say that again

he's telling me he can provide the email address that this came from if he could look at his phone

that's fine

thank you

the email is right here

that just shows me the attachment it doesn't show me the actual email address

okay just for the record

it says from Jordan Boyer to Yale

yes so I guess that's his assistant who sent it over to me

okay it looks like we did the ones that were introduced so I don't want to put your email into the record for respondents 8 is 428 and respondents 7 is 430 so any reason why these are two separate requests I mean all these issues are kind of going on on the property at the same time right so any reason that it wasn't just one hey please evaluate this project instead of he's mailing it

so one came before the other that's all that was

two days apart

yeah well it was one came before the other

okay I have just one moment

yes

no further questions any redirect

should I go back on your side that's okay you're fine sorry

okay Mr. Briscoe you do work outside Pinellas County also right

yes we do work in Tampa as well

is it your understanding that customers from there find find you online yes okay and then call you based on your advertising online yes have you and I think we covered this have you done any work in Pinellas County since you got these citations no did the electrician do the high voltage electrical work yes and for the record

yeah the gate operator they are a 24 volt system they're basically battery operated so it's come from the electrical pad from the the shed to the to the gate the transformer is high voltage from there and from the motor that was it goes from 24 124 volts to 24 volt DC and then it goes to the gates and the keypad and all that stuff

okay you just had a discussion with the other attorney about the disagreement you had when you dug up the post to find the depth I think you tell me if I'm wrong you explained that you broke off a piece of the concrete to show the depth yes and that you had a disagreement with the inspector right yes was it a disagreement

about the depth it was a disagreement about the depth or a disagreement about the concrete that I broke off because the inspector wanted me to dig right so this is the post this is the concrete here the inspector wanted me to dig on this side okay but I broke the concrete here so you can see the post that goes down okay

because he wanted to see the depth of the post so you tried to show him yes did he agree

that the post was deep enough at the time no he said that the concrete wasn't enough

I'm not asking about the concrete was the post deep enough the post was deep enough yes he agreed that the post was deep enough and he just had a problem

with the concrete from my knowledge I can't recall it was we had the disagreement about the concrete that I broke off

okay not the depth not the depth okay was it 4 feet deep

it was yes

okay that's all I have

any redirect but I would ask if I could call recall Mr. Caruso in rebuttal

yes yes

but I'm not sure if council's done with his case

I'm going to give an opportunity to put another no that's okay do rebuttal to your rebuttal okay

thank you for coming

back up here sir you were able to hear the testimony that was just given talk to me about the quality of work on the site done by Mr. Brisco

well

Mr. Brisco

was correct as far as the voltage coming in a lot of the low voltage had to be all redone because of the connections conduit that it was in wasn't even connected it had to all be reworked and that's what we're in the process of having that completed as far as the post is concerned I was there when the building official was there and there was a tape put down and measured the length of the hole aside from the post because Mr. Brisco had it braced against the side of the concrete the depth of it was no more than 36 inches at that point I was there when it was measured with the tape and you personally saw it being measured oh I did as well as the building official at that point now as far as the engineering is concerned Mr. Reeves was looking at the engineering which showed 18 inches in diameter and 48 inches deep and that's not what it was

and my next question for you is how often would you go out to this job

I was on the job every day if they were there I have never met John Nash

have you ever seen anyone like they pointed to him not even just no no

if he was on that job

he must have been when nobody was there because I was on the job every day my one of my residents were there at the same time so we never saw Mr. Nash so I'm sorry but he was never there to all my knowledge but that's all I can say

nothing further okay

hang on I'm sorry do you have any cross

I'm sorry I'm sorry I always forget this part it's okay anything you want to ask me some questions if you have

Mr. Caruse Caruse you said you were there when the post depth was measured and I've got some zoomed in photos here but does that look like the hole that was being measured

well yeah it could be

okay and then that's the same hole that was into you

that's not what it was it was more of this than that I can't swear to that that wasn't fair

okay do you have an explanation for how it ended up being deep enough at any point I don't know

if this tape was bent at the bottom or what but I'm telling you Mr. Reeves can testify the same thing because when we were both

there at the same time that's when it showed 3-4

what date was that

oh it was the date that Mr. Reeves came on the job and basically told Mr. Briscoe that they had to stop first of all there was never an inspection called he never did call

so my question is what date was it I don't recall

the date

the same date that he came out yeah

it was there the same day

alright I'd like to offer these as composite exhibit R whatever we're up to here

I can't testify that that's actually the hole that was there I can't tell by that picture

is it 9 I think

I'm going to object to the fortune of the composite that surgery is the same if I do it I don't think that even in a quasi-judicial setting there's not any use to have liability but I wouldn't object to the one that Mr. Cruz is saying yes I recognize that

that was this one

I'm going to accept it he's made his comments he's not sure I can I'll take it with that understanding

is it 9 yes thank you that's all thank you

yes no I also

ask to recall Mr. Reeves let's back up to kind of the beginning before we get into these specific documents you've heard the testimony here today hearing what the issues are what were your observations of the job site

well first of all the work was done and not inspected before they even revised the permit so all this was done by an unlicensed contractor before the permit was revised so at that point once we got that established I didn't even determine the point I thought Mr. Briscoe was the contractor who identified himself as a licensed contractor I don't look at all the who's who on the permits I'm looking at plans

but when you spoke to him you said I'm the contractor he said I'm the contractor

yes

as far as R7 and R8 and I know generalizing but I'm sure as in your experience as a building inspector you've reviewed engineering reports

all the time

is there anything missing that's usually typically like a symbol or always on a true engineering report well there's a couple

things that we look at number one this is a letter with an engineer with some pictures of finished work I have an engineer that's saying personally inspected the installation and removal and reinstallation of the existing back gate well typically when that happens an engineer will give me pictures in progress or the job would be a private provider project where an engineer would do the inspections which that would have to happen before my department did any inspections once we do an inspection the engineer is irrelevant at this point the engineer letters are for some things that casually get missed during a job but he can't come in and inspect and give me pictures of finished work and said I inspected it because there's no proof of inspection and I can't accept work that was done by a known unlicensed contractor as a building official I can't accept that because in section 101 of our code it's protect the health and welfare and safety of the public and gates are dangerous people don't realize that somebody pulls up toward a bicycle a resident coming through pushing their grandchild and that gate malfunctions a lot of things happen with gates there's a lot of problems with gates and that's why it requires licensed electricians to wire it licensed contractors to do the structural work

and did you ever see Mr. Nash

no when I found out that he was on the permit I placed two phone calls to him asking him to come meet me to go over to this project to find out what's going on at his port never got a return phone call and that's kind of when I brought in the licensing board to say well they'll put more teeth into this and get some results

I'm going to show you respondent six is there anything you would like to kind of talk about as far as the testimony you were heard by Mr. Briscoe if not then that's fine too I just wanted to give you the opportunity

these drawings don't really represent everything to scale the footers here Mr. Briscoe had talked about an easement so I don't remember talking about anything about an easement I think what he's referring to is the gutter

and your show I brought over to the table respondents exhibit nine is that what you wanted to look at yeah it's a composite exhibit so just whatever photo you're referencing put it on the seal

it's difficult to tell here because this doesn't seem to be I can't tell much about that but this one here I asked for a test hole let's start with a test hole to find out you're talking about this one here can we just keep it on the seal oh I'm sorry no you're fine it's just their screen sorry about that I asked for a test hole when I came out he had the footer broke apart these are monolithic footings they're all poured in one piece we never talked about the depth of the post because typically on a fence job you can measure down these are hollow 4x4 posts and you can measure down those and get a good idea of the depth of the post and without really looking at the plans and because I look at so many things every day I don't know and I can't pull it off of here where the it's in the notes to where the footer is 1 foot 6 by 4 foot so if you look at this picture here on number 9 this footer is not placed this post is not placed in the center of the footer the first thing I told Mr. Briscoe is to do this properly you have to cut the curb out the gutter curb out and pour it all as a monolithic pour with the footer or cap it off later but they were trying to dig under behind and it just they were 3 foot they called for 4 foot so it wasn't even close and the fact that he disturbed the footer

did that suggest to you or further suggest to you that he was in fact an unlicensed contractor there was nobody

who jackhammers a footer out like that I asked for a test tool on one side

let's start with the depth trying to work through this thing because we want it to get done and I said whoa whoa whoa you broke the footer apart and he's got bolts going into the curb and here and there and it was just it was a mess and that's when you know the licensing board got involved and it all came to fruition he wasn't a licensed contractor and since then on this work here on these pictures he shows they've hired another contractor put him on a permit this stuff has all been redone to the plan so as it stands right now these areas have been taken apart and correct it

okay so the contractor that for whatever reason they or the condor association chose to put on the job had to redo the work that's been presented they came out yeah dug around

these re-drilled down and put the proper size in around it understood and they took wiring apart because I asked them to take things apart so we could see the wiring

and there was there was loose fittings loose connections and everybody wants to give you an engineer's letter but that doesn't work when somebody gets hurt

and like I told Mr. Briscoe it's no secret I'm not an engineering expert so I could have missed questions is there anything that I haven't asked you today that you would like the magistrate to consider in determining these violations

well these are there's when we get an engineer stamp on a set of drawings that means it's engineered by a licensed design professional and the work is to be done to that standard and that means there's something to this and there's safety involved when we come out and somebody says yeah I got it and I got a letter from somebody and it's okay that doesn't suffice all the time and we have to look out for the safety and we also have to look out for the homeowner association the business owner whoever that they're getting what is on these plans we don't really you know we follow the building code in certain instances you know engineers letters can't go below the letter of the building code they can't say it's my new code the building code is a minimum so we follow the plans and make sure it's right and this way here we've done everything in our department's power to make sure it's right and safe and if there's anything that comes back liability wise it goes back to the engineer and the contractor

thank you I don't have anything further

I guess just what phone number did you use to call Mr. Nash said you tried to reach out to him

727-686-6735

you got it memorized Mr. Nash

oh my phone I called my phone you said what going on about you that's okay he's asking for Mr. Nash bad question he's asking for Mr. Nash bad question

what number did you dial to try to reach Mr. Nash whatever number

was in our system

what system

in our permitting system

okay who would have who would have put that would Mr. Nash have put that in there the applicant

yes

yeah okay that's all I got

I got a voicemail I left messages okay thank you

any further witnesses okay go ahead council

I think that I'll start with the licensing citations we have submitted documentary evidence that sufficiently established that those are means of advertising and they did not have a license number on it Mr. Frisco is an unlicensed contractor he admitted that he did have access or some control over all those postings at some point and has since stopped posting indicating that he's admitting that he did those activities moving to

you're referring to the advertising and the website

yes sir okay

just following you go ahead

yes sir sorry

go ahead

regarding the unlicensed contract so that leaves us zero zero two nine nine unlicensed contractor engaging in fence and gate installation of property in Pinellas zero zero three zero zero same description unlicensed contractor engaging on a different date and a different date of adventure 12-11 as opposed to 8-25 yes sir and then zero zero three zero one holding unlicensed contractor holding himself out as a licensed fence contractor while engaging in fence and gate installation I think there's been significant testimony today that he Mr. Briscoe either said I am a contractor or was operating in a way such that multiple people that are well experienced in the field were under the impression that Mr. Briscoe was a licensed contractor

in the invoice

in the invoice absolutely the invoice said Briscoe Finstreet Solutions and I think of significance here is also that Mr. Briscoe was the only one that received a check

in this matter there was never any communication that I'm aware of at any point in time between Mr. Nash and

the condo association I believe that respondents argument is going to be essentially a Jim Walter is an exception that doesn't apply here because Mr. Briscoe is not a employee a W-2 employee of Mr. Nash even assuming if the court found it credible that this person couldn't show up today for whatever reason there's no documentary evidence that he was ever there we have live testimony saying I have no idea who this person was I think the weight of the evidence strongly suggests that maybe Mr. Nash and Mr. Briscoe

they do work together but he was never on that scene so any extension they're going to try to argue or like a state preemption requires Mr. Nash to be on scene

and that's my closing argument

and in Pinellas County they require a fence and gate if you're doing fence and gate work to have a license whereas that's not a state rule I realize that's what we're here today okay thank you very much Mr. Wells

thank you I sent you the materials you mind if I give you a binder so I can refer to some tabs I will it's just fine thank you sir

thank you Tom

all right first I want to mention that the inspector and licensing folks do important work Mr. Reeves and Mr. Padgett and I mean that I'm a construction law attorney part of what my firm does is we actually teach the continuing education courses to licensed contractors and you do a lot for the public health and safety you know there's unlicensed roofers people doing real structural important stuff HVAC and plumbing I don't disagree with that in this case they happen to have cited someone that I'll explain was acting within the law and it's for two reasons one is that he was supervised by Mr. Nash evidence includes the letter and you give the weight that you think is appropriate but the letter from Mr. Nash the affidavit from Mr. Nash he's the one that pulled the permit I believe we didn't show but I believe he's the one on the notice of commencement it was Mr. Briscoe's testimony he's a licensed general contractor the statute doesn't require that he be that Mr. Briscoe be a subcontractor to be working under this exception nor does it say that he has to be an employee and it's at tab I think 1A

well doesn't he have to be some relationship right I mean he's either an employee or a subcontractor if he's neither one of those what is he

he has to be supervised by

if he's supervised by doesn't he have to work for him

he doesn't have to technically yeah so that's that's one reason the second reason is that there was a statutory change they voted on it in 2021 it came into effect in the middle of 2025 the state preempted local authorities from requiring things like fencing licenses and unless they added an effect you're going to point out the car about right so I always forget

what that is yeah

it was 2004

here I think right

I'm not sure

of the date but I know there's a car about

all right yeah so that's if you go to page 3 under tab 1A

yeah go ahead

it says a local government may continue to offer a license for veneer including aluminum or vinyl gutters siding soffit or fascia roof anyway that's where fencing is you'll notice that gates are not in there but it says that you can offer a license plenty of places in this statute explains what you can require and offer doesn't mean require the legislature knew what how to require one if they intended to but they said offer instead I liken it to in Florida the Florida Bar requires you to have a bar license to practice law they also offer board certification in different areas of law that you're not required to have to practice but they offer it and you're allowed to if you want that extra accreditation the statute has to be strictly construed against if the legislature rather if a government authority wants to impose penalties on someone based on on a statutory interpretation they need to have explained that the local government can continue to require the license they chose the word offer again yes so gate work is not carved out a reminder that the board has the burden of proof on the supervision issue as well as this so the first part of our argument called 1A and 1B is a license wasn't required and that's because he was being supervised and there's a lot of evidence to support that and secondly the statutory change despite the carve out this isn't a carve out that allows the local government authority to continue to require a fencing license it says that they can offer one in a statute that says the word require plenty of times and I looked for law different any opinion that that would analyze that or statutory legislative history materials and they don't explain why they chose offer instead of require even if not the fines are too high and that's for a few reasons I also like to point out that there were a lot of things discussed today that weren't relevant to whether he was licensed or not and not relevant to the citations

quality of work right I've heard a lot about the quality of work I'm not sure how any of that was relevant yes and that could be a yes

and that's a perhaps

I'm not taking it as relevant in my decision because it's definitely as irrelevant as it comes if there's a licensing requirement he's either there doing the work on a gate or something like that whether he did a bad job good job you know what does that have to do with us today this is just being there doing gate work without the license so go ahead

thank you sir yeah we also

discussed the schedule as far as the other issue about the carve out I got problems with that you got to remember this county's been doing this for a long time I'm going to check that lawyer here but you know it's a major structural thing and that's how we cited this way three of the not to argue with but I'm trying to flesh this out here three of these are he's engaged in fencing gate work and doesn't have a Pinellas license period the only matter is he signed the invoice he's physically there he's doing the work and he's not an employee he's not a 1099 we're not trying to stick it on Nash it has nothing to do with him he's there he's signing it he signs this affidavit as the owner at the end this is his job and he's doing this work now I can't I don't think he can get out of that do you understand what I mean in terms of he's there doing this work he's plenty of testimony whether it was good work bad work Mr. Nash is the one that should be problematic here Mr. Nash isn't here he's not an employee of Mr. Nash or anything he hasn't said that in any way

there was testimony that he was supervised and there was testimony that Mr. Nash was there

Mr. Nash isn't on the invoice he's not on the proposal he's not on the

that's right they hired the HOA hired Mr. Briscoe directly there you go you need the license

to do that

the statute explains that you don't have to be a subcontractor so that's it it gets down

to the statute right got it

yes and you don't have to be a subcontractor and it was a big statutory change no I got it I'm going to check

it believe me I don't take it lightly it's a major thing here

in the county and yeah so it changed the licensing requirements in a lot of jurisdictions and I think the motivation was and that's not that Pinellas County was doing this but the legislature and Governor DeSantis observed that a lot of counties and cities were requiring licenses for things that a license shouldn't be required for and it was chilling the ability of people to do work for things that didn't require a license I think there was a suspicion that it was for revenue's sake so they drafted this statute I appreciate you

being up front about that I'm going to look at this and probably

take it under advisement just one or two things I want to check let me ask you this because you said the amount of the fine because which they can raise if it's not your first offense right now look help me with this here's two orders here they go to his address do you understand I mean the same violations okay one of them is mine

okay

and he continues to do it now if he says look this is a matter of principle with me it's the law there's no carve out do you see where I'm going so I why should I lower it

okay

thank you yeah sure

thank you

my understanding is that these were before the statutory change and even before the

statutory change these last year

yes the change went into effect July 2025 what are the dates of those before that right

that's why I want to look at

this

okay so one of them by Judge Fuller is the 27th of January 2025

and what I did

was

June 20th of 2025

yeah the statute passed in 2021 but yeah the statute passed in 2021 but they kept delaying its implementation until July 1st 2025 so there's the case

one was January and one was June right

okay so there was not a preemption argument for that because it was before the statutory change went into effect I think that the client didn't understand the full consequence of those and he testified he intends to pay those and I just mentioned that as a potential mitigating factor the reason he testified that he didn't change what he did after that was because he was aware of this statutory change and because he started working with Mr. Nash and having him supervise his work

he was aware of a statutory change that he has a legal opinion on that he was so advised no

but he googled

it and he shares the same understanding I do about the local authorities aren't allowed to require offense license anymore okay

okay

but they on tab 5a it talks about the guidelines for disciplinary action for Pinellas County contractor licensing for this board and identifies the amount that can be charged for its offense and mitigating factors I think that mitigating factors include that Mr. Briscoe either did understand that the law changed and that's why he acted the way he did or he just misunderstood but truly believed that the law changed that he tried to rectify the situation and that's what we showed the text messages for he stopped doing work but he was trying to facilitate a transition to Mr. Nash either self-performing that was the testimony that it was either Mr. Nash self-performing or Mr. Nash supervising someone else to do the work he stopped doing work there and he stopped doing all work in Pinellas County even though he and I both believe that he doesn't need a license to do it he's still nonetheless stopped and he's going to pay those old fines as soon as he's able so the guidelines here describe minor infractions and major infractions and repeat offenses or otherwise and the numbers are lower than what's been imposed here and if you go to the 5B they use the term and if you go to the M it's for major violation and minor violation they use the term violation instead of infraction but I submit that they're similar and that

I'm sorry what's the number

so on tab 5B and you go to the M which is page 2 of 7 got major violation and minor violation and I can let you read through that but what it turns on is whether it creates an immediately dangerous situation for people and his Google results and Yelp page I submit don't create a dangerous situation I also appreciate that there probably are accidents that happen with Gates but I think respectfully maybe that was a little overstated the danger that offense could the potential harm that offense could cause he also he didn't do there was a lot of talk about electrical work and there's no citation related to electrical work and he testified he didn't do electrical work it's about unlicensed fencing but okay major violation or minor violation I submit that there are minor violations which would be for the first offense $300 for repeat offenses $500 up to three the citations are for even if well let's look at them but therefore if it's for $2,000 then it's that's 500 times four and you can only go up to three

yeah this is chapter 75

I've just pulled it off the Pinellas County guidelines yeah yes it says 75-489 as amended I have to check all of that all right so the first citation going in numerical order number 299 a licensed contractor engaging in fence and gate installation at a property in Pinellas County so again our position is that there should be no fine but if there's a fine that's a $500 fine

this is licensing right

yeah which is

different than advertising right

I agree so yeah this is unlicensed contractor engaging in fence and gate installation and again there's no carve out that allows a county to continue to require a gate license but so you're

saying now the carve out is no longer any good as far as the law goes

there's no

far of that anymore I don't think it says that

they can continue to offer it

but that they can't

it'll be a major thing here I'm going to spend a little time looking it up I'm not going to make a decision I'm just going to make my decision I'm going to impose a fine it out much okay

okay all right so the first one unlicensed contracting call it even one because he was already penalized for the stuff from early 2025 so you could call it one repeat offense that's $500 it's instead $2,000 so that's $1,500 too high according to the Pinellas County's own guidelines the next one unlicensed contracting engaging in gate installation so that would be at most another $500 so that's $1,000 then they have creatively identified I think the same violations kind of repackaged them over and over again all of this except for one has to do with the Woodbridge project so of course if he performed the work he submitted an invoice for that work I submit that's the same that's really the same violation and an invoice that really isn't advertising either he has to be paid for the work that he did there was testimony that he did not hold himself out as a licensed contractor and that he never has and the testimony from Mr. Caruse was that before Mr. Briscoe started the work he disclosed to Mr. Caruse about Mr. and that that's who he works with and that Mr. Nash pulled the permit so he was up front about that he's not a licensed contractor and that he instead that he works with Mr. Nash so there's not evidence that he's held himself out as a licensed contractor yeah I mean I really think that the invoice I don't know if that's common I think an invoice is a duplicative penalty for really what was the same thing and then the online advertising would be his first time offense so that would be at most only 300 so I got up to 1300 there max it's instead they're seeking 8500 and so yeah really that's our position

yeah let me ask you this I always wonder about that you know in other words on two the allegations of the county are on two occasions okay he did gate work and therefore they charged him twice the third one is for holding out is because he puts on his invoice hey I'm licensed that's the holding out

does the license say that I mean does the invoice say that

well that's my whole point I'm going to take a look at that but the invoice it's an issue in that invoice the invoice I mean the invoice you know I'll let her bring up counsel here I'll let her argue it or whatever but that was some comments about that I'm going to look at that invoice again yeah the invoice that came in

if so that's a $500 fine instead of a $2,000 fine I think worst case

go ahead

all right yeah so that's our position he was supervised so keep your hand down

okay

supervised so license wasn't required statutory change preempts the county's ability to require the license and using the county standards the fines really shouldn't exceed $1,300 or $1,500 or $1,800 even allowing them to be repeat even allowing them to be repeat offenses there's no guideline in here that would allow for a $2,000 fine

the county has code sections on it I can tell you that I'm going to need to match them up against this statute

okay

I want to take a look

okay thank you

anything you want to add to that

the county the county would argue that he was holding himself out to be a contractor because he kept representing that he was qualified by Mr. Nash as far as the carve out we think that the interaction between a special act and the legislative update the carve out says applied but the fact of the matter is for this case there is really a lot more issues he wasn't supervised so we don't need to get into whether or not this carve out applies because if he's not supervised and he's not an employee then what license are they saying is being preempted from the county being able to enforce it

well two of them are unlicensed contractor engaged putting in a fence okay in Pinellas County they're saying you don't need to be a licensed contractor for a fence he's obviously putting he's unlicensed and he's putting in a fence I mean is it as simple as that

yes

he says no we don't the county doesn't have illegal authority under some new law

right and I disagree and I'm not going to go on poetic about it I just think that's the answer it's as simple as that and as far as invoice goes I know there were some comments on that could I look at it sure I would argue that although it doesn't have I mean Briscoe Fincing Solutions it looks like an invoice it has a business number on it and I understand he's using that as cell phone number and not like business license but in combination with all of the actions taken and the fact that he was not qualified he was not final affidavit he says it's him and he says it's him in his final affidavit that was my next point so I'm not going

so I'm not going

I think issues have been identified I'm not going to

but how about the amount of the fine do you have any comments on that

I don't have any comment on that I'd be happy to review what council said it's my understanding but I don't have the sites off the top of my head that there are code provisions that match up but I don't have the exact

no there's other I'm not putting it on the spot and I'm not going to ask both of you for briefs I just want to check a couple of things and I'll be pretty black and white about my decision just in terms of I'm just going to rule on the five citations

that's all I have come on

okay thank you council

just that the invoice either represents that he's licensed or it doesn't I don't I think that the invoice was just reviewed there's not a representation that he's licensed on there

no it's a totality of all the others I understand the argument

so I don't think that that's validly a separate citation that he didn't hold himself out in the invoice and it's as I think the citation is specifically as to the invoice he's held himself out as a licensed contractor I don't think that the invoice

no so what you're saying on 301 I'm sorry I don't have it

right in front of me

I'll read it to you I'll make less this is the one right this one is the third one unlicensed contractor holding himself held out as a licensed fence contractor while engaging in fence and gate installation right that's what they're relying

and it references the invoice that one

no it doesn't that's the holding out their argument is it's the invoice

oh okay right right

they're holding himself he's not he doesn't do

that in the invoice

I think is there a citation that references the invoice specifically

2214-4 which is it's 301 top right in so in other words they're citing 4 is hold 4 is 2214-4 is hold oneself out as being licensed and registered pursuant to state statute or the said laws of Florida when not so licensed or registered

I'm referring to number 302 no it says unlicensed contractor advertising fencing services that's an advertising issue but it says advertising via invoice that because the other one is advertising via the internet does it actually

refer to the invoice

yes the other one is advertising via the internet this one's advertising via invoice and he doesn't advertise via the invoice that's a 302

so 301 is holding himself out

yeah engaging holding himself out while engaging while engaging

and 302

is advertising via invoice

right and I submit that you didn't okay and that's the only and then the other one's advertising via the internet

that's the only $500 fine right are you getting that right

is that a

$500 all the others are $2,000

no the invoice is for $2,000

no not the invoice the citation

the citation related to the invoice number 302 is for $2,000

yeah but number 301 is $500 right

but that's not the one related to the invoice

that's correct this is just licensed contract holding himself out as a licensed contract while engaging in

yes that's the only one that's $500

totality of the other conversations and work with anything else

no thank you

anything else okay just I know I have a statutory amount of time but I'll get it to you pretty quick you're good with the addresses well you have the council so you can do it

I believe we received it from your letter I have 5216 Southwest 91st Drive in Gainesville Florida 32608 and I have your email chris at npw-law.com

and

Melina also

yes

okay perfect we'll be sending to them you're welcome magistrate may we have a break before we go to the next one restroom break

yes and we're going to do Simpsons the only one we're going to put on yes because Mr.

Carter paid his citations

you okay with that 5 minutes 10 minutes

yes

you can let them go

communications please stop stop recording that'll be real

quick council

I'm talking about it it's a Simpson case we're not going to hear the case item 8

rescheduled from June 24th 2026 department PCCLB matter unlicensed contracting code violation no permit code violation subcontracting code violation advertising code violation case number CLB-MG25-00152 CLB-MG25-00151 CLB-MG25-00150 CLB-MG25-00149

CLB-MG25-00149

CLB-Citation number CLB-CT25-00040 CLB-CT25-00041 CLB-CT25-00042 CLB-CT25-00043

CLB-CT25-00043

defendant David Simpson notice address David Simpson 8151 Simpson place Zephyr Hills Florida 33544 and Simpson David A. Jr. 3905 Briley Loop Lando Lakes Florida 34638 Simpson Construction Florida at gmail.com and Larry Thomas 13496 Oval Drive North Largo Florida 33774 LK Thomas at verizon.net and Kirby Crider Esquire Assistant County Attorney for PCCLB in care of Natasha Creighton Legal Secretary Pinellas County Attorney's Office 315 Court Street 6th floor Clearwater Florida 33756 Kaye Crider at pinellas.gov NA Creighton at pinellas.gov violation address 7600 Sun Island Drive unit number 601 South Pasadena Florida 33707

Let the record reflect that there's no one in the gallery David Simpson did not appear this matter was previously before me on June 24th 2026 and today's date was set as the date for the hearing I believe on Friday was the first you heard from the respondent

yes magistrate

and what did the respondent say

Ms. Riley Mrs. Riley will be able to let you know

Mr. Simpson wanted to request an extension on the hearing set for today

this was on this previous Friday three days ago

yes July 10th July 10th thank you and then I responded to him July 10th at 1142 a.m good morning Mr. Simpson this is a reminder that you will need to attend the hearing on Monday July 13th 2026 at that time you may request a continuance from the special magistrate if you need additional time please let me know if you have any questions

the I believe this motion received today July 13th

yes I believe it was sent Sunday yesterday

since Sunday so that would be the 12th I guess

yes and we saw it this morning

we saw it this morning I'm denying the motion for a continuance counsel

yes with that means I'd ask the court to enter a default in this matter

I'm going to enter the default and I'll prepare an order and see if you get it okay

we have no other cases for this afternoon

okay we end we're done that's it right

yes communications please stop recording thank you