Collier commission candidate McDaniel owns businesses late on taxes, lost property to foreclosure

Bill McDaniel, a Collier County commission candidate running on his record as a businessman, owns two companies that are at least two years late paying property taxes and owe a total of more than $140,000 to Collier and Hendry counties.

The companies, Big Island Excavating Inc. and PDJW LLC, have been late in paying property taxes in each of the last seven years, according to tax data collected from the two counties.

In addition to delinquent taxes, six parcels of land owned by Big Island Excavating were foreclosed on in 2015, with the company losing a final judgment of $592,000. McDaniel also lost his Golden Gate Estates home to foreclosure in 2014, owing just over $1 million on a mortgage and court fees for the property on Tamarind Ridge Drive, court records show.

McDaniel said his companies have struggled to manage cash flow issues since the start of the recession, sometimes choosing between making payroll or paying a mortgage.

"We're working really hard to get those things taken care of," McDaniel said. "We always have and always will pay our taxes. Historically, we have been late on the payment, but we always got them paid. We've never lost a piece of property due to a tax sale and we never will."

McDaniel said he's not proud of his tax and foreclosure history, but he's not ashamed of it either. The mining and excavation industry, in general, has been slow to recover from the recession, he said. His businesses had to prioritize bills to stay afloat, but his employees still have jobs, he said.

"It's all part of being out there in the world trying to survive in business," he said. "A lot of people didn't survive. You have to make payroll every two weeks whether somebody buys dirt or not. There are difficult choices, but I made my choices. I didn't want a foreclosure, but when I was forced to pick between a mortgage or payroll I picked payroll every single time."

McDaniel said he has about 35 employees between Big Island Excavating, a mining and excavation company he founded in 1998 with partner James Ivey, and Lazy Springs Recreation Park, an ATV and off-road park in Felda.

McDaniel and Ivey formed PDJW in 2005. Through the company, McDaniel and Ivey own 13 pieces of property along State Road 82 in Felda, including quarry land and the site of Lazy Springs Recreation Park. McDaniel and Ivey owe $80,806 in taxes on the land dating back to 2012.

Big Island Excavating owes Collier County $59,260 in property taxes for eight parcels of land, including the mine and quarry the company is based out of near the northwestern edge of the Estates at 7000 Big Island Ranch Road, records show. The company has been delinquent an average of 16 months paying property taxes each year since 2009, tax data shows.

In October of 2008, the company took out a $475,000 loan to buy six properties of vacant residential and mobile home land in Golden Gate Estates. It defaulted on the loan by 2011, owing $467,000, according to court documents. The bank started the foreclosure process in 2012, receiving a final judgment for the land in 2015.

In 2006, just before the real estate bubble burst, McDaniel bought a home with more than 5 acres of wooded land on Tamarind Ridge Drive for $1 million, land records show. He took out an $800,000 mortgage on the property, and stopped making monthly payments on that mortgage in July 2010, according to court records.

The bank filed for foreclosure in 2011, saying McDaniel owed more than $900,000 in principal and interest. McDaniel lost the home in 2014.

McDaniel had lived there when he ran for a seat on the commission in 2012, losing to Tom Henning in the District 3 race. He originally filed last year to run for District 3 again, but switched over to the District 5 race once incumbent Commissioner Tim Nance announced he wouldn't seek re-election. District 5 covers most of Golden Gate Estates along with Immokalee and Everglades City.

McDaniel now lives on Redhawk Lane, at the edge of development near protected CREW lands and the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary north of the Estates. He has lived in District 5 for about a year, he said.