Two brothers-in-law are in trouble, and their problems may extend beyond their construction companies.
Matthew Banks of Banks Construction had his contractor’s license revoked in Santa Rosa County yesterday. Santa Rosa Contractor Compentency Board also
- ordered Banks to pay $34,683 in restitution to Jennifer Anderson of Gulf Breeze for uncompleted work on her home.
The PNJ reported that more than 100 area residents throughout Escambia and Santa Rosa counties came forward on social media with allegations against Banks Construction. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service is investigating the company.
Banks’ brother-in-law Jesse LaCoste, owner of LaCoste Construction, has had similar complaints about taking people’s money and not completing the work. LaCoste has ties to ECUA board member Kevin Stephens and homebuilder Blaine Flynn.
This morning, Escambia County revoked the licenses of Banks and LaCoste. The Escambia Contractor Competency Board ordered Banks to pay $74,000 in restitution to two homeowners. LaCoste must pay $90,000 in restitution to a homeowner.
I spoke with Taylor Hozey this morning. She and her husband went to high school with Jesse LaCoste. The home that they had bought four months before Hurricane Sally was badly damaged by the hurricane in September 2020.
LaCoste told them he would do the repair if they endorsed the insurance claim over to his company. The insurance company paid him $93,409. Lacoste Construction gutted the house and then stopped working on it. The couple and their two children have been in living in a two-bedroom apartment waiting for the company to finish the job.
At one point, LaCoste told the couple that he had run out of insurance money and was fighting with the insurer to get more money to complete the work. Another time, he told them that he had to special order the trusses for the new roof. The house still doesn’t have a roof. LaCoste has stopped all communications.
According to the Florida Secretary of State, LaCoste amended his corporate filing in April 2022 to remove Genesis Properties & Development as a manager. LaCoste Amended Report.
The managers of ECUA board member Kevin Stephens and homebuilder Blaine Flynn. Genesis Properties.
If you want to share your experiences with Banks and LaCoste, please email me at rick@inweekly.net.
Note: I mistakenly reported that Genesis was added as a manager in the amended filing. Actually, the amendment removed Geneses as a manager, which means Stephens and Flynn were involved with LaCoste Construction when jobs weren’t being done but huge deposits were pocketed. Articles_LaCoste
Oh, you bet it does, Brandon. This is a matter of dingleberries. Low lying fruit, if you will.
And for anyone who was watching the COW yesterday, when Commissioner May asked the question of *why* this was allowed to run so long, it’s actually much worse than most people realize. Because on June 29th, 2019, Teri Nock tried to warn the BOCC about the mess that was accumulating, after she learned that the Escambia Contractor Competency Board could not hear her case because they had no jurisdiction over a contractor operating under a state license within the City limits (something that is still a screaming problem for City residents, as the City doesn’t have a Contractor Competency Board, and good luck with the DBPR).
Teri had been encouraged BY HER COMMISSIONER AND THE PAST COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR to submit written communication on any concerns about financial conflict of interest on any contractor competency board memberes with various area contractors who had come before the board. She was assure by Commissioner Bender and Janice Gilley that this would inaugurate a conversation among the BOCC about the possibility of the County Attorney investigating any conflicts.
Apparently they pulled the wool over Alison Rogers’ eyes about it as well, and set Teri up for an epic “She Crazy” routine, where they pulled the rug out from under Teri’s feet–publicly–and then levelled multiple falsehoods against her, including that she had filed multiple complaints with the state and they had all been rejected. (Teri has never to date filed a complaint, but the DBPR investigator nonetheless refused to take a complaint from her on her issue, in a meeting that was held at the County Central Complex).
Anybody who is interested in this matter should view the video to understand why, in part, this situation was allowed to get so out of control. Hit number 8 on the dropdown, “Written Communication,” and go to the 3:20 mark:
https://escambiacountyfl.new.swagit.com/videos/06202019-1485#0
In addition, the State’s Attorney’s Office has not yet executed a warrant on a previous probable cause filing made by the Department of Ag in a similar matter.
Things don’t get this out of control without a lot of people who could and should be doing something about it looking the other way.
As I said to Larry Downs Jr the other day, “She ain’t so crazy now, is she?”
Something stinks to high heaven.
Blaine Flynn is the immediate past president of the Home Builders Association of West Florida. His name recently came up when I was in a waiting room and a guy told me that the two of them had grown up together. I mentioned that I knew where Flynn’s office was at 1300 East Olive Road. I drive past it once or twice a week. Genesis owns nine properties on Olive Road, eight clustered near this address. Flynn Building Specialists has donated $1,000 to the mayoral campaign of D.C. Reeves. Reeves has said that if elected he will “thicken the city” explaining that he wants to turn open spaces into dense residential developments. Doubt that would go over well in Cordova Park, etc. Citing the same 1300 E. Olive Road address, Republican ECUA board member Kevin Stephens has donated $500 to Reeves’ campaigns for “Yard Signs.” That seems a very odd thing to donate. State Representative Michelle Salzman has also donated to Reeves to include listing her occupation as “State Representative” for a luncheon she paid for for Reeves. The day prior Reeves’ mother had donated to Salzman’s campaign. A few weeks later, Reeves’ father donated to Salzman’s campaign. Flynn Building Specialist has donated $1,000 to Salzman. Stephens lives in a spectacular $1+ million home on the downtown Pensacola waterfront, his homestead property where I believe his wife has a home office. In 2021, Stephens testified before the Pensacola City Council saying that he lived there and his comments were reported in the PNJ. But, like Mike Hill once did, Stephens claims to live in two places at once and lists a Molino residence for political purposes to run for the District 5 ECUA seat. Of note, relative to the above report, the mailing address for the Stephens’ homestead property on Crown Cove is listed as 1300 E. Olive Road. Google Maps has some nice pictures of the interior of 1300 E. Olive Road. Pretty swanky digs for the area.