Gillum dined with possible undercover FBI agent

"Mike Miller" also attended 2015 Chamber conference and traded emails with economic development chief Ben Pingree

Jeff Burlew Jeffrey Schweers
Tallahassee Democrat
Mayor Andrew Gillum listens to proceedings during Wednesday's CRA meeting at City Hall.

The elusive “Mike Miller,” who may have been an undercover FBI agent posing as a developer as part of an investigation into public corruption in Tallahassee, met last year with Mayor Andrew Gillum.

Miller also attended the 2015 annual summer conference of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce in Sandestin, where he was introduced to some of the city's business and government leaders.

The revelations were included in emails obtained Thursday through a public records request by the Tallahassee Democrat. 

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Adam Corey, a Tallahassee lobbyist and owner of the city-backed Edison restaurant who served as treasurer for Gillum’s mayoral campaign in 2014, set up the meeting with the mayor. It was held May 16, 2016, at the Edison.

Corey sent an electronic invitation to Gillum and Miller on May 5, 2016, for “tapas and drinks” with the two and a third individual, Brian Butler. Gillum forwarded the invitation several days later from his non-city email account to one of his City Hall aides, Angela Whitaker, saying, “I have agreed to this meeting.”

The meeting was set to last an hour and a half. But it was shortened at Gillum’s request.

“Mayor Gillum asked that I alert you that he will only be available from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for tapas and drinks with you, Mike Miller, Brian Butler,” Whitaker said in a May 13, 2016, email to Corey. 

Gillum, who’s running for governor of Florida, previously declined to say whether he ever met with Miller. He acknowledged meeting with the FBI last month, around the same time the agency served subpoenas at City Hall demanding information about eight local business people, more than a dozen of their firms and their interactions with city and Community Redevelopment Agency officials. Corey and the Edison were both named in the subpoenas.

Jamie Van Pelt, an aide to the mayor, said that to the best of his knowledge, the meeting happened.

“As mayor, of course he would meet with developers who want to discuss projects that would potentially spur economic growth and job creation,” Van Pelt said in an email.

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Gillum is hardly the only person who met with Miller during his two-year stint in Tallahassee.

Miller met last year with County Commissioners Kristin Dozier, Nick Maddox and Bill Proctor, Leon County Administrator Vince Long, then-City Commission candidate Rick Minor and city and county planning staff. The meetings were arranged by Corey and Nick Lowe, a former city police officer who stepped down this year as a vice president in Corey's firm, Unconventional Strategies.

During the meetings, Miller discussed interest in a mixed-use development on South Monroe Street and a desire to expand CRA boundaries to include those properties. The CRA, which consists of all five city commissioners and four of seven county commissioners, voted to expand its district lines in June 2016.

Miller was accompanied by two others during some of the meetings. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Butler was one of the men working with Miller.

Miller and his cohorts claimed to represent a company called Southern Pines Development. Many who met him say he was introduced as a developer from Nashville; however, during his meetings with planners, he handed out business cards with an Atlanta address.

Attorneys who are representing people of interest in the FBI probe have said Miller and his companions actually were undercover federal agents.

'SOLID INVESTOR'

Twice in the last two weeks, Ben Pingree, the director of the joint city-county agency that oversees those planners, told the Democrat he couldn’t remember the mystery developer and possible FBI operative he once described as a “solid investor."

Pingree also couldn’t identify a dark-haired, bearded man his subordinates previously identified as Miller when he was shown a photograph at the CRA meeting July 19.

He also said he checked his planning agency emails and calendars going back to February 2016 and found no records of him meeting or corresponding with Miller.

“The only reason Miller even rings a bell is because of your reporting in the Tallahassee Democrat,” Pingree said Thursday.

Pingree said he had no access to records from his previous job as executive vice president of the now defunct Economic Development Council.

“I started my new job in February of 2016," he said. "My records only go back that far.”

But the emails received Thursday show Pingree was Miller’s key contact at the chamber’s annual conference in Sandestin two years ago, where he introduced Miller to several attendees.

“Just a quick note of gratitude for your participation at the Chamber Annual Conference this year,” Pingree wrote in an Aug. 17, 2015 email to Miller. “I hope you found it worthwhile and enlightening.”

Sue Dick, president/CEO of the chamber, said records show Miller registered late for the conference. She doesn't recall meeting him, however. She noted the chamber's role is to be a resource for people who want to invest in Tallahassee and create jobs.

Five months after making those initial introductions at the annual conference, Miller was making plans to come to Tallahassee and meet with city officials. He shared with Pingree more specific plans for parcels on East Palmer Avenue and South Monroe Street.

“It looks like the best chance of a successful development on those properties would be a mixed use development consisting of restaurant/café on the first floor and high density condos on the top two floors,” Miller wrote.

He added he’d need to request changes to the city’s comprehensive plan.

“So who do you recommend I start talking to?” Miller asked.

Pingree directed Miller to Cherie Bryant, then planning manager.

“He’s a solid investor and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him,” Pingree told Bryant in an email. “I think he just collected a large smattering of Tallahassee properties and will greatly appreciate your connection!”

A month later, the EDC was abolished and Pingree became director of the city-county Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement Department. 

On Thursday, Pingree said that connecting Bryant and Miller — who he said he did not remember after reviewing emails between the two — was the type of thing he regularly did when he worked for the EDC

“It was a pretty standard passing of a developer to the people that could help," he said.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.