Ethics Commission Clears Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin in Golf Course Sale

The Florida Ethics Commission found no probable cause that Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin violated the law in the months leading up to the sale of the Ocean Palms Golf Club at the south end of town, a sale that the City Commission approved last October. 

Midori Imhoof, an Ocean Palm Drive resident in Flagler Beach, filed the ethics complaint last year, alleging that Martin had secretly passed information to Jeff Ryan, whose company was leasing the golf course at the time, so as to give him an advantage in the deal, even though the lease did not include a “first rights” clause. She also alleged that Martin “corruptly used his official position” to gain a benefit for himself or for Ryan. 

“It does not appear that [Martin] took any action to keep the sale of the golf course a secret, to prohibit citizen input on the sale, or that he otherwise improperly performed his public duties to obtain a special benefit, privilege, or exemption for himself or another,” Joseph Burns, the Ethics Commission’s advocate, concluded after an investigation. Nor did Martin disclose “any information to anyone that was not available to members of the general public.” 

The Ethics Commission accepted the advocate’s recommendation and rejected both allegations at its meeting in Tallahassee last Friday, which Martin attended. The decision was reached behind closed doors in a matter of moments after the commission’s advocate presented the case. It was made public today, following the signing of the order ending the case. 

There had been veiled discussions about the case a few months ago at the City Commission after City Commissioner John Cunningham alluded to it in an attempt to stop the sale of the golf course. Even then, the sense between officials in private was that the complaint was baseless. 

Imhoof is married to Mark Imhoof, who appeared frequently before the City Commission in opposition to the sale. 

Ryan assumed the golf course lease in January 2024, after the city had spent nine years in an unhappy and conflict-ridden relationship with the previous lease-holder, who had taken over the golf course in 2015. The city bought the golf course in 2013. Informal discussions between Ryan and the city administration about buying the golf course started soon after he took over. 

Midori Imhoof alleged that there was no information regarding the golf course’s sale on the city’s website and that there were no discussions in any public forum regarding appraisals for the golf course. She alleged that “the City Commission denied her husband the opportunity to present a proposal for a small group to manage the golf course, and that [Martin] was pursuing the sale of the golf course without allowing citizens to be heard on the matter,” Joseph Burns, an advocate for the Ethics Commission, wrote in his recommendation to toss the complaint. 

In fact, the first public discussion of a possible sale took place at the city’s planning board at a September 3 meeting, when the board considered a site plan Ryan submitted to build a new clubhouse and rebuild the greens. Ryan then pushed for the sale in communications with City Attorney Drew Smith and Martin. A lease-holder of city property is in their right to have such discussions. What written communications are exchanged are publicly available. 

Though the City Commission did not give direction on that score, the city conducted appraisals of the property, which are required when a local government is considering a sale. Imhoof complained to then-Commissioner Jane Mealy and Mayor Patti King that movement toward a sale was happening behind the scenes. In February 2025, King wrote Imhoof that the city had no plans to sell the course. That was clearly not the case. 

By then Mark Imhoof was appearing before the City Commission regularly, asking for more transparency. He was not prevented from speaking, nor was anyone addressing golf course concerns. But it was also clear that much had taken place outside of the commission’s purview. Martin, Smith noted during the Ethics Commission investigation, had the authority to order appraisals as long as the cost did not exceed $35,000, at which point he would have had to seek commission approval. The costs were below $35,000. (See Martin’s response to the complaint here.)

Martin did so, Smith said, to facilitate more informed discussions. Martin himself said that “he does not need permission to explore the possibility of selling City property or have discussions, but keeps the Commission informed,” according to the advocate’s findings. “He obtained appraisals for the benefit of the Commission and forwarded them to Ryan as well.”

Weeks after the appraisals were conducted, Tanuj Seoni, an associate of Ryan’s, wrote the city of his company’s intent to buy the course. Numerous public discussions and hearings followed, culminating in the commission’s October 9 vote to sell for $800,000. 

Because they cost nothing–except for the officials defending against them, who must pay for their defense with their own dime–ethics complaints are often filed as politically motivated ploys to damage a public official’s reputation, especially as the investigation is pending: the words “under investigation” carry a heavy weight, however unfounded, frivolous or legally insufficient the eventual outcome. 

The  Imhoof complaint does not appear to have been filed for those reasons but–and especially judging from Mark Imhoof’s frequent public appearances and through interviews with FlaglerLive–from a genuine if ill-informed, at times overheated and ultimately out-maneuvered concern over the fate of a cherished golf course and the transparency of city business. 

While there is no doubt that the city manager acted within his authority at all times, as the advocate concluded, there is also little doubt that the mayor’s and other officials’ claims from the dais that the city had no intention to sell the golf course were disingenuous, and that the city played catch-up with transparency on its way to a deal hatched earlier than the commission concedes.