Donald Dwyer left statehouse politics for retirement in Clearwater, Fla., at the Grand Venezia, a 336-unit condominium complex with a pool, tennis courts and ill-fated ambitions to bring a touch of Italian luxury to the Gulf Coast. But the former Maryland lawmaker is now leading an unusual community tax revolt against OppenheimerFunds Inc., which oversees $230 billion in assets, that may echo far beyond his tiny patch of Florida’s western shore. During the height of the real estate bubble, the Clearwater Cay Community Development District sold notes and bonds for a development that was supposed to include a water park and a gondola-lined canal with Venice-style bridges that would turn the Grand Venezia into a destination resort. But those amenities were never constructed, and the developer is serving a 40-year prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme. So on June 4, Dwyer and the district’s board of supervisors opted to push it into bankruptcy, seeking to reduce the debt and the approximately $1,500 they each pay every year for it. The district had $13.9 million in bonds outstanding as of September 2017, according to its financial report, though Dwyer said he has doubts about the accuracy of that figure. James Spiotto, managing director of Chapman Strategic Advisors LLC and an expert of municipal bankruptcies, said the district faces an uphill fight. He said he’s not aware of any other community-development district that has gone bankrupt in Florida, and it will need the approval of the governor. Moreover, the revenue securing the bonds -- the assessments -- is a very secure type of debt that is “not supposed to be impaired,” Spiotto said. “I don’t really know if they can avoid the debt obligation.”
