On April 6, 2023, Clay Murphy’s campaign reported eight separate donations of $1,000 each.

That is $8,000 in one day from eight companies.

Six of the companies used the same address: at Business Park Circle in St. Augustine. The other two used the same post office box in St. Johns.

One of the donors was Heritage Development Company of NE Florida LLC. That is the applicant for ENCERT 2026-05 and ENCERT 2026-06, the two agricultural enclave certifications involving about 1,166 acres.

The St. Johns County Commission approved those certifications on Aug. 19, 2026. The commission then reversed that decision and voted to deny them on Sept. 28.

Murphy, who is now chair of the commission, voted for the certifications in August. He voted against denying them in September.

The eight donations These are the names, addresses and occupations shown in the county’s campaign finance export. The capitalization and wording are how the campaign reported them.

heritage dev co of NEfl Address: po box 600369, St Johns Occupation: realestate development Amount: $1,000 heritage development group Address: po box 600369, St Johns Occupation: development co Amount: $1,000 mastercraft builder grp llc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: dev Amount: $1,000 HDG elkton llc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: agriculture Amount: $1,000 HDG moose tracks llc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: agriculture Amount: $1,000 HDG Tringali Barn llc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: event venue Amount: $1,000 Heritage total AG solutionsllc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: agriculture Amount: $1,000 premier pools&outdoor lvg llc Address: 200 business park cir Occupation: pools outdoor Amount: $1,000 What the state company records show This is not just a case of several companies happening to use the same street address. State corporate filings show connections among several of them.

Heritage Development Group, LLC is an active company at Business Park Circle, Suite 105. Its listed managers are Chris Shee and Todd Zehner.

Heritage Development Group is also the sole listed manager of Heritage Development Company of NE Florida LLC, the applicant for the two enclave certifications.

HDG Elkton LLC and HDG Moose Tracks LLC are both active at the same suite. Each company lists Heritage Development Group, LLC as its manager.

MasterCraft Builder Group, LLC is also active at the same suite. Its records list Perry Homes of Florida, LLC of Houston as an authorized member and Brad Shee as president.

HDG Tringali Barn LLC, Heritage Total AG Solutions LLC and Premier Pools and Outdoor Living LLC are registered Florida companies. All three used the Business Park Circle address for their campaign donations.

Florida limits donations to candidates for county office to $1,000 per contributor per election. An LLC is treated as its own contributor, so eight companies can legally make eight separate $1,000 donations.

How Murphy voted on the enclave applications Aug. 19, 2026: Murphy voted against a motion to deny ENCERT 2026-05 and ENCERT 2026-06. The motion failed 2-3. Aug. 19, 2026: Murphy voted to certify both parcels. The motion passed 3-2. Sept. 1, 2026: Murphy voted against denying ENCERT 2026-01. The motion failed 2-3. Sept. 1, 2026: Murphy also voted against approving ENCERT 2026-01. That motion failed 2-3. Sept. 28, 2026: Murphy voted against denying ENCERT 2026-05 and ENCERT 2026-06. The denial passed 3-2. Based on these votes, Murphy has not voted to deny an agricultural enclave application.

There is another part to his record on the issue. On Sept. 1, Murphy joined Commissioners Joseph and Taylor in directing county staff to challenge the state enclave law or look into seeking an injunction against it. That motion passed 3-2.

How this compares with the other commissioners The county has campaign finance exports for the other commissioners too, so I checked those for comparison.

Sarah Arnold: $207,796 raised in total. Of that, $75,700 came from building, development, real estate and land interests, or about 36.4%. No donations were found from the Business Park Circle companies discussed here. Christian Whitehurst: $217,260 raised in total. Of that, $66,555 came from building, development, real estate and land interests, or about 30.6%. No donations were found from the Business Park Circle companies discussed here. Clay Murphy: $121,294 raised in total. Of that, $20,890 came from building, development, real estate and land interests, or about 17.2%. The eight Business Park Circle-related donations totaled $8,000. Ann Taylor: $35,593 raised in total. Of that, $10 was classified as coming from building, development, real estate or land interests. No donations were found from the Business Park Circle companies discussed here. The industry categories are not official county labels. They were based on the donor names and the occupations written on the campaign finance forms.

The search for donations connected to this specific group was separate. The files were searched for Shee, Zehner, MasterCraft, Heritage, Ansbacher and the Business Park Circle address. Nothing matching those terms was found in the records for Arnold, Whitehurst or Taylor.

Arnold and Whitehurst raised much more from builders and developers overall, but the records reviewed did not show donations to them from this applicant.

Murphy raised less from the industry overall than Arnold or Whitehurst, but he is the only commissioner whose records showed a donation from the company whose enclave applications came before the board.

Taylor, who made the Sept. 28 motion to deny both parcels, raised $35,593 in total. Only $10 was classified as coming from the building, development, real estate and land category.

What I am and am not saying I am not saying these donations were illegal.

Florida law allows companies to donate up to the contribution limit. Affiliated companies may each make their own donation, and receiving a campaign donation does not automatically create a voting conflict under section 112.3143 of Florida law.

But the public record still shows something voters may want to know.

The chair of the commission deciding the future of these 1,166 acres received $8,000 in one day from eight companies using two shared addresses. One of those companies was the applicant. Several others have connections through the same address, managers or company records.

Murphy later voted to approve that applicant’s two enclave certifications. When the issue came back, he voted against denying them.