Eight companies gave the chair $8,000 in a day, and he knew whose they were

On April 6, 2023, the campaign of Clay Murphy, now chair of the St. Johns County Commission, recorded eight contributions of $1,000 each. Eight thousand dollars, one day, eight donors.

Six of them gave the same street address, 200 Business Park Circle in St. Augustine. That is the principal address of Heritage Development Company of NE Florida LLC, the applicant on the roughly 1,166 acres this board certified on Aug. 19 and denied on Sept. 28. One of the eight donors is that company.

That is $8,000 in one day, against a $1,000 cap on any single contributor, and it is more than a third of the $20,890 Murphy raised from building and development interests across the entire 2024 cycle.

Murphy was asked about it on Sept. 29 and answered on Oct. 6. He knew.

“I was aware that all came from different companies that were associated with Chris Shee.”

His answer, in full

This paper’s request said anything he sent would run in full. It does, unedited, below. The emphasis is not his and not added; this is the text as received.

I was aware that all came from different companies that were associated with Chris Shee.

I went to legal to ask the question. Is there a conflict? The questions that were asked of me were, will you benefit financially or otherwise? No. Do I own any portion of the businesses? No. Do I have any bias to vote one way or the other based on friendship or contributions? No

Based on conversations with our legal team I felt it was not necessary, and the fact that social media has reported those contributions every day for the last three years.

My vote was based on staff recommendations as stated in the report.

The vote to deny encert 26-01 was due to a concern over measurements used for the qualifications. The other applications did not have that issue to me.

Staff does a great job in researching the application’s for compliance. Even thought I am leading the fight against this ag enclave law by moving for an injunction, using the 2026-01 as a test case in county court, gathering petitions to take to the legislature for support to repeal this law and working with our Florida association of counties, it is a law and I am bound to follow it.

What that corrects

An earlier version of this story, published briefly on Sept. 29 and taken down, said Murphy had never voted to deny an agricultural enclave. That was wrong, and both his answer and the public record say so.

On Sept. 15 the commission denied ENCERT 2026-01, the 4,462-acre North Palm Valley application, 3 to 2. News4JAX described Murphy as the swing vote and quoted him at the time saying “There was a motion made to deny based on the area requirements.” His reply gives the same reason in the same terms: a concern over the measurements used for the qualifications, an issue he says the other applications did not have.

So the record is this. He voted to certify both Heritage parcels in August, moving the motion himself on the west one. He voted against denying them on Sept. 28. And three weeks before that he cast the deciding vote to deny a different and much larger application from a different applicant.

That is a more complicated record than the one this paper printed, and it is the one the documents support.

The eight, as filed

Names, addresses and occupations exactly as the campaign reported them.

State corporate records tie six of the eight together by ownership and not merely by address. Heritage Development Group, LLC sits at 200 Business Park Circle, Suite 105, lists Chris Shee and Todd Zehner as its managers, and is the sole listed manager of the applicant. HDG Elkton and HDG Moose Tracks each list one manager, which is that company. MasterCraft Builder Group is at the same suite.

Florida caps a contribution to a candidate for county office at $1,000 per contributor per election, and a limited liability company is its own contributor. Eight companies is eight contributors and eight thousand dollars.

On the conflict question

Murphy’s account of the legal advice matches what the statute asks. Section 112.3143 turns a voting conflict on whether the vote would inure to the official’s special private gain or loss, or that of a principal, relative or business associate. It does not turn on who gave to a campaign. The three questions he says he was asked are the three that provision asks.

So on his account, and on the face of the law, there was nothing he was required to disclose or abstain from. A reader may still think eight thousand dollars in one day from one developer’s companies is worth saying out loud before voting on that developer’s land. That is a different question from whether the law compelled it, and Murphy’s answer is that it did not.

His second reason is one this paper cannot check and will not characterize: that the contributions have been on social media every day for three years, so the information was not hidden.

The part that is new

The last paragraph of his reply is not about the contributions at all.

Murphy says he is leading the effort against the agricultural enclave statute itself: moving for an injunction, using ENCERT 2026-01 as a test case in county court, gathering petitions for the Legislature to repeal the law, and working through the Florida Association of Counties.

This paper has reported the board’s Sept. 1 vote directing staff to fight the statute or seek an injunction, which carried 3 to 2 with Murphy voting for it. It has not reported a filed case, a petition drive or an association campaign, because it did not know of them. None of that has been verified here yet, and it is printed as his statement rather than as established fact.

If it is accurate it is the largest thing any commissioner has said to this paper about the law, and it sits oddly beside a vote to certify under it. Murphy’s own answer to that is in his last clause: it is a law and I am bound to follow it.

We are checking the docket.