FORT LAUDERDALE — Commissioner John Herbst says he is now working as the chief financial officer of an apparel firm in New York partly owned by Bahia Mar developer Jimmy Tate and his brother Kenneth.
Herbst, a certified public accountant who served as Fort Lauderdale’s city auditor before joining the commission in 2022, says he only recently started the job, requiring him to abstain from a vote on Bahia Mar earlier this year.
Jimmy Tate, the developer with a 100-year lease on the pricey peninsula home to Bahia Mar, is one of the key players behind a high-profile but controversial $2 billion makeover underway at the city-owned property that’s home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
Tate and his partners plan to transform the property into a Monaco-inspired destination with a hotel and four condo towers. Each condo tower will stand 270 feet tall, the equivalent of 27 stories. The 23-story St. Regis resort will stand even taller at 300 feet.
Before commissioners approved the deal nearly two years ago, Tate faced relentless opposition from critics who called the deal a land giveaway and objected to private condos being built on public land worth at least $256 million.
In the end, Tate and his partners got what they needed: A supermajority “yes” vote in June 2023 from four of the five commissioners, including Herbst.
Herbst cast two “yes” votes that year. Warren Sturman, the District 4 commissioner at that time, voted “no” each time.
In January 2024, Herbst cast another “yes” vote along with Mayor Dean Trantalis and two other commissioners, Steve Glassman and Pamela Beasley-Pittman, that transferred the so-called “air rights” — the development rights in the airspace above the land — to the Bahia Mar Community Development District. That means the buyers of the condos will own their units in perpetuity. Fort Lauderdale will still own the land, but the city will never be able to take ownership of the condo units, the hotel or the parking podium.
The vote was 4-1, with Sturman casting the lone “no” vote.
Glassman, district commissioner for the area, called the deal a win-win, saying it would benefit the city over time.
Herbst agreed.
“I think it’s a much better deal than what we had prior to the consideration of the air rights,” Herbst said before casting his “yes” vote last year. “The air rights are already effectively under contract for the next 100 years. So I don’t think this is substantially changing anything. And I think this will add significantly to the city’s revenue stream.”
This year, Herbst abstained from a Feb. 4 commission vote that allows Bahia Mar to sell food and alcoholic beverages on the sand.
In a filing with the city clerk on Feb. 4, he cited the following reason for abstaining from the vote: “I am employed as the CFO of an entity that shares some common ownership with Rahn Bahia Mar. Although I don’t believe this item will inure to my special private gain, in an abundance of caution and to avoid any appearance of impropriety, I am choosing to abstain from voting on this item.”
(Rahn Bahia Mar, led by Tate, took over the long-term lease to the Bahia Mar property in 2014.)
Herbst confirmed he is working for an apparel company in New York partly owned by the Tates.
In a text message to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Herbst shared the following: “I recently started as CFO of a company that has some partial common ownership. The company is not otherwise affiliated with Rahn Bahia Mar in any other way. The (interim) City Attorney advised me that under state law I do not have a conflict of interest. In an abundance of caution and so as to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, I elected to abstain.”
Herbst declined to elaborate further, saying he already has “gone above and beyond” what’s required.
“The city attorney advised me that I did not have a conflict of interest,” he said. “Despite that, and in an abundance of caution, I still chose to abstain from the vote on a very routine matter in order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Since I have gone above and beyond what is required from an ethical perspective, I fail to understand the point of your continued questions regarding my personal business dealings.”
Interim City Attorney D’Wayne Spence declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege.
Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said he finds it “very odd” that Tate chose to hire Herbst when there are more than 650,000 CPAs in the nation to choose from.
“The optics are terrible,” Jarvis said. “It fails the optics test. This is why it’s better to not do business of any sort with any entity that comes in front of the City Commission until you no longer are a commissioner.”
Professor Charles Zelden, a political science professor at Nova Southeastern University, agreed.
“It looks bad. It doesn’t mean it is bad,” Zelden said. “It’s a question of perception.”
Herbst was hired this year, Tate told the Sun Sentinel. Tate declined to share the exact start date.
Herbst also declined to say. In a text exchange with the Sun Sentinel, Herbst said his date of hire has nothing to do with his position as a city commissioner.
Herbst noted that he plans to list the job on his financial disclosure form. The state requires elected officials to file such forms yearly to enable the public to evaluate potential conflicts of interest and increase public confidence in government. The form for 2025 will be due in mid-2026.
Tate said the “consulting arrangement” started this year.
“It’s just something fairly new to help the company out for a short-term period,” Tate said. “Anyways, that’s it. No big deal. No big story.”
Tate told the Sun Sentinel the company approached Herbst and asked whether he was interested in the job. Why Herbst? Tate initially declined to say.
“We hired him as a consultant to help with accounting for a company,” Tate told the Sun Sentinel on Feb. 11. “Nothing to do with Bahia Mar or our real estate company. It’s an apparel company in New York.”
The name of the New York-based company is TKO-Evolution Apparel Inc. The company’s website lists Kenneth and Jimmy Tate as co-founders.
When the Sun Sentinel inquired on Tuesday about the timing of the job offer, Tate said Herbst was approached about the job late last year.
“(It was) around Thanksgiving because that was when the current CFO informed the company he wanted to cut back on his hours and work toward his retirement,” Tate said. “He is over 80 years old.”
Tate said he was not the one who approached Herbst about the job, but his brother, Kenneth Tate.
“He called John late last year since he knew John was a CPA and incredibly smart in the area of accounting to see if he would mind helping out an apparel company on a part-time basis,” Tate said. “I believe Kenny spoke to other CPAs as well but none were interested on a part-time basis.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan
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