LOCAL

What happened to Space Coast Paratroopers Association and how did it land in controversy?

Palm Bay city Hall.

Following a stint as a U.S. Army paratrooper, Javier Molinares was returning to Palm Bay in 1999 to be with his mother and brother.

As important as that family was, Molinares also was guided by a second family on the Space Coast, a group of former Army paratroopers, who welcomed him back to the community, helped him gain his footing in the area, and provided him with direction and purpose.

“They took me under their wing, because I didn’t have anybody here,” said the 44-year-old Molinares, one of the founders of the Space Coast Paratroopers Association. “I had my mother, but they were the ones that guided me."

Now, nearly three years after the paratroopers’ association was founded, Molinares and the others involved find themselves embroiled in a controversy that reaches far inside Palm Bay City Hall, and seemingly pits military brothers against each other.

Javier Molinares served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne division.

The fallout became so heated that the association’s executive director, Donald Overton, announced earlier this month that the SCPA, now known as the Space Coast Veterans Alliance, was disbanding.

How did it come to this when the organization’s intentions seemed so noble at the start? That has many people scratching their heads.

Founders and other officials of the Space Coast Paratroopers Association told FLORIDA TODAY they formed the group with the sole purpose of helping military veterans.

But, as the association grew and formed an alliance with the city government of Palm Bay, the mission began to drift, and there appeared to be a lack of control and other organizational issues. Political heavy-hitters became involved, and rifts developed.

The lines between the city and the nonprofit organization became blurred as well, with some city officials also serving as volunteers on the association’s board of directors.

Additionally, the program that the organization started with the city, called Homes for Warriors, has been the subject of a critical state audit. The SCPA helped Homes for Warriors by providing volunteers and fundraising. Homes for Warriors provided new or renovated homes to military veterans with disabilities.

Palm Bay is now the subject of FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigations, as well as a separate internal investigation of a former city employee — the scope of which could include Homes for Warriors.

Palm Bay has used State Housing Initiatives Partnership grants to build or modify seven homes for military veterans with disabilities as part of the Homes for Warriors program.

For some, how it all unraveled was just the kind of group dynamics that break up rock bands or hobble startup businesses. For others, it was the blowback from getting into bed with politicians and people with ambitions of power.

Then, there are the more serious allegations of misspending association funds and submitting faulty paperwork to the state, which provided money to the Homes for Warriors program.

And some individuals wonder why the association hired a political operative — now a Palm Bay city councilman — to lobby for the organization and ended up with nothing to show for the expense.

That hire, and the spending, became part of a whistleblower allegation Overton made against another one-time high-profile official in the SCPA, David Isnardi.

Veteran Robert Busch, served in the Navy and the Army, was injured in Afghanistan and  received  the Purple Heart. He received a Homes for Warriors property in December 2016

Both Overton and Isnardi also are employees of the city of Palm Pay. Overton is Palm Bay's veterans’ affairs and business specialist, while Isnardi is deputy city manager.

The whole controversy led to Molinares resigning from the association, prior to the announcement it was being dissolved. Also leaving was the association’s treasurer, Jeff Reschke, who lives in Oak Hill in Volusia County.

“At this point, we’re probably not going to do anything as an organization, so I just thought it was a good time to resign,” Reschke told FLORIDA TODAY at the time.

“This is not a paratroopers’ organization anymore,” Molinares said about his resignation. “And, second, this controversy is affecting my health and my reputation. My children are very proud of me. I will do anything in my power to continue making them feel that way.”

 

Molinares, like so many veterans, is proud of his military experience. And paratroopers tend to set themselves apart because their mission was to drop into danger zones and establish perimeters surrounded by enemies.

The soft-spoken, polite Molinares dreamed of being an Army Ranger, and that hinged on being a successful paratrooper. About 5-foot-8 and of medium build, he owed a lot to the military.

He was a native of Colombia who had moved to Miami and then Palm Bay. The Army arranged for him to learn English and provided him a career path. His service reports were stellar, and he was well on his way to achieving his goals.

Javier Molinares was a member of a weapons squad in the U.S. Army.

That dream was crushed following a parachute accident in early 1998 during a massive night training exercise called Purple Dragon at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He lay on the ground alone in the dark for several hours before being found and taken to the hospital.

Molinares is unsure exactly what happened — something about his parachute collapsing — but he was left with brain trauma and a back injury. His soldiering days were over.

A sergeant major who Molinares served under reminded him he was a paratrooper forever, and he urged Molinares to get involved with the 82nd Airborne Division Association, which had a Brevard County chapter. Molinares returned to Brevard to care for his mother and brother.

Molinares eventually became a leader of the 82nd Airborne Division Association’s local chapter. To increase the organization’s profile in the community, and maybe gain financial resources to assist veterans, he reached out to David Isnardi, who was a former paratrooper himself and someone known as politically connected on the Space Coast.

In September 2013, Molinares created the nonprofit Space Coast All Airborne Inc., which the next April became the Space Coast Paratroopers Association. Isnardi signed on as the SCPA’s vice president.

Molinares said he and Isnardi formed the nonprofit to raise money to assist with local veterans’ needs.

Deputy Palm Bay City Manager David Isnardi said having the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI looking into operations in Palm Bay is concerning. But, he added: "What can I do? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

In addition to the organization funding a local scholarship — named in honor of the late World War II paratrooper Carl White —  Isnardi suggested starting a housing program called Homes for Warriors. He figured he could get the city of Palm Bay to administer the program.

Not long after, things began to change and, somehow, the Space Coast Paratroopers Association got away from Molinares, as other people — mainly Isnardi — brought his acquaintances into the group, and veered it into the partnership with the city to make Homes for Warriors a reality.

Molinares said he supported the idea of the project, but he wasn’t comfortable having a partnership with the city for fear of politicizing the organization.

The relationship between the city and the veterans' group got more intertwined when Isnardi started his duties as deputy city manager in May 2015.

Isnardi, 57, is a barreled-chested bear of a man with a bone-crushing handshake, a bullet shaved head and full white beard making him appear like a cross between a burly biker and Kriss Kringle. He has a big personality to go with his frame.

A 23-year veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Isnardi told FLORIDA TODAY that, about five years ago, he “got very upset” with how he saw veterans being treated, both nationally and in Florida.

“I have a responsibility to do something here,” he said, explaining why he joined Molinares and fellow vet Jerry Lawson to help establish the SCPA.

Isnardi told FLORIDA TODAY he was working 60-hour weeks, including nights and weekends, and spending his own money to try to do things for fellow vets.

“I was the face of the organization,” he boasted, the official in charge of shaking hands, and trying to shake donations from local companies and people interested in supporting service members in the community.

"You have to do the networking," Isnardi said.

Then, he hit upon the idea of Homes for Warriors.

Isnardi said the idea took off immediately, and, soon, groups of 40 volunteers were working at home sites on Saturday mornings.

David Isnardi, left, Stephen Hamrick, center, and Bob Williams discuss work plans for the finishing touches to the house Hamrick received from the city and the Space Coast Paratroopers Association.

As the group’s coffers began to fill, Isnardi received a debit card from the organization and the money began to flow out of the account.

There were get-togethers with beer and cigars. Often, it was lunches at Chili’s. On April 13, 2015, he filled several wooden benches and tables at Memaw’s barbecue on Babcock Street with about 20 vets and, according to bank statements, dropped $269.08 on food and drinks. A few weeks earlier, it was $191.70 spent at a cigar store.

These were for what Isnardi called “guys' nights out with wounded warriors.”

“At no time did I personally benefit,” Isnardi said. "I'm not a thief. The only thing I wanted to do is put people in housing."

Isnardi insisted that he had permission for every dollar he spent, by getting the OK from either Lawson or Molinares, who at the time were the SCPA's other two board members. Isnardi said he spent nothing illegally or with ill intent.

“Did I make mistakes along the way? I’m a man, and I’ll stand up and take the heat for it,” Isnardi said. “But, I’ll tell you, my heart was in the right place.”

But Molinares had his qualms about the spending. He said he was ready to resign if the spending was not brought under control.

In recalling what transpired, Molinares said: "Yes, we approved the meetings at restaurants until there were too many. Sometimes, he [Isnardi] would call me and sometimes Jerry. Then, we decided to cut all the debit cards on Aug. 15, 2015, due to excessive expending."

By that time, Isnardi already had left his job as chief of staff for Brevard County Commissioner Andy Anderson, and took up his new role as deputy city manager for Palm Bay, where he still had involvement with the Homes for Warriors program.

At the same time, Isnardi became a key and — possibly the only recruiter — of applicants to the program.

 

To date, the Homes for Warriors program has provided homes to seven military veterans, with hopes of adding four more to the list.

But a series of FLORIDA TODAY interviews with Space Coast Paratroopers Association officials, Palm Bay city officials and some of the veterans who received houses, as well as public records requests, provide no clear indication of the process - if there even was one.

Stephen Hamrick, an Army sergeant who lost his left leg in a cluster bomb explosion in Operation Desert Storm, said he was involved with Isnardi in a designated driving business called “Hoppers” in 2001 and 2002. That partnership soured after only a few months, and both men went their separate ways.

David Isnardi, with the Space Coast Paratroopers Association, talks with Marc Marttinez and Jerry Lawson with Ranger Air and Heat, and Bob Williams with the city of Palm Bay at house being refurbished for a wounded veteran.

“Out of the blue,” Hamrick said, Isnardi called him in 2013 about the Homes for Warriors program in Palm Bay, and asked if he would be interested. Isnardi, according to Hamrick, told him: “I'm going to put you into a free house.”

Hamrick was leery at first, but he began volunteering with the Space Coast Paratroopers, figuring he would check out the program before going through the process of getting a house through Homes for Warriors. Hamrick said he believes his home on Comet Avenue in Palm Bay was the second Homes for Warriors house.

“I had my worries at first, because of personal past experiences with Dave,” Hamrick said. “But everything has worked out. Dave and I get along. But I don't get involved in a lot of the politics that go on.”

Former U.S. Army Sgt. Ethan Wagner, another recipient of a Homes for Warriors home, told FLORIDA TODAY of a different path in which he received a house, but it also involved a connection with Isnardi.

Wagner served in the Army from 2007 to 2012, and he was deployed to Iraq twice to conduct security operations, arrest suspects, set up roadblocks and search houses. Department of Veterans Affairs officials later determined that Wagner’s post-traumatic stress disorder qualified as a service-related disability.

Ethan Wagner, veteran who lives in Palm Bay, received a home through the Homes for Warriors program.

Wagner served in the Army National Guard from 2012 to 2014 — and, in a 2013 life-changing event, his ankle was nearly amputated after he was struck by a suspected drunken driver in Tallahassee. He endured six surgeries, he could no longer run, and his dream of becoming a National Guard Special Forces soldier was dashed.

He said depression and anxiety set in. 

Volunteering with the Space Coast Paratroopers helped Wagner pull out of “a dark place in my life” after his military career ended, he said. 

Wagner moved back to Melbourne, and in May 2014, he and a friend volunteered to help paint and landscape a Homes for Warriors house.

He met Isnardi, who encouraged him to apply for a free home. Wagner, who is studying engineering at the University of Central Florida, received a house in December 2014.

Wagner’s wife, Janean, became the nonprofit’s outreach coordinator, and he immersed himself in fundraising for the group, helping spearhead charity turkey shoots at Port Malabar Rifle and Pistol Club.

“There was no outlet for me to feel like I was useful again. Because I had this identity, and now this identity’s gone,” said Wagner, who is now 27.

“It gave me a purpose again,” he said of Space Coast Paratroopers. “It helped me to be part of something bigger than myself again.”

Ethan and Janean Wagner with their 2-month-old son, Elias, in front of their home in Palm Bay.  They received the home through the Homes for Warriors program.

U.S. Army Spc. Sean Taylor was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during his service years, which lasted from 2006 to 2014. The infantryman suffered injuries during three explosive incidents in 2012 in Afghanistan, and he medically retired from the military in August 2014. 

Taylor, 31, has debilitating back issues — his service dog sometimes helps him get up on his feet and stand. He also is plagued by PTSD, blackouts and short-term memory loss.

Sean Taylor, veteran who lives in Palm Bay, received a home through the Homes for Warriors program.

Unbeknownst to Taylor, his wife, Amy, applied for a Homes for Warriors house while he was processing out of the military.

Taylor said he received a surprise phone call from Isnardi in summer 2014 while in a Savannah, Georgia, shopping mall: Would you, Amy and your three children like to move to Palm Bay into a free home?

Taylor said his family “moved here on hopes and dreams” and received their house in March 2015. He considers the home a blessing that will ensure financial stability to raise his children, and he said Isnardi also has helped pay for his household’s bills, vehicle repairs, food and other expenses.

“He would go out of his way and help us if we were in need," Taylor said. "That’s kind of what he’s always taught me as a person: Pay it forward for the next person. And that’s what I try to live my life by now. That helps me get through the day, especially being retired, and not having a job.”

 

Isnardi said the SCPA helped in screening the initial pre-qualification of applicants, but did not select them, leaving that up to the city.

Veterans Resource Center in Palm Bay.

But city officials interviewed could not provide specifics on how the recipients were selected, provide copies of the applications of people who sought houses from the program or indicate how many people applied for the program.

Overton told FLORIDA TODAY that the SCPA was never involved in the formal selection process "during my involvement with the organization."

"Actually, none of the current home recipients applied via our systems," Overton said. "You will need to discuss the application/selection process with city officials and/or the Isnardis, who appeared to be solely responsible for this program prior to my involvement."

By 2016, Isnardi’s wife, Kristine, also seemed to take a higher-profile position in the marketing of Space Coast Paratroopers and its efforts in the Homes for Warriors program.

Isnardi hotly disputes any suggestion that the Homes for Warriors program was a political vehicle to help him and his wife, a former Palm Bay City Council member who in 2016 ran for and won a seat on the Brevard County Commission.

But Overton said he found himself at odds with Isnardi because he believed the SCPA somehow was being used as a political vehicle for Kristine Isnardi’s quest for a County Commission seat, and it was costing the organization.

Overton carries himself — and speaks — with a straightforward, no-nonsense military cadence. With an Army haircut that keeps his mostly gray-speckled hair close to his scalp and a quick smile, it's sometimes hard to tell of the war injury that caused his blindness.

“We were losing donors. We were losing volunteers,” Overton said of claims the organization was getting too political. “We were losing people that wanted to support the organization because they saw it being politicized.”

The situation became inflamed further, when the Space Coast Daily selected the SCPA for one of its humanitarian honors. An article mentions the Homes for Warriors being “established by Dave and Kristine Isnardi.”

Overton was upset by what he saw as the ceremony for the Space Coast Daily award focusing too much on Kristine Isnardi, and putting Isnardi and her husband at the forefront of the organization.

“She is the Space Coast Paratroopers,” Overton recalled, as the tone of the ceremony. “She is the Homes for Warriors. They totally politicized the entire thing. That night, we were approached by several individuals who ended their affiliation with us on the spot.”

But the Isnardis point out that the Nov. 5, 2016, ceremony occurred after Kristine Isnardi already had won her Aug. 30 Republican primary election against Rob Medina, and was assured of becoming a county commissioner, since she had only a write-in opponent in the Nov. 8 general election.

As the organization was growing, now-Palm Bay City Councilman Tres Holton became associated with the SCPA.

Both Molinares and Reschke said Holton’s name came up in 2014 at a meeting as someone who could locate additional funding sources from his lobbying connections in Tallahassee.

Palm Bay City Councilman Tres Holton

Holton, who runs Holton Strategies, also promised to tell key people about the organization. The idea was to translate those connections into more donations to help more veterans and move the organization away from the small fundraisers.

Holton said he submitted an invoice to the organization for $5,000, dated October 2014. At the time, Holton was a candidate for Palm Bay City Council, and he won election the next month. Holton cashed one check to him for $1,500, dated May 16, 2015. Another SCPA check was to Ranger Air & Heat for $1,275. The memo line on the check read “Holton A/C.”

SCPA board member Jerry Lawson is the owner of Ranger Air & Heat in Palm Bay.

Holton called the air-conditioning service a “barter arrangement” for services, but, nonetheless, he wrote a check last month for $1,300 to the SCPA in an effort to end any controversy behind the service. He also said he probably would write off the $3,500 remainder of what he said the organization owed him from the original $5,000.

Molinares said nothing ever resulted from Holton Strategies.

“He was supposed to get us grants in Tallahassee,” Molinares said. “He didn’t do anything. That was a bad investment.”

Molinares also didn’t like the optics of Lawson essentially writing an SCPA check to his own company for Holton’s A/C work.

“He’s writing a check to himself,” Molinares said. “That’s not right.”

Reschke, who also served as SCPA’s secretary, said: “We were going to try to lobby for some government 'cheese,' for lack of a better word, in Tallahassee. We thought there was a lot of government money available. That whole thing with Tres Holton was to try and get us some grant money.”

Holton is a lobbyist but he said he was never an official "lobbyist" for the SCPA. And he never registered as one for that organization. 

David Isnardi resigned from the SCPA in August 2016. He told FLORIDA TODAY it was the result of him not wanting to create the appearance of a conflict of interest after his wife won her primary contest against Medina.

That’s because the SCPA at the time was considering applying for a community-based organization grant from Brevard County, and Kristine Isnardi would be one of five commissioners who would vote on approving the grant.

For Molinares, Kristine Isnardi’s primary campaign against Medina presented additional complications. While the Isnardis were key supporters of SCPA, Medina was vice president of the Brevard Hispanic Center, where Molinares is president.

Brevard County Commissioner Kristine Isnardi

“I was happy to see the homes for the veterans,” Molinares said, referring to the SCPA’s work on the Homes for Warriors project. “But I stayed out of it, because of politics. I didn’t want to be part of it. And I let them know that.”

David Isnardi said there was nothing political about his work with the SCPA.

However, serious questions about how state grants were managed for the Homes for Warriors program have arisen in the last few months. At the same time the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI recently began looking into yet-to-be-disclosed matters emanating out of Palm Bay City Hall.

The audits and growing questions by FLORIDA TODAY weighed heavily on Overton. Concerned, he went to City Attorney Andrew Lannon and sought advice about ways to tell what he knew while protecting himself.

The result was that in May Overton wrote a whistleblower letter to Mayor William Capote in which he detailed his experience of Isnardi’s overspending and other SCPA issues which Overton said raised concerns about the implications for the city of Palm Bay.

In the letter he also described how he went to City Manager Gregg Lynk about Isnardi and his role in the Homes for Warriors program. Overton said Lynk "appeared distraught by the allegations, and informed me he would be handling the matter.” To Overton’s surprise, he was then confronted by Isnardi, who told Overton “not to take such matters to his boss again."

Isnardi told FLORIDA TODAY that indeed he did go see Overton because he felt that paratrooper business was not the city’s concern.

The decision to disband the organization soon followed.

Molinares is back to putting his efforts into the Brevard Hispanic Center and also completing another project dear to his heart — finding space in Palm Bay for a multicultural park. He also wants to ensure that veterans promised homes through the Homes for Warriors program and are on a waiting list, do in the end get them.

Javier Molinares, president of the Brevard Hispanic Center and  one of the founders of the Space Coast Paratroopers, which is now the Space Coast Veterans Alliance, in his Palm Bay office.

He still has a hard time understanding how the organization got away from him and became mixed up in controversy.

“I’m sad,” he said. “This was my baby.”

Molinares also said he wants to emphasize the good work in the community done over the years by the local chapter of 82nd Airborne Division Association, and will continue to do. That association chapter, Molinares emphasizes, is separate from the SCPA.

“We’re doing a lot of things in the community for a long time,” said Molinares, an intern at FLORIDA TODAY in 2004. “We do very good things for the community. We all support each other, and constantly are helping the community and the military.”

He cites such things as the scholarships, awards to ROTC cadets and donations to families in need.

But, as far as the SCPA goes, it soon will be a thing of the past.

Isnardi said that, if he had to do things all over again, he would have established a larger board of directors and brought in a professional from the start to run the organization.

"This thing got bigger than I could ever imagine," Isnardi said, adding that he was "shooting from the hip" and "was in way over my head" in helping run the nonprofit.

Isnardi said what concerns him is that, while the SCPA did good in the community to help disabled veterans, and "had some huge successes," not everyone will remember that.

"At the end of the day, the organization will have a scar on it," Isnardi said, contending that he believes the criticism directed at him is "politically driven."

Overton said there was really no choice in the end but to fold the SCPA.

“Once you’ve lost the trust of the public,” Overton said, “you’re done.”

Contact Price at 321-242-3658, wprice@floridatoday.com or on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.