A court has ordered Joe Mullins, the former Flagler County commissioner and a delegate to the recent Republican National Convention, to surrender into receivership three apartment buildings and three residential buildings in Georgia owned by Mullins Properties after Mullins’s lender accused him of breach of contract in a lawsuit filed last May in Richmond County, Ga.
Mullins, who often spoke of his skills in business, lost his bid for a second Flagler County Commission term two years ago in a humiliating defeat. He’d had several encounters with law enforcement over speeding, telling a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in one case, “I run the county.” Troopers called him “belligerent” and “disrespectful.” (See the video here.)
Mullins is still listed by the Flagler County Property Appraiser as owning a house and another condominium in Bunnell (at Palm Pointe), and a condominium at Hammock Beach Club. Those properties are not part of Superior Court Judge Amanda Heath’s order, which was first reported by the Augusta Press’ Joe Edge earlier today. He is current on his last tax bill owed on the Hammock condominium.
He is not current on the taxes owed on the house and the condominium in Bunnell. His $4,565 2023 bill for the Bunnell house is listed as unpaid by the tax collector, which declared it delinquent last June. A payment plan was established. The first of four installments was paid in June. Similarly, the Bunnell condominium, owned by Mullins Companies, owes $2,888, with $581 of that paid in a first installment in June.
Last year Mullins had taken out a $5.95 million loan through Wilmington Trust backed by a 56-apartment complex called Clara Point (named after his daughter) in Augusta, Ga. Local code enforcement authorities had condemned parts of the complex, according to the Press. Earlier this year Wilmington claimed Mullins was in default and was not maintaining the apartment complex, saying in a fling that Clara Point “appears to be in complete disrepair,” and claiming “a significant risk that the owner/operator Joseph ‘Joe’ Mullins is misappropriating funds from the premises for other properties that he owns independent of the premises.” A judge ordered Clara Point turned over to a receiver in February. The complex was sold last June for $4.25 million, well short of the amount Mullins still owed.
On Aug. 23, Judge Heath ordered the appointment of a receiver to oversee, operate and manage six additional properties owned by Mullins Properties, including all rental payments, giving the receiver “uninterrupted access to and control over all the books, records, accounts, and documents relating to the Collateral and the operations of the Properties,” according to the order. The receiver has authority to administer or sell the properties to pay down the debt owed.
Since before his run for County Commission Mullins has bought half an hour of airtime for an infomercial on WNZF he calls “The Mullins Show,” with an introduction that describes him as “risk-taker, businessman, sports and entertainment promoter and passionate about making Florida the best place to live, work and play.” That half hour, which cost roughly–but not precisely–$200, was ongoing. David Ayres, Flagler Broadcasting’s president, said Mullins has been paying monthly. In 2021 Mullins faced a civil action alleging that he’d defrauded a company of tickets for the Augusta Masters tournament. That case was dismissed last fall.
