Charlie Wilson, Move Over. This Is Ed Chiles’ War.

A lot has been said, here and elsewhere, in recent months about PAR and Micheal Coleman (yes, it’s Micheal, “e” first, so please, no more emails). You know, Enforcer, Bully, Lurker and chief ram-rod for trying to shove 262 parking spaces down our collective throats on Pine Avenue (though that’s now a memory). Coleman has been the dutiful field commander, leading the charge, taking the flak, falling on the sword and filing the police reports. He shows up, everywhere, and says hello. He extends his hand though fewer and fewer are willing to take it. He engages conversation and finds little response these days. But he remains ever on task and in character, never deviating from the PAR script. “Did I show you the cisterns...?”

But all along, the word around town, the underground whispered word, the I’ll-tell-you-but-you-can’t-say-where-you-heard-it word, was that Ed Chiles is the one with the chip, the grudge, the something to prove. Ed Chiles is the one, they said, who swore that this Pine Avenue showdown was the “biggest thing” in his life. And he was going to win. “Whatever it takes,” he is said to have said.

Of course, that presented a problem. Follow us by clicking the "Please Read More" link below.

Everyone loves Ed Chiles. And what’s not to love? Moneyed philanthropist, generous entrepreneur, community nice guy and savior, and smiling handsome engaging son of Florida’s favorite political hero. It’s an image worth protecting, right? That natural ability to charm and persuade, learned on the knee of a political master. And then there is his wonderful mother, still a force and a doyenne in the community, and as sweet and sincere a southern lady as there is in these parts these days. It’d take a deft touch.

Look at the Pine Avenue battle from Ed’s perspective. In all the previous years, who’d ever said “no”? Who would have dared? It was Ed Frigging Chiles for chrissakes! Lawton’s boy! And so, year by year, lot by lot, easement by easement, variance by variance, through a succession of willing and sometimes fawning mayors and city commissions, Ed took a two-lot plywood shanty bar and transformed it into Wedding World. Essentially everything from north side of Pine to the south side of Spring, west of Gulf Drive to the water has slowly but inevitably been annexed, shell-paved, pavilioned and decked over. A worthy bit of real estate and land use wizardry, for sure. But in reality, in those 20 some odd years no one had ever said “no.” Ed was used to getting what he wants.

That is, until November 2009 and the election that changed everything, the vote that shifted the balance. Imagine the frustration, the indignation: “What? Are you kidding me? They said ‘no’? I’m Ed Frigging Chiles!”

Well, yes, he was Ed Chiles. And Ed Chiles still had to maintain a public persona of civility and distance. Ed could not be seen with dirty hands or questionable motives on his own island. How then to pursue the chip, the grudge, the “biggest thing” in his life and maintain that acceptable public persona expected of an entrepreneurial philanthropic son of a beloved senator? Enter Micheal Coleman. Enforcer, bully, lurker, field commander and, ultimately, fall guy.

And so, since November, Micheal Coleman has dutifully taken the arrows for and diverted the criticism from the senator’s son. The local press won’t touch Ed, too risky to the bottom line. Fellow business owners won’t speak out, too influential. The electorate doesn’t know him, save a hug or a handshake at the Sandbar or The Beach House or the fundraiser of the week. Teflon in shorts, shades and a silk Tommy Bahama.

But then a stranger came calling. A writer. A good writer for a newspaper considered one of the best in the country. Like Pulitzer Prize finalist good. So Ed talked to him. He had to, right? This wasn’t The Islander, man. This guy was big time. This was not a job for Coleman. The senator’s son would handle this one.

And so he talked, showed the guy a slice of island life. Ed’s town, Ed’s life. They walked around Pine Avenue. They rehashed the November election and talked about the new commissioner. And for perhaps the first time, Ed let it slip, he opened up and told the writer how he felt about that Stoltzfus guy and the war being waged on Pine Avenue. The writer, John Barry of the St. Petersburg Times, puts it this way:

"Chiles felt called out, maligned on his own island. He’d grown up to become an Anna Maria figurehead, owner of the town’s landmark Sandbar restaurant. He looked and acted a lot like his politician father. He’d sit on a porch on Pine Avenue, sip espresso and greet shoppers. He’d run out on the street to shake hands through car windows.

Now he was looking at moratoriums. Chiles was prepared to litigate Stoltzfus’ rear end “into a very big crack.”

Those in the know had known all along. And they suspect Ed used a euphemism other than “rear end.” But now he was outed.

Micheal Coleman may be the field commander but make no mistake.

This is Ed Chiles’ war, the biggest thing in his life.

Think about that in the days ahead.


Bill Yanger