A vicious 19-month feud between condo neighbors that allegedly started over an outdoor barbecue has spilled into the courtroom and an upcoming election in a small Broward city.
Residents of Coconut Creek — a city of about 58,000 people just west of Deerfield Beach — are set to vote for three commission seats on March 11. But the race for District B has raised eyebrows, with one city hall hopeful facing multiple lawsuits from her opponent and others in her community who accuse her of defamation.
Philippa Sklaar, who emigrated from South Africa in 2001 and bills herself as an author and activist, is campaigning to unseat incumbent commissioner Jacqueline Railey, who currently serves as the city’s Vice Mayor.
Railey is also the president of the community council for Wynmoor Village, a 55-and-up condo community made up of more than 5,000 units where Sklaar lives. A dispute over the placement of an outdoor barbecue pad near the condo building where Sklaar lives began two years ago, according to Railey's attorney, and bubbled up.
The argument prompted Sklaar to post vehemently about Railey on social media and on YouTube, accusing her of using her position for personal gain and calling Railey's leadership "tyrannical rule."
Today, Sklaar's YouTube channel has more than 40 videos dedicated to slamming Railey, Broward County officials and other leaders of the Wynmoor Community Council.
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After a year of online vitriol, Railey sued Sklaar last June. Her lawsuit alleges Sklaar has waged a campaign of attacks against the vice mayor, accusing her of harming the elderly residents of Wynmoor.
Railey’s complaint relays a number of Facebook posts from Sklaar calling Railey a “crazy harpy,” accusing Railey of stealing from Wynmoor residents and claiming Railey is part of a “criminal enterprise” that rigs the bidding process for condominium improvements.
"She just makes accusations and she twists and turn things to make it seem like there's a violation," said Mark Bogen, Railey's attorney representing her in the suit.
Sklaar said she began her commission bid and her postings on social media as a way to stand up for her neighbors against a perceived lack of regard by the city commission and Wynmoor Community Council. Much of her platform has to do with unseating Railey and voting differently from the rest of the commission.
"I have spent my life as an activist. I have always fought for the underdog. I'm standing to make sure residents' interests are protected every single step of the way," Sklaar told WLRN.
Railey declined an interview with WLRN, but in her lawsuit she strongly denies her opponent’s claims. Her complaint states that each of Sklaar’s statements are untrue, defamatory and made with “reckless disregard” for their falsity.
The defamation suit is ongoing and will likely continue past the March 11 election day.
At a Coconut Creek government meeting on Jan. 9, Railey secured permission from the commission to hire an independent investigator to probe Sklaar's claims against her, as reported by Coconut Creek Talk.
Attacks on social media
Despite the litigation, Sklaar continues to attack Railey on multiple social media platforms.
On her YouTube channel, Sklaar has 43 videos dedicated to Railey and Wynmoor that she began uploading last May. Prior to that, she posted videos about Biblical characters and stories.
A video published this January, opens with a cartoon of Sklaar kicking a cartoon of Railey from behind. Other videos have thumbnails featuring cartoon mock-ups showing Wynmoor leaders and local officials as demons or monsters.
Sklaar went as far as creating a GoFundMe fundraising page last March titled “Help stop elder abuse by greedy condo creeps.”
“My name is Philippa Sklaar, and I’m fundraising for elderly residents who are being financially raped and subjected to health hazards in a condo association in Florida,” the GoFundMe description reads in part.
The GoFundMe has raised $8,845 at the time of writing, but Sklaar says she hasn’t spent a penny. Sklaar tells WLRN the money is sitting in her personal bank account, and she plans to only use it to pay for legal fees when she sues Railey and Wynmoor’s leadership. She said she aims to subpoena the condo’s financial documents to prove her claims against Railey.
“We started raising money to sue them, and in the meantime, they then sued me for defamation,” Sklaar said. “The money from the GoFundMe will only be used to benefit the [condo] owners. For now we’re paying our own legal fees.”
Lawsuit from a second commissioner
Sklaar’s fundraising effort also earned her a legal challenge from another government official: Railey's attorney, Bogen, who also serves as a commissioner for Broward County.
Bogen is among those targeted in Sklaar’s YouTube channel — he is depicted as a werewolf in the thumbnail for a video titled "Commissioner Bogen of Broward Becomes Unhinged."
He sued Sklaar in August after her GoFundMe page displayed a $100 donation under the name “Mark Bogen,” which had not come from the county commissioner. “In reviewing the GoFundMe site, there were names on there I knew were not legitimate, including my name. I then sued her to have my name taken off,” Bogen told WLRN.
Sklaar said the bogus Bogen donation was not her own doing, and she removed his name by the time she was served his lawsuit. The judge dropped the case once Bogen's name was removed, and ordered Sklaar to pay Bogen’s legal fees.
“A lot of the donors would donate money in fictitious names,” Sklaar said.
Bogen said he believes voters won't be swayed by the mudslinging involved in this particular race. "I think the voters are smart enough to know the truth and I don’t think it’s going to change any results," Bogen said.
Sklaar faces additional defamation suits from the Wynmoor community’s chief financial officer and a community council administrator.
In turn, the political newcomer claims she filed a complaint against Railey and the Wynmoor Community Council with the Broward State Attorney's Office and that the office opened an investigation. Both the Broward and Miami-Dade State Attorneys' offices told WLRN they cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Polling locations for Coconut Creek’s March 11 election day can be found on the city’s website.
