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Oakland Town Manager Elise Hui was accused in a June email of a “conflict of interest” because her daughter, Joslyn Hui, 22, works for Wade Trim, which has provided planning and zoning services to the town for the past three years.
Headquartered in Detroit, the company has offices in nine states, including four in Florida. Oakland does business with Wade Trim’s Tampa office.
The unsigned email was sent by an individual named “William” from theoaklandvoice@gmail.com. The email — sent to all town commissioners, including the mayor, the town manager as well as the Orange Observer and VoxPopuli — claimed that Joslyn Hui’s employment “appears to violate” Florida’s Ethics Code for public officers because it overlapped with her mother’s tenure as assistant town manager and town manager. The email said the situation “rais[ed] serious ethical concerns and the appearance of impropriety.”
The email states:
“... Florida Law prohibits public officers and employees from having conflicting employment or contractual relationships that could create a conflict between their public duties and their private interests. The familial relationship between Wade Trim and the top administration compromises the integrity of the contracting process, thereby eroding public trust.”
Receiving no response to his June 26 email, “William” emailed again on July 13, requesting that his original email be read into the Oakland Town Commission minutes.
VoxPopuli attempted to contact “William” through theoaklandvoice@gmail.com email used to send the two messages, but did not receive a response.
Hui conferred with the Town Attorney Stephanie M. Velo from Vose Law Firm in Winter Park to clarify the situation. On Sept. 11, Hui received an email from Velo, stating that she “was not in violation of any provision of Chapter 112, Florida Statutes, as a result of your daughter’s employment with Wade Trim and Wade Trim’s contractual relationship with the Town.”
Hui told VoxPopuli in a phone interview that she “believe[s] it was probably the former town manager who got terminated” who sent the emails because “there’s very few people that knew the type of information” about her family life. She was referring to Andy Stewart, who was fired in February by the commission for management issues.
Hui has worked for the town since December 2018. She began as administrative services manager and town clerk before her promotion to assistant town manager in 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile and in an interview with VoxPopuli. She was appointed town manager in March after Stewart was terminated.
Hui said that she’d talked to employees, including Stewart, about her daughter’s employment, but Stewart ”never expressed concerns at the time he was [town manager].”
“To drag somebody's child into it, it's kind of ugly,” said Hui, who provided no evidence that Stewart was behind the emails.
Reached by Facebook Messenger, Stewart denied sending the emails and any knowledge of the situation before VoxPopuli asked him about it.
“I did not send any emails,” Stewart told VoxPopuli Friday via Facebook Messenger. “... if I were that concerned about the situation, I would have just filed the complaint and signed my name to it. I think it’s time for Mrs. Hui to move on and stop making false accusations against me.”
VoxPopuli consulted board-certified government law expert Clifford Shepard, founder and partner of the Maitland firm Shepard, Smith, Hand & Brackins, for his opinion on whether Hui violated the standards of conduct outlined in Florida Statute 112.313.
Shepard said there is only a violation if, in this case, Hui’s daughter, Joslyn, benefits from the firm’s business, either by holding a high position or owning stock in the firm. Shepard said this is a significant factor in determining whether there’s a violation of the statute. Whether Joslyn works on Oakland-related projects does not necessarily matter, he said.
He said in a town council form of government, such as Oakland, town managers tend to have more direct oversight over who the town does business with, meaning the statute would likely define Hui as a purchasing agent, or someone who influences where the government’s funds go. According to Florida Statute 112.313 Part 3, purchasing agents cannot buy services from a business in which their “spouse or child is an officer, partner, director, or proprietor” or in which the spouse or child has a “material interest.” That’s defined as ownership of more than 5 percent of the total assets or capital stock of the business entity.
”Is your kid gonna make money off this deal or get a promotion off this deal or something? If yes, that's a problem,” Shepard said. “If the answer is no, well, then it doesn't matter.”
According to Hui, Joslyn interned for Wade Trim in the summer of 2024 and was offered a paid position before her senior year in college. She began working full-time for the firm in June as a utility engineer in the Orlando office after graduating in May, Hui said.
“ She's definitely just starting to work,” Hui said. “This is her actual first job.”
Wade Trim confirmed to VoxPopuli that Hui’s daughter has an entry-level position as a junior engineer in the firm’s water market segment and that she does not own any stock or other company assets.
While Shepard said he didn’t think Joslyn Hui’s employment with a town vendor constituted an ethics violation, he said the statute also covers misuse of a public position.
Under Florida Statute 112.313 Part 6, “no public officer, employee of an agency, or local government attorney” should use their position to “secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself, herself, or others,” such as securing employment at a company for themselves or someone else by leveraging the municipality’s business relationships with a company.
Hui maintained that she was not involved in Wade Trim’s decision to hire her daughter. Like many parents, she learned about it after the fact, telling VoxPopuli in a followup email that Joslyn clued her in only after she was hired.
It was Stewart’s predecessor, Steve Koontz, the town manager from 2017 to 2023, who engaged Wade Trim’s Tampa office in 2022 to work on Oakland’s planning and zoning. The firm has a three-year contract with the town to provide on-call services as needed. It also has the same arrangement with the Town of Windermere.
During the Aug. 12 town commission meeting, commissioners approved a one-year extension of Wade Trim's contract as part of the consent agenda. Hui told VoxPopuli that Wade Trim requested the extension and that she had “no recommendation and no authority” over the commission’s decision to grant the extension.
