Say goodbye to Vicki Taylor, say hello to Vicki Noren
City Councilwoman Taylor is now Councilwoman Noren, she has separated from her controversial land speculator husband, Ed Taylor, and now the truth can be told
-- John Patten, 01/20/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Private matters in the public arena
Councilwoman Vicki Taylor is now Vicki Noren (pronounced "nor-reen," with the accent on the second syllable). She is reverting to her maiden name as she has separated from her husband of eight years, Ed Taylor. Noren is citing "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the separation and has refused to go into any greater details. No legal papers have been filed in court that would start the legal divorce process.

Noren and her husband, would-be airport speculator/developer Ed Taylor, separated quietly during last year's council election campaigns. Ed Taylor continues to live in the family home in the Pinebrook neighborhood, while Noren and her teen-aged children have moved to a rented condo near Capri Isles.

Noren's new residence is within the city limits of Venice, a requirement for eligibility to serve on city council.

Conflict of interest with Marriott
As Vicki Taylor, she came under some citizen fire for her marriage to Ed Taylor and his involvement in the airport development scheme that would have brought a Marriott hotel to the island, replacing Lake Venice Golf Course. Ed Taylor had acted as point man for Aris Mardirossian, a wealthy Maryland investor, at first secretly and later openly, in Mardirossian's company, Amalthea Investments.

Due to the conflict of being on city council and being married to Ed Taylor, Noren had to recuse herself from the airport development discussions and processes. She staunchly refused to issue any on-the-record statements of her views during  the time that the Marriott was a viable option.

Privately and off-the-record, Noren stated at the time that she opposed airport development. She noted at the time, somewhat bitterly, that she was thrust into the compromising situation unwillingly and that the situation required her to stay silent and out of the loop at the public level. Privately, she was out of the loop as well, as this was Ed Taylor's business proposal and Noren had no input or received no information from Taylor other than what she read in the papers and what was heard at council meetings.

Noren claimed at the time that she would not share in any of the proceeds from the Marriott deal if the deal went through as Taylor and Noren kept entirely different books and budgets within the marriage. "His money is his money and my money is mine. He doesn't share any information with me about his business dealings -- that's just his way," Noren matter-of-factly stated to this writer during the height of the Marriott public controversy.

All the risk and no benefit
As to financial gains that she might have shared if the Marriott had gone through?

"There's the big irony," Noren stated off-the-record during one of the bigger points of controversy last year as this web site was zeroing in on her over potential profit motives in an elected position. "I'm out of the picture on council due to conflict of interest, but I get to publicly take the heat for being in the conflict. I will receive no financial benefit whatsoever for being in this position. It's all risk and no benefit."

Noren, privately and off-the-record, stated that she was opposed to the airport development plans she had seen from the various developers for most of the same reasons that citizen groups were stating at the time. "They're right, this will wreck the character of the island," Noren stated privately at the time.

While Noren took some public heat from a number of citizens for the perceived conflict, she remarkably got a pass from media outlets, including this web site. This was, no doubt, a source of frustration to a number of citizens who were unaware of the ongoing personal back-story and viewed Noren as yet another symbol of good ol' boy politics gone haywire. The main reason Noren was treated gingerly by all media outlets was due to the fact that she was fairly open (with newspaper reporters and with Venice Florida! dot com) about her frustrations about being caught between marital, business, and political conflicts -- as long as it was off-the-record at the time with the promise to allow much of the information to go public once the dust started to settle.

Trading one tightrope wire for another
It was a dangerous and publicly terrifying tightrope walk for Noren, but one that Noren managed to navigate with honor and grace, both in her private and public life. She somehow managed to do the right and moral thing in a situation fraught with moral and legal ambiguities -- one slip or misstep and she could have become Venice's biggest villain.

As to the future? Noren states she is planning on running for a third term on council in 2009, but that may be very tricky. She's viewed as a traitor by many CQG supporters who have backed her in the past, while citizen groups may not be able to mentally disconnect her from her CQG roots and her ties to Ed Taylor and the failed Marriott proposal. She's hoping, in part, that her return to her maiden name will help foster some of that disconnect.

Nevertheless, in agreeing to going public with much of this information, Noren may have just traded one tightrope wire for another.

Noren's new email address at city hall is vnoren@ci.venice.fl.us -- update your address books accordingly.

     Editor's note: The above article was reviewed and vetted by Noren prior to publication for authenticity and for the clearance/permission of usage of prior off-the-record statements.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.