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Hero -- or huckster? Todd Surgeon has a visionary plan and a troubled past Photo by Bob Pennell Todd Surgeon describes his latest business venture, Team Americana Inc., at the company's Medford office. He says the company plans to generate $20 million in contributions to local charities and community groups. By DAVID PRESZLER Meet "Mr. Americana." That's the title used in advertisements by Todd Surgeon, a Medford leisure-products salesman with a checkered financial past and a grandiose vision for the future. This week, the 28-year-old founder of Team Americana Inc. announced plans to open 777 outdoor showrooms across the country within the next year and "funnel back" $20 million to 25 Southern Oregon charities. Surgeon says he will announce the names of the charities later this month. "Team Americana brings a lot to Southern Oregon," he says. "I totally believe that if you go to people that are last in society and help them, that's how you change things." But Surgeon's own financial fortunes may have to change before he can help others. He is facing eviction from his business office and his home and has been the subject of numerous current and past investigations into financial or business irregularities. Team Americana sells hot tubs, saunas and other leisure items at outdoor showrooms, including one in Medford on West Main Street across from Black Bird. With the fervor of an infomercial pitchman, Surgeon says that for each showroom, or "base camp" as he calls them, that Team Americana opens it will donate $1,000 to each of the 25 charities -- $25,000 per showroom. Based on the target of 777 showrooms, that would total $19,425,000. He's also working with local nonprofit groups to distribute thousands of $100 coupons -- the first 4,000 of which went out in packets for today's Pear Blossom Run. Other local groups, including the Salvation Army and Community Works, have agreed to distribute the coupons. He says the coupons, also passed out by a limited number of "grass-roots Americans" such as waitresses and gas attendants, give customers money off high-ticket items and the nonprofit or person whose name appears on the coupon gets $100. Team Americana, which incorporated in Oregon a year ago this month, has one showroom in Medford and one in Roseburg. The company operates those two independently, but plans to open future showrooms at existing businesses. Only the future showrooms will generate charitable donations, he says. Surgeon says the showrooms grow like this: Dealers pay $100,000 for inventory, signs and sales materials, and Team Americana staffs the showroom with "team players." The host business gets 10 percent of all sales at the base camp. The team players -- recruited as independent contractors -- get another 10 percent to split. He says showrooms hosted by existing businesses will soon open in Beaverton, Vancouver, Wash., and Redding, Calif. He says he's sure they'll take off quickly, in part because alliances with existing businesses and nonprofits give Team Americana "instant credibility" in a new city. "It just happens boom, boom, boom," he says. Is growing from two showrooms to 779 in a year realistic? "Absolutely," Surgeon says. "For sure." Those would seem ambitious plans for a man who's had trouble paying rent on both his office and his home and who's faced a string of bad-check charges. Eviction proceedings against Team Americana Inc. closed March 9 for unpaid rent on office space at 132 W. Main St., according to Jackson County court records. The business was ordered to vacate by March 12, but still occupies the building. And on March 15, Surgeon and his wife, Michelle, who have three children, were evicted from a residence for the fourth time in five years -- each time for unpaid rent. Court records on the evictions show $6,545 in unpaid rent and late fees. Surgeon doesn't deny that he's faced serious financial trouble but says he's taken steps to solve it. "I'm still in all my buildings and my house," he says. "They are all being worked out with the landlords." Surgeon's latest residential landlord, Patrick Nascimento, evicted him but later allowed him to move back into the Jet Drive home -- which rents for $1,200 a month -- despite the fact that Surgeon owes $4,700 in back rent and late fees. Nascimento says Surgeon delivered a sauna and a pool to secure the loan and has a hot tub on order. "They are good people, just down on their luck, is what I've gathered," Nascimento says. Capital Property Management, landlord for Team Americana's offices, says the eviction is valid but the property owner is still negotiating with Surgeon. Surgeon says the past troubles don't shake his confidence, and he doesn't think they should shake others' either. "Just because I've faced those things, I think it's a credit to me," he says. "I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Everything I've had to fight for." Surgeon says he ran out of money to pay rent because sales are slow in winter and trying to expand from scratch rather than approaching existing businesses was too expensive. "We've really turned a corner in the last two or three weeks," he says. But evictions haven't been Surgeon or Team Americana's only legal problems. Medford police say they are investigating six bad checks worth $6,800 written against Team Americana's business account. Police said Surgeon did not write the checks and declined to comment further. Surgeon says the employee who wrote the checks is no longer with the company. In 1994, the state charged that Richard Nichols, the owner of a spa dealership Surgeon managed, Coastline Designs, owed more than $120,000 to Oregon consumers who paid for but never received goods and services. Nichols agreed to repay the money within three years but hasn't. Though Surgeon wasn't charged with any crime or ordered to repay any money, the state attorney general's office took notice when he opened Team Americana, sending him a warning letter. "We wanted to advise you that this office is aware of the new enterprise, and should we receive any complaints similar to those we received against Coastline," the letter says, "we intend to move swiftly to protect the Oregon public from sustaining losses such as those which resulted from transactions involving Coastline Designs Inc." "I'm not responsible for Richard Nichols' debt," Surgeon says. "I've cleaned up a lot of Coastline Designs' messes." Surgeon briefly ran another spa business, Tidal Wave Spas, that also drew complaints. He says the short-lived firm sold only three spas and that all its debts have been settled. But Sue Lopez of Ashland, who along with Linden Crouch has a $2,500 small-claims judgment against Tidal Wave Spas and Surgeon, says she hasn't seen a dime. "He still owes me money," she says. "He truly believes that he's done no wrong. But then how come all these things keep happening around him?" Surgeon says Lopez hasn't approached him recently, but he invited her and anyone else who feels he owes them to come to his office and discuss it. "Just come see me," he says. Surgeon has had other brushes with the law, although the only crime he's been convicted of is disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to that charge after being arrested in July 1994 when a female convenience store clerk claimed that he told her he was a pimp, offered her a job as a prostitute and propositioned her. Prostitution charges were dropped, and he was sentenced to two years' probation. "I was a young kid," says Surgeon, who was 24 at the time. He notes that he had just begun making money, had been drinking that night and was under the pressure of trying to provide for five children -- his three and two of a relative's. He says he's turned things around and matured since then. "I really feel that my life is going the best it ever has." Court records also show two instances, in 1995 and in 1991, when Surgeon was charged with negotiating bad checks. Both times he made full restitution and charges were dropped. In the 1991 case, he and another man, Michael Aaron Hill, paid $9,956.88 in restitution to local grocery stores in the face of first-degree theft charges. "I've always stood 100 percent accountable for everything," Surgeon says. "Every businessman that goes out there has some failures. I've learned from every one of them. For every challenge, there's also five success stories." Surgeon says he spent two years in Las Vegas, Nev. as founder of Americana Inc. -- Team Americana's predecessor -- which is still registered as a Nevada corporation. The Nevada attorney general's office said it had no record of any claims filed against Americana Inc. Surgeon says he spent two years in Las Vegas overseeing 13 major markets -- each of which generated more than $1 million in sales annually. He says his company was the target of a failed hostile takeover bid from other Las Vegas dealers, which drove him back to Southern Oregon. Surgeon says his plan is strong enough to overcome his past and he's determined to see it through. "The largest leisure company in the world is going to be based here in Medford, Oregon," he says. "I will not quit." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA