BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 230 to create a regional toll road agency in central Florida, and abolish the embattled Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority.
If Gov. Rick Scott signs the bill, the Central Florida Expressway Authority would be created to take immediate control of the OOCEA's five toll roads covering 109 miles, and ensure the payment of $2.6 billion of outstanding toll revenue bonds.
The Central Florida Expressway board would have nine members with potentially up to six elected officials. Scott would be required to appoint three citizens from Orange, Seminole, Lake, or Osceola counties - the larger region that would be covered by the new agency.
Swift passage of the bill came on the last week of the annual session with the House approving it 115-to-0 on April 30 and the Senate giving it the nod 36-to-0 on May 1.
The bill's passage came a week after the Orange County grand jury's indictment of the OOCEA board's vice chairman, Scott Batterson, on one count of bribery and two counts of solicitation for receiving unlawful compensation. The charges are felonies.
Jeff Ashton, the state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties, said more indictments are possible.
Ashton and the grand jury are also continuing a probe into whether three of the five OOCEA board members improperly spoke with each other before they voted to seek a new executive director last year. Florida law prohibits elected and appointed government officials from talking to each other about agency business outside of a public meeting.
It is not the first controversy that has enveloped the high-profile agency.
In late 2007, a highly critical 170-page audit by Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie found that OOCEA lacked accountability over cost controls and did not have adequate procurement standards.
Haynie said she believes millions of dollars were wasted due to the lack of scrutiny over billings and invoices and the use of consultants overseeing consultants to monitor contracts, among other issues.
Following that audit, an Orange County grand jury issued a report outlining activities at the authority, which included an "organized shakedown" of vendors by requiring them to donate contributions for activities and campaigns. No one was indicted though then board chairman Allan Keen resigned.
