BRADENTON, Fla. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on Friday was removed from office by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush within hours after he and three others were booked and released from the Orange County jail on charges that they bought absentee ballots.
Dyer and Orange County Circuit Judge Alan Apte are charged with paying $16,000 and $5,000, respectively, to hire Ezzie Thomas, a political consultant, to collect absentee ballots for their election campaigns. Thomas and Patti Sharp, Dyers campaign manager, also were arrested.
A grand jury for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange County last Thursday handed down indictments, which were sealed until all four were arrested and charged the next day. Apte used Thomas in his campaign for the bench in 2002.
Dyer used Thomas to help win his first mayoral campaign in 2003 during a special election held to replace Glenda Hood, who resigned as mayor to become secretary of state. Dyer also used Thomas to help win his first, full term as Orlandos mayor last year.
The grand jury alleged in its indictment that Dyer unlawfully offered to provide a pecuniary or other benefit to Ezzie Thomas in exchange for said Ezzie Thomas distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering, or otherwise physically possessing absentee ballots.
Bush suspended Dyer on Friday, and city officials began making plans to hold a special election to replace him.
Dyer, 46, is a Democrat. As mayor of double-A rated Orlando, Dyer promoted funding major sports and arts projects with tourist development taxes, or TBTs. But Dyer had a bumpy relationship with Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, a Republican, who has considerable clout over the use of TDTs, which are collected by the county.
Dyer has talked with officials from the National Basketball Associations Orlando Magic about a $75 million renovation of the TD Waterhouse Centre, which is where the team plays. Like other professional teams in Florida and around the country, the Magic has threatened to leave Orlando if the arena, built for them in 1989, isnt improved with suites and other upgrades that provide the team with more income.
Dyer proposed increasing the tourist tax by one cent, from five cents per dollar to six cents, in order to finance a portion of the arenas improvements.
The Citrus Bowl football stadium also needs as much as $142 million in upgrades.
Dyer also helped to establish a nonprofit corporation last year, which is developing a plan to build a performing arts center in downtown Orlando.
The ultimate decision regarding the future uses of the TDT rests with the Board of County Commissioners, said Crotty in a recent memo to county commissioners concerning a workshop today to discuss future use of TDT revenues.
Those revenues have grown the last two years after dipping following the September 2001 terrorist attacks and the recession.
Crotty wants to increase TDT funding for the arts and to use TDT revenues to support a history museum, before considering the funding of the arena, stadium, or an arts center.
Before 2000, TDT growth averaged 6.4% annually. Average growth each year over the past five years was 2.8%. Collections were $94 million in 2003, and over $110 million in 2004. For the first four months of the 2005 fiscal year, collections have exceeded the 2004 collections by 14%, according to Comptroller Martha Haynie, who collects the tax for Orange County.
The county has about $1 billion of outstanding revenue bonds secured by TDTs that were sold to expand the Orange County Convention Center.
Haynie said she wants the county to start setting aside a portion of the TDT revenue that would represent a years worth of debt-service payments on the convention centers debt, or about $76 million.
