By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
Make no mistake—the June 19th Apopka City Council meeting featured many bleak and bizarre moments. It's not every day, after all, that a mayor revisits a censure vote from almost a year ago. But that's exactly what happened when Mayor Bryan Nelson asked the Council to rescind his censure from August 2023, which alleged he misled the Council about former City Attorney Michael Rodriguez's employment status.
The Council voted 3-1 to censure Nelson in 2023 but would not even make a motion to vote on rescinding it after a 62-minute deliberation on the matter. But perhaps one of the most puzzling moments came when Nelson, while reading his prepared statement, made this shocking claim:
"The censorship vote was brought forward by a former City Commissioner for political reasons and had nothing to do with public policy," Nelson said while reading from the statement. "Prior to the Censorship vote, the prior City Commissioner asked a city employee to meet him at a restaurant near his place of business. During the meeting, the City Employee was told that if I would not run for another term as Mayor, the Commissioner would drop the censorship vote. The City Employee has agreed to swear under oath and/or take a lie detector test to prove that this meeting actually happened."
Although not named, the former commissioner in question is Kyle Becker, who gave the censure presentation in 2023 and wrote the language in the resolution.
The Apopka Voice contacted Becker, who categorically denied Nelson's claim.
"It is really disturbing the Mayor can’t get over an election that occurred more than two years ago, nor over an opponent he will never run against again," Becker said. "Instead, he chose to openly defame me by telling the public something I have never said, or simply put, he has told yet another lie. When one looks at the timeline of events he laid out, the notion I would not seek a censure vote if the Mayor committed to not seek re-election is both comical and nonsensical as I had already officially announced into the record I was not seeking re-election. To further suggest I used a City employee as a conduit to that offer is counter to how I conducted myself over my eight years of service."
Although Nelson does not name the City employee from whom he alleges he received the offer, Becker confirmed he did have lunch with one City employee inside the censure's timeline.
"Over the course of my service, I’ve had interactions with a number of City employees, contractors, applicants, and the like, as it was part of the job," Becker said. "However, I have only had lunch with three City employees at locations near my office in Maitland. The first was in March of 2023, with an employee well before the censure vote, another with an employee in February of 2024, well after the censure vote, and the third employee was on July 19, 2023, in the middle of the censure timeline. I’m not sure if this is the employee the Mayor was referring to, but the employee I had lunch with on July 19, 2023, was Mr. Glen Brooks, and while conversations regarding the censure may have naturally come up during the conversation, it was certainly not the basis. There was never any suggestion on my part of a “quid pro quo” deal that the Mayor suggested during the Council meeting. In fact, the lunch was at the request of Mr. Brooks, to which I have text confirmation. The nature of the conversation was Mr. Brooks advocating for budget considerations for operational and capital improvements to the wastewater program during budget workshops that were to take place the following week."
Becker concludes his statement toThe Apopka Voice with reference to a possible defamation lawsuit against Nelson for what he contends is a false statement.
"I was appreciative of Commissioner (Nick) Nesta and Vice Mayor (Diane) Velazquez for holding the line on a censure that was based on fact, proving this Mayor is untruthful to his Council and constituents. He has lied once, and now, with this charade, he has proven he will do it again and again for his own political or personal benefit. I look forward to exploring my legal options related to his attempt to defame my reputation in a public forum."
The Apopka Voice attempted to contact Brooks on his personal cell phone by text messages sent on Friday, June 21st, at 12:38 pm, 2:51 pm and Saturday, June 22nd, at 8:55 pm. Brooks did not respond as of the publication of this article.
The Apopka Voice also reached out to Nelson by text message on his personal cell phone and his City email address on Friday, June 21st, at 4:09 pm to answer several questions about his allegation. Among the questions sent to Nelson were:
- Who is the City employee who met with Becker?
- Why didn't Becker's alleged actions come out immediately and before the censure vote instead of almost a year later?
- Why hasn't the City employee already taken the lie detector test or made his statement under oath?
- Why make this allegation from an anonymous City employee when you had weeks to create your response and could have brought the person to the meeting if they were willing to make an under-oath statement?
Nelson did not respond to the questions before the article's publication.
This is a developing story, and as more details are known, it will be updated in future editions of The Apopka Voice.
