They say July 4th, 2023 was the hottest day on record worldwide. But in Apopka, I happen to believe that the hottest day may have been July 5th at the Apopka City Council meeting.
It's not every day, after all, that a mayor gets censured.
Well, actually, there was a proposal to censure that was pushed off until August 2nd to give Mayor Bryan Nelson an opportunity to answer the charges.
Here are the facts as I understand them:
"At this point, I have serious concerns about the directions this council is taking and the means of which certain things have been communicated," Rodriguez said. "I ultimately fear that I can no longer ethically represent this council. I fear this council may be on the verge of conducting ultra vires actions, and I cannot remain as its city attorney. Therefore I am tendering my resignation so I can save you some money. I will make arrangements with the Human Resources director to finalize the matters. I will save you the time. I will assist in the transition to bring in a successor Council, and I will basically tender my resignation and proceed forward pursuant to Florida State statutes."
Certainly, that does not mean Rodriguez was expected to leave the meeting, never to return, but it did confirm his intent to leave his position.
"As of today," said Nelson. "As of 1:30... yes."
"On April 5th, we had a 3-2 vote to fire him," Nesta said. "On April 19th, a 4-1 vote to seek additional help to look at our charter. He resigned on May 3rd very abruptly and aggressively here, and then tendered his letter the next day. And the last meeting, I specifically asked, 'Is he no longer employed here?' And you (Nelson) said as of 1:30 [pm] that day he was no longer employed by the City of Apopka... so is he employed by us, or is he not?"
"He is," said Nelson.
I'm surprised Nelson didn't answer the charges immediately. If there is an explanation, it's probably short and simple. Why would it take a month to craft a detailed response?
But then, only a week later, Nelson responded when Spectrum News 13 contacted him about the censure.
“Could I have done it better? Absolutely, no doubt about it, " Nelson said. "Did I misappropriate funds? Absolutely not. We got the best bang for our buck with Michael Rodriguez."
This seems to be a new trend with politicians - ask your own questions when the ones asked don't suit your narrative. Is it effective? Absolutely. Should they do it? Absolutely not.
Nelson also told Spectrum 13 News that the censure was based on politics.
"Ever since that loss for mayor, he’s [Becker] been nothing but just trying to put a stick in the mud rather than trying to put the city forward,” said Nelson.
When asked what he wanted to say to the commissioners, he wanted to look ahead, not at the censure.
"Do you want to move the city forward, or do you want to keep doing the gotchas?" Nelson said. "If that’s what you want, I’m here. I’ll take it. I’m a big boy.".
Then, in his final quote, Nelson denies misleading the Council.
Then at the April 17th, 2019, City Council meeting, Nelson said this:
"The last two weeks have been a real challenge. But the short answer is he's not being removed, nor is the police chief. I've got a former resident of Apopka who went on about me firing the police chief and the fire chief, and it's not true... so I apologize... I know Linda and I have been dealing with this guy, and it's really gotten kind of out of control. I know a lot of you have asked me over the weekend about this, and I had a lady this afternoon tell me that she saw all of this stuff online and she would be worried... scared for your own life. It's about him losing his wife five years ago. We've done testing... water and soil testing for him. But he just goes off on a rant... it seems like nothing helps. He's off the chain. So I don't know how to handle it. But social media, it's the new media that you have to live with. I wanted to give you a little background, but the last two weeks have been a real challenge... But the short answer is he's not being removed, nor is the police chief."
