Orlando press finds hints of CEO Snyder links to political fundraising

Orlando Sentinel newspaper reports this weekend grand jury records apparently linking Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA) chief executive Mike Snyder to the political fundraising from toll authority vendors. This long drawn out affair has cast a pall over OOCEA over the last several years.

A February 2006 memo written by the tollroad's then PR and marketing chief Ron Pecora on a "fundraising strategy meeting" said:

"Ken Wright (the tollroad's lawyer) explained that (then) chairman Keen, (then board member) Orlando Evora and Mike Snyder will be the individuals from the Expressway Authority (tollroad) who are asked to assist with fundraising."

Also a March 2006 noted that then Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting for a fundraising lunch to be hosted by the chairman Allan Keen and the investigators found a fax message from Keen to his secretary: "Fax to Mike S. Ask to call me pls."

Snyder says he knows nothing about the first memo, wasn't asked to raise funds, and didn't raise funds. On the second he says he does remember being invited to the Cheney fundraiser by Keen, but he declined to attend.

He is quoted as saying of the affair: "This is three years old... it's time to move on."

Former chairman Allan Keen managed to string out the scandal by launching legal moves to block public release of the grand jury report.

The report released only February this year referred to the high pressure fundraising from tollroad vendors as an "organized shakedown" and as representing "a culture of corruption."

But it found no indictable offenses - no direct connection between any financial contribution and any contract awarded, and no retaliation against any non-payer that would constitute a corruption felony.

The driving force behind the "shakedowns" chairman developer Allan Keen has been pushed out, Ron Pecora was fired, and the board has adopted a stronger prohibition on requesting money from vendors.

And Snyder has had his five year chief executive employment contract at $246k/yr renewed.

He still has one strong critic on the five member board - Tanya Juarez - who says she can't believe that Snyder knew nothing about the fundraising among vendors, adding: "If he was oblivious to this, do I want somebody (as chief executive) who is not aware of what's going on beneath him?"

But for now, Juarez seems to be a lone board member gunning for the OOCEA CEO.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-04-05