Two indicted in Orlando toll bribery scandal

Anti-toll activist Doug Guetzloe who was paid $107,500 in hush money by the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) was today indicted by a grand jury on two counts of perjury, and the man who paid him on behalf of the toll authority Ron Pecora, PR consultant to the authority was indicted on a charge of bribery and providing unlawful compensation. The charges are only indirectly related and are likely only the beginning of a series of other charges in the corruption affair that has unfolded in Orlando.

9th District Florida state attorney Lawson Lamar said there was a "culture of greed" and "winning at any costs" and there were "dirty deeds". His work he said was like "peeling an onion." He said the investigation would continue with a new grand jury looking at other charges.

Pecora is charged with bribery not for the $107,500 he paid to Guetzloe but for $2,600 of Disney and Universal theme park tickets he supplied without receiving payment to the then chairman of the toll authority Allan Keen. Pecora has said that Keen suggested he use the toll authority's clout to get the tickets for free, and insists he shelled out the $2,600 himself, billed Keen, and never passed on the cost to the OOCEA.

The prosecutor Lamar interprets Pecora's failure to insist on reimbursement for the tickets as as bribe to Keen to keep him onside to protect his $1.7m/year marketing and PR contract with the toll authority - which was extended by negotiation. Pecora told prosecutors, the Orlando Sentinel reports, he was afraid to push too hard for payment for fear of losing his contract.

Keen, a real estate developer, is the subject of criminal investigations on three counts:

- instigating the $107k hush money payments by the toll agency to Guetzloe

- breach of electoral laws in campaigning against the mayor of Winter Park in which Guetzloe has received a jail sentence (he is appealing)

- land dealings by companies of his while as chairman he was involved in routing decisions over tollroad development in the northwest of the Orlando area

Guetzloe was indicted today on two counts of perjury in statements to the Florida Elections Commission in claiming he'd paid himself for pamphlets in fact paid for by strip club owners the Commission says.

All say someone else arranged payments to Guetzloe

In connection with Guetzloe Keen has said that he merely suggested that toll authority staff "reach out" to anti-toll activist in advance of the announcement of planned toll increases in an effort to bring him around to accepting toll increases. He says that the payments to Guetzloe were decided by "staff and consultants" - meaning OOCEA CEO Mike Snyder and then consultant Ron Pecora.

Pecora in turn says he strongly opposed any dealings with Guetzloe but was told by Snyder that the chairman (Keen) insisted on the scheme to buy Guetzloe's silence, and that he was ordered to make the payments. CEO Snyder has said then-chairman Keen did know of the payments to Guetzloe and that he approved them.

Pecora and colleagues at his firm Pecora and Blexrud were dismissed as OOCEA contractors by CEO Mike Snyder after the affair blew. They are accused by OOCEA of overbilling the toll authority - by as much as $400k. A civil suit and now a fraud charge are pending.

Pecora claims he was told by an OOCEA attorney he could keep his marketing and PR work if he helped with a coverup of the hush money payments to Guetzloe by saying that Guetzloe did work in return for the money.

He says the overbilling claims are retaliation for refusing to participate in the OOCEA sponsored coverup.

Also today the former staff PR man at OOCEA, Bryan Douglas appeared before a grand jury. Douglas was the OOCEA staffer most directly involved in dealings with Pecora's firm. He resigned after CEO Snyder made public comments about poor management of the Pecora & Blexrud contract.

Lawson Lamar the Orlando state attorney precipitated the crisis at the toll authority when he discovered the payments to Guetzloe in the course of another investigation. The rest of the board of the authority had not been informed.

Sea change promised

Some of the most biting criticism of the toll authority's dealings with Guetzloe were made by Orange County mayor Rich Crotty, then a member of the board of directors who were left in the dark by Keen and Snyder. Crotty took over from Keen as chairman after Keen stepped down.

Crotty has promised a "sea change" in the way business is done at OOCEA. Contract extensions that previously were uncompeted are now being competed and supposedly it is now an open and above board operation that won't do secret deals with the likes of Guetzloe.

Snyder offered to resign as CEO but Crotty said he wanted him to stay.

Mickey mouse corruption

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas wrote: "To ensure he kept his $1.7 million contract, Pecora allegedly slipped Keen some Disney Park Hopper passes. In Chicago, that kind of contract would be worth at least $100,000 and maybe a hooker or two. Which proves that even in matters of public corruption, we still are a Mickey Mouse town."

TOLLROADSnews 2007-03-28