ORLANDO

Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) gets a new chairman, Walter Ketcham, as mayor Rich Crotty steps down. Ketcham, 62, has been a member of the board for less than a year. He is a trial lawyer who says he does "insurance defense, automobile liability, products liability, personal injury, dental malpractice, subrogation, wrongful death, municipal and governmental law, amusement park liability and legal malpractice."

Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) is likely to follow Florida's Turnpike in offering sticker-tag transponders free. They have already been giving away limited numbers of the E-PASS Minis - as they are called - in special promotions. Staff have proposed free issue of sticker tags be regularized and the board of the authority is expected to formally endorse the proposal when they meet Jan 27.

November 22 and 23 Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) opened 1.4km (0.86 miles) of two extra lanes eastbound on the FL408 East-West Expressway over the Lake Underhill Bridge between Conway Rd to Crystal Lake Drive. This links two recently widened segments either side eliminating a "pinch point".

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:

Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority's board of directors voted unanimously this week to confirm toll increases provisionally voted at the February meeting. The toll hike occurs amid a storm of controversy in the interim after revelation of abuses by Allan Keen, a former chairman, and the use of major OOCEA consultant/contractor PBS&J to hit on vendors for political campaign contributions for Republican candidates 2003 to 2006.

Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) has done a partial opening of their fifth tollroad. Saturday Feb 14 they cut the ribbon on TOLL-414 and about two-thirds of its length is open to motorists with Florida transponders.

Former Orlando tollroad chair Allen Keen has been cleared by the Florida state ethics commission of all public corruption charges except putting $2600 of theme park tickets for friends on the toll authority. Keen, a land and real state developer, was variously accused during a tumultuous several years of:

- using inside information about the routing of new tollroads to make advantageous land transactions

What seemed a corruption scandal over payments of more than $100k to an anti-toll activist and a huge fight with the Orlando toll authority's PR man have fizzled away to nothing. The toll authority this week voted 3 to 1 to settle for $8,320 an 18 month old legal fight with PR guy Ron Pecora.

Central Florida state's attorney Lawson Lamar said today that a Grand Jury he impanelled to consider corruption charges against staff and board members of the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA) will not be pressing any criminal charges. Instead they will merely present criticism of political fund raising and other dubious practices at the toll agency.

Allan Keen the former chairman of the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA) constantly used his position at the authority to raise election funds for Republican candidates. That was the thrust of testimony given to state investigators by Bryan Douglas, former marketing director and spokesman for OOCEA.

The testimony was reported in Orlando Sentinel Apr 26.

Scott Pignone, assistant state attorney in charge of investigations into corruption in Orlando killed himself this morning according to his boss district state attorney Lawson Lamar.

Just last week Pignone gained indictments against Ron Pecora, former marketing and PR consultant to the Orlando toll authority and Doug Guetzloe, an anti-toll activity who was paid $107,500 in hush money by the toll authority in a scandal that has rocked the authority the past six months, leading to the departure of the authority chairman Allan Keen.

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.