City Council censures Apopka Mayor Nelson
Cites ‘untruthful public comments’ about former legal counsel
Apopka City Council voted Wednesday to censure Mayor Bryan Nelson, alleging he lied to the board this summer about the employment status of the city’s former legal counsel, Michael Rodriguez.
“We, as a council, as well as the people we represent, deserve better,” said Commissioner Kyle Becker, who drafted the censure resolution that levies no fine or other punishment to hold him accountable.
The unusual action, adopted by a 3-1 board vote, followed a rancorous 30-minute exchange between the two-term mayor and his council colleagues as all sides talked over one another on the dias.
As a voting member of council, the mayor voted against censuring himself.
Rodriguez suddenly and publicly resigned under fire on May 3, but he secretly remained on the job for seven more weeks — collecting thousands of dollars in salary; the mayor said June 7 that Rodriguez was no longer employed. Rodriguez’ salary was $147,392 a year.
Council had voted “no-confidence” in Rodriguez, trying to oust him for a combative style with some commissioners and
for providing bad legal advice in an affordable housing lawsuit the city lost.
But Nelson described council’s vote to dump Rodriguez as “ceremonial,” insisting Apopka’s charter outlines a “strong-mayor” form of government that reserves the authority to hire and fire to him.
Nelson won a second four-year term as mayor in 2022, defeating Becker.
The mayor did not dispute the resolution’s accusations but instead referred to emails that suggested instances of bad behavior by Becker, who previously admitted using salty language with Rodriguez.
“Wow! What a circus you’ve created, an absolute circus,” Commissioner Nick Nesta protested as Nelson tried to continue delivering his response. “How is this relevant to the facts that are here!”
Becker insisted he could rebut anything Nelson said.
“This is going to be laughable where he’s going,” Becker said.
The censure drew applause from a cluster of spectators who have been critical of the mayor, alleging he has failed to hold Apopka Fire Department leadership accountable for the on-duty, accidental death of firefighter Austin Duran.
Duran, 25, was fatally injured in July 2022 while trying to move a trailer of sand that tipped and crushed him. Post-accident reviews pointed out Duran hadn’t been trained to move the unwieldy trailer.
The censure serves as an official declaration by a council majority that he misled the elected board and, “by the same actions, the people of Apopka, through his untruthful public comments…”
In a phone interview Tuesday with the Orlando Sentinel, Nelson more directly addressed the censure charges, recalling that Rodriguez quit but promised to help transition to a new city attorney.
“They’re arguing I wasn’t truthful about when he left,” Nelson said. “We had things to do…I could have paid him the whole 20 weeks [severance] and would have been perfectly within my right. I got a few weeks more work out of him and paid him 13 weeks severance. The only reason he got severance is because you guys were treating him like crap.”
Nelson said he suspects someone will use the censure against him if he runs for re-election.