Orange mayor says no conflict in partnership with Orlando broker
Crotty made $112,000 on land deal
Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty made $112,000 in a private land venture with a major Central Florida real-estate broker whose projects regularly appear before the county government for approval.On Sept. 24, 2002, Crotty invested $100,000 in a Palm Beach County land partnership with broker Daryl Carter and more than doubled his money in one year.
Two weeks before he invested the money, Crotty voted to approve a rezoning of more than 1,300 acres of Carter’s land in west Orange County, clearing the way for a $20 million sale of the property. And on Oct. 8, 2002 — two weeks after writing the check — Crotty voted to approve a development agreement for the project on the commission’s consent agenda.
State conflict-of-interest laws prohibit public officials from knowingly casting votes that benefit a business associate, and require them to publicly disclose any conflict.
Crotty did not disclose his relationship with Carter at the time of either vote. He said he was unaware that Carter was involved in the west Orange property until it was brought to his attention this week by the Orlando Sentinel, even though Carter’s name appeared on county development plans and on the County Commission agenda.
After researching the matter in detail this week, Crotty concluded that he had not violated the law in 2002 — even unwittingly. He said he and Carter were not partners at the time of the first vote, and that Carter had sold the west Orange property by the Oct. 8 vote.
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Despite Mayor Crotty’s insistence that no wrong doing took place on his part something still seems fishy about this story. Perhaps it is a natural distrust of political figures making money on a deal they could have possibly had influence over, but for some reason I think there is more to this than Crotty is letting on. He conveniently “forgot” which staff member he talked to about informing him of any conflicts of interest in the Carter deal. Could it possbily be because no such conversation took place? That remains to be seen.
Then again, this could just be a coincidence. Mayors are allowed to supplement their income just like every other citizen.
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This is unrelated but — is anyone going to check out the Neo-Nazi protest tomorrow and blog about it?
Crooked Crotty broke the law. He should be indicted and removed from office, just like his Buddy was.
KENNY,
I’m going to try but I have a prior engagement that might prevent me from doing so. There are going to be plenty of different groups staging anti-rallies. I’m sure someone is going to take pictures and I imagine someone will blog about it.
Hopefully, if I can’t someone else from this site will go. Then again, I’m pretty much the only person that posts regularly on here. But that’s a different story.
Check out the post below for some commentary on the rally, and go to bigots suck for info regarding anti-rallies.