Did City Rubber Stamp OUC Re-appointment?

Things got a bit testy at the City Council meeting Monday when it was pointed out that Orlando Mayor Buddy and City Commissioners were merely rubber stamping the re-appointment of one of the most powerful positions in Orlando.

Former Orange County Democratic Party Chair, Doug Head brought to the Council’s attention that, the application for the re-appointment of president of the Orlando Utilities Commission, Ms. Maylen Dominguez-Arlin, contained errors and suggested the city was mechanistically rubber stamping the application without carefully reviewing it.  He likened the city’s manner of doing business to that of the robo-mortgage signers that created the housing debacle.

According to Head, data from Dominguez-Arlin’s 2006 application when she first was appointed, had merely been re-entered into the city’s database, without even being checked. He noted that there had been an address change which hadn’t been recorded on the new application.

“It’s an application for one of the most powerful positions in our town – OUC- which sets the rates for every single rate payer,” Head said. “And rather than even bother to have her fill out a new application, they (the city) just put the old one into a computer system, rolled it forward and nobody even read it.”

“If no one is reading these things then it begins to look like Wall Street,” he added. Head said he wondered how many other appointments and applications by the city were treated in the same manner and urged the council to review their appointments and applications’ processes.

But, Commissioner Daisy Lynum (District 5) took strong objection to the charge that commissioners didn’t read, calling it an “affront” and totally “untrue.” “Ninety percent of what we do is routine, ” she said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t read it.”

Rather than accept Head’s larger point that, perhaps the city’s appointments processes ought to be reviewed, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer pushed back hard, saying “it’s campaign season,” and suggested Head’s remarks were motivated because he is working “hand-in-hand” with Commissioner Phil Diamond (District 1), who has declared his candidacy to run for mayor of Orlando.

Visibly annoyed, Head said the issue was hardly a campaign one, but had to do with the city’s modus operandi.

“To suggest that this is just because of the campaign season, it’s not,” an annoyed Head responded, as he strode away from the podium. “At the core, we either just move things through in a routine way or we don’t. This is a false application for one of the most powerful positions you appoint. It’s false. What are you going to do about it?”

Diamond said he took exception to Dyer’s questioning of anyone’s motives when they make public comments.

“Mayor, I take exception. Mr. Head’s point about the application is well taken. I still would have voted in all likelihood for the reappointment (Ms. Dominguez-Arlin), he said. “Still it’s wrong to question someone’s motives and say its campaign generated.”

Folks, that’s your city government at work!

Doug Head is right. The city shouldn’t just be rubber stamping things or reappointing people on autopilot. Greater care must be taken to carry out the tasks with which elected officials have been entrusted.