George Oliver resigned his Ocoee commission seat to run for mayor; he lost. Now he wants back in
George Oliver, who gave up his Ocoee City Commission seat to run for mayor, wants his former job back.
Oliver, 56, is one of two candidates seeking to fill the District 4 vacancy created March 21 when his resignation became effective. Qualifying for the special election, tentatively set for June 13, ends noon Friday.
He was required by Florida’s resign-to-run law to give up his commission seat to bid to be mayor.
The resignation was irrevocable.
The commission chose Ages Hart, 55, a pharmacist, as interim commissioner until the special election.
But whether Ocoee holds a vote in June as its charter appears to require may hinge on a legal opinion.
The board, hoping to avoid paying $10,000 for a special election, preferred delaying a vote on who should serve the remainder of Oliver’s term, which ends March 19, 2024, and include the race on the presidential primary ballot.
City attorney Scott Cookson advised against the commission consensus.
“It’s unfortunate there’s disagreement on this, but my interpretation, my reading of the charter, is that we have to hold this special election as originally scheduled,” he told the board at last week’s commission meeting.
Cookson cautioned the board not to decide an issue that was not part of the publicly advertised agenda.
Commissioners may discuss the issue again May 2.
They also may assemble a charter review panel to tweak the governing document, including candidate qualifications, specifically residency. The charter requires a candidate to be a city resident but it does not spell out for how long.
“It’s ridiculous when you can move into town tonight and tomorrow morning you can come sign up to run for office in this city,” said Mayor Rusty Johnson, who was reelected in March. “There’s something wrong with that.”
Apopka, Orlando and Winter Garden require candidates to be city residents at least a year.
Orlando candidates must prove their residency with homestead property records, a lease or utility bills.
Winter Park also requires city residency but without a specified time frame.
Oliver and Nate Robertson, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for the Florida Legislature in November, each paid a $90 qualifying fee to be on the ballot. Their fees would be refunded if the election is moved to next year.
Elected in 2018, Oliver was the first Black candidate ever to win a seat on the commission.
He said he might sue if the commission scraps the June vote.
“This was a very, very dangerous conversation they had at the last commission meeting,” Oliver said of the proposal to delay the vote until next year. “What they would be doing is disenfranchising voters in District 4.”
