Orange County Mayor Demings fires lobbyist over conflict of interest
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Orange County on Thursday fired lobbying firm GrayRobinson less than a week after the Orlando Sentinel revealed the lobbyist assigned to represent the county’s interests was behind legislation directly conflicting with its top legislative priority.
In an interview Sunday with the newspaper, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings had indicated that firing the firm was a possibility, labeling as “disturbing” the involvement of lobbyist Chris Carmody in a bill to limit the county’s authority over the Visit Orlando tourism marketing agency.
But Demings moved more quickly than many expected.
“Clearly, Mr. Carmody created a conflict of interest when he advised a State Senator about a matter contrary to the best interest of Orange County Government,” Demings said in a letter Thursday to Dean Cannon, CEO and president of GrayRobinson. “As a result, the County has lost confidence in his ability to objectively represent the County.”
The firing came despite an apology emailed Wednesday night to the mayor from Cannon, a former Republican lawmaker who held the powerful position of Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 to 2012.
His firm has served as the county’s lobbyist since 2018. The county paid GrayRobinson $72,000 annually.
“I want to apologize to you and the commissioners for our team’s creating a distraction from the great work you are doing in Orange County. We value our relationship with the county, and are proud of the results we have achieved as your lobbyists over the years,” Cannon said in the email. “We want to always do what is in the best interest of the county, and recognize we have caused you and others to question whether our representation achieves that goal.”
In terminating the contract, effective March 15, Demings rejected Cannon’s offer to let the firm finish the legislative session with a lobbying substitute for Carmody. The mayor instead demanded, “Effective immediately assign a new key point of contact.”
Cannon declined to answer questions from the Orlando Sentinel about the firing. “Chris remains a valuable part of our team. We do not intend to comment beyond the email we sent to Mayor Demings,” he said in a statement.
The Sentinel’s story, published Sunday, showed that Senate Bill 1594 — filed last month by Orlando Democrat Linda Stewart at a time county commissioners were eyeing cuts to Visit Orlando’s $100 million county subsidy — was actually written by Carmody, not the lawmaker. The bill would have required a supermajority of five of the seven commissioners to make such cuts.
Carmody provided Stewart with the language for the bill in a Word document he sent by text.
He also texted Stewart, “Try not to mention my name on this one. :)”
The newspaper received the texts in response to a public records request about the bill.
Stewart has said the bill is now dead but accomplished its purpose, because Orange County did not cut Visit Orlando’s subsidy as deeply as it had been contemplating.
