Apopka City Attorney Michael Rodriguez, squabbling with City Council over whether they had authority to fire him, tendered his resignation Wednesday afternoon, telling commissioners, “I can save you some money.”
His surprise announcement was greeted with a smattering of applause from the audience.
“At this point, I have serious concerns about the directions council is taking and the means by which certain things have just been communicated,” Rodriguez said near the end of the board’s meeting. “I ultimately fear that I can no longer ethically represent this council. I fear that this council could be on the verge of conducting ‘ultra vires’ actions, and I cannot ethically remain as its city attorney.”
Ultra vires is a Latin term he used to suggest council was exceeding charter-defined powers.
The three-hour meeting, like most other recent council sessions, included citizen rancor directed at Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson, who won a second, four-year term in March 2022 with about 54% of the vote.
After muting the microphone of a citizen who exceeded his allotted four minutes to speak during public comment, Nelson was taunted with shouts of “recall,” a reference to a petition drive to remove him.
The petition, started by former firefighter Dennis New and funded with donations collected on crowd-sourcing site GoFundMe.com, requires verified signatures of about 2,000 Apopka residents who are registered voters.
“There’s a whole lot of issues for us, local people just fed up with the way Bryan’s running the city,” New said. “We believe firmly we have enough with what’s in the petition to be the foundation for a recall [election].”
The petition and websites like BetterApopka.com allege “malfeasance, misfeasance and incompetence.”
Among its charges, the petition alleges that Nelson has ignored the council and the city charter; failed to hold anyone accountable for last summer’s on-duty, accidental death of firefighter Austin Duran; and that he “wants to be dictator.”
Nelson refuted the accusations in an email to the Orlando Sentinel.
“I love this city and will continue to work hard to make it the best it can be,” he said.
Rodriguez’s resignation announcement followed a brief council discussion about hiring outside counsel for a second opinion on whether their 3-2 vote on April 5 to fire Rodriguez was allowed by Apopka’s charter.
The city has a “strong mayor” form of government, which means the mayor is the CEO.
“I can save you some money,” Rodriguez said. “I’ll save you the time.”
Nelson and Rodriguez had interpreted the charter as requiring mayor’s approval to remove him.
Council’s dissatisfaction with Rodriguez was sparked by a number of issues, including some commissioners’ perception of him as disrespectful, but also his alleged interference with a Fire Department committee that wanted to review procedures and protocols in the wake of the firefighter’s death.
Duran’s family has given notice as required by state law that they intend to sue the city.
Commissioners Kyle Becker, Nick Nesta and Diane Velazquez voted April 5 to fire Rodriguez, but the attorney stayed on the job as the mayor viewed their vote as non-binding and “ceremonial” without his approval.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com