THE NETWORK — How Decades of Overlapping Power, Politics, and Private Business Shield Orlando’s Leaders From Accountability
- Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice
- 2 days ago
- 15 min read
The State Promised Oversight — Then Praised One of the Most Politically Corrupt Cities in Florida
Earlier this year (2025), Governor Ron DeSantis and CFO Blaise Ingoglia announced a sweeping effort to audit nearly every local government in Florida — billed as a crackdown on “waste, fraud, and abuse.” They framed it as non-partisan enforcement, with the implication that the audits would expose inefficiency or corruption.
Soon after the initial audits were released and press conferences were livestreamed, it became clear that these State audits were just another example of political theater. Ingolia provided to the public his office’s analysis of wasteful spending in cherry-picked Florida cities and counties, but these audits had no teeth. There was still zero accountability—just more back-and-forth politicking.
When it came time for Ingolia to release his office’s findings about the City of Orlando, it became clear that these audits themselves were an example of waste, fraud, and abuse. Instead of aggressively scrutinizing the City of Orlando (government)—long viewed as one of the state’s most politically entrenched Democratic cities—the Republican-led State publicly praised it.
Specific issues in the City of Orlando, rampant with conflicts of interest and excessive pay, were not exposed but were ignored. Ingolia and the Florida DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) instead lauded Orlando for having its “budget in check,” even though its own FAFO audit identified $22 million in wasteful spending in the city.
This discrepancy raises a critical question: Why was Orlando spared the kind of public scrutiny its network of power seems to demand?
The answer may lie in the deeply intertwined relationships between public officials and private actors — a relationship map that we uncovered during the ongoing PULSE nightclub memorial controversy and the City of Orlando’s cover-up of the facts about the PULSE nightclub and the disgraceful 3-hour-and-14-minute-long shooting response.
This network crosses party lines and shows that when money is involved, there is no party. What emerges instead is a shadow system of influence, where campaign donations, development contracts, and memorial projects become bargaining chips exchanged behind closed doors.
The PULSE nightclub controversy reveals how city leaders, developers, and politically connected nonprofits worked in tandem to shape the narrative, suppress inconvenient truths, and redirect public outrage into controlled channels.
That same machinery appears to be at work in the State’s Republican-led audits: the selective praise for Orlando is less about fiscal discipline than about protecting entrenched interests whose survival depends on mutual silence.
In this light, the state’s “crackdown” is not a genuine effort to root out corruption but a performance designed to reinforce existing power structures. The lesson is stark — accountability in Florida government is not determined by party affiliation or public promises, but by whether exposing the truth threatens the wrong network of relationships.
The Network: How Dyer, Downs, Mateer & Associates Built a Self-Reinforcing Power Structure
What we’re looking at here is not simply a set of isolated relationships, but a multi-decade ecosystem of influence that has entrenched itself in Orlando’s civic, legal, and business life. At its core are figures whose careers and appointments intersect across public office, private enterprise, and nonprofit governance, creating a web of conflicts of interest and quid pro quos.
Buddy Dyer — Orlando’s longest-serving mayor, in office since 2003, a Democrat who has overseen the city’s transformation while cultivating deep ties with developers, law firms, and civic boards.
Mayanne Downs — Former managing partner at GrayRobinson, past president of The Florida Bar, and currently Orlando’s City Attorney. Downs recently co-founded DownsAaron, a boutique firm that operates inside City Hall itself, blurring the line between public counsel and private practice.
Craig Mateer — A Republican donor and Orlando businessman who founded Bags, Inc. and later CCM Capital Group. Mateer has been repeatedly appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to influential boards, including the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), the Florida Board of Governors for the State University System, and, most recently, the Disney oversight district (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which replaced the Reedy Creek Improvement District). He also employs Buddy Dyer’s son, Trey Dyer, as an asset manager for his family business.
Jody Mateer Litchford — Assistant City Attorney and sister to Craig Mateer, exemplifying how family ties reinforce the overlap between Orlando’s legal apparatus and private business.
Earl Crittenden — Former Chief Protocol Officer for the City of Orlando under Dyer, longtime GrayRobinson attorney, and until recently chairman of the onePULSE Foundation. His dual roles in law, city government, and nonprofit leadership highlight the revolving door of influence.
GrayRobinson — The powerhouse law and lobbying firm that has served as a nexus for many of these figures, providing legal muscle while embedding its alumni in city government and nonprofit boards.
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) — The Board overseeing the Orlando International Airport (MCO) and a lucrative hub for contracts and appointments, where political allies and donors are often placed in positions of oversight.
Together, these relationships form a self-reinforcing network: public officials appoint allies to boards, those boards award contracts to connected businesses, and nonprofits provide civic legitimacy while channeling funds and influence. The controversies surrounding the onePULSE Foundation — including its dissolution amid allegations of mismanagement and conflicts of interest — serve as a case study in how this system shields itself. Despite millions raised and spent, victims’ families accused the foundation of exploitation, while city leaders and connected attorneys remained insulated from accountability.
Furthermore, DeSantis’s appointments of multi-millionaire businessmen and political players, like Mateer, illustrate how state-level politics intersect with Orlando’s local power structure, ensuring bipartisan protection of entrenched interests at both state and local levels.
Buddy Dyer: The Mayor With Institutional Longevity and a Mugshot for Election Fraud
Serving as Orlando’s mayor since 2003, with over two decades in power. His accumulation of years in power came after he was indicted for election fraud in 2003.
Placed loyal allies on key boards: airport authority (GOAA), downtown development, CRA, among others.
Relies heavily on Mayanne Downs for legal advice, giving her role in city governance outsized strategic power, while allowing her to conduct city business on her private email—evading publicly-accessible documentation of official city business.
Fostered a business-political nexus, especially with Craig Mateer, whose companies and political activity benefit from city and airport policy.
Mayanne Downs: Legal Powerhouse & Institutional Linchpin
Orlando’s City Attorney since 2007, and is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that has played a central role in vetting and recommending conservative judges for federal appointments.
Former President of the Florida Bar.
Held top leadership at GrayRobinson, one of Florida’s most politically influential law firms.
Close to Dyer: law school classmates, personal confidantes.
Now co-founder of DownsAaron, litigating "high-stakes commercial and eminent domain cases" — overlapping with public-private development.
When Mayanne Downs stepped down as President of GrayRobinson, she said she was doing so to focus on "complex litigation.” This was the same reason she gave the public for starting DownsAaron.
Conflict issues:
Downs reportedly represented Craig Mateer and tapped him to "get in the middle" of the City's real estate transactions involving parcels later central to the City’s PULSE memorial plans.
At the same time, she was City Attorney, advising on city deals affecting Mateer’s property and the City's future PULSE memorial.
Adding to the conflict: Jody Mateer Litchford, Assistant City Attorney, is Craig Mateer’s sister. She reports to Mayanne Downs and works inside the Office of the Mayor, Buddy Dyer. She is also a highly-paid city employee.
Ethics complaints have been filed against Downs in both the Florida Bar and the State Ethics Commission, with no public disciplinary action to date.
Craig Mateer: A Business and Political Operative
Built Bags, Inc., a luggage business deeply connected to Orlando International Airport (MCO).
Served on GOAA, the aviation authority overseeing MCO.
Appointed by DeSantis to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, giving him influence in tourism and real estate.
GOP Megadonor: contributed $500,000 to DeSantis’ Florida Freedom Fund in early 2025, and has given over $1 million cumulatively to GOP causes. This has included, donations ranging from a $1 million check to the Republican Party of Florida, and four separate $100,000 contributions to a committee supporting DeSantis.
Cross-party donor: records show Mateer also contributed $1,000 to Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani’s campaign, a fraction compared to his GOP giving — underscoring his pragmatic approach to influence.
Employs Trey Dyer, Mayor Dyer’s son, according to LinkedIn. Trey Dyer's title is Asset Manager for the Mateer Family Business.
Asked by City Attorney Mayanne Downs to purchase parcels next to the Pulse site for $1 million, later central to city memorial planning — raising questions about access, pricing, and representation. Especially when the City recently purchased the property next door, half the size, for double the price ($2M) from the PULSE owners who ran the onePULSE Foundation to the ground and enriched themselves off the PULSE tragedy.
This was a prime example of city officials skirting city rules for property acquisition by tapping wealthy friends and family members to intervene and “get in the middle” of city deals and construction projects. In this case, a $12.5M public relations project to reclaim the mayor’s reputation after his failure while on the Chairman’s Council of the onePULSE Foundation and the City’s reputation as a whole after such a colossal failure with PULSE, generally. The memorial is also serving as a mechanism for the City to control the narrative and silence victims’ families and survivors who have been exposing the City’s cover-up and outing the City’s corruption.
Jody Mateer Litchford: Legal Insider, Family Insider
Assistant City Attorney, part of the office representing the City.
Brother Craig Mateer is deeply involved in land deals with the City.
City Attorney’s office (led by Downs) likely advised on matters related to those same land deals.
This relationship raises strong concerns about the independence of legal oversight in Orlando.
Earl Crittenden: The Bridge Between the Nonprofit, Government, and Legal Lobbyists
Chairman of the onePULSE Foundation.
Chief Protocol Officer for Orlando, appointed by Mayor Dyer.
Lawyer at GrayRobinson, tying him into the same firm where Downs had major power.
His roles connect: City Hall ↔ GrayRobinson ↔ onePULSE nonprofit — giving him a unique vantage and influence.
GrayRobinson: The Legal-Lobbying Power Hub
Mayanne Downs was President of GrayRobinson from 2016 onward.
The firm has longstanding ties to the Orlando government, municipal development, and political lobbying.
On February 15, 2024, Orange County cancelled its contract with GrayRobinson due to conflicts of interest, after one of its lawyers/lobbyists helped draft a bill that made it harder for the County to cut funding for Visit Orlando, despite being paid $72,000.00 a year by the County to represent its interests in Tallahassee.
Former Orlando Democratic Senator Linda Stewart secretly passed off the bill as her own and hid the fact that it was drafted by GrayRobinson's Carmody, who texted Stewart, “Try not to mention my name on this one. :)” Laughably, since November 9, 2024, Stewart has been serving on the Florida Commission on Ethics. What a joke!
Months later, in September 2024, Downs announced her departure from GrayRobinson with other attorneys at the firm to start DownsAaron.
Prior to Downs founding DownsAaron, GrayRobinson attorneys were deeply embedded in Orlando’s public/private power structure, acting as a bridge between business interests and government.
Pulse as a Case Study — A Spotlight on Corruption and Conflicts of Interest in Orlando’s Hidden Web of Power and Influence
The Pulse nightclub tragedy was not only a moment of profound grief but also a flashpoint that exposed the city’s entrenched power network. While recent headlines have focused on memorialization and redevelopment, the underlying transactions revealed how political, legal, and business interests intersected to protect insiders and suppress accountability.
The $2M Pulse land deal and the $1M adjacent parcel transaction were not isolated missteps — they were emblematic of a system where public tragedy became an opportunity for private gain.
The network among Mayor Buddy Dyer, City Attorney Mayanne Downs, businessman Craig Mateer, and the law firm GrayRobinson had existed for decades, but the Pulse memorial project made their overlapping interests visible in stark relief.
According to reporting by the Orlando Sentinel:
Mateer said he was asked by the city of Orlando (by phone) to “be a bridge” between the foundation, which is liquidating its assets and shutting down, and the city, which has taken over the memorial effort. The city purchased the Pulse nightclub site from its long-time owners in October 2023.
“It was just really more, I got a call from City Hall saying, ‘hey, do you mind getting in the middle of this?’” Mateer said. “I’m kind of excited the city is going to take the helm and get this right.”
Mateer wouldn’t identify his city contact. But Ashley Papagni, a city spokesperson, said that City Attorney Mayanne Downs talked to Mateer about the property.
“Mayanne Downs engaged in discussions about the opportunity for the property to be purchased by a community partner who would help us so the property could be used to support the Pulse Memorial,” Papagni said. “Any plans have yet to be determined related to the properties.”
Key overlaps included:
Downs represented Mateer in the adjacent land deal while simultaneously serving as City Attorney, asking him to get "in the middle" of the City's purchase of the property from the onePULSE Foundation (which was run by GrayRobinson Attorney Earl Crittenden, who originally purchased the property for the nonprofit).
Mateer then became the owner of the parcel next to Pulse, positioning himself at the center of the redevelopment project and holding onto the project for a year. We do not know if Trey Dyer, who is in real estate, was involved in the sale/purchase of this property or if he earned a commission.
Trey Dyer, the mayor’s son, is working for Craig Mateer as “Asset Manager for the Mateer Family Business” — a direct family tie linking city leadership to private business and personal interests, especially when his other current job title is Commercial Real Estate Advisor.
Jody Mateer Litchford, Assistant City Attorney and Craig Mateer’s sister, is embedded within the city’s legal office and played a role in crafting the City’s fictional narratives and legal defense in the aftermath of the PULSE shooting.
The onePULSE Foundation's leadership included Buddy Dyer and was tied to GrayRobinson and the City of Orlando through Earl Crittenden, ensuring nonprofit governance was not independent of political influence.
The City of Orlando chose Gomez Construction Co. to build its PULSE memorial, which is known by Mayor Buddy Dyer for its construction projects in none other than the Orlando International Airport, including the ALD Lounge, Camden Foods, Le Grand Comptoir, Ruby Tuesday, and what appears to be a ticketing/luggage counter inside the airport. The construction company, known for building the Ruby Tuesday and fast-casual dining inside the airport, is being paid by the City to build its $12.5 million PULSE memorial.
Taken together, these connections show how the Pulse memorial became a case study in institutionalized conflicts of interest.
Instead of transparency and accountability, the tragedy was leveraged to reinforce existing power structures. The city’s legal apparatus, business elite, and nonprofit leadership operated less as independent actors and more as a self-protecting web, shielding one another from scrutiny and accountability.
PULSE demonstrates how Orlando’s hidden network functions when tested:
Legal conflicts are ignored rather than investigated.
Family ties and nepotism are normalized within city governance.
Nonprofits are co-opted to provide civic legitimacy while channeling influence.
Public tragedies are monetized, with land deals and contracts flowing to insiders, and massacres are leveraged to promote local tourism.
In this light, PULSE is not just a memorial project gone awry — it is a lens into the machinery of Orlando’s political economy, where grief was commodified, oversight was compromised, and accountability was sacrificed to protect the network.
Why the State’s Audit Failed to Scrutinize These Conflicts
Evidence of conflicts of interest and documented real estate fraud was submitted to CFO Blaise Ingoglia’s office early in the audit process. Yet despite the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) billing its initiative as a crackdown on “waste, fraud, and abuse,” there was no public follow-up on these specific relationships or the documented fraud.
This silence is not incidental — it reflects the way entrenched networks shield themselves from scrutiny.
Instead of exposing the conflicts, the State’s public messaging praised the City of Orlando for having its “budget in check,” even while the audit itself identified $22 million in wasteful spending. The contradiction is glaring: the watchdog agency acknowledged inefficiency but avoided the more explosive issue of fraud. By omitting mention of the real estate transactions and conflicts tied to Mayor Buddy Dyer, City Attorney Mayanne Downs, businessman Craig Mateer, and GrayRobinson, the audit effectively legitimized the very network it was supposed to challenge.
This failure underscores a deeper reality:
The network is bipartisan and deeply institutional. It is not merely a Democratic machine centered on Dyer, nor a Republican apparatus tied to DeSantis. It is a cross-institutional power structure that spans city governance, state-appointed boards, and private business interests.
Traditional oversight mechanisms have proven toothless. Ethics complaints, Florida Bar discipline, and state audits have all been filed or initiated, yet none have produced meaningful accountability. Instead, they have functioned as pressure-release valves — allowing grievances to be documented without ever threatening the network’s survival.
The audit’s selective praise suggests that oversight itself has been captured, transformed into political theater rather than a genuine mechanism of accountability.
Implications & Risks
The Pulse case and the failed state audit are not isolated episodes. They reveal systemic risks that extend far beyond the PULSE memorial project or one audit cycle:
Public Trust: Survivors, residents, and community stakeholders are left with the impression that City and State governance is rigged. When conflicts of interest are ignored and fraud is brushed aside, confidence in public institutions erodes. This distrust is particularly corrosive in the context of tragedies like Pulse, where transparency and accountability are essential to recovery.
Public Dollar Capture: When private interests align closely with public officials’ personal, legal, political, and business networks, policy and financial decisions risk being skewed in favor of insiders. Land use and purchase, development/construction projects, and even memorial decision-making can be shaped less by public input than by private gain. This is clearly evident as we continue to fight against the $12.5M memorial tourism project and advocate for a dignified, fiscally responsible, and environmentally friendly memorial park—without a visitor center.
Political Theater: When business interests outweigh the public good, the supposed culture wars and partisan divides between Democrats and Republicans dissolve into performance. These distinctions are weaponized to distract and divide the public, while in practice, moneyed interests unite politicians across party lines. The result is a bipartisan shield of protection, where leaders safeguard one another and the network itself, rather than holding anyone accountable.
Weak Oversight: The failure of state audits, ethics bodies, and disciplinary institutions to address or expose these conflicts suggests that oversight mechanisms themselves are compromised. Rather than functioning as checks, they operate as shields for a closed-loop elite. In short, there has been zero official oversight. We have been the oversight and the watchdogs.
Long-Term Impact: If the same network continues unchallenged, similar transactions and influence consolidation will repeat. PULSE is not an anomaly; rather, it is being used as a template. Future projects — whether tied to development, infrastructure, or civic memorialization — risk being captured by the same entrenched interests, perpetuating a cycle of selective accountability and insider enrichment, regardless of which established political party is in the mayoral seat.
Control of the Narrative: The City of Orlando has leveraged the PULSE memorial as a site of selective remembrance — a tool to shape and cement a fictionalized version of history. Through the memorial, the City wants to enshrine its narrative of:
PULSE as a “safe space" (when it was a death trap);
Its police response as “heroic” and compliant with active shooter protocol (despite clear evidence to the contrary);
Its response as being supportive of survivors (while in reality the City of Orlando continues to conceal facts, mislead the public, and inflict new forms of harm and abuse);
And, its supposed relationship with victims’ families and survivors (which does not exist).
By embedding these distortions into the memorial itself, through its (1) press releases about the memorial process, (2) the accumulation of self-selected "artifacts," and (3) the construction of a visitor center, the City plans to make its version of events permanent, even as our resistance, independent investigations, and published evidence continue to expose coverups and reveal how survivors are repeatedly revictimized.
Meanwhile, state officials like Blaise Ingoglia and Ron DeSantis deploy their audit performance to reinforce a parallel storyline: that partisan distinctions remain sharp and that they are aggressively pursuing “waste, fraud, and abuse.” In truth, both city and state actors are engaged in narrative management, using memorialization and audit theater to protect entrenched interests while presenting the illusion of accountability.
Sources
Governing Magazine. Florida DOGE Targets Nearly Every Local Government With Audits. August 15, 2025. https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/florida-doge-targets-nearly-every-local-government-with-audits
Central Florida Public Media. CFO Ingoglia praises Orlando for keeping budget “relatively in check.” November 7, 2025. https://www.cfpublic.org/politics/2025-11-07/cfo-ingoglia-praises-orlando-for-keeping-budget-relatively-in-check
Florida Department of Financial Services (MyFloridaCFO). Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia Announces $22 Million in City of Orlando Budget as “Excessive, Wasteful Spending.” November 7, 2025. https://myfloridacfo.com/news/newsletter/past-issues/news-details/2025/11/07/chief-financial-officer-blaise-ingoglia-announces--22-million-in-city-of-orlando-budget-as--excessive--wasteful-spending
DownsAaron Attorneys & Advisors. Mayanne Downs – Founding Shareholder. https://downsaaron.com/mayannedowns/
Gray-Robinson, Attorneys, Advisors, Consultants. Dean Cannon to Succeed Mayanne Downs as President and Managing Director of GrayRobinson. April 2, 2019.
Gray-Robinson, Attorneys, Advisors, Consultants. Earl Crittenden Selected as Chair of onePULSE Foundation. May 9, 2017.
Gray-Robinson, Attorneys, Advisors, Consultants. Biography: Earl M. Crittenden, Jr. https://www.gray-robinson.com/attorneys-professionals/earl-m-crittenden-jr
Florida Trend. Calling the shots: GrayRobinson law firm gives Mayanne Downs full control. September 28, 2017. https://www.floridatrend.com/article/23132/calling-the-shots-grayrobinson-law-firm-gives-mayanne-downs-full-control
Florida Politics. Two powerhouse attorneys leave GrayRobinson to start new firm. September 20, 2024.
Orlando Magazine. A Woman for All Seasons. January 14, 2014. https://www.orlandomagazine.com/a-woman-for-all-seasons/
WESH. Orlando businessman buys land next to Pulse nightclub. August 2023. https://www.wesh.com/article/orlando-onepulse-land-sold/46191830
WESH. Pulse: Orlando commissioners approve $2 million purchase. August 2023. https://www.wesh.com/article/orlando-commissioners-vote-pulse/45612737
Orlando Sentinel. City spends $120,000 in legal fight over Pulse 911 calls. December 14, 2016. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2016/12/14/city-spends-120000-in-legal-fight-over-pulse-911-calls/
Orlando Sentinel. About Mayanne Downs. October 13, 2015. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2015/10/13/about-mayanne-downs/
Orlando Sentinel. City attorney poised to lead Bar. June 26, 2009. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2009/06/26/city-attorney-poised-to-lead-bar/
Orlando Sentinel. Buyer of lots near Pulse nightclub said he secured them for Orlando’s eventual memorial. December 19, 2023.
Orlando Sentinel. Orange County Mayor Demings fires lobbyist over conflict of interest. February 15, 2024.
WFTV. ‘A conflict of interest’: Orange County cancels contract with lobbying firm GrayRobinson. February 16, 2024.
Orange County Newsroom. Notice of Termination, Orange County Contract Y19-106, State Lobbying Services. February 15, 2024.
Orange County Comptroller. Audit. July 2025.
Orlando Weekly. Tourism agency Visit Orlando spent $75K of taxpayer funds on lavish dinner in NYC, new audit finds. July 30, 2025.
Comments