Gabrielle Russon
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is proposing adding more oversight and new anti-nepotism rules after Florida Politics reported that Commissioner Mayra Uribe gave hundreds of free county luxury box concert and sporting tickets to her husband’s nonprofit for years.
Uribe’s husband, Kevin Sutton, regularly got tickets through his small nonprofit to the biggest entertainment shows in Orlando — such Bad Bunny concerts, Orlando Magic games, the Rolling Stones and more — dating back to 2019. Sutton runs All Star Dads, which helps educate fathers.
“Following recent news stories about the Orange County Skybox ticket distribution process, I have conducted a thorough review of the County’s internal operating procedures, along with the County Attorney’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office,” Demings wrote in a memo Wednesday to Commissioners that doesn’t mention Uribe by name.
“The updated procedures are intended to tighten the existing process and provide guidance to the Commission. Their purpose is to prevent any appearance of impropriety and ensure that the Skybox tickets, which are intended to uplift local nonprofit agencies are used for the overall benefit of the community.”
Orange County Commissioners are allowed to transfer their two tickets to nonprofits to use the county’s Skybox in the Kia Center and Camping World Stadium.
But Demings is recommending that going forward, county officials can’t give their tickets to any nonprofit where their relative is “an officer, director, member or principal of the nonprofit entity,” according to the proposed policy.
A relative is defined as a Commissioner’s spouse, father, mother or child, as well as other family members, including a mother-in-law, step-sibling or half-sibling, and others.
Demings is also recommending forbidding Commissioners from giving free tickets to the same nonprofit more than twice a year.
“With thousands of IRS-tax-exempt nonprofit organizations in Orange County, Skybox tickets can help uplift an organization and provide an overall community benefit. The goal is to ensure that as many nonprofits as possible have access to the benefits of publicly owned venues,” Deming’s proposed policy read.
County leaders are scheduled to vote on the changes at Tuesday’s Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The county proposes other oversight, including making sure the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status hasn’t been revoked by the IRS.
Sutton’s organization lost its tax-exempt status in May and has not regularly submitted its 990 tax form, so it’s unclear how All Star Dad benefits from the free tickets.
Sutton told the Orlando Sentinel he is working to regain the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status.
Uribe also defended her husband’s work and told the Sentinel she believed the media coverage about her giving free tickets was politically motivated because she’s running for re-election Nov. 5.
“I’m proud of what he does,” Uribe told the Sentinel about her husband.
