Small-town mayor wins 17th term

APOPKA, Fla. -- When Mayor John H. Land first took office in 1949, Apopka was a segregated farming community of 2,000 residents, the city's budget was $35,000 and the town had no water plant or even a garbage truck.

Since then, Apopka has grown to 27,000 residents, morphed into one of Orlando's most diverse bedroom communities and acquired a $40 million budget.

One thing hasn't change: Land is still mayor.

On Tuesday, Land, 82, won his 17th term Tuesday during municipal elections. Unofficial returns, not counting absentee ballots, gave Land 1,386 votes and his opponent, Tom Dorman, 599 votes.

At a victory party with more than 200 supporters, Land didn't rule out running for an 18th time.

"I keep all my options open," Land said. "I certainly don't want to be a lame duck."

During the campaign, Dorman had said it was time for change after having the same man in the nonpartisan office for more than 50 years.

"Mr. Land had done a respectable job for 50 years, but 50 years is enough," said Tom Dorman, 71, a former Orange County commissioner in his second run against Land.

But Land, a gaunt self-described "Florida cracker" with a twangy accent and a full head of white hair, said he still has a lot to offer the community, located 14 miles northwest of downtown Orlando. He cited his efforts to modernize Apopka's fire and emergency response services, contain costs and allow the city to grow through annexation.

"Some of my friends who retired got sick and died," Land said. "I want to keep going."

But Dorman said Land hasn't done enough to pressure state and federal officials for a highway bypass that would ease traffic congestion from commuters to Orlando.

"The biggest majority of citizens are concerned about the traffic going through downtown," Dorman said.

"It's a quagmire at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m."

Except for a term in the late 1960s, when he lost his only election to Leonard Hurst, Land has been at the helm of city government for the last half century.

Lina Garcia, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, said she was uncertain if Land was the longest-serving mayor still in office.

The association doesn't track such data and only monitors cities with populations greater than 30,000 people, she said.

Some things haven't changed much since Land's early days in office.

In the 1950s, he began a tradition of passing out candy to residents before City Council meetings. He still does.

Land still is the city's biggest cheerleader. Last year, he traveled to Williamsburg, Pa., to watch the Apopka Little League team win the national championship. He went to Tallahassee to watch the Apopka High Blue Darters win a football championship.

Other things have changed.

When he first took office in 1949, Land earned $1 a month. He now gets $125,000 a year, making him one of the best-paid mayors in central Florida.

Apopka used to be a pure farming community, surrounded by citrus trees and truck farms in rich muck fields reclaimed from Lake Apopka.

But the citrus industry headed south after the freezes of the 1980s, and the farmers were bought out by the state in the late 1990s in an effort to restore Florida's most polluted large lake.

Now Apopka is considered one of Orlando's most affordable suburbs. Fast food franchises and gas stations fill up Main Street.

Land was accused of ignoring the needs of black residents until the 1960s and 1970s. Black residents accused the city in a 1978 federal lawsuit of spending almost all federal money for infrastructure in white neighborhoods and ignoring black neighbors. The U.S. 11th Court of Appeals ruled against the city.

But the city has diversified, a fact that Land said he appreciates. The town is more than 73 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic and 15 1/2 percent black.

"We're pretty diverse," he said. "We made sure that everybody, regardless of race, creed or color, were treated the same."

The biggest change in his five decades of public office, though, has been increased regulation from state and federal authorities and state law "codifying everything," Land said.

"It was a lot easier back then," Land said. "The old saying back then was 'Don't fight City Hall.' Now everybody fights City Hall."

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