March 3, 2003

Buddy Dyer was elected February 25 by a landslide victory to become mayor of Orlando. Dyer won by 57.3 percent or 4,356 votes beating advertising executive and Republican Pete Barr, Sr.

As a former state senator for 10 years, name recognition played a large role in swaying voters to support the 44-year old Democrat. Dyer will be filling the shoes of former Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood who will be leaving in the middle of her third term. She has been tapped to serve as Secretary of State for Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Mayor Hood served as an Advisory Board member at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Among other plans, Dyer has promised to balance the budget and to wipe out the city's deficit during his first 30 days in office. During his victory party, he called on supporters to help him lead and heal the city. He said, "Tomorrow we must begin the work of healing our community. We must be prepared to go work on the dream that we promised our neighbors — making Orlando a great city." He also seeks to immediately begin implementing a downtown-revitalization plan, and vows to rebuild the disadvantaged and poverty stricken community of Parramore.

Boise

Boise's city council unanimously elected Carolyn Terteling-Payne from the council to replace Mayor H. Brent Coles who resigned in February.

Mayor Terteling-Payne is a 10-year veteran of the city council and will serve until the end of 2003, when a new mayor elected in November takes office.

As interim mayor, Terteling-Payne takes office along with two new council members.