Broward County’s new Tax Collector, Abiodun “Abbey” Ajayi, used her county workplace, electronic mail, and different authorities assets to advertise her 2024 marketing campaign—regardless of repeated warnings to maintain her political exercise separate from her official job, in accordance with a report launched by the Broward Workplace of the Inspector Basic (OIG).
Ajayi—a Nigerian American and Democrat—who served because the Operations Supervisor for the County’s Data, Taxes and Treasury (RTT) Division through the marketing campaign, is accused of taking part in two political podcasts from her county workplace. One in all them occurred throughout work hours, with out break day or prior approval.
“Our investigation substantiated that allegation, and we discovered possible trigger to consider that Ms. Ajayi engaged in misconduct throughout her profitable election marketing campaign, as her actions ran afoul of prohibitions in state prison regulation and native regulation,” the OIG wrote within the May 21 final report.
Throughout one of many video podcasts recorded after hours, Ajayi additionally solicited marketing campaign donations whereas inside a county-owned constructing—a violation of Florida statutes, in accordance with the report.
“These acts implicated state legal guidelines that make campaigning for elective workplace throughout work hours and asking for contributions inside a government-owned constructing first-degree misdemeanors,” the report states.
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The Inspector Basic’s Workplace additionally discovered that Ajayi used her Broward County electronic mail account for campaign-related enterprise on 44 events.
“Through the use of the County electronic mail system and her County workplace and tools for campaign-related exercise, Ms. Ajayi ran afoul of County coverage prohibitions in opposition to utilizing County assets for exercise associated to searching for elected workplace,” the report continues.
Ajayi filed to run for Tax Collector in Might 2023 and was elected on August 20, 2024. She was formally sworn in on January 7, 2025. She had been with the RTT Division since 2015 and was promoted to Operations Supervisor in 2019.
Whereas the OIG stated her actions met the definition of “misconduct,” they clarified: “Though we decided that Ms. Ajayi’s actions amounted to misconduct, we didn’t decide that she corruptly misused her official place as proscribed by Part 112.313(6), Florida Statutes.”
The matter has now been referred to the Broward County State Lawyer’s Workplace and the Florida Elections Fee for additional evaluate. The report additionally notes that the County Code violation will probably be dealt with by an administrative listening to officer.
