City of Orlando :: Office of the Mayor

Biography

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer Buddy Dyer is the dean of Florida’s “big-city” mayors, having served Orlando’s residents since 2003. Under Orlando’s Strong-Mayor form of government, Mayor Dyer serves as the City’s chief executive and also helps govern and oversee the operations and growth of its city-owned utility and the Orlando International and Executive Airports.

During his time in office, Mayor Dyer has worked relentlessly to advance the community’s shared vision for Orlando as the “Next Great American City.”

In 2011, he was selected as American City and County Magazine’s National Municipal Leader of the Year. The award highlights his work to diversify Central Florida’s economy, secure Central Florida’s first rail mass transit system, strengthen neighborhood safety and deliver more efficient, effective government to the residents of Orlando.

Mayor Dyer’s commitment to bolstering police protection helped bring about the most dramatic reduction in crime in Orlando history. This focus on safety has also helped make the Orlando Fire Department one of the elite departments in the entire country. The Orlando Fire Department has an “ISO Rating” of 1, meaning they are one of the top 50 fire departments in America out of more than 55-thousand departments.

Mayor Dyer is leading the effort to diversify Central Florida’s economy and create a new breed of high-tech, high-wage careers for residents in cutting edge industries such as digital media, life sciences and biotechnology, modeling, simulation and training, and aviation and aerospace.
Mayor Dyer is also a fierce advocate for the expansion of public mass-transit and for creating more walkable, livable communities. Through his leadership, Orlando is building Central Florida’s first-ever commuter rail system called SunRail. Mayor Dyer has become a national voice for America’s cities in advancing the need for a nationwide high speed rail network.

In 2011, Mayor Dyer will lead the United States Conference of Mayor’s High Speed Rail Task Force, helping America’s cities craft a unified voice in support of the creation of a nationwide high speed rail network in much the same way our nation’s cities advocated for the creation of the interstate highway system more than a half century ago.

Mayor Dyer also engineered one of the most remarkable downtown resurgences anywhere in the country, anchored by the creation of world-class sports, arts and entertainment venues for the City’s residents and visitors. In October 2010, Orlando’s residents opened the Amway Center, referred to by many experts as the most advanced arena on the planet. Beyond a place where residents have access to world class sports and entertainment, the facility helped create more than 400 jobs in the midst of a nationwide recession.

While Orlando’s accomplishments under Mayor Dyer’s leadership fall under a broad range of categories, each has a common element; they were made possible because of the power of partnership.

Since his first day in office, Mayor Dyer has fought to increase cooperation and partnership between Central Florida’s many governments, its business and civic communities and its residents. The result of this effort is a new era of collaboration that has paved the way for a string of remarkable, “game changing” accomplishments for greater Orlando in a very short period of time and has set the City on course for a more prosperous future.

Prior to being Mayor, Buddy Dyer served for a decade in the Florida Senate. His colleagues elected him as their Democratic Senate Leader, a position he held for three years.

Mayor Dyer earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Brown University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law, where he was Editor-In-Chief of the University of Florida Law Review and a member of the prestigious Florida Blue Key organization. He graduated with honors and received the highest score on the Florida Bar Exam that year.

Before he chose to serve in public office, Mayor Dyer worked as an environmental engineer. He has also practiced law for more than 20 years. He often calls upon this dynamic professional background to serve the residents of Orlando. Where other elected leaders may only focus on the “big picture” or one specific area of expertise, Mayor Dyer has been able to create broad shared visions for projects and policies while also playing a key role in the technical, legislative or legal process that is necessary to make them a reality.

Mayor Dyer was born in Orlando and raised in nearby Kissimmee. He and his wife Karen, an attorney, have two sons, Trey and Drew. When not in the office, the Mayor relishes his “other jobs” coaching little league or flag football for his sons’ teams.

Mayor Dyer’s accomplishments in specific areas include:

Neighborhood Safety and Crime Prevention:

Prioritized the use of tax dollars, investing in a multi-year public safety program, which resulted in the addition of 50 new police officers on the street and 45 new fire personnel along with the construction of two new police substations and six new fire stations, including a state-of-the-art Fire Department headquarters.
Invested resources to ensure neighborhood improvement projects including: Parramore Heritage Park and Pond, Dover Shores Community Center, Dubsdread sewer improvements, Lake Eola Park renovation and Primrose Building improvements.
Lead the effort to bring a new era of “high tech policing” to Orlando and equip officers with the tools, training and technology necessary to perform their jobs at the highest level.

Job Creation and the Economy:

Developed an unprecedented public/private partnership to create the “Medical City at Lake Nona.” The Sanford Burnham Institute and UCF Medical School will serve as anchors of this biomedical and health sciences cluster, along with the Nemours children’s health care campus, the VA Hospital and the University of Florida Lake Nona Research and Academic Center. The “Medical City” will create more than 20-thousand jobs in the years ahead.
Opened the downtown campuses of the Florida A&M College of Law, UCF’s School of Film and Digital Media and championed the creation of a new medical school for UCF in east Orlando.
Recruited House of Moves, the world’s largest motion capture service studio, to co-locate an east coast operation at Downtown Orlando’s UCF Center for Emerging Media. This digital media cluster is the first step in building a larger “Creative Village” that will serve as a home for high tech companies for decades to come.
Created “Strengthen Orlando,” a local effort to generate jobs and help residents and businesses “weather the storm” during tough economic times.
Solved a $23 million budget shortfall his first thirty days in office and continued to pass balanced budgets each year thereafter, with a commitment to spending every tax dollar wisely while maintaining an open and transparent budget process.

Transportation and Smart Growth:

Created a shared vision for rail transit across the Central Florida region that resulted in the building of the SunRail commuter rail system. Mayor Dyer’s work to bring rail transit to Orlando led to the State legislature creating Florida’s first-ever comprehensive blueprint for a statewide rail network.
Has become a national advocate for the expansion of passenger rail in America. As the “Voice of America’s Mayor’s” in the critical area of high speed rail through his work with the United States Conference of Mayors, Mayor Dyer is leading the effort for Mayors across the country to play a role in the development and funding of America’s eventual high speed rail network.

Revitalizing Downtown Orlando:

Engineered one of the most remarkable resurgences of a downtown anywhere in the country with $3 billion dollars worth of development either underway or planned for Downtown Orlando.
Secured the creation of world class “Community Venues” for Downtown Orlando: The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Amway Center which will be home to the Orlando Magic and a refurbished Citrus Bowl stadium. This effort also included The Blueprint,” a program to ensure residents would benefit from the construction of the Venues.

Expanding Education and Opportunity for Residents:

Initiated “Pathways for Parramore” to bring new, affordable homes on line, transform Church Street into a major east/west thoroughfare and created and expand the “Parramore Kidz Zone” to provide after school activities, access to health care and social services to children and families.
Launched a pre-kindergarten initiative and doubled the number of high quality pre-kindergarten classrooms in the City.
Partnered with governments across Central Florida and the non-profit community to create a first-ever regional approach to ending homelessness. This unique strategy resulted in a record amount of federal funding awarded to advance the shared mission of ending homelessness.
Enhanced residential amenities such as parks, ball-fields and community centers citywide.

Sustainability:

Committed Orlando to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in America by creating “Green Works Orlando,” the City’s first comprehensive plan to protect its natural resources, encourage environmentally-friendly lifestyles and business practices.
Opened a total of 6 “green” or LEED Certified fire stations, more than any city in the southeastern United States.
Encouraged private businesses and residents to strive for LEED certification for their buildings by leading by example. The City-owned Amway Center, the new home of the Orlando Magic, is the only LEED Certified arena in the NBA.
Led an effort to perform energy retrofits throughout the City, making homes more energy efficient and saving residents money on their power bills.
Worked to expand the City’s reclaimed water program. In 2011, Orlando will reuse 99% of its potable water, a first for any major U.S. Community.
Partnered with our utility to expand solar power across Central Florida while also beginning to build the infrastructure to support electric vehicles