"Sanford Airport's Dale a hero to fans, bully to critics"

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Monday, April 9, 2007

Sanford's Dale a hero to fans, bully to critics

By Robert Perez
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel


SANFORD -- When an Allegiant Air jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Orlando Sanford International Airport last month, airport President Larry Dale sprang to action.

He climbed into his black Ford pickup and raced to the edge of the runway. There, he calmly helped direct emergency vehicles as the crippled MD-80 burned off fuel, then made a spectacular but safe landing without its front landing gear.

Flash back five years: Dale is again on the tarmac, but this time he's anything but calm. He is in a shouting match with the airport's fire chief. Dale, a year into his job as the airport's top administrator, wants to take charge after a helicopter crash. But the fire chief refuses, saying it is not Dale's responsibility.

Days later, Dale accuses the chief of insubordination and sends him home for two weeks.

The incidents capture two sides of one of Seminole County's most influential and controversial public figures -- one in control, the other demanding it.

There's Larry Dale the public servant, strong-willed, no-nonsense, competent; a take-charge leader who expects the best from the people around him and, supporters say, deservedly gets it.

Then there's Larry Dale the bully, confrontational and intimidating. A gun-toting, hulking man whose super-sized ego, critics say, bends people to his will.

Little happens at the airport without Dale's knowledge and consent. He not only is president and CEO, he is airport police commander, construction manager, even landlord.

Dale selected most of the airport's board members during his four-year term as mayor of Sanford, and they created the position for him in 2001.

The airport's eight directors consistently give him glowing reviews. Last year, they also gave him a $66,000 raise, making Dale one of the highest-paid airport administrators in the country. That, at an airport 1/20th the size of Orlando International, where the chief executive was paid $22,500 less at the time.

But Dale's power and influence extend far beyond the end of the runway. Dale, who has a pilots license, personally flew George W. Bush around the area during the 2000 presidential campaign. He is one of the county's top Republican fundraisers. He heads the committee that recommends lawyers for judgeships in Seminole. He sits on the board of Metroplan Orlando, the regional planning agency.

It all fits into Dale's larger-than-life persona.

"Larry wants to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral," said a former city commissioner who served with Dale.

Dale, who turned 59 in February, would not be interviewed for this story.

'Bull in a china shop'

         Larry Dale

It is no secret that Dale uses his substantial clout to get what he wants, whether it's removing protected bald eagles from areas near the airport, creating his own airport police force, or even threatening to arrest a wildlife officer for trying to block city efforts to control pesky but harmless bugs.

But he also is known for leveraging his authority to squash any perceived slight, such as when he demanded an apology from a low-level county employee who was following procedure when she asked Dale for insurance paperwork on a county lease.

In other instances, Dale's behavior might best be described as inappropriate. While mayor, he once asked a black deputy city manager to sing the old Southern anthem "Dixie," according to two people who witnessed the incident.

The manager refused, but "you could have heard a pin drop in that room," said one of the witnesses, who like most critics will talk about Dale only if they are not identified.

Roger Dixon, now Eatonville's public-works director, has said he does not recall the incident, though he stops short of saying it didn't happen.

It's not clear what prompted Dale's actions, but they were surprising to some, who say he has a strong connection to Sanford's black community.

Velma Williams, the city's lone black commissioner, said she misses the working relationship she had with Dale when he was mayor.

"I can't think of a single white person in the city of Sanford who has been more supportive of programs for the black community than Larry Dale," Williams said. "He may be what they call a bull in a china shop, but the city moved forward under his leadership, and I don't believe he is racist."

Butting heads

Dale's take-charge, no-holds-barred style has brought him many successes as airport chief and mayor. It also has bought confrontation.

When members of Audubon of Florida went to remove a baby eagle from its nest near airport property, Dale was on the scene. In a show of force, he posted an airport police officer along a public road and directed him to keep the news media away. Dale said the officer was there for crowd control, though the eagle's removal had not been announced.

At one point, he removed his shirt and changed into a gray polo shirt sporting a Sanford Airport Police logo, then ordered a photographer for the Orlando Sentinel off the property. He acquiesced only after he was told he had no jurisdiction on the privately owned parcel.

Audubon officials, who initially fought the nest's removal and then worked with Dale to safely remove the fledgling, would not comment.

Airport board Chairman Geoffrey Longstaff complains the news media go out of their way to make Dale the bad guy.

"This is a good human being, and it hurts me that he is maligned," Longstaff said.

Those who have butted heads with Dale say he still usually comes out on top.

"He's so connected, whatever he wants he gets," said Deborah Schafer, a Chuluota community activist.

And that, Longstaff said, is reason to celebrate.

"The benefit of that comes here to us guys in little ol' Sanford, Lake Mary and Seminole County," he said.

Longstaff said people who say Dale's actions go too far don't understand him.

"I don't want to change Larry," Longstaff said. "Do I want to channel Larry sometimes? Sure. But I want people who will take a stand."

Dale can be quick to take offense if he thinks his integrity is being challenged.

Angi Borrero, an analyst with county support services, was the county's lease administrator in 2001 when she crossed paths with Dale. As part of her job, she had sent Dale a letter asking him to update insurance documents on property that he and partners in a controversial hunt club lease from the county. His response was explosive.

In an e-mail to her supervisor, Borrero described a "tirade" in which Dale demanded an apology.

County officials got it for him, but that did not placate him, according to Borrero.

"At this point, it seems obvious that Mr. Dale is waging some kind of personal campaign against me," she wrote to her supervisor.

The supervisor, Meloney Lung, said Dale was unhappy because he had already sent the document and felt critics would somehow use Borrero's letter against him.

The most recent person to take on Dale publicly is his former administrative secretary at the airport. Last year, Jacqueline Cockerham filed a racial-discrimination suit against Dale, the airport and airport Vice President Diane Crews.

She also asked that Dale, who is certified to carry four different weapons, not be allowed to carry guns at the airport. Dale refused, citing his role as police commander.

The suit, which appeared to be settled but is now being challenged by Cockerham, describes several incidents, including Dale taunting her when she complained about a hostile work environment.

"Go ahead and cry; you know you want to cry," Dale told Cockerham, according to the suit.

Dale's softer side

Friends say the Dale they know is a kind-hearted, God-fearing, hardworking family man who dotes on his daughters and grandchildren, sings in the church choir and plays the guitar beautifully.

Even Schafer, the community activist, once caught a glimpse of Dale's softer side when he played an audiotape of one of his young daughters singing.

"His voice cracked when he spoke about it," she said. That helped convince her Dale isn't a bully, she said.

But Altamonte Springs City Manager Phil Penland disagrees.

"He is a bully," Penland said, recalling one run-in.

Penland was a guest speaker before a business group, and Dale kept interrupting from the audience. When Dale said that the private sector could do anything better than the public sector, Penland had enough.

"I told him, 'With all due respect, I think you're full of [expletive].' "

Dale was outraged and demanded to know why Penland was even at the meeting.

"They told him, 'We invited him, Larry,' " Penland said. Dale quit the group on the spot.

"Then he stormed off," Penland recalled. "My impression was he really wasn't used to people standing up to him."