OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Ocala businessman Clay Albright told the Ocala City Council at its regular meeting on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, that code enforcement has an “embedded cancerous culture” that has frightened the business community. He asked members to delay City Manager Pete Lee’s contract renewal rather than reward what he called a “lack of leadership.”
Albright said he had come to council weeks earlier angry about the code board and had since been “flooded with phone calls.” He told those callers he would not “carry the water jug” for them and that they needed to speak to their representatives themselves. Then, he said, he received another citation he called retaliation.
“This board right now, I would ask you to question what is happening within the city of Ocala leadership, and by that I mean I came in here fuming a few weeks ago about your code enforcement board,” Albright said. “The code enforcement department apparently has got such an embedded cancerous culture that it has frightened everybody in the business community. Since I came in here a few weeks ago, I have been flooded with phone calls, and I have told everybody in the business community I am not going to carry the water jug for you, you guys are going to have to stand up and speak your mind to your representatives. Well, that’s how it was left until I got another code enforcement letter today, that has to be nothing but more than retaliation.”…