Broward County’s top tax official has agreed to pay a reduced penalty to resolve allegations she improperly used government resources while running for office in 2024, closing an ethics case that had been pending for months.

Abiodun “Abbey” Ajayi, the county’s Tax Collector, will pay $4,000 under a settlement with the Broward Office of the Inspector General.

The agreement ends a complaint filed earlier this year that sought a significantly higher financial penalty and a formal reprimand.

Rafael Olmeda of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel first reported on the pending payment.

The case stems from Ajayi’s campaign for the newly elected Tax Collector’s Office in 2024, when she was still employed by the county as an Operations Manager in the Records, Taxes and Treasury Division.

Investigators From Inspector General Carol Breece’s Office concluded Ajayi engaged in campaign-related activity tied to her government role, including appearances on video podcasts recorded from her workplace and the use of her official email account for campaign matters.

One of the podcast appearances occurred during regular business hours without approved leave, according to the Inspector General’s findings. Another took place after hours, but included a fundraising appeal made from inside a government building.

The report also identified dozens of instances in which Ajayi’s county email was used to coordinate campaign activities, such as sharing materials and arranging media appearances.

Authorities said the conduct violated local rules barring the use of public resources for political purposes and, in some cases, implicated state restrictions on campaigning while on duty or soliciting contributions in government facilities.

The complaint did not allege criminal wrongdoing.

Ajayi’s lawyer, Larry Davis, told the Sun-Sentinel the violations were inadvertent, attributing them to the challenges of balancing public employment with a first-time campaign.

Ajayi, who became Broward’s first independently elected Tax Collector in 2024, admitted liability as part of the settlement. She became a certified collector through the Department of Revenue in 2019.

The Tax Collector became an independent, elected office in 2024 in accordance with the 2018 passage of Amendment 10, which required several constitutional offices to be voter-chosen. For decades prior, the duties of the Tax Collector were folded into Broward’s Records, Taxes and Treasury Division.

She won the job in a three-way Democratic race in which she beat two others — former state Sen. Perry Thurston and Dwight Forrest — by about 4,300 votes.

She took 35.02% of the vote overall in the 2024 Primary, compared to 32.5% for Forrest and 32.48% for Thurston.

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