Mayor says future power sources to be city’s ‘biggest’ decision

Mayor says future power sources to be city’s ‘biggest’ decision

Mayor says future power sources to be city’s ‘biggest’ decision

Winter Park’s 55th mayor, Phil Anderson, delivered his state of the city speech focusing on the environment and ‘small-town feel’

Mayor Phil Anderson zeroed in on imminent decisions over Winter Park’s environmental policies in his “State of the City” address on Friday, calling the choices about how to provide electricity to residents and business the biggest decision “for the next 50 years” and said flooding from Hurricane Ian was a “wake-up call” prompting changes to how to move water through the region.

A study is underway to determine what sources of power – natural gas, coal, nuclear or solar — Winter Park’s electric utility should purchase. Winter Park is one of only 33 municipal-owned providers in a state where more than three quarters of the population is served by one of the large investor-owned utilities such as Duke Energy or Florida Power & Light.

“This is probably the biggest policy decision that this city is going to wrestle with for the next 50 years,” Anderson said, noting he wants to reduce the city’s carbon footprint “responsibly.” “We’re going to do this right.”

He also noted the need to work with other nearby governments from Osceola County to Jacksonville to address how the region will contain onslaughts of water brought by major storm events such as Ian, which dumped more than 15 inches of rain on Central Florida in September 2022. 

Anderson noted that “by the old math” such a rain event would happen only once every 500 years. “We think the old math may not work and we’ve got to do something about it,” he said, though he said it was unclear how much the changes would cost.

Winter Park, which has about 30,000 residents, remains on strong financial footing with a budget of just under $200 million. That’s more than an 11% increase over the previous year, including $1.6 million of new revenue from the newly-acquired Winter Park Pines Golf Course.

Anderson emphasized his desire to protect the city’s “small-town feel” and neighborhoods as well as the health of the shopping and dining corridor along Park Avenue. Part of those efforts will include enhancements to the city’s parks and potential traffic calming measures.

Proposed changes to State Road 426, a major east-west carrier of traffic through the heart of Winter Park to the growing Seminole County city of Oviedo, are likely to be a subject of debate this year.

A group of citizens known as ‘Fix 426’ is advocating for safety changes and the Florida Department of Transportation is considering ways to address concerns on S.R. 426 between Park Avenue and Lakemont Avenue, a stretch of the road carved through the city’s chain of lakes and neighborhoods with a series of sharp curves.

“People do not feel safe walking those roads,” Anderson said. “Because of grassroots organization we are seeing great progress and great ideas being shared. We may not get everything we’d like to see but we are going to get a lot of things we need to see.”

 

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Todd Weaver to remain in office

Todd Weaver to remain in office

Todd Weaver to remain in office

Close vote determines resignation wasn’t sufficient

Todd Weaver will remain on the Winter Park City Commission after three of the five commissioners voted to determine an email he sent earlier this month titled “Stepping Down” was not a “legally sufficient” resignation. 

The 3-2 vote concluded nearly two weeks of debate over Weaver’s future since the he sent the message to supporters and senior city staff on Feb. 3 only to say days later that he didn’t want to resign after all and asserting in a commission meeting last week that the email was merely an “announcement” rather than a resignation.

A contrite Weaver apologized for the hubbub at a special meeting on Wednesday to decide his fate.

“I apologize for being the cause of this special session,” he said, noting that he was sleep deprived and contending with new work duties outside of City Hall on the morning he sent the letter. “I should have given it a little more time before I hit the send button …  it was just a stupidity move on my part.”

At stake was whether Weaver could serve the remainder of his term until 2025 or if the City Commission would appoint someone new to fill the seat until the next general election in 2024. The city attorney said at last week’s meeting that if Weaver’s note was considered an immediate resignation then it was unlikely he could take it back.

Jockeying among interest groups and candidates to fill the post began within hours of Weaver’s email.

An opinion from a labor attorney sought by the city on the matter questioned Weaver’s credibility and concluded his message was a clear resignation.

“In my view, Mr. Weaver’s recent statements appear to be a crude attempt by him to recharacterize the events of him drafting and sending the email,” wrote Benton Wood of law firm Fisher Phillips.

Mayor Phil Anderson and Commissioner Sheila DeCiccio voted in favor of calling Weaver’s action a resignation and pointed to the attorney’s opinion as well as language in Weaver’s letter, including his use of the past tense when talking about his tenure and his signature on the email, which noted his time as a commissioner from 2019-2023, two years before his term is scheduled to end.

“The clear thrust of the communication is to inform residents he’s stepping down,” DeCiccio said.

Commissioners Marty Sullivan, Kris Cruzada and Weaver himself voted to keep Weaver in place and rejected the legal opinion.

Sullivan said Weaver clearly wanted to continue to serve and it was in the best interest of Winter Park residents to have a commissioner elected by the people rather than one appointed by the commission.

Ten residents spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and were split over whether to keep Weaver, a proponent of more sustainability policies in the city, on the board.

“Have you ever changed your mind about something?” asked resident Pat McDonald, noting that at last week’s commission meeting the people on the dais conceded they wanted to change course on plans for the old library building when they ended an agreement with one developer to solicit new ideas. “Let’s just assume it was a resignation letter. He changed his mind.”

At least one resident noted her “trust is not within Mr. Weaver anymore.”

Cruzada said he found Weaver’s email to be “ambiguous” and assigning meaning to it would be a “slippery slope.”

“When I read the email, it was kind of like reading a book with no ending …,” Cruzada said. “It’s not as crystal clear as I would like it to be … Do I cringe about how we got here? Yes, it’s regrettable. We’re all human. We all err every now and then.”

 

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Commission will consider workforce housing, other ideas for old library site

Commission will consider workforce housing, other ideas for old library site

Commission will consider workforce housing, other ideas for old library site

by Beth Kassab / February 11, 2023

Winter Park Commissioners this week ended exclusive negotiations with a prominent real estate firm to redevelop the old Winter Park Library and appeared poised to consider workforce housing or other residential units on the site instead.

The 4-1 vote (Commissioner Kris Cruzada was the only dissent) to terminate an agreement with Harbert Realty for the 1.75-acre site valued at about $6 million also effectively halted the commission’s vision to repurpose the building into co-working space along with other uses, including a possible café and room for public events. 

Damien Madsen, a managing director at Harbert, pleaded with commissioners to continue the agreement and attempted to negotiate new terms such as a new amount for the ground lease on the property controlled by the city and city oversight over the building leases. 

“We put a lot of time into this effort abiding by the deal that we were given,” Madsen said, noting that the city outlined terms such as reusing rather than demolishing the old building and retaining city ownership. “We followed the rules. Based on those rules you set for us, this is the proposal we can give you.”

But commissioners expressed reservations about those parameters now. 

“What the commission is grappling with is the use the city really wants for this building,” said Commissioner Sheila DeCiccio of the property at 460 E. New England Avenue across from Rollins College that was left vacant when the new Winter Park Library and Events Center opened in 2021. 

Commissioner Marty Sullivan said more ideas need to be considered.

“We did not properly put down our ideas for that building,” Sullivan said. “It makes me uncomfortable that we’re having second thoughts about that. It’s hard to admit I made a mistake and rushed my own thinking of where to go with that property.”

He said he has been approached by other interested Winter Park developers, who have suggested alternative uses such as turning the property into workforce housing for city or Rollins staff, who often can’t afford to live in the city where the median home price in the fourth quarter of last year was more than $860,000 in the 32789 ZIP code, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. The median price for the Orlando region was about $350,000.  

Mayor Phil Anderson said he had heard about a potential concept by developer Alan Ginsburg related to workforce housing on the site, but had not discussed it while the city was in an exclusive arrangement with Harbert. 

Ginsburg, a well-known local philanthropist who has developed a number of residential projects, including student housing across from the University of Central Florida, did not return a phone call or emailed questions about the concept. 

Sullivan noted that the response time for the initial RFP won by Madsen’s group might have been too short, and that given time, other parties have expressed interest in re-developing the building.

Madsen suggested that commissioners could subsidize existing units in the city to create workforce housing options rather than build new units from scratch. 

LaWanda Thompson, a resident and advocate for the historically Black community on the city’s west side, said she attended a meeting years ago about what should become of the old library and there was broad consensus among residents that co-working space would be most beneficial. 

“I remember my personal request as a citizen from the Hannibal Square community was that there be some re-enfranchisement for businesses of color that need business space,” she said. “I hope that includes space for minority businesses like myself.”

At the start of the discussion Madsen asked to delay a vote on ending the agreement because of questions over whether Commissioner Todd Weaver had resigned and if his participation could cast a cloud of uncertainty over any decision made at Wednesday’s meeting. 

Weaver sent a mass email out on Feb. 3 to announce he is “stepping down,” but at Wednesday’s city meeting argued the email did not constitute a resignation and said he planned to stay in his seat. The commission is set to decide whether he can do so at a special meeting next week.

After voting to end Madsen’s agreement with the city, Weaver launched into a PowerPoint presentation he prepared that featured the image of a dinosaur fossil, though it was unclear what he was driving at.

“Darn it, I’m tired of Winter Garden and Tavares pulling over on the cool factor on Winter Park,” Weaver said in a rare admission that other cities were gaining on Winter Park’s regional reputation as a go-to place for dining and strolling. “This is an opportunity to get back on the cool train.” 

Image credit City of Winter Park

 

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Todd Weaver to remain in office

Did Weaver Resign . . . or not?

Did Weaver Resign . . . or not?

Commission to decide at special meeting Feb. 15

by Beth Kassab / February 9, 2023

Commissioner Todd Weaver, who announced Friday he is “stepping down,” said at Wednesday’s City Commission meeting that he now wants to remain in the job, though the board delayed a decision about whether he can do so.

Weaver, who was re-elected last year for a second three-year term, sent a mass email on Friday that said he is struggling to manage commission duties along with his business obligations and also told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday, “I’m juggling too many balls.” He signed the email with his name and “Winter Park City Commissioner 2019-2023,” two years shy of when his term would be up in 2025.

But on Wednesday he argued the email, which carried the subject line “Stepping Down” and was sent from his campaign address to constituents, supporters and others including the city clerk, was not a resignation.

“Nowhere in that notification to residents did it say I was going to resign or resign on a certain date,” Weaver said. “It was just reaching out and showing my appreciation to all of you and all of city staff … Yes, I’m struggling a little bit with time, but I’ve made some adjustments in my personal life … I’m here tonight and I want to serve.”

In question now is if the five-member commission considers Weaver’s email an official resignation. If so, City Attorney Kurt Ardaman said Seat 4 would be considered vacant and Weaver’s participation and votes on city business “could compromise the integrity of the commission’s actions.”

Ardaman said only the commission can determine if the email constituted an immediate resignation.

A vacant seat would mean the commission would appoint someone to serve until the next general election in March of 2024 when voters would select a candidate to fill the final year of Weaver’s term. No races will appear on the city ballot this year because commissioners Sheila DeCiccio and Marty Sullivan were automatically re-elected when no one filed to run against either incumbent.

Jockeying for the vacancy had already begun by the start of Wednesday’s meeting. The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the Commission on Friday within hours of Weaver’s email calling for the board to appoint “someone from the African American community.”

“It has been an unacceptable 130 years since a Black person has served on the Winter Park City Commission and you now have a perfect opportunity to correct that inequity,” stated the letter from chamber President Betsy Gardner Eckbert.

Commissioner Marty Sullivan advocated to call a vote to keep Weaver on the commission.

“It’s very clear, I believe, that Vice Mayor Weaver chose to rescind that and chose to continue to stay on the commission,” Sullivan said. “It’s clear from [City Attorney Kurt] Ardaman that it’s up to us to decide whether he stays on the commission so I think it’s out of order to delay that decision on our part.”

But Mayor Phil Anderson won a vote 3-2 to delay the decision until a special meeting devoted to the matter next Wednesday. Weaver and Sullivan cast the dissenting votes.

Anderson requested an opinion on the matter from the city’s labor attorney before the next meeting.

Ardaman said that if commissioners interpret the email as an immediate resignation, then it’s likely not possible for Weaver to rescind that decision. But if they determine his intent was to resign in the future then he could potentially walk it back.

Weaver participated in votes on the remainder of the city agenda on Wednesday.

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Do You Vote by Mail?

Do You Vote by Mail?

Do You Vote by Mail?

Don’t delay – request your ballot today!

by Anne Mooney / January 4, 2023

A new law, enacted last April, has changed the Vote by Mail (VBM) process, requiring all voters to submit a new request to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections for a VBM ballot.

The Supervisor of Elections office must receive your request no later than 5:00 pm ten days before the election.

Winter Park Election Day is March 14, 2023

This means the deadline for submitting your request for a VBM ballot is March 4, 2023. But don’t wait until then.

You can request a VBM ballot any time

You can request a VBM ballot as soon as right-this-minute (during business hours), so don’t wait. Here’s how – it is so easy.

Online – Go to https://www.ocfelections.com/  In the orange banner at the top of the main page, click on “Voters.” About half-way down the dropdown menu, you’ll see “Vote by Mail.”

There, you will find thorough, easy to follow instructions for requesting a VBM ballot.

Fax or Email – On the same page, you will find instructions for downloading a VBM Request Form, which you can print, fill out and submit either as a photo attachment by email, by Fax or by snail mail.

No Computer? No Problem

Call the Supervisor of Elections office and speak to a live person, who will process your request on the spot. The number is 407-836-8683.

People in the Supervisor of Elections Office are there to help. They are courteous, knowledgeable and they actually answer the phones. We Orange County residents are truly fortunate

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