Anderson, Sprinkel Run for Mayor
by Anne Mooney / October 25, 2020
Former Commissioners Phil Anderson and Sarah Sprinkel will vie for the Mayor’s seat being vacated in March 2021 by Steve Leary. Even though the filing deadline is not until January 19, 2021 — which means there could be additional contenders — Anderson and Sprinkel have established campaign organizations and will begin active campaigning following the November 2020 election. The Winter Park general election is March 9, 2021. A runoff, if necessary, will be held April 13, 2021.
Platform Statements
On her platform, Sprinkel promises not to raise your taxes, to provide leadership during the pandemic and to exercise fiscal responsibility. In his platform, Anderson promises to protect the charm and character of Winter Park, to put residents’ interests first at City Hall and to make decisions that will keep Winter Park financially strong and prepared for the future.
You can find out more here https://www.electsarahsprinkel.com
And here https://www.philforwp.com
Campaigning in a Pandemic
This pandemic-era election cycle will look very different from previous campaigns. Sprinkel said, “I never want to put someone else at risk. I worry about my husband as much as I worry about myself. I don’t think I’ll be out and about very much – I don’t think we’re quite ready for that. So, this will be a different kind of campaign.”
Anderson was of like mind. “We are holding virtual campaign meetings and small-group outdoor meetings,” he said. His campaign is holding ‘meet & greets’ either outdoors with social distancing or via Zoom. He said they are also relying heavily on social media.
Anderson talked about the difference between this campaign and the campaign when he won the Commission seat he held from 2008 to 2011. “What I enjoyed about the 2008 cycle was the door to door thing, meeting people, hearing their stories,” he said. “But we can’t do that this time. I’m still going to do the Farmer’s Market – but not until after the general election.”
Who is Sarah Sprinkel?
Sprinkel served three terms as Commissioner from 2011 to 2020, when she stepped down in order to run for Mayor in 2021. If she is elected, Sprinkel will be the first woman to serve Winter Park as Mayor. Asked if she thought her gender would influence her leadership style, Sprinkel replied, “Yes, women look at things differently than men. My whole life has been spent lifting up families. I think we could do with some nurturing in leadership, under the circumstances. We should be working on a safety net for families right now. You have to have that open heart and that open mind.”
Sarah Sprinkel is a teacher. According to her website, she taught kindergarten for 10 years, then moved into administration to develop early childhood programs. She retired from the Orange County Public School System after 33 years and went to the Central Florida YMCA to partner with Disney to create two child development centers for cast members’ children. After retiring from Disney, she went to Florida Virtual School to create an Elementary program for FLVS. She now teaches classes as an adjunct at UCF and works with interns there.
Who is Phil Anderson?
Phil Anderson is a business executive with 35 years’ experience in finance and operations. He earned a degree in civil engineering from Georgia Tech and began his career building power plants for Georgia Power Company — valuable experience when it comes to understanding the complexities of the City of Winter Park utilities.
Over the past 35 years, Anderson has helped create several businesses that have invested over $10 billion dollars in more than 300 communities across the country. Most recently, he co-founded Bridge Seniors Housing Fund Manager in Orlando where he serves as Chief Investment Officer. Prior to that he served as Chief Operating Officer of CNL Retirement Properties.
Anderson and his wife Jennifer are patrons of local organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Eatonville, the Albin Polasek Museum and Gardens, and the Winter Park History Museum. Anderson is the founding treasurer of the Winter Park Land Trust and a member of the board of directors of Legacy Pointe at UCF — a non-profit retirement community.
How do they feel about the Orange Avenue Overlay?
Asked about her feelings on the OAO, Sprinkel said, “I have no problem with it. Remember, it didn’t begin with this project. They’ve been looking at this since form-based codes in 2003. It’s past time for the city to solve the problems that are in that area, especially road safety. People working together can solve things. That is the most dangerous road in Winter Park. Safety is paramount. For me, it’s never been about anything but safety. I do hope it eventually comes to fruition.”
To the same question, Anderson responded, “This is a great illustration of differences between me and Sarah. The OAO is very good as a concept. I do not agree, however, that it was ready for a vote when it got pushed through at the last minute. I’m glad the present commission is demanding illustrations of what the increased density would look like before they grant three to four times the increased maximum allowable building size.”
Anderson continued, “I believe we didn’t follow the norms of how we grant substantial increased densities to various landowners. When Rollins moved forward with the Innovation Triangle, we got a flier in our mailboxes with a diagram of the new buildings and a statistical table of their “ask.” The table showed what they were entitled to and what variances they were seeking. Why did that not happen in the largest rezoning in Winter Park history? The situation is now being corrected by the new commission. That’s the substance of the work sessions – illustrations of what these plans might allow. We badly need that to encourage an informed debate about the future of our city’s skyline.”
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By: Anne Mooney
Anne Mooney has assumed the editorship of the Winter Park Voice from founding editor Tom Childers.
Mooney got her start in New York as a freelance line editor for book publishers, among them Simon & Schuster and the Clarkson Potter division of Crown Books. From New York, she and her husband and their year-old toddler moved to Washington, D.C., where the two ran a newswire service for Harper’s magazine. “We called it Network News,” said Mooney, “because it was a network of the Harper’s writers, whose work we edited into newspaper style and format and sold to papers in the top U.S. and Canadian markets. We were sort of like a tiny UPI.”
The newswire ceased operation with the death of Mooney’s first husband, but Mooney continued to write and edit, doing freelance work for Williams Sonoma cookbooks and for local publications in D.C.
In 2005, Mooney moved to Winter Park, where she worked as a personal chef and wrote a regular food column for a south Florida magazine. She took an active interest in Winter Park politics and was there when the Winter Park Voice was founded. She wrote occasional pieces for the Voice, including the Childers bio that this piece replaces.
The Winter Park Voice is one of a large number of “hyper-local” publications that have sprung up across the U.S. in response to the decline of the major daily newspapers and the resulting deficit of local news coverage. The Voice’sbeat is Winter Park City Hall, and its purpose is to help the residents of our city better understand the political forces that shape our daily lives.
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For Sprinkel to even hint that the OAO for her has never been about anything but “safety” tells you all you need to know. In fact, it was all about BIG development.
If it were about SAFETY, then why oh why did she not act sooner to make this unsafe road safer?
Did awarding Demetree 6 or seven stories make anyone in WP safer? Did awarding Holler 4 or 5 stories make a single resident safer? Would allowing hundreds of new apartment on the corridor make anyone safer?
Please employ your best analytical thinking and apply it to that type of nonsensical answer from a woman who upzoned her way through many years on the commission.
Enuf is enuf. We can’t always elect 2 new commissioners every election cycle to save us.
We know where the old group was taking us, that’s why WP populous rose up and voted them out.
Now we get to vote for the same old vision but for a different office. Why? I say out with the old and in with the new ideas.
Anderson has my vote!
Anderson has my vote!
Really Sarah Sprinkel?
Shades of The Carlisle staring us right in the face as we begin to ponder the upcoming March 9 2021 Election for Mayor.
Here are a few reminders, lest we forget:
*A new library facility promised at 50,000 sf, subsequently reduced to 36,000 sf at one-third over the promised price tag.
No promised parking structure. No Leeds certification. No solar.
For a highly inflated price tag of $42 million, vs $30 million promised to voters.
*OAO rammed through with minimal citizen awareness, no sensitivity to traffic or aesthetics and a key commission public hearing that went until 2:30 in the morning. Why the desperate rush to judgement? Answer: Oligarchs among us.
If you value transparency, honesty, true citizen involvement and authentic commission responsiveness, there is only one choice.
Anderson all the way!!!!
Counting the minutes until Sprinkel tries in vain to walk this safety comment back.
Sprinkle will never get my vote. All she did in her years on the Commission was allow constant overbuild of Winter Park with all the ramifications of that never taken in consideration or repaired. Plus her premature emails about the present commission raising taxes should disqualify her in every citizen’s mind.
Will have to more study Anderson. At least he had a better answer on the OAO.
Team Phil !
Expect low voter turnout for this election, folks.
If you have a horse in the race, all the more reason to get your bandwagon in gear. You’re going to have to work at least three times as hard to get anyone to vote for your candidate.
And not just because people will be thoroughly burned out on elections after the presidential next week.
Former WP City Commissioners NEVER win elections in Winter Park. How so you say? Name ONE that has ever won an election after leaving the City Commission. This time around that’s the only choice though.
Whoever recruited these candidates needs to have their head examined. All they had to do to ensure victory for their side was to select someone who had NEVER served as City Commissioner.
So, we can have Coca-Cola or Pepsi. That’s our choice for 2021.
Two former City Commissioners.
And that won’t get peoples’ feet in the polls – not even close. You know why?
Whatever the candidates say; however they tell you they are different from their opponent; whatever their friends tell your friends; Winter Park residents will just ASSUME that these two are “has been” local pols who are looking for a second helping of the power and respect (or at least a reasonable facsimile) they once had (or imagined they once had) while serving on the City Commission.
I’m not saying the shoe fits either or both of these candidates. And I’m not saying it doesn’t.
Just saying that’s what VOTERS will be thinking when they make their choices about whether 2021 Election Day in Winter Park will be OPTIONAL for them.
Good morning…thanks for your description of the two current candidates..appreciated the comments by several people but I chose to pay no attention to anyone who is listed as anonymous – that is appropriate only went casting your ballot.
More importanly, I had the opportunity to work with Sarah on a project when she was a commissioner and found her thoughtful, hard working, sensitive, and willing to listen…my kind of Mayor!!! she will have my vote in March..
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Sprinkel is a polarizing political figure in Winter Park. Some people absolutely love Sarah. However the bombastic blonde has alienated so many voters during her nine year ride on the Winter Park City Commission that its hard to imagine how she can piece together enough votes to get her to fifty percent plus one on election day. For one thing, just the time she will have to spend defending some of the borderline insane comments she has made in public over the years will make it nearly impossible for her to make any progress. But since she comes from a political family, perhaps she has found a way to “pad” her official vote count so she comes out on top? We shall see.
Anderson is more “Hollywood Casting” for the WP Mayor job. Distinguished, well spoken, socially adept. He looks the part. And since it;s been so long since he was on the Commission, has few or no political enemies in town. The wind is at his back. And this election is his to lose.
Instead of building more apartments, hotels, etc. WILL YOU PLEASE
REPAVE THE TREE STREETS AND TEMPLE??
Phil has my vote.
But where do they stand on the building of the Henderson in the middle of a lakefront residential neighborhood with no real frontage on 17-92?
Though the hotel speculators own a parcel on 17-92 it does not even connect to the hotel site itself. How does that work?
Same way the Library and Events Center works with no parking garage.
This is WINTER PARK after all. The land of make believe. Where if you say it works, it WORKS!!!
City Commissioners in Winter Park began losing their sensibilities around 30 years ago. And by now they’ve pretty much lost it all.
Occasionally, there are exceptions to the rule. Weaver. Cooper (in her early days on the Commission). But other than that you’d have to go way back to Dillaha to find a Commissioner with any sense, and most people in Winter Park today weren’t here then or aren’t old enough to remember her.
It is my ardent hope that any vacated City Commissioner’s seat will be filled by a woman of color. Winter Park, when will you wake up?
I’m with anonymous.
Occupying a commission seat is exactly like winning the lottery in one singular, but essential, respect. You have to actually “enter” to win.
In other words, one must run to win.
Until a person of color decides to run- in earnest- with the goal of serving all residents of the city, there will be no person of color elected. Barbara Chandler ran for a seat, but not to win a seat and not with the goal of serving all residents of the city. She ran to bring forward SMD. In this she has succeeded.
I’m very concerned about the density in Winter Park and roads to sustain all traffic. Allowing higher buildings so we lose quaintness of our area which creates more traffic. Do we as the people really have any say and can we really trust your words?
I’ve lived here since 1962 so I’ve seen all the changes. Homes in Winter Park are getting higher and higher. Why? So the owner can pay more property tax? It’s not necessary and ruins our communities.
I don’t think there’s anything left to “preserve” anymore. Winter Park is not the charming city it used to be. Now, it’s an overcrowded den of both over-the-top flashy wealthy folks and too many apartments and apartment dwellers — not to mention the non-stop build-out of retail stores, restaurants and hotels. Our city government turned it into a tourist community. It astonishes me that people still flock here to live. Winter Park IS NOT a suburb anymore..and there’s no walking back on this now. It’s too late regardless of who wins. After 21 years of residency, we’ll be leaving this city later this year.
Michele’s post is spot on. Winter Park’s best days are behind her. The only thing that could possibly change that are “the same 12 angry residents.” They are a feisty bunch and have been right about almost every matter concerning the City.
It’s not about “preserving” anymore. It started out that way, But now it’s about RESTORING the magnificence Winter Park once was. It may take some time and a few more iterations of City Commissioners, but they’ll get it right. This is the first time neither candidate for mayor put a picture of a tree on their yard signs. That should tell you something about the need to RESTORE. Used to be no candidate would dare run without the obligatory picture of a tree on their campaign materials. But both candidates don’t want to offend the Chamber of Commerce.
Michele, remember they don’t put up a gate at the City limits, so even if you move, you can enjoy everything you like about Winter Park any time you want. Just drive right into town. Why not, everyone else does. Y’all come back now. Hear?
…I’m really curious why you think going back to a suburban development style would bring in LESS flashy rich people. That’s literally who suburbs were built for, Winter Park included.
Used to be, there were pictures of trees on campaign signs.
Now, there are NO pictures of trees on campaign signs.
If the Chamber of Commerce gets any more power in this town, the next time there is a mayor election, all the campaign signs will have pictures of tree stumps!
Regarding our choices for W P Mayor? I would prefer neither to either.
Will Winter Park elect another development darling as Mayor this cycle?
The city has had a pro- big development mayor since the election of Ken Bradley in 2009. Sprinkel’s long alliance with pro mega development forces, her voting record and her campaign donor lists show that her allegiance to development interests is very strong. She would neatly step into Leary’s shoes if elected.
Anderson would mark a clean break from this long standing trend. His pro-resident stance differentiates him markedly from his opponent. So does his devotion to preservation of WP’s charm and traditional scale.
Sprinkel’s “Plan for People” clearly articulates that welcoming many hundreds of brand new residents to Winter Park is her goal. This means hundreds of new apartments. Even if these apartments are not “stand alone” apartments, they’re still apartments. With Sarah Sprinkel literature, you have to read between the lines. Notice she doesn’t say no new high density housing or no new apartments. She says no “stand alone” apartments. Put a StarBucks on the first floor of the mid-rise and they no longer stand alone. Gotcha!
Hurray for Phil Anderson. The endorsement is so well deserved. Good for the Sentinel that they saw through all the Chamber / Betsy Eckbert offensive fake out. The editorial board also recognized that Leary was no champion of transparency or best practices governance and Sprinkel promised more of the same. If Phil wins, Winter Park residents win.
I will not vote for Sprinkel. I was part of a neighborhood group of about 100 residents a few years back when the YMCA had broke an agreement they had made with the city not to purchase and develop nearby properties which, the Y totally disregarded. I went to all meetings and found Sprinkel totally disinterested to the residents petitions and thoroughly unsympathetic. As a 30 year homeowner in Winter Park I know I can do better by voting for Phil Anderson.