by Beth Kassab | Apr 8, 2026 | City Commission, News
Michelle del Valle Named New City Manager
Commissioners gave unanimous, enthusiastic support for del Valle (pictured above) to takeover when Randy Knight retires in January. Meanwhile, a split 3-2 vote approved increased hourly rates for the city attorney
April 8, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park City Commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize Mayor Sheila DeCiccio to begin to negotiate a contract with Michelle del Valle to became city manager in January.
She will succeed Randy Knight, who has served in the position for 19 years.
Winter Park has a city manager form of government, which means the person in that job sets the tone and runs all aspects of the on a daily basis, helming more than 500 employees. The elected commissioners set policy, but the manager is largely responsible for overseeing the execution of policy.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said a national search to fill the job was unnecessary because she “wholeheartedly” supported del Valle, who has served as assistant city manager since 2008. DeCiccio cited del Valle’s education, experience and connections.
“She has the knowledge, the relationships, the contacts … and I can’t tell you how important contacts are to get things done,” DeCiccio said. “When we had the cold snap she was able to pick up the phone and call the people at Publix, at Advent[Health} to get them to turn on their generators so there wasn’t a drain on our [electrical] system.”
The four other commissioners also enthusiastically endorsed del Valle, who Knight named as his recommended successor as early as 2022.
Knight said in a letter to the commission that he will retire on Jan. 8.
Del Valle lives in neighboring Maitland and spent 16 years working that city before joining Winter Park, which has a population of about 30,000. She will be required to live in Winter Park as part of the city’s rules for the job.
Two commissioners expressed reservations about a second major hiring decision on Wednesday, questioning whether the contract for the city’s attorney should be put out to bid.
Kurt Ardaman and his partners at the Fishback Dominik law firm have represented the city since 2015.
Elizabeth Ingram, the newest member of the commission who started her term last month, said she’s still a “newbie,” but didn’t see the harm in considering other proposals.
“I don’t think it hurts to see what else is out there, maybe we’ll still go with them, but I think I would like to put it out for bid,” she said.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey agreed.
“I think that Kurt and your firm have done a fantastic job, but I agree with Commissioner Ingram … if we bid it out very likely [we] could select Fishback again, but I think it’s a conscientious thing for us to do that,” he said.
DeCiccio and commissioners Craig Russell and Kris Cruzada voted in favor of keeping Fishback and approved its requested increase to its hourly rates.
The commission, which spends between $500,000 and $650,000 a year on the city attorney contract, will pay $325 an hour for lead attorneys, up from $275.
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 7, 2026 | City Commission, News
Will Winter Park Conduct Searches for New Top Manager and Attorney?
City Manager Randy Knight says he will retire in January and recommends Michelle del Valle to take the role.
April 7, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park City Commissioners will take up two major hiring decisions on Wednesday: a new city manager to replace Randy Knight, who is retiring after 19 years as well as whether or not to renew a contract with Kurt Ardaman and his partners at the Fishback Dominik law firm, which has represented the city since 2015.
In a letter dated April 1, Knight, who has worked for the city for a total of 35 years, announced he would retire on Jan. 8 and, in a separate memorandum, recommended Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle to take over the job.
Knight’s early 2027 retirement has been expected for years and, as early as a 2022 succession plan, he named del Valle as his chosen successor. She has served in the assistant role since 2008.
Michelle del Valle
As part of the plan, del Valle spent time overseeing every department in the city over the past four years to help for the role.
She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of public administration degree from the University of Central Florida and spent 16 years working at the city of Maitland before arriving at Winter Park City Hall.
“I do strongly believe that if I get hit by the proverbial bus, Michelle is already ready to lead this great city,” Knight wrote in the 2022 succession plan.
He said in the memo to the city commission that the reason for asking the commission to finalize his recommendation this month — nine months before he will retire — is because city rules require the city manager live in Winter Park.
“Ms. del Valle currently resides in Maitland and has begun looking at houses in Winter Park,” he wrote. “Before she makes an offer on a house, it would be helpful for her to know she has been selected by the city commission to be the next city manager.”
Randy Knight
Knight earns more than $274,000 in the role.
City commissioners could approve Knight’s recommendation and begin negotiating a contract with del Valle or they could opt to conduct a wider search and consider additional candidates for the job.
The commission, which spends between $500,000 and $650,000 a year on the city attorney contract, will also decide whether to put the contract out to bid for the first time in 11 years or to approve a pay increase for the Fishback Dominick firm.
The firm, which also represents other local cities such as Winter Garden, Ocoee and Belle Isle, is asking for increases to its hourly rates. For example, lead attorneys would charge $325 an hour, up from $275.
The commission can decide to approve the higher rates or to put the job out to bid and ask for proposals from other firms.
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 6, 2026 | City Commission, News, Schools
Winter Park Agrees to Five Habitat Homes for School Workers on OCPS Property
Orange County Public Schools, which has launched a broader effort to make affordable housing more accessible to its employees, and Winter Park must still give final approval to the deal with Habitat for Humanity of Winter Park-Maitland
April 6, 2026
By Beth Kassab
When leaders at Orange County Public Schools learned that a house through Habitat for Humanity of Winter Park-Maitland could be available to a district employee, they put out a call for interest at Winter Park and Maitland schools.
“We had 75 people apply in less than a week,” said Bridget Williams, deputy superintendent for executive services.
Stephanie Vanos, the School Board member who represents Winter Park, helped forge the partnership with Habitat when she learned the original would-be owner of a house in the works fell through.
“I really don’t think people realize the need,” she said. “It’s no secret that the school district is having conversations about health insurance right now. I get emails from teachers pretty much every day begging the district not to increase premiums… We’re hearing every day from educators about the unaffordability of their salary.”
Housing is a particular strain on incomes in Winter Park, where home prices and rents trend higher than most of the region, with the median sales price in the 32789 ZIP code exceeding $800,000.
A teacher from Glenridge Middle School was selected to own the Habitat-built house near Winter Park Village and thanked those involved in a letter read aloud at a February School Board meeting.
“This home is more than just a structure. It’s life-changing for me and my family,” wrote the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous.
She also thanked Winter Park High School students who worked alongside her to help construct the house and called working with Habitat for Humanity a “profound experience.”
Volunteers work on a recent Habitat for Humanity build in Winter Park. (Photos courtesy of Habitat)
Now, Winter Park and school district officials are laying the groundwork for five more school employees to own Habitat houses in the city.
The plan would allow five homes to be constructed on a small section at the rear of the property known as the former Orange Technical College on Webster Avenue.
The project would not affect the nearly 500 Orlando Gifted Academy students using part of the property while their Fern Creek school is being renovated.
The Winter Park City Commission recently agreed to the concept of changing the property’s zoning to allow for the homes. It also agreed to use up to $200,000 — originally intended to help Habitat acquire land in the city — to fund water, sewer and other infrastructure for the proposed homes, which would be just east of Whole Foods Market.
“You cannot get a lot in Winter Park for $200,000,” said Mayor Sheila DeCiccio. “So this is a great way to help instead of putting the money toward purchasing land.”
Jeff Briggs, the city’s former planning director who serves as treasurer for the local Habitat organization, said he was enthusiastic about the deal.
“This is a fantastic opportunity,” he said. “The biggest challenge for Habitat is finding land.”
Under the terms, which still must go before the City Commission and the School Board for final approval, the district would lease the land for 99 years, while eligible homeowners would own the structures.
If one of the owners needed to sell in the future, the new buyer would also have to be a district employee and meet Habitat’s eligibility requirements.
Williams said the project aligns with a broader effort by the district to expand access to affordable housing for its workers.
The district has entered into partnerships with multiple apartment developers and operators to provide priority access to OCPS employees who meet eligibility requirements.
And Winter Park would not be the first example of repurposing district property. The former Catalina Elementary School site in southwest Orlando, for instance, is being developed into housing as part of a partnership with the city of Orlando for both school and city employees.
Williams said the goal is to allow teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and other staff to live in the communities where they work.
“You’re building all these subdivisions, and our teachers are having to drive in,” she said. “That shouldn’t be the case.”
She said seeing the impact of the program has become one of the most rewarding parts of her job.
Like the day the Glenridge Middle teacher learned she would become a homeowner — and that her two children would get their own rooms.
“Just seeing her cry, and her two children — it’s almost like she did not think this would ever happen,” Williams said. “Watching that is what makes it worth it. It’s worth every minute.”
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by Beth Kassab | Apr 3, 2026 | Arts and Culture, News
Harold Ward III Leaves Long Legacy as a Community Caretaker
Ward died on Monday at age 92
April 3, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Harold Ward III, the well-known lawyer who helped shape modern Winter Park as an advisor to the city’s most prominent philanthropic foundations and institutions, was known for his modest and likable persona mixed with a scholarly command of the law.
Ward died Monday after a brief illness. He was 92.
“Harold was a very humble person and you wouldn’t know he was behind as much as he was behind,” said Doug Woodman, trustee and executive vice president and treasurer of the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation and Charles Hosmer Morse Foundation.
Woodman said that until recently Ward, a longtime trustee for the groups, still spent several mornings a week at the foundations’ office on North Park Avenue.
On Friday his desk was neat and tidy just the way he always kept it with a photo of his wife of 66 years Mary Lewis “Libby” Ward, who died in 2024.
“That was the most important thing he had on his desk … he was a really dedicated family man,” Woodman said, recalling how his mother, Louise, and Libby became friends and attended the first annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival together.
Harold Ward, center, attended an event for Rollins College, where he chaired the board of trustees multiple times.
Their husbands were both partners at Winderweedle, Haines, Ward and Woodman where Ward eventually became known for his estate planning practice.
He started at the firm in 1960, choosing to return to Winter Park after law school at the University of Chicago and a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and a stint as an attorney for the U.S. Air Force.
It was in the D.C. area where he met Libby, who worked for IBM and held a degree in mathematics from William & Mary.
David Odahowski, president and chief executive of Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, said the Wards often had Sunday dinner with Justice Black and would drive him on road trips to Florida, where the justice also had relatives.
“Harold and Libby — the two of them could have stayed at the hub of everything, but the tug of Winter Park brought them back,” Odahowski said.
Harold Ward in an undated photo
“When you think about Harold, you think about the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and Harold was starring as George Bailey,” but in his own story, he said, with Winter Park as his version of the film’s Bedford Falls.
Ward was a founding trustee and incorporating member of the Edyth Bush foundation, which has awarded more than $114 million to support the local arts, education, health care and more.
His roots were intrinsically tied to the founding of Winter Park, where he grew up and attended Winter Park High School where he played the double bell euphonium in the band, according to his daughter Mary Christian.
Charles Hosmer Morse, once the city’s largest landholder who donated the property for Central Park and the first town hall, hired Ward’s grandfather to help run his company.
The younger Ward was a friend of Morse’s granddaughter Jeannette Genius McKean and her husband Rollins College President Hugh McKean.
Jeanette McKean started the Morse and Genius foundations in honor of her grandfather and mother and Ward served terms as chairman of those boards as well as chairman of the trustees of Rollins College. The Morse foundation operates the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art and the Genius foundation provides funds for that endeavor as well as other charitable causes around town.
“In meetings, he was always the guy who asked the question that nobody else thought of,” Woodman recalled.
Harold Ward reads to his grandchildren. (All photos courtesy of the Ward family)
With the loss of Ward comes the loss of “an incredible amount of institutional knowledge.”
But Ward was also far more than his work, Christian said.
She said she remembers her dad being home just about every night by 6 p.m. for dinner with the family and always took time off for summer road trips that the family spent months planning.
“He was a wonderful dad. He would do anything for us and that translated to the kind of person and caretaker he was for the community,” said Christian, who lives in Maitland and also serves as a trustee on the Genius Foundation. “He was just very committed and dutiful … I know he was proud of the things he did, but he didn’t talk about himself in that way.”
Ward was also devoted to First Congregational Church of Winter Park where his family has been members since 1886. The church will hold a service for Ward on May 2 at 11 a.m.
In addition to Christian, Ward is survived by daughter Cathy McNamara and son Tom Ward, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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by Beth Kassab | Mar 30, 2026 | County News, News, Police and Public Safety, Schools
New Law Could Require New Fines and Data Collection on Electric Bikes and Scooters
Lawmakers approved the measure earlier this month and it is awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature. Locals hope the changes are a first step toward better safety.
March 30, 2026
By Gabrielle Russon
Local officials concerned about electric bike and scooter crashes and near-misses in Winter Park said a new bill is moving in the right direction to improve safety.
The Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 382 this month. The bill is awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature in order to become a law and go into effect.
State lawmakers said the bill is necessary following a series of crashes across the state that killed young people.
“While nothing can undo the tragedies that brought us here, I believe some good will come out of this,” said state Rep. Yvette Benarroch, R-Marco Island, fighting back emotion on the House floor before the final vote on March 9. Benarroch had sponsored the House companion bill.
SB 382 would set in motion a statewide task force to create recommendations by Oct. 1 related to how to regulate “micromobility devices” like e-scooters and e-bikes that travel slower than cars but faster than pedal bikes. The task force would report back to DeSantis, Florida Senate President Ben Albritton and Florida House Speaker Danny Perez.
Orange County School Board Member Stephanie Vanos, who represents Winter Park in District 6, called the bill “a good first step” but added one concern is the task force is missing school leaders’ voice.
Vanos had urged lawmakers to pick an educator to join the task force since so many e-bike and e-scooter users are children to and from school.
“This is an issue really affecting the schools the most,” Vanos said.
But lawmakers ignored her request after she testified in Tallahassee during the 60-day legislative session.
The members of the task force will instead include representatives from the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Police Chiefs Association, Florida League of Cities, Florida Association of Counties, someone from the medical field with experience treating pedestrian injuries and a representative from an organization focused on rider safety.
Vanos said she hopes the task force recommends how to better educate young riders, which she called an essential element for improving safety.
Children currently are not required to go through rider safety training and don’t need any certification or permit to use an e-bike or e-scooter. Some as young as elementary or middle school are driving them.
One provision in SB 382 had been stripped out from the final bill version that would have required a valid learner’s drive license or driver license for anyone to ride a Class 3 e-bike, which goes up to 28 mph.
Orange school officials discussing that issue had raised concerns about how schools would know if student e-bike riders had the right credentials and also brought them to school every day, Vanos said.
Orange County government is scheduled to discuss e-bike safety at a May 19 work session and has been working with the school district, Vanos added.
Vanos also hopes the state task force tackles recommendations for making infrastructure improvements, like wider sidewalks so riders and walkers have more room to co-exist.
Under the bill, Winter Park Police Department would be required to start documenting e-bike and e-scooter crashes to help the state officials better understand the scope of the problem.
Currently, law enforcement agencies report the crashes differently, making it difficult to get uniform statistics statewide.
All local police departments and sheriff’s offices around the state, as well as the Florida Highway Patrol, would need to report each crash’s date, time, the micromobility device rider’s age, if he or she had a valid Florida learner’s driver license or regular license and more.
Vanos praised the bill for trying to collect more data.
“That’s a really good first place to start,” Vanos said. “What do the accidents look like? Where are they? What are the ages of the children? What time of day? … What type of micromobility device are we seeing the most accidents on? I do think that those are important things.”
Finally, the bill would also allow police to issue $30 nonmoving traffic violations if an e-bike goes faster than 10 mph on a shared path with pedestrians 50 feet away. E-bike users would also be required to yield to pedestrians and give an audible warning before passing them.
If the bill is signed into law, “it doesn’t change the way we police them, but it does change the fact that we can ticket them now,” said Winter Park High School Resource Officer Lindsey Ellison. “It gives us more enforcement which is something that we do need because there are unfortunately bad eggs out there that choose to not abide by the law. This gives us more ammunition to give them consequences.”
Ellison said the fines put more pressure on parents to be vigilant that their children obey the law.
At his job, Ellison looks for rule breakers and is known for keeping a snack stash to pass out to hungry teens. Regularly, he reminds students to wear their helmets and slow down. Usually every week, he gets a complaint about an e-bike or e-scooter from a pedestrian who said one zoomed past her on the sidewalk or a teacher driving to school who was cut off by one.
The problems mounted as e-bikes and e-scooters have skyrocketed in popularity in the past few years.
If 200 Winter Park High students ride bikes and scooters to school, about 90 of them are electric, Ellison estimated. Ellison added they are owned by students, so the devices are not the kind you can rent around town.
“The reason they want to pass bills like this is to keep people safe. It isn’t to add more regulations and more red tape for you not to buy these e-bikes,” Ellison said of SB 382. “We want people to buy e-bikes, we want them to enjoy them. We just want them to do it as safely as possible.”
Vanos, Ellison and MetroPlan Senior Transportation Engineer Adriana Rodriguez spoke at a recent Winter Park community meeting to help parents better understand the rules, the dangers and the different types of micromobility devices.
MetroPlan is launching a pilot program this year to pay for online e-bike safety training for 500 students in Orange, Osceola and Seminole school districts. No Winter Park schools are currently involved, but Rodriguez said she hopes the pilot program will expand so more young people can participate and learn how to ride safely.
She added the public can also pay $34.95 to sign their children up for the same training through the American Bicycle Education Association.
AdventHealth Winter Park does not track the number of e-bike injuries, but one doctor said medical professionals are treating head injuries, upper extremity fractures and abrasions as the most common injuries from crashes “As an emergency medicine physician, I’ve seen firsthand how important helmets are,” said Dr. Mitchell Maulfair, the Winter Park hospital’s director of emergency services, in a statement. “As e-bikes have become more popular, it’s important to remember that they’re capable of higher speeds, which can increase the risk of injury if riders aren’t taking proper precautions.”
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