by Beth Kassab | Sep 11, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, News, Uncategorized
Electric rates go up, but bills still expected to go down
Commissioners approved a $231 million budget, prayed for Charlie Kirk and argued about whether Christmas needs saving
Sept. 11, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Commissioners approved Winter Park’s $231 million budget for 2026 on Wednesday, including a last-minute push led by Mayor Sheila DeCiccio to increase the non-fuel portion of electric rates that officials say will help the city finish the final stretch of it’s undergrounding project and replace aging transformers.
The wide-ranging meeting also included a prayer for Charlie Kirk in the moments before news alerts started hitting phones that the right-wing activist was dead, a performance by renowned violinist Alvaro Gomez and guitarist Chris Cortez and a tense exchange over a petition riddled with inaccuracies and misleading statements attempting to manufacture a war on Christmas in Winter Park.
The budget passed with little public discussion other than a final debate over electric rates, which had been adjusted dramatically from city staff’s original proposal of a 10% overall increase to a 2% increase in August based on discussion by elected officials during a commission workshop.
Ultimately, on Wednesday the board landed on a 4% overall increase after DeCiccio argued the figures from the August meeting would not be enough to finish the city’s ambitious effort to underground every power line in Winter Park.
Over the 20 years since Winter Park purchased its electric grid from Duke Energy (then Progress Energy) costs have increased significantly. About 20% of the city remains with overhead wires that are more susceptible to storm damage.
“I want to again ask for an increase of 7.5% on the non-fuel costs,” DeCiccio said. “By increasing only 3% we will have to stop undergrounding eight or nine months into the year and we won’t be complete by 2030.”
She also emphasized the need to spend millions of dollars to replace substation equipment or “the grid will fail.”
Commissioners had considered a smaller increase in rates while also taking out a bond to finance the remaining cost of the projects.
But DeCiccio argued the city should save its bonding capacity for when its agreement with Orlando Utilities Commission comes to an end and it might be able to “buy” the 600 residential customers inside Winter Park’s borders who are still serviced by OUC.
“This year the cost of fuel has decreased so the customers will not feel the impact of the rate increase, in fact, the bills may be less,” she said.
The dollar amount customers pay each month result from a complex formula of different components on the bill: how much energy a home or businesses uses; the cost of fuel (mostly natural gas in Winter Park); the city’s rates, taxes and other fees.
According to figures provided by the city on Thursday, the average residential bill for 1,300 kilowatt hours will total $171.18 in October when the new rates take effect. The average bill in August was $184.51. The decrease in the total from August to October is the result of lower fuel costs even as the city raises electric rates.
Commissioner Craig Russell supported DeCiccio’s drive for the change, he said, based on what he is hearing from residents.
“You have a contingency talking about how they don’t want rates increased, some people are talking about how they don’t want to take on any debt and they want the undergrounding done on schedule,” Russell said. “At the end of the day … it sounds like that’s what the residents want the most — the undergrounding completed.”
Commissioners Marty Sullivan and Warren Lindsey remained against the higher increase in the non-fuel portion of the bill as they had during the August workshop. They noted that the price of natural gas is volatile and could drive bills up once again.
“I’m not opposed to revisiting it in the future,” Lindsey said, noting that a rate study would soon be underway along with an analysis by the Utilities Advisory Board.
But Kris Cruzada, who was the swing voice in the August meeting for the lower rate, said he had rethought the matter and voted with DeCiccio and Russell.
The increase, he said, translated to “a small price to pay to keep the [undergrounding] ball moving.”
“We can revisit it if fuel goes up,” he said. “I just want to be ahead of the curve and this leaves us with the ability to do more things so we’re not having to play catch up.”
Inaccurate Christmas Petition
Gigi Papa, who started a petition this week claiming that Winter Park’s decades-long Christmas traditions are at risk, took to the podium during public comment to thank the more than 700 people who have signed the petition.
Papa, a frequent attendee and commenter at the public meetings who often voices conservative views, did not acknowledge that multiple statements in her petition are misleading or inaccurate. The petition titled “Save Christmas in Winter Park” appeared designed to appeal to a common right-wing talking point that liberals want to somehow shut down public use of the word “Christmas.”
“We ask that our 70 plus years of traditions continue,” Papa told the commission.
But none of Winter Park’s traditions are under threat. The city asked for the Park Avenue District, which took over coordination of the city’s main holiday decor last year, to change the name it debuted last year as the backdrop for a series of events from “Christmas on Park” to “Holidays on Park.”
Before last year, the overarching name for the decor and series of events was “Hometown Holidays.” The word “Christmas” is not being removed from any of the line-up of events such as “Christmas in the Park,” “Tuba Christmas” and “The Christmas Parade.”
The line-up also includes an event for Hanukkah and recognition of Kwanzaa. The city provides funding for the decor and asked for the more general “holiday” title out of respect for the entire line-up of events during the light display that runs from just before Thanksgiving through New Year’s.
“The petition was fraught with inaccurate information,” DeCiccio responded. “We are not departing from tradition as the petition implies … Virginia, don’t worry, Christmas is alive and well in Winter Park.”
Prayers for Charlie Kirk
After Papa talked about her petition, she asked for Pastor Weaver Blondin to join her at the podium. Blondin, of Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, was in the audience after he had given the invocation at the start of the meeting.
“I would ask the pastor to come up. We were just speaking because we had a 31-year-old person who has been advocating on college campuses and he was shot.”
Word had just started to spread about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA that played a significant role in rallying college-age students for President Donald Trump, as he was speaking at Utah Valley University.
Blondin approached the podium and asked DeCiccio if he could say a prayer.
“Yes, please do,” she responded.
The pastor offered a prayer for Kirk’s healing, his family and for young people on college campuses.
A short time later, major news outlets began reporting Kirk died, the latest victim of political assassination in the United States following two attempts on Trump’s life; the murder in June of Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota, and her husband and the attempt on the life of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, also a Democrat, in 2011 that took the lives of six people.
Winter Park will answer 911 for Maitland
Commissioners also approved an agreement with the city of Maitland for Winter Park dispatchers to answer calls and dispatch police and fire service for its neighboring city.
Police Chief Tim Volkerson said the agreement makes logistical sense because the agencies already work closely together and provide backup for each other.
“It really allows that turnaround time of information to be cut down significantly,” he said, noting that currently Maitland is using Apopka for dispatch service.
Maitland will pay Winter Park about $440,000 a year for the service as part of a 10-year agreement.
Blue Bamboo Performance
As part of a new effort to showcase artists in the city, Blue Bamboo founder Chris Cortez and violinist Alvaro Gomez, who has been affiliated with Rollins College, treated the commission chambers to a mini performance at the start of the meeting.
The series, which started with a vocal performance by Maria Bryant last month, is intended to display some of Winter Park’s art and cultural assets.
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by Beth Kassab | Sep 10, 2025 | City Commission, Election, News, Uncategorized
Craig Russell to Seek Re-Election. Marty Sullivan to Retire, Leaving his Seat Open
The March 2026 election is gearing up to decide two seats on the Winter Park City Commission
Sept. 10, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Commissioner Craig Russell, a Winter Park High School teacher and coach, said he will seek re-election next year while another commissioner is retiring after two terms.
Official qualifying for the March 2026 election is still about three months away, but jockeying for the two seats is well underway.
Russell, who grew up in Winter Park, won Seat 2 in a tight runoff in April of 2024 to finish Sheila DeCiccio’s term when she became mayor.
He made history in Winter Park as the first Black commissioner to be elected in more than a century and, now at age 44, is still the youngest person on the commission today.
Russell has blazed a trail in another way, too. He was heavily backed by business leaders and the political action committee affiliated with the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, but has steadily defined himself as a policy maker who is carving his own agenda with unpredictable votes when it comes to budget and policy issues.
Craig Russell
Winter PAC spent about $30,000 to advocate for him in 2024 and he raised about $100,000 through his own campaign account.
“I don’t just work for one group,” he said. “I work for the residents and the businesses. I work for the entire community.”
Part of what he does, he says, is reach out to “the doubters and talk to them.”
For example, he said he heard “a lot of feedback” after he was one of two votes this summer, along with Commissioner Marty Sullivan, against keeping the city’s property tax millage rate the same. The two men voiced support for a property tax increase.
“I’ve listened to the people and I felt as though investing in the future would benefit the city best,” he said. “I got a lot of feedback and it was mixed, they were kind of surprised and wanted to know, ‘what’s your mindset?’ And I told them and they respected and understood that.”
In another recent discussion, Russell and DeCiccio were two voices who expressed support for a larger increase to electric rates this year to raise capital for infrastructure projects such as undergrounding and equipment replacement. But they were outweighed by the three other commissioners who wanted a smaller increase.
Marty Sullivan
Russell has also spent considerable time advocating for youth on the commission. He helped re-establish a Youth Advisory Council that includes students from Winter Park High, Trinity Preparatory and others.
The group is beginning to meet in the City Commission Chambers and, eventually, will provide reports to the commission on issues that are important to them such as sustainability.
It’s a chance, he said, for students to learn how local government works and also make an impact on decisions.
“They understand the decisions that are made now affect them,” Russell said. “It’s super important to them to understand how that process works.”
Russell is also outspoken on safety and, potentially setting standards, for micro-mobility because he sees electric scooters and bikes, and a fair share of accidents, as students come and go from school. Some of those can move as fast as a car but with kids not old enough to drive in control.
“I’ve seen the broken arms … the road rash,” he said. “The trends are now trickling down to the e-scooters are at the elementary and middle schools and at high school we have the new drivers and the electric bikes — they aren’t bicycles and they aren’t motorcycles they are in between.”
Last year he worked with the police department on a series of educational safety videos and more are in the works this year.
As for his campaign, he said he hopes to continue to broaden his support from 2024.
“I hope to have more support from everybody,” Russell said. “I hope to have support from previous supporters and I hope to have new supporters.”
A spokeswoman for Winter PAC, which supported him last time around, declined to comment on who its leaders will support for either seat in 2026.
Sullivan, a geotechnical engineer who sits in Seat 1, said two terms on the commission have allowed him to accomplish a great deal and won’t seek re-election.
“Six years is enough I believe for doing what I can do for the city,” he said.
He pointed to the expansion of the Community Redevelopment District, which will allow the city to set guideposts for new development near Interstate 4, as one accomplishment.
He is also pleased that there is a new use in the old library building as The Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts has brought a burgeoning music scene there.
He said he was pleasantly surprised to find several commonalities in policy mindset with Russell such as the vote to allow Blue Bamboo and even the idea of a potential tax increase.
“My concern was never to be re-elected,” Sullivan said. “My concern is to do what’s right and if the citizens disagree with me I would have been fine with losing. And I think [Russell] takes that same approach because he has not adhered to the way of thinking that his supporters thought he would, I don’t believe.”
Only one candidate has officially filed paperwork to open a campaign account so far, according to the city clerk’s office.
Elizabeth Ingram, 38, grew up in Winter Park and is a long time resident and community leader. The trained opera singer currently serves on the Public Art Advisory Board is and seeking Sullivan’s seat.
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by Beth Kassab | Sep 9, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Events, News, Uncategorized
Save Christmas? Petition is misleading
City officials asked the Park Avenue District to brand the season of events as “holiday,” but Christmas is not disappearing from the names of the individual events
Sept. 9, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Hold your reindeer, Winter Park. Before you get fired up about the Change.Org petition to “Save Christmas in Winter Park,” let’s take a look at the facts.
The petition, which had 570 signatures by Tuesday afternoon in the city of 30,000 people, makes several allegations, asserting that 70 years of Christmas event traditions are “at risk.”
“In recent planning, the city has agreed to fund holiday lighting only if the word “Christmas” is removed,” the petition states. “As a result, Central Park’s Christmas Tree is now called a ‘Holiday Tree,’ and the annual tree lighting event has been rebranded as ‘Winter on the Avenue,’ intentionally avoiding any mention of Christmas.”
But those statements are misleading and, in some parts, false.
The city is, in fact, asking for the overall name of the events season to change. But no changes are being requested for the titles of the half dozen main events that make up the season — and most of those use the word “Christmas.”
New lights in Central Park made up part of the city’s display in 2024.
Gigi Papa, a Winter Park resident who frequently attends and speaks at City Commission meetings, is listed on the change.org page as the “petition starter.” Papa did not immediately respond to an email and text message seeking comment about the petition’s statements.
Here’s what happened and why the city requested the change:
In 2024, the Park Avenue District, a relatively new group of merchants, businesses and residents who aim to support the central retail hub, took over coordination of the city’s annual light display and decor.
With about $100,000 from the city government and matching dollars from private donors, the group added more lights, an Instagram-worthy walk-through light cathedral in Central Park, a children’s carousel in front of City Hall and new wreaths and other festive touches.
For years, the city used the name “Hometown Holidays,” to advertise its season of events that run from mid-November, when the display goes up, through New Year’s.
The Park Avenue District changed the name to “Christmas on Park” last year.
City spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said Mayor Sheila DeCiccio heard some complaints about the entire season of events being branded as “Christmas” after it had been branded as “Hometown Holidays” for so long. So the city, which is providing about $60,000 for the decor this year, requested the name be changed to “Holidays on Park.”
“We are not breaking tradition,” Howard said. “It’s a season, it’s not one event. We called the season Hometown Holidays because there are holidays other than Christmas happening downtown.”
In 2021, the city added to Central Park a menorah for Hanukkah and a kinara for Kwanzaa.
A menorah is part of the annual lights display in Central Park.
Carina Sexton, executive director of the Park Avenue District, said she expects the name will change based on the city’s request.
“Regardless of the name, we feel confident that the magic of the season will remain the same and we are thrilled to welcome our community and visitors alike back to the Park Avenue District to celebrate with us,” she said.
Individual long-standing city events with the name Christmas aren’t changing and no one from the city has asked for them to be changed, Howard said. Sexton confirmed she has not received any other requests for changes.
Those events include:
“Christmas in the Park” on Dec. 4 is the annual evening that features a display of lighted Tiffany glass windows from the Morse Museum and Christmas music from the Bach Festival Society and a brass ensemble.
“The Christmas Parade” will be on Dec. 6, which is sponsored by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.
And “Tuba Christmas,” another musical event, will take place on Dec. 20 this year.
The name “Winter on the Avenue,” another event lead by the chamber, has been used for years and is not part of a rebrand as the petition alleges.
That will take place on Dec. 5 this year and is described on the Chamber website: “Begin the evening at the Annual Holiday Tree Lighting in Central Park just east of the Winter Park train station. Winners of the Holiday Art Competition will be recognized, Rabbi Dovid Dubov of Chabad Orlando will do a menorah lighting ceremony ushering in the season of Chanukah, and Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio will lead us in a countdown as we light the Christmas Tree.”
The petition demands the city “return to using the name Christmas Tree instead of Holiday Tree,” even though the chamber’s description explicitly refers to the mayor leading the lighting of the “Christmas Tree.”
“The city does not call it a ‘holiday tree,'” Howard said.
In holiday press releases dating back to 2005, the ceremony has always been referred to simply as the “annual tree-lighting” without the word Christmas. Though Christmas was, and still is, included in many of the event names throughout the seasonal lineup.
“We can’t return to doing something that we haven’t done,” Howard said. “There is no tradition at risk. All of our events are still happening.”
In a press release in August about the light display that will go up Nov. 13, the city noted the season of events and decor brought in about 350,000 people last year, about 7% higher than the previous year.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the wrong year the city added a menorah and kinara to Central Park, due to incorrect information provided to the Voice. The year was 2021.
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by Beth Kassab | Sep 2, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News
Winter Park D-Day veteran, 103, to get Gold Medal for Army Ranger service
John Raaen, a resident of the Mayflower, joins a list of recipients of a Congressional medal first given to George Washington
Sept. 2, 2025
By Stephen Hudak
This story is part of the News Collaborative of Central Florida, a group of 10 local news outlets working towards a more informed and engaged region. It was originally published by the Orlando Sentinel.
Medals didn’t matter on D-Day to soldiers like John Carpenter Raaen, Jr.
“Never occurred to me,” said Raaen, now 103, a Winter Park resident and the only surviving Army Ranger who stormed Omaha Beach in France on June, 6, 1944, in a pivotal battle often regarded as the beginning of the end of World War II. “As a matter of fact, medals didn’t mean a lot to any of us.”
He and thousands of Allied troops who faced fortified German artillery fire hoped just to survive the firefight.
“We didn’t think many of us would be alive June 7,” he said.
About 4,400 Allied troops died in the battle, including 2,500 Americans.
Raaen, whose name is pronounce “ron,” moved to Central Florida after retiring in 1979 at the rank of major general. Among the many recognitions he earned during his 36 years of service was a Silver Star for valor in combat on D-Day when he was 22.
Now he is about to receive another prestigious honor: a Congressional Gold Medal.
The award, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is intended to serve as a lasting symbol of the nation’s gratitude, recognizing the U.S. Army Rangers of World War II for their unwavering, extraordinary bravery and critical contributions in key battles in the war.
Raaen’s vivid D-Day memories, recalling the perils his Rangers faced, are memorialized in interviews posted on Youtube by the World War II Veterans History Project and the American Veterans Center. He has said the grim opening of the World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan,” which recreates the Allies’ bloody landing on Omaha Beach, “offers a little hint of what it was like.”
“It was just plain out and out hell,” he said.
Oil, steel, rubber and human flesh were all ablaze.
Dead and dying soldiers were scattered on the beach like seashells.
“The machine gun firing, the rifle firing went over our heads like a bunch of bees,” he said in the History Project interview. “I’m talking thousands and thousands of small arms rounds every minute, passing over your head and occasionally hitting somebody next to you.”
His military career seemed inevitable. The son of an Army officer, Raaen was born at Fort Benning, Georgia.
He was raised on army posts and graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in January 1943.
Nicknamed “Red,” for his once red hair, Raaen authored his own first-hand account of the D-Day invasion, “INTACT,” which relied on his personal letters, official war documents and sharp memory to tell the story of the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion as they helped establish a foothold for Allied troops and supplies to roll onto Berlin.
He provided oral histories for the BBC documentary series “D-Day: The Last Heroes” and for the Smithsonian Channel. He has been interviewed by more than two dozen war historians, who cite him in books and papers. Among those historians are presidential biographer Stephen E. Ambrose, author of the World War II best-seller “Band of Brothers.”
Raaen was involved in the development of anti-tank projectiles, armor-piercing small arms ammunition, artillery nuclear warheads and arming devices, according to his biography in the U.S. Army Ordnance Hall of Fame to which he was inducted in 2009.
A friend, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Buck Leahy, listened with rapt attention last week when Raaen was interviewed again.
“I think over the course of my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to know a very small number of men who are genuine heroes,” Leahy said. “To a man, they are humble, unassuming, modest people, and John is…absolutely emblematic of that.”
Raaen could not attend the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington in June where he and the other four surviving Army Rangers from 6,500 who served in World War II were feted.
He will formally receive his medal this month at a ceremony at The Mayflower in Winter Park, the retirement community where he lives.
David Lyle Williams, president of the Descendants of World War II Rangers, read a note at the Washington ceremony from Raaen accepting the medal on behalf of all Rangers including the many who died in service to their country. Most who volunteered for the dangerous duty as a Ranger often said they wanted action and they got it, he said.
The regiment’s motto, minted on the gold medal, is “Rangers Lead the Way!”
“Many volunteered. Few were chosen,” Willliams said. “One man was rejected because he had false teeth.”
Williams said the soldier appealed, telling the colonel, “I don’t want to eat the Germans. I want to kill them.”
The appeal was persuasive. He became a Ranger.
The Congressional Gold Medal is a recognition of distinguished achievement and service.
The first recipient was George Washington in 1776, honored for his “wise and spirited conduct” in the American Revolution.
Originally conceived to honor the new nation’s military heroes, the award was created by Congress then expanded to recognize a diverse group of honorees and achievements in arts, music or sports; pioneering work in aeronautics and space, medicine and science.
The medal has been awarded to Civil Rights icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
Some are obscure like Michigan boat-builder John Horn, Jr. , honored in 1874 for reportedly rescuing more than 100 people from drowning over an 11-year span, many of whom had fallen into the Detroit River getting on or off ferryboats. Others are world renowned — golfer/philanthropist Arnold Palmer, singer Frank Sinatra and Catholic saint Mother Teresa.
Others recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal include:
- Aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, recognized in 1909 for demonstrating to the world the potential of aerial navigation.
- Scientist/inventor Thomas A. Edison, recognized in 1928 for development of “inventions that have revolutionized civilization.”
- Dr. Jonas E. Salk, honored in 1955 “for discovering a serum for the prevention of polio.”
- Filmmaker and businessman Walt Disney, recognized in 1968 for “outstanding contributions to the United States and the world.”
- Baseball player Roberto Clemente, honored in 1973 for “outstanding athletic, civil, charitable, and humanitarian contributions.” He perished in a plane crash in 1972 on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to the earthquake-ravaged nation of Nicaragua.
- Religious leaders Ruth and Billy Graham, honored in 1996 for “outstanding and enduring contributions toward faith, morality, and charity.”
- The U.S. Capitol Police, recognized in August 2021, for protecting the U.S. on January 6, 2021 against a mob of insurrectionists.
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by Beth Kassab | Aug 29, 2025 | City Commission, News
Proposed 10% electric rate increase dies
City staff concedes an outside analysis did not justify the increase and City Commissioners appear poised to approve a 2% jump in power prices
Aug. 29, 2025
By Beth Kassab
After a contentious back-and-forth in recent weeks between City Hall staff and members of the Utilities Advisory Board, the City Commission appears poised to reject staff’s original budget proposal to increase electric rates by 10% overall (or 15% on the non-fuel portion of the bill) to cover the cost of undergrounding power lines and other work such as upgrading substations, meters and street lights.
At a City Commission workshop on Thursday three out of five commissioners said they would support a much lower roughly 2% increase (or 3% increase in non-fuel costs) on residents and business owners’ electric bills as well as pursue issuing bonds to cover a portion of the expenses.
Commissioner Kris Cruzada appeared to be the swing vote after Commissioners Warren Lindsey and Marty Sullivan advocated for the 3% increase while Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and Commissioner Craig Russell said they would support a 7% increase in order to raise more revenue sooner and help cover other demands in the budget.
“I’m leaning toward the more conservative number because we don’t know what the new power contracts will be,” Cruzada said, referencing the agreements Winter Park has in place with the Orlando Utilities Commission and the Florida Municipal Power Association that will be up for renegotiation in just a few years. Winter Park doesn’t generate its own power, but buys power from those providers and sells it to its 15,000 customers.
Staff has warned that the current contracts are highly favorable and rates are expected to climb when the new deals are signed.
No formal votes are taken at commission workshops, but if positions remain the same the lower rate increase is likely to be voted on as part of the first budget approval on Sept. 10.
The proposal to increase customers’ electric rates starting in October is largely driven by the city’s plan to finish burying the remaining 20% of overhead power lines by 2030, the target leaders announced three years ago when it moved the date back from 2026.
DeCiccio advocated for the 7% increase, more in line with one of the revised proposals from City Manager Randy Knight, who conceded an analysis by advisory board member Michael Poole showed the original proposal for a 10% jump in rates was unnecessary.
Knight conceded that the need could be lowered after Poole pointed out that the city is keeping a large inventory of transformers on hand after pandemic-time orders — once backlogged by supply chain issues — came in and stacked up. Factoring in those already-purchased supplies helped lower the cost of the undergrounding project.
So did another recommendation by Poole to hold back on a $400,000 segment of the project, which will eventually connect buried lines along the streets with buried lines to individual homes. That will now be done after all of the main lines are undergrounded.
Knight also agreed to wait to factor in non-undergrounding projects such as new meters or street lights until the Utilities Advisory Board can evaluate and prioritize each one.
A map from the city of Winter Park shows the status of segments of the undergrounding project.
The debate exposed not only the complicated nature of how electric rates are set, but also the difference in philosophies in how the city-owned utility should be managed and the extent to which it should help cover other expenses across the city.
Poole, an investment banker, said his analysis showed the original large rate increase proposal was “unwarranted” and said he was happy residents will save some $4 million collectively next year as a result of the changes.
“We need to have a really good discussion on the purpose and priority of the capital expenditures and how we spend money compared to other municipalities,” Poole said.
DeCiccio said she favored the 7% increase because Winter Park customers would still pay less than customers who are provided power by Duke Energy, the investor-owned utility that is one of the largest providers in Florida and serves nearly 2 million customers across five states.
“We would still be about 30% less than Duke Energy and we’re the second-most reliable in the state and it would allow us to purchase the transformers and have the margin we need in the general fund to balance the budget,” DeCiccio said.
Under the original budget proposal the electric fund would have funnelled $800,000 to the general fund, which pays for police, fire and other essential city services as well as projects selected by the City Commission.
The reduced rate increase means that amount will drop by more than $500,000.
DeCiccio said if Lindsey pushed the 3% increase then the $4.2 million worth of projects he had teed up to add to the budget would be “off the table.”
“If that has to happen, then that has to happen,” Lindsey responded, about the projects he wanted to discuss such as a new fire station on Lakemont Avenue, gateway arches for the Orwin Manor neighborhood and a study about the feasibility of connecting the Cady Way Trail with the West Orange Trail.
Sullivan also had to let go of his hope to add $250,000 to the budget to match a private donation to make improvements to Howell Branch Preserve.
DeCiccio said adding that project would ultimately lower the contingency fund to $170,000, a figure she considered far too low.
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