Campaign 2016

Two Commission Seats and $30 Million Riding on Your Vote

March has rolled around, and once again Winter Park finds herself a little scuffed and scraped around the edges, sporting a few bruises — but the suspense is nearly at an end. Fewer than two weeks remain until Election Day.

Candidate Platforms and Profiles

Since the winter holidays, candidates have sent email blasts and snail mailers. Phones ring at dinner time. Everyone seems to have a campaign website.

Based on this material, we’ve tried to distill the information to show in brief who the candidates are, what they stand for and what each one has to offer our city.

Library Referendum

Besides choosing two Commissioners, we must decide whether or not to float $30 Million in municipal bonds for the purpose of building a new library-events center-parking lot. Basically, this comes down to a yes-or-no vote.

Want to float the bonds? Vote For.  Don’t want to float the bonds? Vote Against.

Campaign Promises

This information is based on communications Candidates Cooper, Macejewski and McMacken sent to the Voice at the beginning of the election cycle. The Voice did not receive a platform from Mr. Weldon, so took the platform from his campaign website.

Carolyn Cooper

Lambrine Macejewski

Increase police presence in neighborhoods  Build affordable housing for police officers.
Expedite replanting of oak tree canopy
Use advanced technology to manage traffic congestion
Manage growth to achieve excellence and maintain our community character Protect Winter Park’s unique character, greatest assets and quality of life.
Protect and expand our open space Expand ethics reform by placing restrictions on city commissioners, vendors and applicants*
Keep taxes low & maintain a healthy operating reserve Insist on responsible budgeting and root out frivolous and irresponsible spending
Continue to regularly communicate with residents through my “Cooper’s Perspective Newsletter” Ensure all citizens’ voices are given the opportunity to be heard before decisions are made.

*Taken from a Macejewski flyer.

 

Tom McMacken

Peter Weldon

Maintain police and fire service Maintain the most effective police and fire departments
Protect home values and Winter Park’s historic neighborhoods. (Voted in favor of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.) “Embrace true and voluntary historic preservation, assuring YOU have the choice to participate in districts.” (Seeks to overturn Historic Preservation Ordinance, per his comment before the Commission.)
Maintain our solid financial standing Insist upon disciplined, professional city budgeting, operations and fiscal management
Continue to invest in maintaining and enhancing our oak tree canopy Replenish and manage street trees in every neighborhood
Encourage investment in compatible re-development Prevent out-of-scale development
Support a more sustainable and pedestrian-friendly city Support equal service levels across all neighborhoods
Complete city-wide electric undergrounding Stay the course to complete city-wide electric undergrounding

 

Candidate Profiles

 

Candidates for Commission Seat #3

 

Commissioner Carolyn Cooper

Carolyn and Ned Cooper have lived in Winter Park for over 20 years and raised 3 of their 5 children here. Carolyn was elected to the City Commission in 2010 and re-elected in 2013.

Through her service on the Florida League of Cities (FLC) Tri-County Board of Directors, Carolyn advocates in Tallahassee on behalf of Florida’s 400+ cities.  She understands first hand that many of Winter Park’s challenges can be resolved by building coalitions at the state level.  The FLC named Carolyn the 2015 FLC Home Rule Hero for her advocacy during the 2015 legislative session.

Carolyn has a strong background in finance and budgeting.  She has a Masters in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, worked as a Department of Defense Financial Manager and has professional training in Florida municipal budgeting.  She has drawn on this background to build city reserves and maintain services while never voting to raise taxes.

Carolyn honed her management skills as a member of the Space Shuttle Ground Support negotiating team and later as Director of Contracts for Martin Marietta Data Systems.  This experience, coupled with her understanding of land use gained from her service on the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Comprehensive Plan Task Force, positions her to effectively represent citizens’ interests as the City considers how best to grow into the future.

Winter Park Magazine named Carolyn one of Winter Park’s 25 most influential people in 2015 noting,  “. . .nobody controls Carolyn … she only cares about the citizens of Winter Park.”

Candidate Lambrine Macejewski

Most people know Lambrine Macejewski (Lam-bree-knee Muh-chess-ski) as one of the co-owners of Cocina 214, the award-winning Tex-Mex restaurant just off Park Avenue.

As a citizen volunteer, Lambrine has participated in the Park Avenue Merchants Association (PAMA), serving one term as president and currently as vice president. The other city and community boards on which she serves include Keep Winter Park Beautiful and Sustainable, the Winter Park History Museum and the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. Lambrine founded the “Running of the Chihuahuas” to benefit Winter Park Lost Pets, and she is a Girl Scout Troop Co-Leader.

In 2015, Winter Park Magazine named Lambrine “The Entrepreneur,” one of the Winter Park’s 25 Most Influential People.

Lambrine grew up in Dallas, Texas, where her father was co-owner and chef of 4 restaurants. She was raised in their family business and worked part-time throughout high school and college.

She graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a B.B.A. in accounting and went on to work for Electronic Data Systems (EDS). She then worked for Level 3 Communications, 360networks and finally left to start her own consulting firm, which specialized in performance management, business process improvement and integrations.

With the inception of Cocina 214, Lambrine was able to go back to her roots in the restaurant business. She lives in Winter Park with her husband Ronnie, daughter Rachel and their family pet Oliver.

 

Candidates for Commission Seat #4

 

Commissioner Tom McMacken

Tom McMacken brings over 30 years of experience as a landscape architect, creating parks and communities, and six years of service as City Commissioner.

McMacken is running for a third term on the Winter Park City Commission. Known for frequently casting the swing vote, McMacken listens to citizens and strives to hear all sides of an issue before reaching a decision.

In 2014, Tom was named Winter Park Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year. He remains a member of the Chamber, as well as American Society of Landscape Architects, First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, the Orange County Community Action Board, the Friends of Casa Feliz, and the Winter Park History Museum.

He participated in planning the Park Avenue streetscape, the Winter Park Village and The Park at Orwin Manor.

McMacken has served on a City board or commission since 1998. Before becoming a City Commissioner, he chaired each of the four boards on which he served for at least one term, including the Planning & Zoning Commission.

In addition to Planning & Zoning, McMacken served on the Historic Preservation Commission, the Tree Preservation Board and the Public Art Advisory Board.

Tom, his wife, Ann, and their daughter, Emily, have lived in Winter Park for nearly three decades.

Candidate Peter Weldon

Peter and Fran Weldon have lived in Winter Park since 1989. Their children were born at Winter Park Memorial Hospital and raised in Winter Park.

Peter Weldon earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Miami in 1971 and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University in 1974.

After careers for both Weldons at Johnson & Johnson, they relocated to Winter Park when Peter was recruited to run a venture capital backed startup. After leaving the startup he became a Chartered Financial Analyst and investment advisor. He retired in 2013.

The Weldons have been actively involved in the community for 25 years. Fran has been neighborhood watch coordinator. They have supported many civic organizations, including the Winter Park Library, Live Oak Fund, Polasek Museum Capen House restoration, Feed the Need Winter Park and Art in the Park. Peter Weldon served on the United Way agency review panels and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Orlando Science Center.

Pete Weldon began writing www.WinterParkPerspective.org in 2008 to share views on decision making and political processes at city hall. His intent was to help make better decisions by putting policy arguments in context with relevant facts.

Pete Weldon has served on Winter Park city boards since 2008. Currently he serves on the Tree Preservation Board and the Planning and Zoning Board. His management and investment experience is grounded in a patient, long term view, based on careful study and prudent risk taking, in context with the facts. If elected, he would bring this same focus on long term value creation to his role on the City Commission.

 

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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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