Kris Cruzada and Justin Vermuth spar over budget to win votes for Commission Seat 3
Both men look to distinguish themselves ahead of the March 11 election
Feb. 7, 2025
By Beth Kassab
In the first candidate forums ahead of the March 11 election, Commissioner Kris Cruzada attempted to fend off a challenge from first-time candidate Justin Vermuth, who said the city needs to rein in spending and asserted “there’s plenty of pork” in the city’s budget, though he was light on specifics.
Cruzada, who was first elected in 2022, defended his record on the commission. He cited his contemplative approach to development such as working with residents on the west side to achieve a more palatable design for a new rental complex to be built near Winter Park Village as well as the city’s low electric utility rates, investment in the arts, improved parks and Winter Park’s solid financial position.
“I disagree with Justin’s opinion about our finances … they’re good,” Cruzada said. “We have $21 million in reserves, we have a balanced budget and we will continue to do so … we are succeeding.”
In back-to-back debates at the Winter Park Library on Thursday evening and at the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce on Friday morning, Vermuth mentioned at least three times that he’s “read all 267 pages” of the city’s budget.
“There’s plenty of pork in there that we can cut without impacting city services without impacting residents whatsoever,” he said, though each time he brought it up, he stopped short of detailing what or how he would cut spending or explain what he considered to be “pork.”
After the library forum put on by high school students through the new Winter Park Youth Council, the Voice asked Vermuth for specific examples.
He said he does not agree with the current City Commission’s decision to pay $3.8 million to buy land to help the nonprofit Winter Park Playhouse and generally did not agree with the city using public funds to acquire property.
An $8 million grant from Orange County is actually covering the cost of the Playhouse purchase and renovation along with $2 million to be privately raised by the professional theater, which will operate the venue.
Cruzada highlighted investment in the arts as essential to the city’s identity, recalling how he watched his own daughter grow in confidence after participating in a music program at Rollins College.
“I think for every one dollar we spend on arts we get a 10-fold return,” he said, noting another county TDT grant will also help build a new Rollins museum.
Vermuth signaled a willingness to cut back on arts spending.
“From a fiscal standpoint, we need to look at the arts programs holistically and see which ones make sense,” he said. “We need to lift up the arts community, absolutely, but we also need to do what’s right. We have a fiscal responsibility and we need to evaluate each of those programs as a group and individually to see which ones make sense to support in our community.”
The city provided $2.3 million last year in direct support to groups like Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, which is now leasing the old library, United Arts, the Winter Park Historical Association, the Polasek Museum and the library, which took the bulk of the funding.
Vermuth also said he is against the $4 million purchase of the land and buildings rented by Michelin-starred Soseki and Austin’s Coffee to make way for road, park and stormwater improvements. The acre on the corner of Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive has long been part of the city’s strategic plan and the commission voted unanimously in the fall to move forward on the purchase.
The businesses that rent space on the property have been outspoken about their investments in the buildings and their desire to stay put. The city has said it will honor the current multi-year leases.
“This isn’t a ‘Make Winter Park Great Again’ campaign … everyone knows Winter Park is great,” Vermuth said. “This is a ‘We can do better campaign’ … we can do better with the budget, with the way we treat our residents, the way we engage our community and bring the city government to them.”
The city budget totals more than $214 million, with growth in revenue driven by climbing property values that are expected to level off in coming years. Police, fire and public works take up more than half of the $83 million general fund.
At both forums, Vermuth cited the 10-year pro-forma in the budget document as evidence that Winter Park is heading in the wrong direction and that its reserve fund will dwindle from just under 27% of expenditures today to about 5% by 2033.
But a city spokeswoman explained the pro forma is intended as an exercise in looking ahead at hypothetical variables and what could happen if the commission didn’t make adjustments each year.
“A pro-forma shows what would happen if no management intervention happens from year to year,” she said. “But management intervention happens every year. The City Manager gives the Commission a balanced budget every year. The City Commission weighs the wants and needs for city services and capital spending against the resources available and adopts a balanced budget, usually without drawing down on any reserves. Part of managing any business is to look ahead so there are less surprises and so you can head off bad outcomes early. That is what these pro-formas help us do. They are not like audits, that are looking at actual numbers, and they certainly are not prescriptive that this is what we are going to do. They are planning tools to help guide the future so we can address negative trends early.”
After a series of devastating hurricanes in 2004, the city’s reserve fund hit about 6% and the commissioners at the time set a goal to bring the fund back up to 30%.
Since then, the reserve fund has grown, reaching the 30% mark in 2020. But the percentage slipped in recent years to 26.6% because of soaring expenses caused by inflation, according to the budget document. The actual dollar balance of the reserve fund today is higher than ever at $21 million.
“Only eight years ago, reserves stood at $8 million, a significant improvement given the pandemic occurrence just a couple years ago,” the document says.
In a recent public message to residents, Commissioner Marty Sullivan called for a property tax increase of .6 mills to generate an extra $5 million a year.
Both Cruzada and Vermuth said they opposed such a plan. The city hasn’t increased the rate at which property owners pay taxes since 2008.
The candidates also agreed on the referendum that will appear with their names on the March 11 ballot. Both said they would vote to repeal the city’s ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
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These candidates offer two very different visions on the role of city government.
My neighbors and I around the Winter Pines Golf Course deeply appreciate that the City Commission decided to purchase and operate the Course several years ago. This decision preserved our community’s quality of life plus protected essential green space. And there’s more. The Winter Park 18 is a fiscally sustainable operation that continues to provide recreational benefits for both residents and visitors.
Using the rationale of Justin Vermuth, the City would not have purchased the Golf Course property.
I know there’s a lot of mention of not utilizing “pork” in the forum, but to me, it’s good governance to actually spend money. A balanced budget should entail that you’re not in the negative, but that you’re also spending a possible surplus. It’s not a bad thing to spend, the bad thing is *overspending*!
I’m just a little confused. What’s the purpose of a surplus if we’re not spending it to help the municipality and its residents? Just to look good?
My understanding is that a reserve of at least 10% or so is considered good practice and looked upon favorably by the ratings agencies etc. which is important when a local government needs to borrow funds at a good rate. The reserves are also important in the event of worse than expected storm damage, flooding etc. or any other emergencies that come up. The CPAs and financial folks can probably add more but this is what I’ve learned from covering a variety of local governments for a few decades.
Well, both are opposed to the ridiculous ban on gas leaf blowers. That’s a good start. Common sense says a yard crew that runs a mower, edger, weed eater and trimmer for 15 minutes in a small yard are not harming anyone’s peace and quiet by finishing up with a few minutes of blowing.
City finances are fat and can easily be cut by getting rid of the “buy anything” mentality. A free Progress Point park became a $5.25 million over budget turkey that sits on a road with 15,000 cars a day whizzing by. Fairbanks and Denning widening is mystifying: Why spend over $6,000,000 to make commuting easier for Seminole County cut-through traffic? WP Playhouse and WP Library lease are more actions that seem geared toward niche constituencies that have an outsized influence.
Let’s be honest. The recent city commissions, up to Craig Russell’s election, have been representatives from the same political group. We need representatives who consider all residents and not just a few.
It seems our budget is fine and our city regulations are fine and everything in the city is fine. I find it a bit pretentious that someone would go through a budget and just start cutting things they thought were wasteful. Did they check with population who might actually want that stuff?
The excess spending needs to stop or change. Instead of more parks, and more trees on Morse Blvd. The city should take care of current parks, clean up unmanaged right-of-way on streets where many homes have let overgrowth occur (several on Palmer Ave). Restore traffic flow to 2 westbound lanes on Webster at Denning, etc. Keep our downtown post office as an important hometown service. Etc.