Winter Park Candidates Stake Their Positions
by Geri Throne / February 11, 2022
As the March 8 city election nears, the candidates for Winter Park City Commission sometimes sound pretty similar. In their public debates and appearances, all four voice support for values most Winter Park voters hold dear: preserving the city’s unique character; valuing its green space; keeping a lid on taxes.
Similarities are especially evident in the Seat 3 race between entrepreneur Anjali Vaya and attorney Kris Cruzada. In the Seat 4 race, however, stark differences are the rule between incumbent Todd Weaver and challenger Elijah Noel.
SEAT 4 CONTRASTS
In recent forums and debates, Weaver, who is running for his second term, touted his record on issues such as green space and development and endorsed all six city charter amendments on the ballot. An aerospace and mechanical design engineer, he attended the University of Central Florida.
Noel, a 2020 Rollins College graduate with a degree in international business, sees little to like in the current commission. He accused the board of seeking more green space than the city needs and trying to concentrate power in the hands of a few. He asked for the votes of people “discontented with what the city commission is doing.”
A two-year resident of Winter Park, Noel manages a downtown Orlando lounge. He previously worked on the campaigns of former mayor Steve Leary and commissioner Sarah Sprinkel. “I’m running because I’ve noticed a lot of change in the mindset of the city commission, a change from forward thinking to a lot more stagnation,” he said.
Weaver, on the other hand, said he is proud of the current commission and its handling of pandemic-related economic challenges and development. In an effort to achieve unanimous votes, he said, the commission often negotiates during debate on decisions. “Everyone gives and takes a little bit. That was lacking when I first became commissioner.” Weaver has lived 25 years in his Lake Bell neighborhood, which was annexed into Winter Park in 2004.
SEAT 3 UNANIMITY
The two bring differing backgrounds and professional experience to the race, however. Cruzada has degrees and work experience in both accounting and law — skills he says would serve him well as a commissioner dealing with budgets, financial analyses, codes and statutes. He has a sole-practice law firm and also is a director in a family-owned land-management business. Cruzada spent his childhood in Winter Park and moved back in 2006. He serves on Orange County’s Development Advisory Board.
Vaya’s strength is in technology. After earning a master’s degree in healthcare administration and working in that field, she developed a furniture e-commerce website and then formed a technology consulting business in the Northeast. A native of Zambia, she became a U.S. citizen in 1999 and moved to Winter Park in 2007. She says her ownership of two technology businesses helps her understand the needs of small business and the importance of good communication. She is vice-president of the Indian American Chamber of Commerce and sits on the citizen advisory board to Winter Park’s Community Redevelopment Agency. She ran unsuccessfully for the Orange County Commission in 2020.
GREEN SPACE A BIG ISSUE
In debates, Noel has accused the city of wasting money turning the Progress Point lot on Orange Avenue into a park and buying the Winter Pines Golf Course when the money would be better used to fix roads and sidewalks. “We’re spending a lot of money on a lot of property we can’t afford to maintain.” Calling himself a “huge advocate for green space,” he said he would emphasize quality over quantity.
Weaver made no apologies for wanting to add more green space. “I want to keep the park in Winter Park.” The city has a budgeted schedule for repaving its hundreds of miles of roads and it already owned the Progress Point site, he said. The city won’t need taxpayer money to buy the Pines golf course or maintain it because “it’s a profitable business,” he said.
Both Vaya and Cruzada agreed with the commission’s desire to buy the Pines golf course and described the $7.4 million purchase price as a good deal. Vaya praised the commission for its debate on the deal. “There was a lot of dialogue and transparency in the meeting that night.” Cruzada, who lives along the golf course, said the city followed the rules. He noted that the city charter doesn’t require referendum approval to buy parkland. He said the city should identify more money-making opportunities at the course so it can pay back the bond issue quickly.
ORANGE AVENUE OVERLAY
Noel criticized the city commission for rejecting a task force’s advice for the redevelopment of Orange Avenue. If elected, he would “listen to the experts,” he said. “It’s our job as leaders not to assume we’re experts on building and zoning codes, but to study on it, listen to residents and make the best judgments.” The city should install a money-making use at Progress Point Park to help pay for its maintenance, he said, so it is “not just another park with more trees.”
Weaver said the commission was justified in repealing the initial Orange Avenue redevelopment plan, which was proposed by property owners and recommended by city staff. “It was very controversial.” The current plan is “more fair,” he said. He noted that the revised version includes incentives for developers to provide workforce housing.
CHARTER AMENDMENTS
Weaver and Cruzada described as “no brainers” the charter amendments requiring four votes for irreversible decisions. They both gave examples. “We don’t want to make it easy to build in wetlands,” Weaver said. Four votes would ensure that the city has a compelling reason for selling its property, Cruzada said. “Once you sell, you can’t get it back,” he said.
Vaya noted that the city previously required supermajority votes for such decisions. Asking voters to put the requirement in the city charter “will go a long way in protecting the city’s charm” and will reduce divisiveness, she said. Noel opposes all six amendments. He described the charter changes as a way of “keeping the power in one place” and reiterated that the city isn’t “hearing enough from its residents.
It is very confusing that “Weaver” (Seat 4 candidate) was used in several paragraphs in the Cruzada/Vaya comments. I assume this was a typo and the WlPV should announce this error. Vaya is the candidate for Seat 3….
Weaver was indeed mentioned in the three paragraphs below the paragraph regarding the race for Seat #3. Those paragraphs were, respectively, about Green Space, the Orange Avenue Overlay and the Charter Amendments. Weaver’s name does not appear in the ‘Seat 3’ paragraph.
Anne Mooney, Ed.
Thank you for this great summary, WPV.
I’m supporting Anjali because she truly listens to the residents. She attends every single commission meeting — even the ones lasting into the wee hours. I’m impressed that she is a successful business owner — hiring, training, and developing employees. She owns and manage two technology businesses — giving her the experience to manage our City’s multi-million dollar budget.
I disagree with the Progress Park land development. On Denning we have a large multi-use MLK Park. The small park across from the Rollins Baseball Field, the Prospect Park site should be a small dog park fenced with four benches with a dual human and dog fountain, Mead Gardens a multi- use park. I also do not think 7% of population deserve their own District.
Thanks for this excellent summary of the candidates and their similarities / differences.
In making the comparison between Vaya and Cruzada, the difference that stands out for me is the Vaya’s active involvement in the issues of the day, for example she has gone beyond whether the Post Office should stay where it is to what would be the impact of dropping a Post Office into a local community. That human touch is, for me, a crucial difference.
When comparing Weaver and Noel, you have emphasized a key difference around Parks – Noel seems to imply that Parks need to pay for themselves rather than (as suggested by Weaver) that than they bring value to the City of themselves. And as an aside, neither Progress Point nor the Pines golf course will cost the residents as they are being funded from ARPA or fees respectively.
Bottom line, Vaya and Weaver get my vote.
Anjali Vaya seems committed to this race and has a good grasp of the issues. I met her when she was out walking our neighborhood. We had a pleasant conversation, she seemed educated on the issues and the conversation went well. She graduated the same college as my son did.
I like her platform and presence, she will do a wonderful job. PS. And she has a dog – that’s always a good sign. Never trust a politician that doesn’t have a dog.
Mr. Noel seems like a nice enough guy.
25 years old and hasn’t ever been seen at a City Commission meeting or Commission workshop, nor has he ever served on a City board.
What experience can he possibly have that qualifies him to be a Winter Park City Commissioner?
Perhaps Commissioner Weaver will appoint Mr. Noel to a City board after the elections to enable him to gain some experience.
I have pretty much made my decisions on the Commission offices unless something changes. I might be persuaded to go for Anjali Vaya as she is a good candidate in some ways.
I will vote to reelect Todd Weaver for one. Why? I see no reason to make a change having watched him closely over the last three years. His opponent, Elijah Noel, is young and inexperienced. It would be great if he was appointed to one of the city boards to get some experience in how things work in the city and then run again in the future.
On the other race, I have pretty much decided to vote for Kris Cruzada. Why? He is an experienced accountant and lawyer who fully understands the real estate issues from a code, legal and land use perspective. He also is involved in his family business. He has served on boards on the county level, charity boards and professional organizations. His opponent, Anjali Vaya does not have as robust background that compares to Mr. Cruzada’s background. She also ran for Orange County Commission in 2020 coming in third in the primary. This has me concerned she is not as much interested in being a commissioner in the City of Winter Park but has other political aspirations. I prefer someone who is not politically ambitious to be on the Winter Park commission beyond say becoming the Mayor of Winter Park. It would also be good to see her appointed to another major city board (like Planning and Zoning) to gain some more experience and then run again in the future is my thinking.
Vaya hits the ground running with her experience serving on Winter Park’s CRA and months attending City Commission meetings twice a month, often running late at night.
As an innovator in the technology industry and owning several tech firms, I believe she will offer depth to the Commission’s decision making process where backgrounds in engineering, contract negotiations, real estate development and legal practice have been the norm. Technology will play a large role in implementing many of Winter Park’s Vision goals of vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle connectivity as well as the City’s communications infrastructure.
I believe 3 of the 4 candidates are receptive to adding additional green space within the City as the Comp Plan requires a minimum amount of green space per citizen. Just remember there may come a time in the future where redevelopment opportunities with available green space no longer exist and we’ll be faced with the option of either reducing the per capita level of green space or curtailing an allowable level of redevelopment.
My choices for seats 3 and 4 are Vaya and Weaver.
All of the candidates are well-spoken, polite, and care about the city. My main concern is that Mr. Noel will be supportive of large developments throughout our city and opposed to more green space. His campaign does not have any financial records of donations as of this morning posted on the city web site. I also thought by referring to those who don’t want big change as stagnant was condescending to many residents but may be based on his lack of political experience.
Breaking the code on Noel’s bio.
Says he’s a “manager.”
Uh huh.
Says he takes care of VIP’s.
Uh huh.
Says he’s responsible for “attire” of certain employees.
Uh huh.
Last time I checked 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
The so called “prominent families” of Winter Park and Orlando who are supporting Noel – are they Noel’s “VIP’s?”
https://www.edenthelounge.com/venue
Yesterday Noel saved the Winter Park Post Office from Weaver who was just chomping at the bit to move the Post Office to the other side of town to a new facility that would cost taxpayers a billion dollars.
Noel held a rally yesterday outside the Post Office and when Weaver saw that a crowd of at least half a dozen people were listening to Noel, Weaver got scared and called off the move.
Weaver had planned on moving the Post Office yesterday to a new automated distribution center on the other side of town when Weaver thought nobody would notice because of the Farmers Market on Saturday distracting everyone from the move.
That all changed when Noel started speaking outside of the Post Office yesterday and the crowd, estimated at more than four people gathered round Noel, hanging on every word from the leader’s mouth.
When Weaver saw the crowd drawn to Noel, Weaver was immediately scared to move the Post Office so Weaver called the whole thing off.
This proves that Noel is the right man for the job.
Weaver is just a shill for the Post Office and wants to take all the Post Office jobs and give them to robots on the other side of town and run diesel semi delivery trucks through residential neighborhoods where kids play.
Noel wants the Post Office to stay right where it is so when people go to their Post Office Box they can get their mail, and not be confused by a bunch of green space where their PO Box used to be.
Green space is very confusing to someone who just wants to buy a book of stamps or mail a package to their aunt in Oklahoma.
Someone could be standing in line with their package for a long time and not know why the line isn’t moving if they didn’t get the word that Weaver moved the Post Office to the other side of town.
That’s why everyone should vote for Noel.
This is not a paid political ad.
It is a letter to Voice readers from,
SMART PEOPLE FOR NOEL FOR SEAT 3, WINTER PARK CITY COUNCIL
If this post contained any accurate information whatsoever, it would not have been written anonymously.