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Comments

MG Coffee
January 29, 2015

The Winter Park Public Library is hosting two candidate debates where the community will be able to hear from the candidates and audience members will be able to submit questions from the floor.

The Mayoral Debate will be Thursday, February 19 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Library’s Community Room. The debate for Commission Seat 1 will be Wednesday, February 25 from noon – 1 p.m.

Gloria Jaffe
January 29, 2015

Want know positions on huge new developments in WP, and the library.

Julie
January 29, 2015

Regarding the CNL/City land swap made with the property on Denning and Morse – do you view this as a good investment for the city, or, an unwise decision?

Barbara Bytell
January 29, 2015

QUESTIONS FOR FORUM (1) Winter Park’s main transportation arteries, including Park Avenue, are becoming highly congested as the traffic flowing along the cited arteries is well in excess of the traffic volume for which they were designed. The result of the heavy congestion is a marked decrease in the desirability of Winter Park for many home residents as well as professionals, who must utilize the roads to arrive at or depart from business appointments. What steps/recommendations does each candidate have to address Winter Park’s unfavorable level of traffic congestion, including on Orange Avenue, 17-92, Aloma Avenue, and Park Avenue?

(2) An argument that is frequently made to support increased commercial development in the Winter Park community is that by obtaining new tax revenues from these developments, the property tax burden of Winter Park homeowners will be able to remain at current levels or at worse to increase very modestly. Frequently, however, new development results in increased infrastructure costs – road construction, road repair, increased electricity consumption, increases in fire and police FTEs – which then precipitates the call for additional development to fund the increased infrastructure costs. What is each candidate’s position on the argument presented? What proposals does each candidate have to not materially increase homeowners’ property tax burden if new development does not occur? If the candidate believes that there are tradeoffs between a higher tax rate and less commercial development and more commercial development and a lighter tax burden, what is the candidate’s posture on the appropriate balance?

Debate Questions
January 29, 2015

1. What is your vision for Winter Park?

2. Do you pledge, if elected, to never raise property taxes?

3. What do you think “Civil Rights” means as applied to the job of a Winter Park mayor or Commissioner? Follow up questions: a) Would you agree that the City ordinance passed in September of 2012 restricting peaceful free speech, such as Bible reading on the public sidewalk or holding a sign, should be repealed in its entirety? b) Would you support removing the government surveillance cameras that were installed during the past several years, since they have never been proven to stop crime or traffic accidents?

penny potter
January 30, 2015

One of Mr Leary’s flyers mentions the fact that he is the “only Republican running for Winter Park mayor”. Surely he knows that city campaigns are non-partisan. What reason could he possibly have for introducing party politics into the city election process?

WP Chamber Forum
Feburary 1, 2015

There is a candidate forum sponsored by WP Chamber of Commerce at the WP Welcome Center on on Friday, February 13 . Their online calendar says networking at 7:45 am, program at 8:15 pm but it’s usually crowded, so I’d arrive early. >submit: submit

nancy
Feburary 2, 2015

What do others think of the phone survey about the mayoral candidates? I felt it had numerous statements that were either false or misrepresented facts.

Debate Question
Feburary 4, 2015

The consultant (WRT) that was hired to review the city’s comprehensive plan made a number of recommendations including conducting a visioning plan because of the lack of consensus among citizens on development, traffic, etc. A portion of the commission selected to push forward with changes to the comprehensive plan without citizen input. It ultimately did not move forward. How does each candidate plan to address citizen input where development and the comprehensive plan are concerned?