Having served over 50 years as a fiduciary, my greatest disappointment as a Winter Park resident is how little interest our voters have in how our city is run. Did you know almost all spending and policy issues are decided by 3 of 5 votes on our city commission? Did you know that 3 of the current 5 members of the city commission were never elected? They were seated because no one ran against them. Did you know that when there is an election, less than 32% of registered Winter Park voters participate on average?
Well, Winter Park governance is now officially an amateur show where the winners are paid a bit over $15,000 a year to mess things up. I’m sure they are all nice people and well intended. Some of them are, however, lacking the skills and experience to do the job on behalf of our 30,000 residents.
The latest example is Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram, a music teacher who was seated and thus never vetted by the voters. Ms. Ingram has acknowledged that she accepted free tickets to a Magic basketball game last April, provided to her through Rabbi Dovid Dubov. Rabbi Dubov represents Chabad of Greater Orlando, an organization with an active development application before the city commission. See Rabbi Dubov’s follow-up request for a meeting and Ms. Ingram’s response.
Under Florida Law, Public officers, employees, local government attorneys, and candidates are prohibited from soliciting or accepting anything of value, such as a gift, loan, reward, promise of future employment, favor, or service, that is based on an understanding that their vote, official action, or judgment would be influenced by such gift. [Sec. 112.313(2), Fla. Stat.]
As a third party can rarely tell if there was such an “understanding,” the only acceptable behavior by a public officer is to decline any offer of anything of value from everyone. (Note that the lobbying effort by Rabbi Dubov is legal.)
Ms. Ingram blew it. I suppose she had no idea that accepting the tickets was inappropriate and potentially illegal, and that is the problem. Her vote on the development project scheduled for October 28 is now compromised.
The larger issue here is that Winter Park has at least a thousand experienced residents with proven judgment qualified to serve on our city commission. If you believe you are one of them, please run for office. We need you.
Imagine if Steve Leary accepted a Magic ticket from Dan Bellows.
Ingram knew, but let’s face it, she’s the puppet for the Andersons, Sally Flynn and all the pernicious influencers that have ballooned our budget from $54 million to $90 million without any tangible improvement. They also are responsible for the worst public park in the history of parks.
Why don’t people run? Look at what they attempted to do to Craig Russell and the Chamber. Is it a worse scandal that Russell didn’t vote or that a Commissioner accepted a ticket from someone with an agenda item?
I can go on but the combination of apathy and the Voice being owned by this crew is the result. I guarantee you Beth Kassab will make 100 excuses why she can’t or won’t cover this story and then somehow it will be your fault Pete for bringing it up.
But the bigger scandal is Ingram on the dais. Pete, watch, post and share the videos. She has no idea what’s she’s doing and I guarantee you she’s getting text instructions while she’s up there. The Mayor tolerates it but it’s embarrassing how unprofessional and unprepared she is. She’s being used and it’s painfully obvious to anyone paying attention.
Winter Park residents: Please read this comment and take it to heart!
She must resign immediately. She has brought a supposedly criminal act to our City which has been broadcast on Channels 2 and 9. This is embarrassing for our city, as her frequent misunderstanding of city issues and her lack of knowledge about financing and other important issues in making a productive city effective and potentially put our City of risk. Bribes are bribes and the evidence is there.
I note this nuance: To conclude there was a criminal act you have to prove the parties had an understanding that the gift was in exchange for a favorable vote. The meaningful point here is that Ms. Ingram compromised her vote on the project related to the gift of the Magic tickets. That is an embarrassment for both Ms. Ingram and the city.
I loved “the worst public park in the history of parks” but the real travesty is the dishonest campaign against the Orange Avenue Overlay that was embraced by all until it was slimed by a few, merely for political victory in 2020. Would Winter Park’s property tax revenue be even more robust if the OAO developments were paying property taxes today? Youbetcha! Instead, we get Amendment 3 fearmongering and dire warnings of library closings, garbage collection cuts and overgrown park grass due to less revenue….. which is what this group created by dissembling about the OAO!
Campaigns of fear won that political battle. Hopefully, a positive, growth-oriented person will emerge to challenge the swamp folks in WP.
I add that the reversal of the original OAO was led by now Mayor DeCiccio in an underhanded way. She ran for office in 2020 supporting the OAO and then election night, started the legal process to reverse it behind the scenes. See: https://winterparkperspective.org/2023/10/24/deciccio-needs-an-opponent/. A person with character would have run for office clearly telling the voters of their intent.
Winter Park residents deserve an honest accounting of the Orange Avenue Overlay (OAO) and the economic opportunities potentially lost when the City reversed course in 2020. The original plan envisioned a vibrant, walkable, mixed-use district with residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality development that could have expanded the City’s tax base for decades. Particularly troubling is Mayor Sheila DeCiccio’s documented position in November 2019, when she stated, “I am 100 percent for everything else in the report. I am all for the Holler and Demetree entitlements.” Yet, just months later, after winning election to the City Commission, she helped repeal the very ordinance incorporating those entitlements. While the precise economic consequences cannot be established without a formal fiscal-impact study, a reasonable preliminary estimate suggests the original redevelopment opportunities could have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional annual municipal property-tax revenue, potentially millions over time. The question of DeCiccio’s consistency and credibility deserves public scrutiny: How does she reconcile her earlier endorsement of those development rights with her subsequent vote to repeal them?
Instead, residents received Seven Oaks Park, a 2.4-acre public space whose construction contract was reported at approximately $4.96 million, roughly 11% above its earlier budget. Although public parks have value that cannot be measured solely through tax receipts, Seven Oaks a costly failure: an uninspired design that attracts remarkably little use and falls far short of the vibrant destination originally envisioned. No published usage data has been established here to independently verify that assessment. Meanwhile, Winter Park’s General Fund has grown from approximately $58.6 million in FY2020 to an adopted $94.6 million for FY2027, an increase of approximately 61.5%, even as the City faces growing costs for essential services. Those rising expenditures make the decision to forgo potential revenue-generating development especially worthy of examination. Residents should be asking how much the original overlay’s repeal, subsequent planning, litigation, and park development actually cost; how much additional tax revenue might reasonably have been generated; and whether the final outcome justifies the public investment. Winter Park taxpayers deserve answers grounded in financial records, not simply assurances that the City made the right decision.
A little nitpicky on my part, but the original estimate in 2023 was $3.1 million and at groundbreaking then mayor Phil Anderson said it would be completed “early next year”. It was completed a year late, in early 2025. Final cost was $4.96 million, a 60% increase, and the opening was pushed back a year. Since it’s rarely used it reminds me of another famous public project, “The Bridge To Nowhere”.
commisioner Ingram has just released a statement saying that the five tickets were given to her by a friend who received them from the rabbi – who was the friend, how did the friend get them, how did the rabbi get them, where were they- a box perhaps ? More information is needed to assess the potential conflict.
Those are appropriate questions. After all, the Rabbi’s June text message to Ms. Ingram acknowledged his connection with the tickets. He said, “I hope you are doing well and that you enjoyed our Jewish Heritage Night with the Orlando Magic back on April 6.”
A Winter Park resident pointed out to me that a line from Hamlet applies. To wit: “”The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
“Text messages show Commissioner Elizabeth Ingram thanked Chabad of Greater Orlando for the game invitation and offered to meet about the synagogue proposal.
“We had a great time at the Magic game thanks again. I would be happy to meet with you to discuss the synagogue,” Ingram wrote” – WFTV news report
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/elizabeth-ingram-faces-scrutiny-over-magic-tickets-synagogue-deal/SIQ7V43EDJBETG6SNI5XATOBKI/
I am fed up with the way Winter Park is being administered. Why do they make building impossible for regular citizens and businesses (remember the Henderson Hotel), but grant outrageous variances and benefits to others, like Chabad, Advent, Blue Bamboo, and Rollins, who as nonprofits, pay no taxes? Ironically, what pushed these city commissioners into office was the public’s opposition to Demeetree Global’s project on the Orange Avenue Overlay, and now they’re the ones doing DG’s bidding by pushing this project. Chabad already had property in Maitland. Why isn’t it building there? Whatever gets built in Downtown Winter Park has to benefit all our citizens and expand the city’s tax base. Benefiting another nonprofit is not going to do that.
Another question I’d like answers to from the Mayor, the City Commissioners, and the City Attorney is whether any of them have links to Chabad or Demeetree, either as members of the congregation, through their business interests, or by having received goods, hospitality or services. If they do, it’s a conflict of interest and they should recuse themselves.
And last, shame on Ms Ingram! She must be the most naive woman in the world if she didn’t think this was wrong. As a public official, accepting goods/services from someone who represents an organization that will greatly benefit from her voting in favor of their projects is the very definition of corruption. If she has any shame and self respect, she should resign immediately.