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!