This is for those apparent few who believe numbers can contain valuable information and point to constructive public policy. Click here for the monthly US Consumer Price Index history. Winter Park’s fiscal year ends September 30. Here is the CPI and percent change for each fiscal year from 2019 to 2025 (assumed at 2.5% for 2025), and what spending would have been had it increased at the CPI. Year Ending 9/30 Actual CPIIndex Values Year to Year CPI Increase General FundSpending at CPI 2019 256.759 $57,722,493 2020 260.474 1.45% $58,557,669 2021 278.802 7.04% $62,678,023 2022 296.797 6.45% $66,723,514 2023 306.746…
Category: Money
Issues related to city finances including taxes, spending, utility pricing, debt, and revenue.
Response to Commissioner DeCiccio
Dear Commissioner DeCiccio, This responds to your recent email about playing fields. We all care about Winter Park parents and children, and about the quality of our playing fields. However, your email fails to address important questions. Before I get to questions about your vote to spend $2,800,000 outside the annual budget process and paid for using our emergency city reserve funds, I ask about your involvement in the rescission of the Orange Avenue Overlay last March. As part of your election campaign you postured as supporting the Orange Avenue Overlay. These changes to our Comprehensive Plan received final commission…
Appropriately Compassionate or a Knee-Jerk Reaction?
Fellow Winter Park Residents, Please share with friends and neighbors. Please send an email to mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org expressing your thoughts on this issue. Tomorrow, with two days notice, our city commission and CRA board are each holding a “Special Meeting” where they will vote on commiting over $2,000,000 of our money for a local “response” to the COVID-19 pandemic. My letter to the commission on this subject is below. Please share your thoughts with them on this issue. To Winter Park Mayor and Commissioners: The notice for tomorrow’s scheduled “Special Meetings” (“is insufficient per statute” removed 04.08.2020 per the comment below)…
Let’s Cut-Thru the Nonsense
Something called “Winter Park Voice” has been sending emails around town under the pretense of providing useful information to the public. “Winter Park Voice” is controlled by a man named Tom Childers who spent his career in public relations (not journalism). Tom Childers accepts anonymous monetary contributions to “Winter Park Voice.” “Winter Park Voice” recently sent out two emails focused on the city’s consideration of a Resolution to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) supporting a particular configuration of a proposed extension of Lee Road that FDOT may or may not construct. The “information” included in these emails deserves closer…
Swap Realities: Risk, Return, and Judgment
November 18, 2011 I received the following message from Winter Park City Commissioner Steve Leary today and thought many citizens would welcome his detailed view of the facts and circumstances surrounding the city’s recent approval of a land swap of the State Office Building property at the corner of Morse and Denning (SOB) for the Progress Point property (PP) located on Orange Avenue. As with many city decisions, this one has its share of disagreements and controversy. While some seek to exploit controversy to engender resentment and foment discord, others are focused on serving our long term interests with respect…
Whose money is it?
February 2, 2011 On January 24th three of five Winter Park commission members voted down a proposed 50 year commercial lease on the five acre parcel of land owned by the city at the corner of Denning Avenue and Morse Boulevard. The short form of this long story is that two commissioners wanted you to steeply subsidize a 50 year lease of city owned land in order to “refurbish” a dilapidated building that utilizes 60 percent of the land’s capacity, to “retain” a long time employer who offered an unenforceable commitment to stay in Winter Park, and to “save” trees…
Cleaning up after the dog fee
October 18, 2010 Monday, October 11, 2010 our city commission approved fees to use Fleet Peeples Park with your dogs effective December 1, 2010. Commissioners Dillaha, Cooper, and McMacken voted for the fees. Commissioner Anderson and Mayor Bradley voted no. (I am not a dog owner.) Hundreds of Winter Park residents and non-residents take advantage of Fleet Peeples Park weekly to exercise dogs off leash and socialize with other dog owners. This has been going on for over ten years. Dog owners are a constituency whose needs should be addressed just as the city addresses needs of other constituencies ranging…
Defending our City Commission
September 30, 2010 I have never before had reason to tell you about a unanimous decision of the Winter Park City Commission that I strongly agreed with. I have a reason now. Unfortunately and unwisely, the commission decided in their budget decisions to provide for the possibility of increasing their pay ($200/mth for commissioners and $250/mth for the mayor) which has not been changed since my mother changed my diapers. This is virtually all the Orlando Sentinel had to talk about (here also) and it sends a very incomplete message. We should be focusing on the bigger picture. All Winter…
Who Owns the Risk?
September 27, 2010 To: Mayor and Commissioners, City of Winter Park, FL Subject: Who owns the risk? – or- What does Winter Park have to look forward to if Amendment 4 passes? I write to encourage unanimous support for the 2010-2011 city budget you preliminarily approved at the meeting of September 13, 2010. While there are important concerns about the wisdom of recommending spending increases for projects of personal interest to certain commissioners who also recommend decreasing previously established benefits for city employees, overall, your instincts are to be encouraged and applauded. Each of you deserves praise for the unanimous…
Dillaha Needs to Stop the Nonsense
May 28, 2010 Dillaha is quoted in this week’s Winter Park/Maitland Observer as follows: But Commissioner Beth Dillaha railed against the idea of the city being on the hook to pay for a station and part of the system if dedicated funding for it were to disappear in the future. “You cannot tell a future sitting commission that you have to pay for these things,” Dillaha said. “You can’t do it. It’s the law.” Following the meeting Monday, she said that many of the supporters of the system and the current agreement were those who would benefit financially from SunRail,…