Category: Policy

I am thrilled to share exciting new developments about my email on Winter Park Pines. Our Mayor has responded with a public relations piece that contains carefully worded support for both golf courses, claiming they are both “cherished public parks with fairways, deeply woven into the fabric of Winter Park.” Well, not so much in both cases. The 1995 purchase of the Winter Park 9 was the subject of a voter referendum approving the debt. We knew the Winter Park 9 was likely to lose money when it was purchased with voter approval. The purchase of Winter Park Pines was…

We will elect either Kris Cruzada or Justin Vermuth to the Winter Park City Commission on March 11th. Elections should be about policy, not personality or who is friends with whom. Both candidates are nice people but Kris Cruzada should be willing to support his voting record. Before you vote, please contact Kris Cruzada and ask him to justify his votes on the policy issues below. I asked and he didn’t answer. Justin Vermuth has disagreed with many of his opponent’s positions and would have prioritized creating greater value for Winter Park residents. ONE: Why did you vote to expand…

We now live in the theater of the absurd. Rather than acknowledge that staff, the city attorney, and the Historic Preservation Board (HPB) coerced, and likely extorted $100,000 from a Winter Park contractor or that the property owner was verbally threatened by a sitting HPB board member, our city commission has now hired an attorney at $495 per hour to defend against a related complaint filed with the Florida Commission On Ethics. The irony is they will likely spend $50,000 or more defending the complaint and may well lose. Note that Kris Cruzada, on the ballot March 11, voted to…

I am voting YES to keep gas leaf blowers legal in Winter Park. My very fastidious neighbor uses an electric leaf blower almost daily to tidy up her yard. It’s high pitch whine is more annoyance than the gas leaf blowers used by our landscape contractor. Further, my landscape costs will increase materially if our contractor is forced to switch to electric leaf blowers. You will be annoyed whether leaf blowers are gas or electric. But the real question is: Why in the world are leaf blowers an item for a voter referendum? The leaf blower referendum is the result…

Winter Park has been fortunate to have strong real estate values driving up property tax revenues. The problem is that the current city commission has been wasting our revenues; unnecessarily increasing city overhead and spending on projects that do not generally serve the residents of Winter Park. I have documented over $100,000,000 of this waste on winterparkperspective.org. Kris Cruzada, the incumbent, has voted for all of this waste and has not demonstrated strategic leadership. Let’s elect a thoughtful leader to the Winter Park City Commission on March 11th. Justin Vermuth is a young professional raising his family in Winter Park….

The Winter Park Historic Preservation Board forced a local contractor to pay $100,000 to the city. This was at best unwarranted coercion and likely meets the legal standard of extortion. See below. The city’s Historic Preservation Ordinance is filled with arbitrary standards that leave applicants at the mercy of zealous board members. Remember that our city commission members appoint these people. Please tell the city commission to repay the $100,000 and to change the ordinance so that this cannot happen again. This should never be the way Winter Park does business. _________________________________ From: Ryan PhillipsSent: Friday, January 3, 2025 4:42:03…

We are fortunate that Justin Vermuth wants to be our city commissioner. Justin is an attorney raising his young family in Winter Park. He is running to ensure our city focuses resources and policy to benefit our families and strengthen our neighborhoods, adding value that will keep Winter Park special.  Justin’s policy priorities include: cutting wasteful spending and restoring our reserves to the 30% target, investing in the well-being of our city by upgrading our parks and playing fields, making government more accessible to young and working families, and refocusing the commission from personal policies and ambitions to the core…

I offer some concluding remarks on Weaver’s permit issues and his request for historic designation. I believe there is a lesson here for those promoting and supporting candidates for Winter Park City Commission to be more discerning. At Wednesday’s commission meeting Weaver asked for his historic designation request to be tabled until April, after he is out of office. Weaver later told the32789 that “he knew he had the votes but his decision to put off the hearing was made out of deference to commissioners and staff.” Weaver’s statement bizarrely admits a violation of the Sunshine law that prohibits commission…

Should be a fun vote by the City Commission Wednesday, January 8th on a request by commission member Todd Weaver to declare his home at 1051 Lake Bell Drive as historic. This is a bald attempt by Weaver to legalize his code violations going back at least 10 years. How, you ask? Approving his home as “historic” (which it is not), will grant Weaver the right to continue to rent out his illegal “accessory cottage” while NOT holding him accountable for his years of numerous code violations. This from the agenda language: The rear accessory cottage was a storage shed…