WinterParkPerspective.org

The Winter Park City Charter requires non-partisan elections. No candidate for the office of city commissioner or mayor shall campaign and/or publicly represent or advertise herself or himself as a member of any political party; and shall not accept campaign contributions from any political party. Violations are fined at $1,000 each. So, what good does this do? None! Instead, it hides the true nature of candidates. Based on 35 years of local Winter Park election experience, every Winter Park election is partisan in reality. Candidates routinely hire campaign managers affiliated with their political party. Those elected tend to follow policies…

Commissioner Marty Sullivan, along with other commission members, has voted to waste over $100,000,000 of our money over the past five years. He now wants to raise our tax rate to spend $268,000,000 for undefined and unsupported nonsense (see page 2 here). Marty and his cohorts claim undefined threats where none exist to justify this outrageous exploitation of Winter Park taxpayers. Winter Park spending has been out of control for five years. We need two candidates for the March 2025 election publicly committed to rein in spending and set priorities that support our residents rather than ideologically driven personal preferences…

Winter Park has a complicated and penal tree ordinance because of extreme viewpoints of city staff, board members, and commission members. You don’t need to get caught up in this regulatory tree madness. All Winter Park residential property owners need to be aware that state law supersedes city code when it comes to tree removals. Under state law, a residential property owner can prune, trim, or remove a tree without a city permit and without penalty or tree replacement if the property owner possesses documentation from an arborist certified by the ISA or a Florida licensed landscape architect that the…

This brief video is from the City Commission work session of May 23, 2024. Commissioner Craig Russell to the left was participating from a remote location. Commissioner Todd Weaver at the table to the right is talking. Really?

Request that the city commission repeal Ordinance 3294-24 Expanding and Extending the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). Contact the city commission here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. Please see prior posts on this subject: More perspective is required by the commission in considering this CRA expansion and extension. Only 12% of Winter Park’s population lives within the proposed expanded CRA. Why are approximately 27,000 residents (88%) being denied $84,000,000 in projected property taxes between 2028 and 2037? The commission’s latest 10 year financial projections show a continuing decline of our reserves to finance ever increasing expenses EVEN WITH the addition of the current CRA revenue…

Challenge our commission members to explain how their CRA extension and expansion plan benefits the residents of Winter Park. Demand they put this plan to a citizen referendum. Contact them here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. (See my prior post on this subject.) I also encourage you to attend the City Commission meeting this Wednesday, March 27 to comment in opposition to this plan (the vote on the second reading should be about 4 PM). Again, this plan takes $84,000,000 from residents of Winter Park. This is the anticipated city property taxes taken by the CRA from our General Fund from 2028 through 2037,…

Bet you didn’t know the city commission has approved an $84,000,000 money grab from you. Read their expanded CRA Plan and let them know what you think here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org. This plan needs to be approved by Orange County before becoming effective. CRA stands for Community Redevelopment Area. Within this area, county and city property taxes, net of those based on valuation prior to formation of the CRA, must be spent within the CRA area in accordance with the CPR Plan approved by Orange County. When the current CRA expires at the end of 2027, all county property tax revenue goes…

Having observed Winter Park politics for some 35 years, I am always amused that the Developer Bogeyman shows up every election. This year’s Bogeyman is brought to us by Jason Johnson. Concerns about Jason were noted when he declined to state whether he would support buying electric power at above market prices to pursue an arbitrary goal for our electric utility to use 80% renewable energy by 2035. Instead he claimed to me and many others that “the premise of the question may be fundamentally flawed” without further explanation. Note the lawyerly obfuscation in addressing a direct yes or no…

The city commission’s ban on gas leaf blowers goes into effect July 1 of this year. The penalty for violation is as follows: “Except as otherwise provided, a person convicted of a violation of this Code shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500.00, by imprisonment for a term not exceeding 60 days, or any combination thereof. With respect to violations of this Code that are continuous with respect to time, each day the violation continues is a separate offense.” One local contractor projects an annual price increase of $500 per customer to comply with the gas blower ban….

Commission candidate Craig Russell followed up today and provided his input on the renewable energy policy question posed to all candidates. I do not want to overstay any welcome I may have in your inbox. I just think it fair to give Craig’s position the same exposure as provided the other candidates. Should the city pay more than a competitive price for electricity? YES or NO. If yes, why? Craig Russell – Commission Candidate Seat 2: NO, buy energy at the best market price – See his full response here. And this repeats the responses of the other candidates for…