Your ballot for the November 8, 2022 election includes an Orange County Rent Stabilization Ordinance for your decision. The smart vote is NO.

Approval of this ordinance will not result in more affordable housing. It will result in LESS HOUSING. This article provides a real world example of the implications. Recent economic realities make it clear that restricting supply drives competition down and prices up.

There are practical ways to realize more affordable housing in central Florida. These include expanding apartment friendly zoning, reducing building fees and regulations, and long term leasing of publicly owned land for private apartment development. Our County Commission should be taking steps that support increasing supply of rental housing, not the opposite.

History is clear that price controls work against their intent, no matter how good the intentions of those imposing them. A NO vote on this issue is recommended.

Regards, Pete Weldon
(407) 267-5320

Commissioner Weaver’s initiative to enable short term rentals failed to move forward at yesterday’s commission meeting. Below are thoughts I shared with the commission. Please extend your thanks as well to: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org.

Mayor and Commissioners,

Thank-you to commission members Cruzada, DeCiccio, and Anderson for declining to pursue a change in our short term residential rental policy.

Most telling were the comments by those in support of the changes. Each of them, including Commissioner Todd Weaver (2 years of forbearance is meaningless), has a significant, and some, a professional financial interest in enabling short term rentals in Winter Park. Well, its not all about the money.

If short term residential rentals become legal there is no way to reverse course and no effective means to police those who will always skirt whatever rules may be established. Given the cost of enforcement, a financial justification based on fee and tax proceeds going to the “arts” is a rationalization.

The self-interested proposal of Commissioner Weaver and the favorable vote of Commissioner Sullivan demonstrate a complete disconnect with the long-term values of Winter Park. Most residents move here because Winter Park is a wonderful community to raise children in quiet and cohesive neighborhood environments. Short term rentals would greatly diminish the attributes we depend on for our quality of life and property values. Perhaps most importantly, the absence of short term residential rentals is a differentiator that adds substance to our status as the best place to live in central Florida.

Thank-you and, please, let’s not go down this path again.

Regards, Pete Weldon

City Commissioner Todd Weaver supports short term AirBNB rentals in Winter Park. This from the July 27, 2022 commission meeting:

“Commissioner Weaver – Said he conducted research on short term rentals and found that a Chamber survey revealed the need for more hotels, but he feels more rooms are needed and would prefer that city residents get revenue from room rental versus hotels. He provided information on other agency’s regulations which he consolidated and prepared a proposed ordinance which he provided to Mr. Knight.”

Astute observers may recall that Weaver was an “AirBNB Superhost” when he decided to run for city commission in 2018. When brought to his attention that short term rentals (less than 30 days) were illegal in Winter Park, Weaver told the Orlando Sentinel “It was an innocent mistake,” and added that he had been donating proceeds from the rentals to various charities (as if that somehow excused violation of our laws).

Weaver continued to rent the “cottage” on his property at 1051 Lake Bell Drive since his election in 2019; itself a violation of our codes that state: “Guesthouses or garage apartments as permitted accessory uses may not have a kitchen area or cooking facilities. They also may not have separate utility meters or be rented, let or hired out for occupancy whether compensations be paid directly or indirectly.”

Further, Weaver’s conversion of a “shed” permitted in 2000 into an illegal rental “cottage” with bath and kitchen facilities was performed without a required permit. Additionally, evidence exists that Weaver enclosed and improved an open garage port into living space without a required permit.

Weaver’s promotion of short term rentals as a commission member makes it clear he is putting his self interest before your interest as a single family homeowner. (Why would a commissioner write his own proposed law?)

While Weaver can propose anything he wants as a commissioner, we can and should understand his true motivations and character. Please tell all members of the commission to abandon consideration of short term rentals in Winter Park single family neighborhoods. Write them at mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org.

I was wrong! There is no way Winter Park can have smart, honest elected leadership.

The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato’s Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew. The allegory is intended to represent the problems of governance prevailing in a political system not based on expert knowledge.

The latest confirmation of this reality in Winter Park is the “electric non-rate increase” coupled to an expected four year delay in completion of the city-wide electric undergrounding program. This delay will mean about $20,000,000 in increased undergrounding costs, $10,000,000 of which is a self inflicted waste of your money by the city commission.

Recall the January 2022 decision of the commission to increase electric rates by 8% solely to pay for undergrounding about 5,000 residential overhead service lines to be paid for by all 12,000 residential electric customers, a $10,000,000 decision paid for primarily by 7,000 residential electric customers who previously paid to underground their overhead service line. See: Resident Electric Bills to Rise 8% and Stop the Electric Service Line Vanity Project.

So, what could go wrong? Well, in February city staff made it clear that the cost of undergrounding was going up dramatically due to inflationary cost increases for required equipment and labor. The commission then paused the earlier rate increase to study further, but only after having paid $1,000 to each the 573 residential owners who had previously paid to underground their overhead lines while their street was being undergrounded.

• Parenthetical: Anyone with a brain and experience would have known that the 2021 $1.9 trillion American “Rescue” Act was going to cause dramatic inflation in infrastructure spending. Over $7 billion was allocated to state, county, and municipal spending in Florida alone, all of which has to be used by December 31, 2024, and of which Winter Park is realizing $15.4 million without any limitations on use. The “ship of fools” is obviously not limited by jurisdiction or geography.

Stuck between their vanity and a hard place, the commission yesterday approved a new “plan” that will now have all 15,000 residential and commercial electric rate payers pony up $10,000,000 over the next 8 years to underground local overhead connections of about 5,000 residential customers. How’s that for fair and wise? An additional $10,000,000 cost increase is expected to result from inflation. Note that this means a loss of $20,000,000 in future electric surpluses that could have been used for rate decreases and other electric infrastructure programs.

Two standout crew members on this voyage are Utilities Board Chair Michael Poole and Commissioner Sheila DeCiccio. Poole bullied the utility board and commission into approving the service drop vanity project while DeCiccio in a recent city wide email intentionally misrepresented the cause of the four year delay in completing the undergrounding program by referencing only inflationary cost increases. The city’s own press release confirms the lie. (DeCiccio has a history of deceiving her constituents.)

So again, I was wrong and should have known. Plato’s “ship of fools” was written in 375 BC. But, if you are a smart, honest person with an interest in good governance, there is always hope. Please run for city commission and convince the 70% of electors who do not vote in our local elections there is good reason to do so.

The latest issue of the Winter Park Update is a PR masterpiece. We now spend almost $1 million each year to promote the city and the “achievements” of the city commission. I can’t compete with a million dollar PR budget but I can offer a more sober assessment of the “achievements.”

This commission has spent or committed over $25 million of new spending, just in the past year. Add to this another $10 million in new electric fees to fulfill their sense of aesthetics and the $12-15 million they project to build a new building for the US Postal Service. Sensible people would think they might demonstrate a bit more respect for the tax dollars they coerce from us.

I have no doubt our current commission members believe their spending is helpful. They are, however, out of touch with reality. Each of the “achievements” listed in the Winter Park Update receives a comment below.

• “Your taxes did NOT increase. In spite of COVID, our financial reserves are in excellent shape and our budget is balanced.” REALITY: Property tax revenues have increased nearly 32% from 2018 to 2022. This is a political “white lie.” Your property value increases when the tax rate does not, resulting in tax increases. Reserves are “excellent” because of prior leadership. The budget is balanced because it is required to be under state law.

• “The city committed over $1.485 million of federal funds (American Rescue Plan Act – ARPA) to supporting Winter Park non-profits during the decline in donor funds prompted by COVID.” REALITY: This city commission is exceedingly charitable with our money, providing local charities with money over and above that available from Federal COVID relief programs we already pay for.

• “The Commission continued to bring more diversity and inclusivity to our resident boards, thanks to the Charter amendment that was passed in March 2020 giving all Commissioners, not just the Mayor, the authority to make advisory board appointments.” REALITY: There is no evidence that such “diversity and inclusion” has improved our governance, but it does capture a contemporary narrative.

• “The revised Orange Avenue Overlay (OAO) was passed – a guideline for redevelopment that protects Winter Park’s charm and makes it easier for small businesses on Orange Avenue to upgrade their properties. Small businesses can now invest in their buildings with certainty regarding parking and stormwater needs.” REALITY: No property owners have yet come forward to “invest” in redevelopment. Nothing has been protected, only obstructed.

• “Because of this Commission, shoppers and diners visiting the Orange Avenue area will have safer, aesthetically pleasing, well-lit, long-term public parking adjacent to the park — and off of busy Orange Avenue.” REALITY: This city commission has spent years of our city planning resources and $6 million of our tax dollars to create imaginary benefits for commercial property owners on Orange Avenue.

• “The city prioritized our small businesses to ensure a successful holiday season with a tremendous holiday decoration package of lights and events on Park, Orange and New England avenues and Morse Boulevard. Anecdotally, we heard of sales increasing by up to 70% over last year.” REALITY: Suggesting that increasing spending on holiday decorations increases retail sales does not demonstrate critical thinking.

• “The city completed the renovation of several of our sports fields in Ward Park, with all Winter Park fields expected to be renovated by the end of 2022.” REALITY: For-profit sports teams and non-residents are now being treated to $1,600,000 in new and renovated playing fields at the expense of Winter Park taxpayers.

• “The city created the first new park in many years, starting with the installation of seven large Live Oak trees on Progress Point at Orange Avenue and Denning Drive (see photo). This is the first step in “Putting the Park in Winter Park” on this important residential and business corridor.” REALITY: This city commission has committed $6 million to build a park where nobody lives. It is not in a “residential corridor.”

• “The city created the first 5- and 25-year strategic investment plans to make sure we balance the short-term and long-term goals of the city. As part of that long-range planning, the city has funded traffic and connectivity designs — and connected those plans with grant writing efforts to secure funding.” REALITY: Believe it when you see it. Florida Department of Transportation controls the roads that determine traffic reality in Winter Park.

• “The city formed the “Smart Cities” task force to make sure we have better and more reliable internet services to our homes and businesses. During COVID, internet connections became as important as roads/highways for many of our residents.” REALITY: Jargon does not “make sure” of anything.

• “The city allocated $1.8 million of federal funds to the Winter Park Library to offset COVID challenges. The city successfully completed and opened the new Winter Park Library & Events Center in December 2021. The Events Center already has 79 events on the books for 2022 and 25 events booked for 2023.” REALITY: The city runs no successful businesses and should not be competing with for-profit and non-profit meeting venues at taxpayer expense.

• “The city completed a record year of preserving our heritage by registering 12 homes on the Winter Park Register of Historic Places.” REALITY: It is a good thing when property owners volunteer to respect historic significance. If only they would not demand exceptional building variances in return.

• “Having already shifted some of our electrical power generation to solar, the city agreed to move forward on many sustainability efforts including actively seeking ways to meet the city’s clean energy goals.” REALITY: Utility scale solar fields make both financial and environmental sense but are not expected to provide electricity under the city’s existing contracts until 2023.

• “And, last but not least, on January 26, the city agreed to move forward with a contract to purchase the Winter Pines Golf Course. When this transaction is complete, this will result in buying a successful business that will also grow city-owned green space by 93 acres. This is an investment in recreation and green space that will pay for itself from the business income, and will not increase your taxes. We look forward to the synergy between the nationally acclaimed WP9 Golf Course and our newly acquired Winter Pines 18-hole course.” REALITY: The city is going to borrow $8 million we will be on the hook for when the golf course operates at a loss after capital and maintenance requirements. When it loses money, it WILL impact our taxes. If we don’t buy it, it remains a golf course under private ownership. There is no synergy between the WP9 and Winter Park Pines. This is a risky and unnecessary purchase, and a boondoggle in the making.

Please ask your city commission again to reverse their vote to impose an electric rate increase to be effective April 1st. They next meet Wednesday, February 23rd at 3:30 PM.

They avoided the issue at their last meeting in spite of your prior emails, and there are only three more meetings before April.

After further analysis of this 8% rate increase it becomes clear this is a vanity project at the expense of all residential rate payers, including renters, those living in low income housing, and the many thousands of homeowners who already paid to underground their service line.

Those interested in more detail should read these emails to commission members DeCiccio and Anderson, responding to their explanations of the rate increase.

Commissioners supporting the rate increase and service line undergrounding plan are misrepresenting facts and not addressing real issues. When you remove all the gibberish, this is a vanity project at your expense.

• There is no financial analysis of the “inefficiency” of managing overhead service lines when undergrounding the distribution lines. Yet, this was used as a justification. I have requested such an analysis but have have yet to receive a response. My back of the envelop estimate of the “inefficiency” of residential property owners being responsible for their overhead service lines is $1,400,000.
• Yet, the total cost of their program is over $10,000,000. This is to be paid by all 12,000 residential electric customers to underground service lines for about 4,000 customers.
• The rationale of the Utilities Board chair who pushed this rate increase is astounding. Here is a direct quote, “In fact, at one time we said, let’s just charge all of our customers. Then we said no, commercial people are already paying for it so we shouldn’t charge them for something that they are not going to get the benefit for.” Note that there is also no benefit from his program for 8,000 of 12,000 rate payers who will be paying for it. So, why is this fair and necessary for residential rate payers?

The only explanation for their rate increase is a claimed “aesthetic” improvement from removing poles connecting overhead service lines for about 4,000 residential customers out of 12,000. Eventually, all these poles will come down at the property owners expense anyway, as homes are renovated or replaced. Based on reality, their rate increase is unfair and unnecessary.

Once more, please ask your city commission again to reverse their vote to impose the rate increase to be effective April 1st.

Regards, Pete Weldon

This question was asked of me in a Facebook post and is worthy of a complete response.

I think Progress Point Park would be a great idea if it had a point. They should have named it “Pointless Park” and here is why.

Think of Park Avenue and Hannibal Square where there are apartments and condos housing people who frequent the retail, restaurant, and service providers in those areas. What pulls it all together and makes these areas a civic and financial success? The answer is Central Park and Shady Park, providing the open and green space that adds value to living in and visiting these areas.

What is the value of Progress Point Park for Winter Park residents and taxpayers?

Monetary Value: They are spending $4,000,000 on this 3.6 acre project, of which 2.3 acres is park, with the balance mostly parking lot. The commission never asked how they could use this money to better serve the interests of Winter Park residents. There is also a lost opportunity cost of $4,000,000 from not selling off 2 acres while still leaving 1.6 acres for park.

Civic Value: Not much as few people will use it.

• No one lives in the Orange Avenue corridor between Orlando and Fairbanks Avenues and the road sees over 30,000 vehicles per day.
• Walking or cycling to the park is not safe; it requires crossing Orange Avenue or the adjacent railroad track at a five-way traffic intersection.
• The 1.5 acre park is 1250 feet from Mead Garden, an existing 50 acre passive park.
• The “rescission” of residential zoning that incentivizes related development in the Orange Avenue corridor means there will not be any local residents to take advantage of the park, and also deters non-residential development (see Central Park and Shady Park above).
• The absence of development in the Orange Avenue Corridor means the cost of maintaining the park falls entirely on Winter Park residents, who are unlikely to use it.
• Orange Avenue property owners don’t care about having a park as it does nothing for their property values under current zoning.
• The burden to “activate” the park is now exclusively on the backs of Winter Park taxpayers. Even now, the commission is moving toward building a parking structure next to the park at our expense.

Unfortunately, our commission is filled with people who resent private interests and embrace anti-development narratives. Such narratives may apply to green field developments in Unincorporated Orange County but are meaningless and myopic in the context of the 10 square miles that is Winter Park.

Progress Point Park would have been a good investment for all Winter Park residents if zoning incentivized development of residential density similar to that serving Park Avenue and Hannibal Square. As it is, Progress Point Park is a pointless waste of $8,000,000 of our money ($4,000,000 the build the park and the lost opportunity from not selling off 2 acres for $4,000,000.)

The city commission just approved an average 8% increase effective April 1 for all residential electric customers for the foreseeable future. They did this to pay to underground those private residential electric service lines on private property not already undergrounded.

Every residential customer is to pay the added fee, including renters, low income housing residents, and the roughly 65% of residential electric customers who already paid to have their service line undergrounded. The annual increase in the average electric bill will be about $170.00.

If your residence already has its local service line undergrounded, you will be paying again to benefit those who have not yet undergrounded their service line.

Click here to tell the city commission to REVERSE COURSE.

The fee increase is unfair and unneeded. At least since the 1980s, nearly every residence renovated or replaced in Winter Park must have its service line undergrounded at the property owner’s expense. That is largely why we already have about 65% of residential service lines undergrounded. Properties with overhead service lines will eventually underground at the owners expense, not your expense, after this fee is reversed.

Why force the issue and require 65% of residential electric customers to pay again to underground service lines that are not their responsibility? There is no valid reason, yet our impatient, spend thrift commission wants it done. It is time push back. Tell the city commission to REVERSE COURSE on the added electric fee.

This is purely a vanity project as there are no reliability or safety issues impacting neighboring properties when leaving private service lines above ground. Per the city’s Director of Electric Utilities, “A service line failure from the pole to the house, whether under ground or overhead will not affect the surrounding power grid.”

• If you renovated your home you already paid to have your electric service line undergrounded.
• If you built a new home you already paid to have your electric service line undergrounded.
• If you bought a home with service lines already undergrounded, you already paid for that in the price of the home.
• If you rent, you are going to be paying to underground electric service lines for people living in million dollar homes.

Nothing about this makes any sense.

Tell the city commission you should not pay TWICE and to kill the fee!

I offer insights into the proposed Charter Amendments below and recommend a NO VOTE on all of them.

The Winter Park City Charter has required a simple majority of the commission to approve all laws, 3 of 5 members, at least since 1915.

The current commission is proposing six charter amendments for the March 8, 2022 city election, five of which if passed would require “Supermajority” votes to pass certain changes, 4 of 5 members. That is, a minority of 2 of the 5 members would be able to block passage. Charter proposals historically come from an appointed, independent Charter Review Task Force, which was not done in this case.

When considered as a whole, “Supermajority” voting requirements lock in the status quo to the determent of reasoned changes. In my experience, the vagaries of individual motivations to run for public office are many, and the quality of judgment of those winning election is never assured. Given these realities, “Supermajority” requirements lead to reasoned initiatives being blocked by an unreasoned minority. I believe Winter Park residents are best assured a reasoned outcome from a simple majority vote of the commission on all matters, that is then subject to modification by a simple majority. Given our cycle of annual elections and three year terms, simple majority governance has served our city well for over a century. So, why does the current commission want you to agree to overturn over 100 years of successful precedent and support “Supermajority” voting?

As shown below, the proposed Charter Amendments were not initiated based on broad considerations of good governance, but due to the current commission disagreeing with recent past decisions. Their amendments are not designed to improve our governance, but to make it more difficult for future commissions to act in ways the current commission disagrees with.

• Question #1: Require Supermajority Vote to Sell City Property Shall Sections 2.08 and 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require at least four of five members of the city commission to vote in favor to approve the conveyance of fee simple title of city owned property?

There may be good reasons to sell or swap city owned land that would be stopped by a minority of the commission if this amendment passes. A current example is the 4 acre city owned Progress Point property which could be leveraged to raise significant money to improve or expand existing city parks.

The question fails to require a “Supermajority” for purchasing real property, revealing an inherent bias of the current commission. A relevant example is that 3 of the 5 commission members are now voting to commit 3 to 7 times fair market value to buy the Winter Park post office property and move the post office out of downtown. If you support a “Supermajority” to sell city land, why wouldn’t the converse also be desirable?

• Question #2: Require Supermajority Vote to Rezone Parks and Public Lands Shall Sections 2.08 and 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require at least four of five members of the city commission to vote in favor to (i) approve a comprehensive plan future land use map amendment or rezoning of city-owned park land; and (ii) approve a comprehensive plan future land use map amendment, rezoning or change of use of land currently zoned public and quasi-public district or zoned parks and recreation district.

There may be good reasons to swap park and/or rezone park or public use zoned land that would be stopped by a minority of the commission if this amendment passes. Any proposal to change park or public use zoning would necessarily offer the residents a significant net benefit that would be the subject of judgment. The current commission has designated 1.5 acres of the Progress Point property as “park” and they are afraid this may be reversed in the future. This amendment is designed to make it nearly impossible to reverse their current preferences and unnecessarily limits changes that would offer long term benefits to Winter Park residents.

• Question #3: Require Supermajority Vote for Residential and Lakefront Property Map Amendments Shall Sections 2.08 and 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require at least four of five members of the city commission to vote in favor of a comprehensive plan future land use map amendment or rezoning (i) from a residential category to a non-residential category, or (ii) to lakefront property from a residential use to a commercial use, mixed -use, medium density residential use or high density residential use?

As a practical matter, this language only targets a few lots on Lake Killarney and 17.92 that were the subject of a hotel proposal that was denied by the commission. So, why make this a Charter Amendment? What justification is there to make it nearly impossible to, for example, convert existing medium density residential condos on Lake Killarney to mixed use at some point in the future?

Current rules already prohibit any rezoning to “high density residential use” (25 units per acre) so why is this even mentioned?

• Question #4: Require Supermajority Vote for Density/Intensity Increases Shall Sections 2.08 and 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require at least four of five members of the city commission to vote in favor of approval of a comprehensive plan amendment, land development code amendment or rezoning that increases the maximum allowed residential units per acre (density) or floor area ratio (intensity) by more than twenty-five percent from the existing maximum allowed density or intensity of use?

This amendment is designed to prohibit the original approved (now “rescinded”) Orange Avenue Overlay (OAO) that removed residential density entirely from some properties and allowed it to be consolidated on other property with no net increase in total density. The original OAO also allowed for increased floor area ratios based on contribution of civic amenities not otherwise required, such as more public space and greater setbacks. There can be significant benefits for residents from flexibility in these development criteria that would be nearly impossible to realize if this amendment passes. This amendment would also deter investment interest in Winter Park. The current commission does not trust future commissions to make such decisions in the best interest of the residents. Governance, or personal bias?

• Question #5: Require Supermajority Vote to Approve Development in Wetlands Shall Sections 2.08 and 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require at least four of five members of the city commission to vote in favor of development orders authorizing development within wetlands?

This amendment came about because commissioners believed a proposed development off Howell Branch Road contained a “Wetland” (it did not). Development in a “Wetland” in Winter Park would typically be to build a boat dock on a lake front property. Such development is subject to strict design and mitigation strategies developed over years of experience and requires special permits. Approval of “Wetland” development in Winter Park already requires a conditional use approval by a supermajority of the commission, making this proposed amendment unneeded overkill that does not belong in a City Charter.

• Question #6: Ordinance Changes During Adoption Process Shall Section 2.11 of the Winter Park City Charter be amended to require an additional public meeting and reading of a proposed ordinance before its adoption if during the adoption process either (i) a substantive or material change is made, or (ii) a change is made to a proposed zoning or comprehensive plan amendment ordinance resulting in an increase in the maximum allowed density or intensity of uses or a change to the permitted uses?

The existing charter says; “If there is a change in substance in the text, then the reading at the time of change will be deemed the first reading.” A change in density or intensity or uses clearly constitute a change in “substance” which would require a 3rd reading under existing rules. Adding the proposed language may make it more likely such approvals will be dragged out to a third reading, but the consequence is only to allow more time for those objecting to pressure one or more commission members to change their vote, hardly a matter of constructive governance.

When considered in context, the proposed charter amendments are a hodgepodge of grievance from the current commission that overturns over 100 years of successful simple majority precedent. None of the amendments improve the governance of Winter Park and in my view should be rejected by the voters. Please join me and 8 other Winter Park Mayors and Commissioners in voting NO to all these amendments.

The problem with narratives is that they don’t reflect reality. Making city policy based on narratives is unwise as it wastes human and financial capital, while also having significant opportunity cost. Our current commission is more interested in narratives than governance.

I understood we had a problem when shortly after their election in March 2020, two members of the Winter Park City Commission sent city wide emails expressing empathy for the “victims of racism and police violence” in reaction to the national media narrative about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While empathy is nice, these commissioners used their public authority to throw Winter Park police officers under the bus. The Winter Park Civil Service Board, City Commission, and Police Department had addressed the relevant “use of force” policies years ago when similar media narratives drew national attention to these issues. These emails by the commissioners led residents to believe our police practices were flawed and needlessly aggravated emotions. This was never the reality and these city wide emails were totally inappropriate.

Unfortunately, this policy by narrative approach continues at great social and financial cost to Winter Park residents.

The commission bought into a narrative about the children of Winter Park being denied quality playing fields and so approved spending $1,600,000 for two artificial turf fields using city emergency reserve money. Reality is that Winter Park has five times the number of playing fields per 1000 population as other regional municipalities, we subsidize playing fields at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars a year primarily for adult and for-profit sports leagues, not for Winter Park children playing with their parents as coaches on a not-for-profit basis. The commission spent our money without any planning or rational basis (there were other ways to address the needs of Winter Park children for much less than $1,600,000).

The commission committed over $2,000,000 to create a 1.5 acre park on the city owned 4 acre Progress Point property on Orange Avenue. The same commission killed the opportunity for residential density on Orange Avenue that would have justified a park. This is all based on the narrative that we need to conserve more land for parks. Reality is that we have exceeded our 10 acres park per thousand residents standard, the highest standard for park land of almost all Florida cities. We have over 13 acres for every thousand residents (over 300 acres of park land). The reality is that the Progress Point land is worth as much as $8,000,000 that could be used to improve our existing inventory of parks, including more than 50 acres in the recently expanded Howell Branch Preserve. It seems the “conservation” narrative needs to be adhered to regardless of its cost to you, even though we already have a record of conservation that is the envy of our region.

Common sense tells us to reduce CO2 emissions (I have over $20,000 of solar panels on my roof). Dogma motivates our elected officials to propose unattainable carbon reduction objectives. This commission has bought into the “climate change is an existential threat” narrative, committing the city to polices that offer no connection to reality.

They gave away a bit of Winter Park’s autonomy by endorsing the “East Central Florida Regional Resilience Collaborative.” Narrative jargon about “resilience” and “stressors” serves only to perpetuate policies serving political interests of government staffers, not real interests of Winter Park residents. For those uninitiated in this contemporary religion, “stressor” is something like a hurricane and “resilience” is how we are prepared to react to a “stressor.” Winter Park voters overwhelmingly approved the purchase of our electric distribution system over 15 years ago and will have spent over $70,000,000 in profits from our power company to under ground our electric services by 2026 (without raising rates above those of the prior power provider). Reality is that this investment in “resilience” to the most risky “stressor” we face has already been made, and has already proved its worth in hurricane Irma in 2017 where only one power outage was attributed to an under grounded service area.

Now, ideologues want to declare that Winter Park will be 100% carbon free by 2050. Nice work if you can get it. Reality is that the city has signed contracts to received 20% of our bulk electric power from utility scale solar fields (a very real and material commitment to reducing carbon emissions). The maximum solar power our electric utility can commit to without risking paying for unused power or increasing outages is about 30% (the roughly 30% of each day the sun shines). Exceeding 30% is not attainable given current power storage technology and cost. So, they waste time and treasure making themselves feel more virtuous, while ignoring opportunities to materially improve our city in tangible ways.

Common sense should tell us what to do, not narrative jargon serving political interests outside the scope of Winter Park reality. Please seek and support candidates for Winter Park City Commission who value effective local governance over ideology.