100 days ago, Commissioners Doug Bankson and Kyle Becker sat down for their first City Council meeting. They negotiated recreation fees, hired a new fire chief, fired a controversial consultant, put the City Center in motion, and began the budgeting process. It's been a whirlwind tour for the newest Apopka City Commissioners , but both have hit the ground running. The Apopka Voice met with Bankson and Becker to get their thoughts on their first 100 days in office.
Part Two: Commissioner Kyle Becker
Kyle Becker sent shockwaves throughout Apopka on April 12th when he defeated a 39-year incumbent to grab a seat on the City Commission. It was an exciting campaign, but politics are one thing, and governing is another. How would the first-time candidate fare?
Commissioner Becker sat down for an interview with The Apopka Voice and explained how he prepared for the task of being a City Commissioner, and outlined his first 100 days in office.
"I've never considered myself as a politician, but a public servant," he said. "And in order to best serve the public, you have to prepare yourself. It’s a humbling experience to have the privilege and responsibility to help shape our short term and long term future. I’m still learning. And I suspect I will be learning beyond 100 days and into the next four years. It is a lot of work to make sure you are fully abreast of each situation that comes before Council. Whether it be a small zoning change request…it takes a good bit of work to do the research that’s needed to make informed decisions on the Council. And what I learned is each agenda that comes out can be different from the previous. There’s just a lot that takes place on the city level that requires our attention. Some are obviously more controversial than others. But I’ve learned if you do the legwork in terms of doing the research, asking the right questions…I find that I’m comfortable with the decisions I make on Council."
"I’ve always been of the mindset that ideally you don’t want to raise taxes. Who wants to raise taxes? But I don’t want to champion this slogan of us being the lowest millage rate of any full service city in Orange County. Having that but falling behind in terms of level of quality… you don’t want this idea of having the lowest tax rate in Orange County if you’re falling behind in other areas."
-Commissioner Kyle Becker
Becker talked comprehensively about his experiences and frustrations with the budgeting process the City Council took on in the past weeks.
"Having this budget exercise is a daunting task when you’ve only been in office a couple of months. Not to make an excuse…it’s just factual. When you have this 700-page book staring you in the face – it’s pretty daunting. Being asked to do that within the framework of four meetings was a difficult task to begin with. I think there was some frustration at the end because I didn’t feel like we had enough detailed conversations after we had gone through the general fund. Granted we can still rollback the increase that we proposed once the budget is finalized, but I’m trying to get to the point where we talk through some of the additions we had, some of the subtractions we had… to kind of walk through that… to make sure we needed what we said we needed and to cut what we said we needed to cut…to get to that final decision to say yes this is in the best interest of the city go ahead and raise the millage rate."
He struggled with the idea of raising taxes, but also with the idea of Apopka falling behind in quality and in essential services.
"It’s a very complex issue. You can look at every single item on that budget and justify it…every single thing, but we just can’t. We can’t get into the habit of taking from reserves every year. We can’t get into the habit of trying to finance debt every single year. I’ve always been of the mindset that ideally you don’t want to raise taxes. Who wants to just raise taxes? But I don’t want to champion this slogan of us being the lowest millage rate of any full service city in Orange County. Having that but falling behind in terms of level of quality… you don’t want this idea of having the lowest tax rate in Orange County if you’re falling behind in other areas. So incremental increases in millage rates at the City level…if it’s bringing in needed resources to maintain quality service, maintain our assets within the city, then I can see it. It was abundantly clear that our Parks and Recreation (Department) is going to start falling behind if we don’t have the needed resources to maintain the quality that they are for the city."
Becker's campaign focused strongly on economic development in Apopka, and the City Center project is one he believes could transform Apopka.
"I’m comfortable with the decision we made. I’m excited about the prospects of that property. Obviously there are still some big things up in the air, primarily the Highland Manor, but the idea of a City Center has been talked about for over 15 years. Taurus (Southern Investments) is well positioned in their industry, and they have a reputation to uphold. Am I comfortable with them as the developer? Absolutely. I think they’ve done a good job putting together their presentations, and really capturing the vision of what we had in mind. And they made concessions in terms of the deal. They worked with our City staff. They made sure it was a good deal for the City as well as themselves. I’m excited. It’s the logical path to make sure that we thrive economically. I think it’s going to be that anchor location to get started on that downtown corridor we all talked about so many times spanning Sixth Street and going to Station Street."
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