By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
There is a right way to leave office.
It’s a standard defined by restraint, respect for the voters, and a clear understanding that the next chapter no longer belongs to you.
There is a right way to leave office, and then there is what Apopka is experiencing right now.
In its final weeks, an outgoing administration should be focused on continuity, stability, and respect for the voters who just made their decision. Instead, recent appointments to key boards and commissions, with others likely to come, raise a difficult question: whose vision is being carried forward—the voters’ or an outgoing mayor?
Consider the appointment of Malika Harrison to the Planning Commission.
Previously, it took Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson months to fill a vacant seat, naming Wes Dumey to the commission when James Greene resigned in 2022.
But in Harrison's case, he filled it at the very next meeting after the election.
Harrison, who lost a special election to Yesenia Baron for Seat #4 on the Apopka City Commission eight days earlier, is a relative unknown in Apopka. Yet Nelson nominated her to sit on a commission that plays a central role in shaping land use, development, and the city's future, making recommendations on zoning, site plans, and long-term growth policy.
Appointments to that body carry consequences that extend years beyond any one administration.
The Apopka City Commission approved the appointment in a narrow 3-2 vote at its March 18th meeting, despite objections from commissioners who argued the decision should be left to the incoming mayor.
During the discussion, Commissioner Nadia Anderson pushed back on the objections, stating that a person’s term ends when the next commission member takes office.
“Let me be clear: we are all elected until our terms are up. We have to continue business as usual. I don’t understand stopping business until the new administration comes in. We still have to make decisions—otherwise, we might as well cancel all meetings and do nothing.”
Anderson makes a good point. Shouldn’t commission members continue conducting business right up until their term is up? But then, her point seemed more self-serving when the next vote took place.
MetroPlan Orlando is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties—essentially the body that decides how major transportation dollars are planned and spent across Central Florida. There are 19 voting board members, including the mayors of Orlando, Apopka, Altamonte Springs, Kissimmee, and Sanford. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who is running for governor, sits on the board.
Nelson was a board member during his term, and by Anderson's logic, shouldn’t he have remained a member right up until his term ended? The next meeting isn’t until May, so the transition between him and the next mayor would be seamless.
Instead, by another 3-2 vote, the commission named Anderson to the board. In doing so, it chose a first-term commissioner with only two years of experience rather than selecting Vice Mayor Diane Velazquez, the commission's senior member, or waiting until the new Apopka mayor could be installed. The nomination was made by Commissioner Alexander Smith, who called for a motion seconded by Anderson, with Nelson casting the third vote.
Smith, a board member of the Lake Apopka Natural Gas District, will have another difficult decision in the coming weeks: serve out his term on LANGD or make another motion to hand the reins to someone else.
It’s too bad Smith didn’t take the ambitious yet simple approach to call for a motion, as it applied to a plan to annex South Apopka, to create an effective Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, or to request a plan to help affordable/workforce housing flourish in Apopka... all initiatives he mentioned during commission meetings, but failed to take the next step. He seems to have found his voice now that his term is almost concluded.
And that is precisely what makes the timing of these decisions so consequential.
These are not short-term decisions. They are structural ones, and they are being made in the final month of an administration that voters have already chosen to move on from.
That is where the issue becomes bigger than any one appointment. Transitions matter. They are a test of leadership, not authority. A mayor has the power to appoint until the final day in office—but that does not mean they should.
In fact, the opposite is often true.
Graceful leadership recognizes when restraint serves the city better than action. It recognizes that major appointments, especially those with multi-year implications, should reflect the direction voters just chose, not the one they rejected.
Here is a slice of a five-part series I wrote in 2018 when Nelson replaced Mayor Joe Kilsheimer after a contentious election in which Nelson got 63% of the vote:
“Despite the tone of the election, Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer and Mayor-Elect Bryan Nelson have communicated cordially since the results were known. There have been two conversations between them - one on election night and another to discuss the transition.
"They were nice discussions," said Nelson. "He wanted to know if I was supporting some things that were ongoing between the end of his term and the beginning of mine. He also called me on election night and congratulated me."
Nelson also said this on his Facebook page after his initial visit with Kilsheimer:
"Mayor Joe Kilsheimer invited me to City Hall to catch me up on pending issues that will be facing the city over the next several months. We had a great discussion, and I appreciate his help in the transition. We need our community to work together for the betterment of Apopka. Thank you, Mayor Kilsheimer, for reaching out and for your time."
Certainly, these two were not friends or even friendly during the campaign, but when the results were announced, Kilsheimer respected the will of the people and paved the way for a smooth transition.
Apopka is in the middle of another transition. The voters made that clear on Election Day. The role of an outgoing administration is not to shape the next chapter, but to hand it off with grace and dignity, in the best interests of the residents they serve.
Because in the end, leadership is not just measured by what you do in office. It’s also measured by how you leave it.
