By Rob Clark, Strategic Communications Intern with The Apopka Voice
Changes to the Apopka City Charter have been a hot-button topic for almost two years. Unfortunately, it has also been in limbo since the workshops ended earlier this year. Then, when it finally appeared on the agenda at the December 4th City Council meeting, progress was again delayed when the Council chose to table the item after introducing an additional issue into the discussion.
“We’ve been kind of talking about the City Charter for almost 2 years now,” Commissioner Diane Velaquez said. “I believe some of the residents that had some recommendations did not forward them because they felt like it would not become a reality.”
With reality finally here, residents proposed four new amendments to the four formulated prior.
Original Amendments
1. Changing the mayor council to council-manager form of government.
2. Amending the name of the governing body from council to city commission.
3. Clarifying that the city clerk performs a ministerial function in reviewing candidates.
4. Changing the date for the regular city election to the first Tuesday in November.
Additional Recommendations
1. City Attorney and City Manager shall be under contract approved by majority of city commision.
2. Three full term limit to any member of the commission prohibiting them from reappearing on the ballot to any seat other than the position of Mayor.
3. City Clerk and City Attorney can only be removed by majority commission vote.
4. The City Clerk is to make aware of any inaccuracies at the next city council meeting.
After an additional four amendments were presented, Commissioner Nick Nesta raised the importance of ensuring that the public can weigh-in on the proposed amendments.
"I wanna make sure that number one, the public has enough time to digest it, give feedback on any of those changes, and provide that as well if we're gonna add those, which I'm not taking an opinion one way or the other right now, its just, I think it's a little too soon. It would be beneficial to see what this looks like and hear from the public on a kind of longer term, not just today, but later on down the road as well on these updated amendments."
Then, without any context or discussion, Mayor Bryan Nelson added a new item to the process.
"I know the one that was obviously important to Commissioner (Alexander) Smith was the South Apopka annexation, which is, I don't think we're there yet either. So I don't know what. Have we ever gotten down to an actual boundary?
"I think the last time that we addressed that... the boundary that originally I asked was that we go all the way to McCormick Road, and through the conversations with some of the other departments, it is suggested that we stop at Keene Road. And so that was the boundary that we were asking for. Okay. So to Keene Road, to the South, from Piedmont Wekiva to the East, and Vineyard to the West."
"So the one we kind of flushed out last, the first time," said Nelson. "Okay. Okay. All right."
Is that part of this, though? Nesta asked.
"The annexation, I don't think, is part of the city charter," Velazquez said.
"Did we discuss this during that process? During the charter review process? nesta asked.
"Well, we've talked..." Nelson said.
"No, you did not," said City Attorney Cliff Shepard. "No, not as a part of the charter review."
"Correct," said Nelson.
"That was a separate meeting," said Smith.
"Right, right," said Nelson.
"I'm just confused about why it's being brought up right now," said Nesta.
Though the annexation wasn’t included in the original charter review process, it has been another ongoing discussion in the City of Apopka dating back to the 80s. Though annexation requires its own procedures and ordinance, some commissioners found it economically viable to try incorporating both the annexation and charter vote into a singular special election or possibly extending the vote to March of 2026.
“I think we just need to start the process of annexation because we are kicking that down the road as well,” said Commissioner Nadia Anderson. “ I just don’t understand what would be the cost benefit of two separate elections.”
On the flip side, when talking about public understanding of bringing the two together, Nesta stated, “I’m just worried how politics could come into play and muddy these waters.”
After close to an hour of deliberation, the Council determined it was best to table this reading so that Shepard could prepare the new recommendations into proper amendments and contact the Supervisor of Elections about deadlines.
