From Staff Reports
In Summary:
Apopka commissioners are scheduled to discuss meeting procedures, board appointments, and the Planning Commission during a Wednesday workshop at City Hall. The discussion is accompanied by a legal memo concluding that Planning Commission members likely fall under state protections requiring notice, hearings, and statutory cause before removal. The workshop could help shape how the city’s new commission approaches transparency, governance, and oversight moving forward.
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Apopka’s Planning Commission may sit at the pleasure of the City Commission, but according to a legal memo, removing its members may require far more than a majority vote.
Related: Apopka’s next growth battle may not be over development projects.
The Apopka City Commission will convene on Wednesday, before its regular meeting, for a workshop that could shape how the new commission conducts public business and handles one of the city’s most important advisory boards.
As the new commission begins settling into office, Wednesday’s workshop could provide an early roadmap for how the city intends to govern over the next several years.
The agenda includes two main discussion items: procedures for commission meetings, including dates and times, and the Apopka Planning Commission Board.
The Planning Commission discussion is accompanied by a legal memo from Assistant City Attorney Holli New addressing how members of the Planning Commission, which also serves as Apopka’s Local Planning Agency, may be removed from office.
According to the memo, the “better legal interpretation” is that removals are governed by Section 112.501, Florida Statutes, rather than language in the city’s Land Development Code allowing members to be removed “without notice and without assignment of cause.”
That distinction could be significant.
The memo states that because Apopka’s Planning Commission functions as the city’s Local Planning Agency under state law, its members likely qualify as “municipal board members” under Florida law. That would mean any removal would require written notice, an opportunity to be heard, statutory grounds for removal, and formal action by resolution. The memo identifies those grounds as malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties.
The issue comes as the new City Commission has signaled interest in reviewing how boards, appointments, procedures, and long-running city issues are handled. The workshop agenda also lists several future discussion topics, including appointments of the mayor and commissioners to outside boards such as MetroPlan and the Lake Apopka Natural Gas District.
It also listed to discuss policies for pioneering agreements, transportation issues, citizen advisory boards, utility infrastructure and planning, the comprehensive plan, and database software to track commission votes.
A 30-minute public comment period is also scheduled for city-related matters not listed as business items or public hearings. Each speaker is generally allotted three minutes, though speaking time may be reduced if many residents submit cards.
No votes are scheduled Wednesday night, but the workshop could mark the beginning of a broader recalibration at City Hall — one focused on transparency, procedure, appointments, and the balance of power between the commission and the boards that help shape Apopka’s future growth. In many ways, the meeting may offer the clearest signal yet of how the city’s new leadership intends to govern differently from the administration it replaced.
The workshop is scheduled for 5:30 pm. Wednesday, May 20, in the Apopka City Hall Commission Chambers. The meeting will also be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
Key Points:
- The workshop will focus on commission meeting procedures and the Apopka Planning Commission Board.
- A legal memo argues that Planning Commission members are likely protected under Section 112.501, Florida Statutes.
- The memo states members could only be removed through formal procedures and for specific statutory reasons.
- Future workshop topics include MetroPlan and Lake Apopka Natural Gas District appointments, transportation, utility infrastructure, and citizen advisory boards.
- The meeting may set the tone for how Apopka’s new commission approaches governance and public transparency.
