By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
The Apopka City Council will discuss the termination and severance package for former city administrator Jacob Smith at its April 2nd meeting. And while labeled as a Human Resources agenda item, don't be fooled; it's purely political. Smith's ouster on March 21st by Mayor Bryan Nelson was the first casualty of the 2026 Apopka Mayoral election, but it probably won't be the last.
Smith was unceremoniously relieved of his duties by Nelson with less thought than a baseball coach taking out a pitcher in the middle of an inning. Three days after Nelson made the journey to Smith's office to announce 'you're all done,' he told The Apopka Chief his reasons:
"I'm his boss, and you'd think he would communicate with me, but yeah, so in four weeks since his daughter got married, he'd been to see me in my office once," Nelson said.
He also referenced the two "EOG DOGE" emails that came to Smith.
"He got two emails, one from the governor's office and one from the League of Cities, about this DOGE requirement. That was it. I was done," Nelson said.
It's hard to imagine the mayor of a city of 60,000 residents would arrive at a snap decision on a position as vital as city administrator without any warning or reprimand. But according to Nelson, that was the extent of the reasons he fired Smith. Not only that, but according to Smith, he learned about those reasons in the published article.
Those alone don't appear to be enough to fire the person leading your city staff on a day-to-day basis. However, if you return to the 2024/25 budget cycle, things might get a little clearer.
Smith showed candor, honesty, and bravery during the 2024-25 budget workshops. On the very first day, Apopka resident Rod Olsen asked him this question.
"Can you please tell me that this budget encompasses everything you need in people and supplies in order to get the job done to make our taxpayers happy and furthermore to address the growth we have," Olsen asked. It was a question he also asked most of the department heads, who answered in the affirmative. Smith, however, had a different take.
"Well, that's something we can discuss later, and I'll let you know, but no, it's not enough."
Surprised at his answer, Olsen walked away but then asked a follow-up question.
"What areas is it not enough?"
"Every single one," Smith replied.
It was a surprising response that set the tone for day one. On the final day of hearings, Smith delivered more sobering news to the Council.
"So one of the things that we haven't seen in the budget and we haven't discussed yet, and Commissioner Nesta brought it up in the last session as we are in the middle of negotiations with fire (AFD)," Smith said. "We don't have an exact number on that, but that is something that has not been counted into this current budget. Now, you see, we have a balanced budget, but we're using quite a bit of reserves."
Smith later played a key role in concluding that negotiation, although he credited Nelson.
Then, Smith went back in time to explain why Apopka was in a budgetary crisis.
"I want to give a little bit of history of what I've seen, and I don't want anybody here to take offense... people, anybody that's on the dais, because this is purely numbers. And I'm just looking at trends. I don't know who did what or what policy decisions were made. But I just want to give you an example... first of all, when it comes to the millage rate itself, I found out that it increased in 2018. It was increased in 2020. The last time anything happened to the millage rate was actually in 2021. And it was actually rolled back to what it is today. So, there hasn't been any change in the millage rate for the last four years. In that same time period, we've had increases in the ad valorem. I counted some of the larger revenue sources... sales and the shared taxes with the county and the state. Of course, there are some governmental policies that affect fire employees and planning, but these are the big ones. And this is what I found out: from 2021 to 2022, we had about a $1.8 million increase in revenue. At that same time, public safety combined, which takes up right now 60% of our budget, had a $3.5 million increase in operations, and personnel. From 2022 to 2023, the city had about a $4.2 million increase in revenue from the year prior to the next year in the public safety budget. It went up $6.4 million. And then this last year, 2023 to 2024, we had an increase of about $5.0-5.5 million, and the budget for public safety went up $7.7 million. So you can see the trend there."
Smith may not have named the person to blame for this budget's state, but the years he identified as the problem made it clear which administration was in charge at the time.
"This revenue ad valorem, as well as the sales-related taxes, are not keeping up with the amount that's being put into 60% of the budget, which is public safety. So there's a trend here, and now we've hit that point where we've crossed over, where we've been using reserves. Expenses have caught up to that revenue line, and now it's crossing. And that's that's the issue we have here. To complicate that more, we have not included in this budget those union negotiations, which could be in the neighborhood of $2-3 million."
Despite the five-alarm fire Smith was describing, he remained calm and objective while recommending a millage rate increase that was clearly necessary.
"I know it can hurt when you're having all these increases, but the truth of the matter is, we've got these increased costs, personnel costs, you know, the inflation has been through the roof, and our revenue has not followed that same trajectory."
That is the kind of analysis and recommendations you want your city administrator to make to the Council. Unfortunately, this is probably the beginning of what got him terminated.
After all, 2024 integrity is one thing, but 2025 will be in the middle of the 2026 election cycle.
Can you imagine if Smith made similar assertions about the upcoming budget as critical as last year in an election year? Can you imagine if Nelson's administrator recommended that he raise millage rates again in an election year? Nelson, who prides himself on keeping taxes low, would be without one of his primary political weapons.
The budget struggles Apopka experienced last year and most certainly will again this year are something an administration with a vision beyond keeping taxes low would have seen coming years before, as Smith pointed out. But sometimes, maybe most times, policy and politics are two different things.
While doing the job he was hired to do, Smith stepped on a political land mine in 2024 that didn't fully detonate until March 21st, 2025.
Less than a year before election day, I am confident that Nelson will run for a third term, face Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore and possibly other candidates. And without a doubt what happens during the 2025/26 budget cycle will play a vital role in this election.
I don't know who the interim city administrator will be during the upcoming budget season (or if there will even be one). Still, I can almost guarantee that they and the rest of the department heads and staff will not show the candor, honesty, and bravery Smith exemplified during last year's budget cycle. Unfortunately, they have proof at the highest level that any of them are one mayoral tirade away from the separation clause in their contract.
