In Summary:
Eight candidates for Apopka City Commission and Mayor met residents at the Farmworker Association’s headquarters for an informal, bilingual candidate forum that focused on flooding, infrastructure, trust in City Hall and immigrant safety. Seat 1 candidates debated preparation versus planning on storm response, Seat 2 focused on representation and transparency, and Seat 4 split between infrastructure capacity and downtown livability, while mayoral hopefuls argued over how open and accountable city government should be.
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Every election cycle, the Farmworker Association of Florida hosts a candidate forum at its Apopka headquarters, drawing farmworkers, candidates, and neighbors into a small, close-quarters meeting room where they mingle and watch the town hall unfold — a setting far removed from the city’s traditional debate spaces.
Related: Who Won? Nelson, Nesta, and Moore clash on utility rates, growth, and leadership in the Apopka mayoral debate.
Overall, it is the most informal and cordial of the election events, with the audience often applauding the candidate's answers and rarely making negative comments or booing.
And although he was respectful, Rene Gomez, the Civic Engagement Coordinator for the FWAF and moderator for the forum, put the city’s recurring arguments over flooding, overdevelopment, transparency, and immigrant fear into a single room, then asked candidates to answer them in front of the people living the consequences. It was a bilingual night by design, with questions and answers moving between English and Spanish, and with community recognition built into the rhythm of the program — repeated reminders that elections aren’t abstractions when residents are worried about whether they can drive home in a downpour, afford their utilities, or call police without fear.
And almost every answer — no matter the seat — circled back to the same pressures:
Water. Growth. Trust. Fear.
Seat 1: Alexander Smith vs. Sam Ruth
Flooding, growth, and whether immigrants feel safe here
If Seat 1 had a theme, it was cause and effect.
Apopka City Commissioner Alexander Smith, who is running for a third term in Seat #1, spoke like someone who had watched the city change in slow motion.
“I’ve been in Apopka since 1965. I graduated from Apopka High School… after teaching for 40 years, I retired… and then I ran for city commission,” he said. “I came back to Apopka because I wanted to make a difference.”
On flooding, he described steady fixes, not sweeping promises.
“As we continue with development, we will continue to ask the developers to create green space when they develop the projects, and where there’ll be places for the water to run off… as well as going back and restructuring some of the older facilities where there are drainage problems here in the city.”
Growth, in his view, helps fund those repairs.
Former Commissioner Sam Ruth, who is challenging Smith, didn’t frame it as a funding problem. He framed it as preparation.
“I’ve lived here my whole life… I’ve been here through probably 15 hurricanes, and every year it’s the same locations,” he said. “These problems are a reflection of leadership.”
Then he outlined what he believed the city should already be doing.
“If you know a hurricane’s coming, you lower all the water levels on all the lakes, you make sure all the pumps are supported, you make sure everything’s fueled… It needs to be operable and in shape to perform the task at hand, not after the fact.”
Then Gomez asked the first immigration question of the evening:
“What strategies will you bring to bridge the divide between pro- and anti-immigrant sentiments and ensure that all your constituents feel safe?”
“I am a strong supporter of law enforcement… at one point or time, everybody in this room was an immigrant,” Ruth said. “What I don’t want to do is build walls. I want to build an open community society where we all feel like we’re neighbors.”
“We need to stop the narrative about us versus them and realize that we all are Apopka residents and citizens here in these United States,” Smith said. “They’re afraid to even come out of the house because they’re afraid of the law enforcement. We also need to train our law enforcement officers so that they know how to speak to them and treat them as human beings.”
Seat 2: Diane Velázquez vs. Angela Turner
Representation, small business, and making City Hall understandable
For Commissioner Diane Velázquez, who is running for a third term in Seat #2, the issue was visibility.
“When I came here to Apopka, the one thing I had realized was how much our Hispanic community was kind of in the shadows,” she said. “I felt it was important to have a voice. You shop at your local stores, you go out to eat at your local restaurants… the leadership should be going around the city introducing themselves, going out to the businesses, patronizing the businesses.”
When the discussion turned from development and small businesses to how City Hall explains itself to the public, the question of transparency drew a sharper contrast in tone between the two candidates.
Velázquez framed it in plain, practical terms.
“It means to be honest. To be honest, with what it costs to run the city. To be honest to let you know that infrastructure is gonna cost. To let you know the cost of everything — what it costs to have fire, what it costs to have the fire department, what it costs to pick up the garbage… For me, transparency is always to let the taxpayer know how we are spending their money.”
Dr. Angela Turner, who is challenging Velazquez for Seat #2, widened the definition beyond numbers and line items.
“Transparency to me is not just a buzzword. It is a responsibility. It is the responsibility of lawmakers and leaders in our city to be able to develop clear policies and plans so that we understand that in plain language… Understanding where the money is going, understanding the budgeting and the planning… and being able to feel seen and heard when they’re making decisions.”
George Smith, who is also running for Seat #2, did not participate in the forum.
Seat 4: Yesenia Baron vs. Malika Harrison
Infrastructure first — and a downtown people actually use
The Seat 4 race is divided along two complementary tracks: one candidate focuses on whether the city’s physical systems can keep pace with growth, the other on whether Apopka is building the kind of place residents want to spend time in once the roads and pipes are in place.
Malika Harrison made the point that development should follow infrastructure, not the other way around.
“This is a very exciting time for Apopka in terms of our growth. However, it is outpacing the infrastructure,” she said. “I’m not suggesting we stop, but do a pause and an assessment to see how we move forward responsibly.”
Answering questions about small businesses and downtown revitalization, she spoke less about systems and more about experience—what success looks like on the ground.
“When I think about my vision for Main Street, it is walkable. It’s somewhere we want to go and take a stroll on a Sunday evening. We want to dine. We want to be able to have some workspaces and creative spaces,” she said.
She tied that vision to a broader civic goal.
“There’s a way that we’re looking at improving our quality of life, building a greater sense of community,” she said. “It doesn’t just have to be left to the council. It’s an entire community effort.”
Mayor: Christine Moore vs. Nick Nesta
Transparency — and fear that doesn’t show up in spreadsheets
The mayoral portion shifted from individual projects to a broader question: not just what gets built, but how City Hall itself functions—and whether residents trust those running it.
When asked about transparency and public engagement, Apopka City Commissioner Nick Nesta, who is running for mayor, described them in straightforward terms.
“All residents have access to all information in a very legible, easy to read, easy to understand way,” he said. “All information, not just budgets, not just certain information, not just development. Everything is easy to access and understand. Open the books, so to speak.”
He said residents should be brought into decisions earlier, not after votes are nearly set.
“I want residents to come in early on the budget process… January, February, March. Have them start advising on what they want to see happen with our budget. Where do they want to see their taxpayer dollars go?”
Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, who is running for mayor, answered the same question with a broader critique of the city’s culture and leadership.
“As important as transparency is, I believe that the city has really been pretty mismanaged,” she said. “We have to tell you the truth. You have not been told the truth.”
For her, the issue wasn’t only access to documents, but honesty and accountability.
“It’s honesty, it’s integrity, it’s the function of the way city government operates so that you know what’s going on.”
Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson, who is running for a third term, did not participate in the forum.
After the forum: The realities of tomorrow
After the forum ended, the eight candidates who participated drove north to different parts of Apopka. In the coming days and weeks, they’ll return to the familiar circuit — City Hall meetings, weekend events on Fifth Street, neighborhood door-knocking in Errol Estate and Rock Springs Ridge — talking budgets, drainage plans, and development maps with voters who have the time and stability to show up.
But for many of the people who filled the seats at the FWAF forum, their tomorrow will look different.
This hard-working community will be up before sunrise, heading back to greenhouses, nurseries, and fields, or clocking in at service jobs that keep the city running but rarely make headlines. Their concerns are not theoretical or long-range. They are immediate. Whether the road floods after the next storm. Whether a utility bill stretches too far. Whether it feels safe to call the police.
Whether a routine day at work could turn into an immigration check or a workplace raid.
While candidates debate infrastructure and transparency, some families are still calculating something more basic: how visible they can afford to be.
For many residents, this isn’t just about who wins a seat. It’s about whether they can simply live in Apopka, or anywhere, without fear.
It would serve these eight candidates (and the two who chose not to participate) to carry the weight of this community with them as they return to the campaign trail over the next month. And for the four who ultimately take seats on the Apopka City Council, it should shape not just how they run, but how they govern, with the understanding that for many of the families in that room, the stakes aren’t political or abstract, but daily, personal, and immediate.
Key Points:
Forum held at Farmworker Association headquarters drew farmworkers, families, and candidates into an intimate bilingual setting
• Seat 1 candidates Alexander Smith and Sam Ruth clashed over storm preparedness and immigrant trust
• Seat 2 candidates, Diane Velázquez and Angela Turner, contrasted practical honesty versus policy-driven transparency
• Seat 4 candidates, Yesenia Baron and Malika Harrison emphasized infrastructure capacity and downtown quality of life
• Mayoral hopefuls Nick Nesta and Christine Moore focused on government transparency and accountability; Mayor Bryan Nelson did not attend
Next Debates:
The following week, Apopka Involved Voters will host two additional candidate forums at Victory Church, located at 509 S. Park Ave.
- February 9: Mayoral candidates forum
- February 12: City Commission candidates forum
Both forums begin at 7 pm and are open to the public.
“The forums will apprise Apopka voters which candidate’s platform best aligns with their view of a community based on a sustainable quality of life,” Apopka Involved Voters said in a statement.
The forums will be moderated by Dr. Hank Dunn and held before a live audience. Both events will also be livestreamed for residents unable to attend in person.
Editor's Note: Some quotes in the Seat #4 section were incorrectly attributed to another candidate in a previous edition.
Watch the livestreamed Mayor and City Commission Forum here:
