Apopka City Commissioner Nick Nesta
By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
In Summary:
Apopka City Commissioner Nick Nesta says his decision to run was shaped by years of resident frustration and a recent budget cycle he described as chaotic and confusing. He says the mayor’s office is where day-to-day leadership, staff culture, and transparency can be meaningfully changed. His campaign emphasizes communication, infrastructure planning, fiscal accountability, and revisiting the proposed public safety building.
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It seemed inevitable.
With about a month before qualifying week, three candidates were running for the Apopka Mayor position: attorney Matthew Aungst, Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, and incumbent Mayor Bryan Nelson.
Then, all of a sudden, on a Monday evening in November, Commissioner Nick Nesta shocked the political landscape of Apopka by announcing he, too, would run for mayor, giving up his seat on the City Council to do so.
Despite the evening announcement, Nesta says his decision to run for mayor wasn’t sudden.
“What it really came down to was our city and our residents have been demanding change,” Nesta said. “They don’t feel heard.”
Nesta said those frustrations long predate his time on the dais, but have intensified during his term.
“This has been an ongoing issue since well before I was elected, but especially since I was elected,” he said.
Nesta points to the most recent budget cycle as evidence.
“After going through this final budget season of just absolute confusion and chaos and questions that never got answers... and no ability to answer them,” Nesta said. “Especially after the water rate increases, when we really could not have done that increase, it just became so glaringly obvious that a big change is needed—and now is the time.”
Why the mayor’s seat matters
Nesta believes that meaningful change in Apopka depends on executive-level leadership.
“As a city commissioner, we don’t have the ability or the power from the charter to direct department heads or change the day-to-day,” he said. “That’s the job of the mayor.”
From Nesta’s perspective, the day-to-day culture inside City Hall has become strained, limiting staff initiative and weakening public trust. He says a different leadership approach, one that emphasizes support and collaboration, is necessary to reverse that trend.
Nesta says Apopka cannot afford a mayor who needs time to learn the mechanics of the position.
“You can’t learn on the job,” he said. “You need to know the first day: here’s exactly what I’m going to do, here’s how I’m going to do it, and here’s the roadmap.”
He points to his experience as a sitting commissioner as a key distinction, saying that he understands where the city’s financial and operational bottlenecks exist.
“We’ve had this flawed mentality that we’re still a small agricultural town or just a bedroom community,” he said. “But we’ve grown insanely.”
He said the city has yet to accept that growth — or define what comes next fully.
Staffing additions, not purges
Despite sharp criticism of current leadership, Nesta said his approach would not involve wholesale dismissals. In fact, Nesta plans to add key players to the City staff.
“It’s not about ripping out department heads,” he said. “It’s about conversations.”
Those conversations would include department-level assessments to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in support. Nesta says that some departments are stretched thin because staff are doing too much with too little help. He thinks one of Apopka’s biggest internal problems is that too many responsibilities are concentrated among too few people.
“Too many people are wearing too many hats to save money,” he said. “And it’s hurting them.”
One of the first positions he says the City needs is a dedicated communications director.
“We absolutely need one,” Nesta said. “They should be sending out weekly updates—what we succeeded with, what we’re working on, what’s been delayed. They should be as well-known as any elected official in the city.”
Nesta says better communication is foundational to restoring trust.
“Transparency isn’t handing people a 200-page document an hour before we vote,” he said. “It’s giving residents the same information elected officials have.”
He also says Apopka is missing out on significant funding opportunities because it lacks a full-time grant writer.
“We need somebody who day in and day out is focused on getting access to additional dollars,” Nesta said. “We’re missing out on millions of dollars every year. Those funds could support sidewalks, roadway improvements, green space, and water and wastewater projects. There’s money sitting there because too many people are wearing too many hats; we’re leaving it on the table.”
Nesta also outlined a third position he believes would dramatically change how the City Council functions: a staff member to assist commissioners.
“Have a dedicated staff member that’s there exclusively working for our commissioners,” he said. “This gives the autonomy and confidence and power to the commissioners to be able to get stuff done,” Nesta said.
He described the position as small on paper but significant in practice.
“It sounds like a small role,” he said, “but I think it’s going to have a huge impact on productivity, efficiency, and the ability actually to serve residents.”
Reconsidering the public safety building
One of Nesta’s most pointed critiques centers on the proposed public safety building, which he says reflects the city’s broader failure to plan for the future.
“When I looked at the plan years ago, they wanted to have shared conference rooms or shared office space,” Nesta said. “For a small city, sure, that works. But why would we do that for a $100 million building?”
Nesta says that the current plan forces two fundamentally different, and growing, departments into a footprint that does not reflect how they operate.
“Fire and police function very separately,” he said. “Trying to morph them into one building doesn’t build the efficiencies that I think were dreamed about.”
Instead, Nesta says Apopka should step back and rethink the concept entirely.
“Why not take this out and have two $40 million buildings, or two $30 million buildings,” he said. “One for police that they can do exactly what they want, how they want, on the footprint they want, so they can grow into the exact department and main station that we need.”
He said the same logic applies to fire services.
“Have a fire station—fire station one—and our communications in a building separately,” Nesta said. “Give them everything they need to work separately, because they do.”
Nesta also questioned whether the current site can physically accommodate both departments.
“How is that going to fit on there?” he asked. “Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, a tower truck, sleeping quarters for the fire department, offices—it doesn’t fit.”
From his perspective, the issue is not aesthetics or cost-saving measures, but longevity.
“If we build that tomorrow, it would be too small,” Nesta said. “We’re already built out on day one.”
He says any plan developed before the pandemic should be reexamined.
“Anything that happened pre-COVID that was planned needs to go back to the drawing board,” he said. “We need to look 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road.”
“If I want to enact change and provide what the residents are actually calling for, I need to do it on a bigger level,” Nesta said.
Key Points:
- Nick Nesta entered the mayor’s race in November, leaving his City Council seat to seek executive-level leadership.
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He cited budget confusion, unanswered questions, and water rate increases as turning points in his decision.
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Nesta proposes adding key city staff positions, including a communications director, a full-time grant writer, and support staff for commissioners.
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He calls for reconsidering the proposed public safety building, advocating for separate facilities for police and fire departments.
