Part Two: The budget, the backlog, and the cost of waiting

Mayor Bryan Nelson has frequently cited the city’s roughly $30 million general fund reserve as proof that Apopka’s finances are strong. But several former administrators, department heads, and staff interviewed for this series said that figure does not necessarily reflect the amount of money available to address infrastructure needs.

Former City Administrator Jacob Smith said the distinction between “fund balance” and “available cash” is often misunderstood.

“Fund balance includes assigned amounts,” Smith said. “That means money earmarked for specific future projects — even if those projects haven’t started yet.”

In municipal accounting, those assignments can include long-term infrastructure obligations such as:

• Utility lift station upgrades
• Sewer line rehabilitation phases
• Stormwater pond retrofits
• Road resurfacing cycles
• Fleet replacement schedules

Those dollars may appear in reserve totals, but they are not necessarily discretionary funds.

“If you reallocate that money,” Smith said, “you’re not tapping a savings account. You’re canceling or delaying something that was already planned.”

Smith said that distinction becomes important when capital projects are repeatedly deferred, as is the case in Apopka.

“When people look at a large reserve number, they assume the city is sitting on excess money,” he said. “But reserve totals don’t tell you sequencing. They tell you balance.”

What Budgeting is About

Former interim City Administrator Chuck Vavrek said the central challenge in a fast-growing city is not simply funding infrastructure — it is sequencing it correctly.

“Budgeting isn’t just about how much you have,” Vavrek said. “It’s about when you deploy it.”

Vavrek said that during his time with the City, he saw projects entering the capital pipeline before earlier ones were completed.

“You need discipline in sequencing,” he said. “Otherwise, you create overlap. Staff can only manage so many large initiatives at once.”

Several former officials said that overlap was compounded by rapid development approvals.

“When development is moving quickly, the infrastructure that supports it has to move at the same pace,” Vavrek said. “If it doesn’t, the gap grows.”

Infrastructure Timing

Former Public Services Director Momtaz Barq said growth itself was not the problem in Apopka - it was the timing.

“When development approvals increase, the supporting systems have to keep pace,” Barq said. “Otherwise, you’re compressing timelines. When subdivisions go vertical, lift stations, sewer mains, and capacity modeling can’t stay theoretical. Those things have to be funded and built.”

Barq said delays in those projects put pressure on the departments responsible for maintaining the system.

“You can only stretch infrastructure so far,” he said.

Managing Growth Effectively

Apopka’s growth has also increased the workload inside city departments. Every new subdivision adds sewer capacity demand, stormwater runoff, road maintenance, and inspection requirements.

The former engineering employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said staffing levels did not keep pace with that growth.

“Every development requires review layers — utilities, grading, drainage, access,” she said. “But the number of people doing the work didn’t grow at the same rate.”

A former Public Services employee described similar pressure from regulatory requirements.

“When systems expand, compliance expands,” she said. “Documentation, inspection, reporting — all of it grows.”

The Mechanics of Deferral: "We'll catch it next cycle"

Smith said capital deferral was one of the most troublesome patterns he observed when reviewing previous budgets.

“In the moment, you think, ‘We’ll catch it next cycle,’” he said. "But projects that are postponed rarely disappear; instead, they stack."

Several interview subjects said that repeated deferrals were one reason for the growth in reserve balances.

“When projects don’t get completed, the money assigned to them stays in the fund balance,” one former employee said. “So the reserve number grows, but the work still hasn’t been done.”

Vavrek said that the pattern can create the appearance of financial strength while infrastructure needs continue to accumulate.

“Every year the City defers something, the cost goes up,” he said. “Inflation, materials, labor — you’re not saving money by waiting.”

"Financial strength isn't just a number"

Public discussions of Apopka’s finances often focus on the size of the city’s reserves and its relatively low millage rate. But Smith said those figures do not tell the whole story.

“Financial strength isn’t just a number,” he said. “It’s whether your systems are positioned to handle what’s coming.”

Several former officials said the City’s policy of keeping millage rates low while approving rapid growth created competing pressures inside the budget. Revenue increased, but infrastructure demand increased faster.

“You can have balance and still have strain,” Barq said.

Greg Conant, who retired from the City of Apopka after a 28-year career, said that tension often shows up first in maintenance.

“People notice new construction,” Conant said. “They don’t notice preventive maintenance until something fails.”

From Budget Workshop to Termination

The structural concerns described in interviews surfaced publicly during the city's budget workshops, where Smith's presentations moved from technical explanation to fiscal warning.

During the first budget workshop, Apopka resident Rod Olsen asked Smith a 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," he said.

Surprised at his answer, Olsen walked away but then asked a follow-up question.

"What areas are not enough?"

"Every single one," Smith replied.

*****

At the third budget workshop, Smith went back in time to explain the reason why Apopka is in the budgetary crisis it finds itself in.

"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, 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."

It was a realization that a new strategy was needed. Smith continued his presentation with the first step in that new strategy.

"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."

"We're at 4.18, which is one of the lowest, and what we're asking for tonight... the recommendation is to increase to 4.43, which is actually more of a 15% increase over what it is currently; if you include the rollback, it's 31.2%. But that would generate about $1.7 million. Now, that won't help us catch up with our revenue, but at least will keep us where we're at right now. So I'm saying my recommendation this evening is at least 4.4376. 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."

It was a candid and brave presentation that Smith made to Nelson and the City Council. One the mayor no doubt didn't want to hear. Then, in March of 2025, just before the new budget cycle began, Nelson fired Smith.

*****

In Part Three, the series shifts from the mechanics of budgeting to the leadership decisions that shape those mechanics. Over the past seven years, choices about millage policy, spending priorities, development approvals, staffing levels, and capital sequencing have defined how Apopka manages rapid growth. Former administrators and employees describe those decisions not as isolated moments but as part of a broader governing approach that influences when projects move forward, when they are deferred, and how the city balances growth with infrastructure demands. 

To read part one, go here.