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Apopka City Council Seat 4 Candidate Q&A – Week 5

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Questions & Answers with Candidates for Apopka City Council Seat 4 - Week 5

Each week we will be asking the candidates the questions YOU'RE asking.

Week 5 Seat 3 Candidates Seat 4 Candidates

This Week's Question: “Several department heads have left the city over the past 18 months. Have city services to the public improved in that time? How about internal city functions such as finance or IT?

Bill Arrowsmith

Kyle Becker

Young Kim

Bill Arrowsmith Kyle Becker Young Kim
Low taxes, top rated Fire and Police departments, low utility rates, world class recreational facilities, and state recognized financial reporting are just a few of the benefits that didn't just happen overnight in this community. They are the result of years of very talented employees growing this city. Any time you have an exodus of several long term department heads there are areas that are exposed and the quality of service declines.

To me, one prime example was the departure of our Finance Director. He managed the finances of our city in exemplary fashion and controlled the expenditures necessary to maintain a balanced budget. This year’s budget sessions were painful at best with the leaders in charge looking at each other for answers. The city has gone thru the embarrassment of returned checks and most recently word of vendors not being paid in 60 days. We should not ride the back of small business

in paying our bills.

Another area is the general appearance of common areas and city owned properties. The Dream Lake Park is in deplorable shape as a result of pure neglect. One of my goals is to clean the lakefront of growth, remove the fence and the overgrown vegetation and remove the house from the property. This is on one of the most heavily traveled arteries in our city and is a growing eyesore that could be rectified with minimal expense. All we hear is how busy our employees are and I think the answer is to re-prioritize our efforts.

 

 

 

 

If you were not able to attend the candidate forum this past week, my response to this question was highlighting the recent appointment of Chief McKinley to lead our city’s police department. Chief McKinley is a very qualified and approachable leader of the department, as well as a longtime resident of Apopka. I believe he has done a great job thus far, and continues the traditions his predecessor Chief Manley began, as well as introduced new initiatives like Coffee with a Cop, and working towards accreditation. My opponent also praised Chief McKinley as a qualified leader during the forum, whom he thought was doing a great job. Only problem, my opponent was the only representative on Council who voted against his appointment.

As to internal city functions such as finance or IT, I can only speak to what I see as a resident of our city. From a technology perspective, I think there has been some foundational changes which have been beneficial, i.e. voicemail and updating the city’s extremely outdated operating systems. However, I think there is room for additional improvement, especially around our city’s website and making it more user friendly and accessible from your mobile or tablet device, and more interactive between staff and residents.

Going forward, the city of Apopka needs to have a process improvement mindset, always identifying areas in which the residents could benefit from better services and service delivery.

 

 

The framing of this question appears to be one that asks each candidate which side of Apopka do you support. The question should have simply been framed like this: Do you support the prior Administration or the New Administration? I simply refuse to answer this question on which side I support. However, if this is not the case then I would answer this question as an outside observer that city has improved in its services in certain areas in the past 18 months. For example, Apopka has improved www.Apopka.net. A local concerned citizen, who wants to stay informed about local politics and the city’s agenda, can go to the website and obtain that information. PDF packets are readily available and can be downloaded before each and every city council meeting. Lastly, the services which the city provides are: stormwater, utility rates, garbage, fire department and etc. All these services must be purposed for all the citizens of Apopka. As our city grows we must keep costs down while at the same time increasing city services. If elected I make a firm commitment to serve the public by providing the best quality of service to each and every Apopkan.

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