Charter Review seems imminent; but what changes will it bring?

Is Apopka about to change its City Charter?

The final meeting of the Apopka Charter Review Committee occurred on June 26, 2014. It's archived on the City's website. It's been almost eight years since changes were discussed. But judging by recent statements, it seems likely a Charter review is imminent.

It started at the 2022 City Commission Forum when Commissioner Diane Velazquez made it one of her priorities.

"If I return to the City Council, I definitely want to review our city charter," said Velazquez. "And the reason for that is because the last time that it was done in 2013, not only has the city grown, but our responsibilities have grown. And it's not defined what each of the commissioner's responsibilities is. We pretty much create our own kind of job title. So I'd like to have a City Charter Committee come in and review what they want to see and what they feel each of our responsibility is to them."

Then last month, at the March 16th City Council meeting, City Attorney Micheal Rodriguez responded with the basic information it would take to launch another charter review.

"I'm not asking for any official action, but I'm putting it on the council's radar, that this [City Charter] is something that we could be considering. Any amendments considered by the City for the City Charter will be presented to the public to vote on at the general election of March 2024... so we don't intend to rush through this. One of the things I'd like to put on your radar is to think of those topics to put into consideration for revisions to the City Charter."

Rodriguez went on to recommend the Council create a charter revision committee to delegate the fact-finding for potential revisions, potential amendments to the charter, and what exactly will be brought back to Council for a final vote.

He did have a warning about creating a committee though.

"One of the things that I have been advised and I will advise the City Council is that the council provide explicit direction to the committee as to those issues that you wish to address," he said. "Usually in other cities and other jurisdictions that seek to create such charter revision committees, without direction, that's a committee that gets lost in the weeds."

Rodriguez also made it clear that now is the time to start working on the process if the City wants to be ready for the March 2024 ballot.

"When you create this process, you work backwards," he said. "So we have the March 2024 election. We work backwards from that date as to how soon it is that we have to get the ballot language into the [Orange County] Supervisor of Elections. So that's your deadline for your committee for you guys to act, then we're going to work backwards from there as to when the committee has to present the final recommendations to the council for their vote, then that's approved, then we move forward from there."

After the Rodriguez presentation, it didn't take long for speculation to start on local social media sites.

"... but the most controversy within the walls of City Hall is that [Mayor] Bryan Nelson will leave his seat early after gaining retirement status with the City and make changes to the City Charter to usher in a City Manager type government," the Apopka Critic posted on his Facebook page the day after the meeting. "This all sounds crazy right? But at the end of last night's City Council meeting, the city attorney discussed possible changes to the city charter that could be put on the ballot during a future election. That could open the door to a council manager style of government for Apopka."

Despite the implausible theory, Nelson did not discount its entirety during an interview with The Apopka Voice at his City Hall office.

"It's a two year process to get it done," Nelson said about the Charter process.  "So if we're gonna do it, we'd have to start pretty soon to do that."

Then when asked about the strong/weak mayor theory, Nelson neither confirmed nor denied that idea.

"There's no plan to switch the charter from a strong to weak mayor," he said. "We haven't really talked about anything."

Nelson, however, was able to explain the advantages and disadvantages to both forms of municipal government.

"Strong mayor [forms of government] have their advantages and their disadvantages," he said. "If you get a good one, I think a strong mayor obviously helps you because you've got more clout with regional folks. Under Mayor [John] Land it was a good thing. He carried a lot of weight around Central Florida. So it was an advantage. I think because of my knowledge of the state and county [governments], I probably bring a little more to the table than most."

But according to Nelson, the wrong person in the office could do damage to the City as a strong mayor.

"It's probably 80% policy and 20% politics," said Nelson. "And so the problem is if you get someone who's 80% politics and 20% policy, you're going to fail. And so I think that's the challenge... and unfortunately, elections are not based on policy. Typically, it's based on politics. And so that's the challenge is how do you get somebody that's good on policy. And obviously, what people vote on typically are politics and not on policy."

Despite being undecided on a strong/weak mayor format, he is open to a charter review on multiple issues.

"You can always ask for charter amendments," he said. "We haven't done them in a while. It's always a possibility. And then you can look at a lot of things. You know, there's a lot of things in the charter, and you can look at... single member districts, which came up a couple of times. But, I'm only one vote when it comes down to it. Yes, I set the agenda, but if I get overwhelming support to take a look at the charter, then I will agree with the majority of the the council that we move forward."

But if the decision were left to Nelson, would he favor the strong or weak mayor form of government?

"Well, it depends what the issue was," Nelson said. "And just to switch from strong to weak mayor... I don't know. That's too much speculation."

To review the Apopka City Charter, go here.