Oviedo hosts public forum for $47 million police building ballot referendum Thursday night

Oviedo residents have the opportunity Thursday to ask city officials questions and make comments at a public forum about a $47 million request: a new police department building.

On the Nov. 7 ballot is a question for taxpayers to approve $35.5 million in bonds for the project, which would be added to the $11.4 million in bonds approved by voters in 2016 for the new police building. Those bonds have not yet been issued. 

The cost would be about $78 annually for every $100,000 of taxable value (not what the property would sell for). The assessment would continue for the life of the bond, which is 30 years but the rate will decrease with rising property values and future refinancing, the city’s finance director said in July.

The city is hosting a public forum at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 at Oviedo City Hall — 400 Alexandria Blvd. in Oviedo. If you can’t make it in person, watch it live streamed here. 

At the forum, city staff will give a presentation about the police department and its needs, and the public will then be allowed to ask questions or make comments for either City Council or staff to answer. No time limitations on the public are expected, Oviedo Assistant City Manager Patrick Kelly said.

Tours of the current police department are being offered during the event. Folks are asked to sign up in advance here.

“[People] believed because [they] voted to do a new police station in 2016, everybody has believed that one was in the works,” Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek said. “As soon as it was approved, instantly it was realized that the [$11.4 million] was too little to do it right.”

The full language that will be on the ballot is: 

Oviedo Public Safety Building Project; General Obligation Bonds. The Oviedo Public Safety Building project requires an estimated $46,900,000 to construct. Voters approved $11,400,000 for the project in 2016. Shall the City issue additional bonds not exceeding $35,500,000 bearing interest not exceeding maximum legal rates pledging the City’s full faith and credit for up to thirty years from date of issuance, payable from ad valorem taxes on all City taxable property, without limitation as to rate or amount, as provided in Ordinance No. 1735?

The public forum, which is rare in Oviedo, was put together following the Florida legislature’s passing of a law in 2022 that placed limitations on how local governments can educate voters on referendums.

The bill states: 

Finally, the bill prohibits use of public funds by local governments for initiating communications pertaining to an issue, referendum, or amendment, including any state question. The prohibition does not preclude a local government or a person acting on behalf of a local government from:

• Reporting on official actions of the local government’s governing body in an accurate, fair, and impartial manner;
• Posting factual information on a government website or in printed materials;
• Hosting and providing information at a public forum;
• Providing factual information in response to an inquiry; or
• Providing information as otherwise authorized or required by law

Prior to the law being passed, Oviedo would send out informational mailers to residents’ homes and create informative videos.

“I hope that people are engaged and interested,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot of information flying around in the community, and this is a great opportunity for folks to learn the facts behind the referendum.”

In November, voters will be able to make their choice for or against the bonds. In July, Oviedo’s City Council unanimously approved putting the bond referendum to the voters. The bonds would be billed annually for the next 30 years to pay off the debt for the proposed police station.

“The feelings that I get are, it’s very mixed,” Sladek said. “People seem to all want the police to have everything they want and need. There’s less enthusiasm for increasing [property] taxes 14% to do that.

“It’s a big ask.”

Residents can see how to calculate and find out their potential tax increase if the referendum is passed at the bottom of this website.

If approved by voters, the bonds would double the city’s debt, Sladek said.

The project would include a new, modernized 47,000-square-foot police headquarters, most likely behind City Hall, an upgrade over the current decades-old 20,000-square-foot public safety building that sits beside City Hall. A 2017 space needs study, commissioned by the city, determined that Oviedo needed a building at least twice the size of the current one to function properly. The current building, which the department moved into in 1990, would be left alone until a decision is made for its future use.

“Most people don’t seem to know about it, and the ones that do, I don’t think it’s sunk in what exactly is being asked,” Sladek said. “I really hope they will turn out, because the question to me is … if we don’t do this, what will our police force look like 10 years from now?

“Will we have law enforcement presence no matter how this turns out? Absolutely, yes,” she said. “I think that is a very important thing for people to know, that even if they say no, we will still have a police presence inside of Oviedo city limits.”

If the referendum is passed in November, the expected timeline for completion of the new building is about three years.

“We outgrew this building many, many moons ago,” Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman said. “But it was really built for the people we had at the time. There was not much.”

Coleman said the new facility would allow the department to bring deescalation, defensive tactic and other training in-house, in a modern and fully equipped facility. Additionally, it will provide a space for community meetings and events, and upgrade officer wellness needs with a gym, a meditation room and classrooms, which he said are needed when dealing with the aftermath of difficult situations officers deal with regularly.

“We can’t do that [at the moment]. We’ve never had that model to do it,” he said. “We don’t [currently] have ways to get rid of those pressures.

“I’m talking about keeping them physically and mentally sound throughout their career, not just when they fall apart,” he said. “This is a huge piece of the puzzle, though, to have the ability to do it here in a safe environment, secure environment.”