Officials make plea for $20 million police building referendum

Oviedo city and police officials laid out their pitches for the need of a new public safety building, to be used primarily by police, at a public forum about the $20.4 million referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot on Oct. 2.

For the second-straight year, Oviedo voters will have the opportunity to decide if they want to approve the millions in general obligation bonds to fund a new public safety building, this time at a lower price tag. In 2023, the city asked for $35.5 million, which was roundly rejected by 64% of voters. 

Following the vote, the police department and City Council went back to the drawing board to develop plans for a less-costly option based on a different space-needs study than the one voted against in 2023. 

If passed, the $20.4 million would be combined with the $11.4 million in bonds passed by voters in 2016 to fund all or part of a new complex that would include a new 28,800 square-foot building and another 10,000 square feet of additional space that would be finished at a future date, all of which is estimated to cost nearly $32 million.

An explanation of how much residents should expect to pay annually based on the taxable value of their homes for the bonds (Image courtesy of the City of Oviedo)

About a dozen people showed up to see a presentation and explanations for the need of a new building by Deputy Chief Michael Beavers, city manager Bryan Cobb and council members Jeff Boddiford and Keith Britton. 

The relatively small audience — more than twice the amount of people showed up for a July work session about potential property tax increases — could mean a lack of interest and make for a difficult passage of the referendum. 

“I wish we could get more people out here to educate,” Boddiford said. “That’s what we did this for, and that’s why we did a couple of them last year.”

The pleas focused on the space needs and current condition and inefficiencies of the current building, which the Police Department moved into in 1990. The existing building was built when Oviedo’s population sat at about 11,000, while the current number is nearly 42,000.

”Any time you have growth, you need to expand the services in order to maintain a certain level of standard of service,” Beavers said. 

A rendering of the site layout for the proposed new complex (Image courtesy of the City of Oviedo)

Officials explained that in addition to the space, the service needs have changed in the 34 years the department has resided in the building.

”We are doing things now that we weren’t doing in 1990,” Cobb said. “That building wasn’t built to accommodate the things that we’re doing now.

“We’re adapting with what we can.”

Among the services the department offers now that it did not when the building was opened include a community response team, a community involvement program, an expanded school resource officer program and expanded focuses on “white collar crime” that has become more prevalent through the years, Beavers and Cobb said. 

The need for an updated building was not in question from those in attendance. Rather, cost was the concern.

“The dollars per square foot don’t quite add up,” said Chris Floegel, who works in the construction industry and was in attendance at both this and the 2023 public forum. He explained the cost breakdown to the officials in detail. 

A cost breakdown for a potential new police building (Image courtesy of the City of Oviedo)

Boddiford said he understands the worries from residents, and knows it is a big ask to make for a second year in a row, and there is a realistic possibility voters again say no. 

“We keep asking, keep asking [for money for projects],” he said. “Unfortunately, we’ve got to. I mean, what do you do? You’ve got to pay for things.”

But if this ask fails again, what comes next?

”Even if it gets rejected [this year], the problem doesn’t go away,” he said. “We’ve got to do something. So we’re going to have to regroup and we’re going to have to come up with what is plan C now.”

And what could plan C be?

”Maybe we don’t do the additional 10,000 square feet and we wait until that problem comes and then we have to address it at that time,” he said. “Maybe there’s another redesign that you go through.

”Nothing’s getting cheaper, so the longer we keep waiting, the more expensive it’s going to get for us to do anything.”

Another failed vote would leave the city and department searching for answers to a problem they have been vocal about, and one that Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman, who also attended the forum, said he has made his goal since becoming chief.

”It’s a need that’s been neglected for a long time, and it’s just due,” Coleman said. “Let’s just figure out how to fix this. That’s how to move forward. That’s how to give the community what they deserve and what they expect.

”[If] you move into this community, you have a level of expectation in your police department,” he said. “We want to deliver that, but there are needs we need to have.”