Winter Springs Veteran committee stays, budget questioned  

Monday night’s Winter Springs City Commission meeting saw a flurry of activity, including the announcement of the city’s new utilities director, questions regarding a $17 million budget reallocation and an outpouring of support for the continuation of the Winter Springs Veteran and Veteran Family Advisory Committee.

The committee had been put up for discussion after the commission voted at its last meeting to review the city’s various boards and committees and bring each back for discussion, with the Veteran committee first on the list. 

Recent meetings have seen suggestions by Commissioner Paul Diaz to “raze” and then “start fresh” with the city’s various boards and committees, with city staff giving a presentation during the commission’s Jan.13 meeting suggesting sunsetting the veteran committee, as well as two other groups, due to low engagement. 

With almost half of the chamber occupied by local veterans, many of whom wore jackets and hats signifying their service, an hour long public input began with audience members urging the commission to keep the committee. 

Bridget Lake, former president of the Oviedo Winter Springs Regional Chamber of Commerce, told the Commission that, as a veteran, she knows firsthand the committee isn’t “a formality.” 

“It’s a lifeline,” she said. 

“This veteran-and-veteran-families committee is a structured mechanism that ensures our experiences, needs and concerns are heard by decision-makers such as yourself, who can enact meaningful change,” Lake said. “For me, losing this committee would be losing a resource for the city. It would be cutting ties to your local veteran community.”

Laurel Ross, a previous recipient of the Hometown Hero award and current vice chair of the veteran committee, offered a similar sentiment by saying the move would send the “wrong message” to the local veteran community. 

She said that there appeared to be a breakdown in communication between the city and the committee, adding that members found out about the possible sunsetting through social media. 

“Two out of the last four committee meetings were canceled by the city without coordination with the chair or vice chair,” Ross said. “We asked to reschedule, and were told no … the city’s desire to sunset our committee was never communicated to us. Notification that sunsetting our committee, among others, was being discussed at a general commission meeting did not take place.” 

Following public input, the Commission moved the item up for immediate discussion. Commissioner Mark Caruso then began with a motion to issue a formal apology to the city’s veterans, saying he’d like to “put the matter to bed once and for all.”

Others on the dais added on to the motion to include staff recommendations for maintaining the committee, such as lowering the needed number of members from seven to five, and to direct the mayor to meet with veteran community members to help establish the committee’s role moving forward. 

The motion passed unanimously.  

Diaz later thanked the veterans who were in attendance during his report to the city, saying his position had never been to do anything negative to them.

“I think if anybody were to see my personal history, which many don’t know, you would know that I have impeccable support of both the military and law enforcement,” Diaz said. “When I bring things up that are financial in matter, just keep in mind if something has a cost, it is my role in oversight to bring it up. Will I win everytime? No, but I’m not winning or losing, I’m doing it for the benefit of the citizens and the residents.” 

He added that he felt his solution for the committee hadn’t truly been heard, saying it would’ve afforded the group “more opportunity” with less government control and potential funding though he did not provide exact details as to how it would do so. 

“We will live to discuss it another day,” Diaz said. 

City Clerk Christian Gowan said a Feb. 5 meeting cancellation notice for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee would soon go out with no appointments for the three seats expiring Feb. 1 made as a quorum would be impossible to meet.

Utilities director announced, budget concerns addressed 

Following the veteran committee vote, City Manager Kevin Sweet said he was “delighted” to announce the position of the city utilities director had finally been filled. 

“Clete Saunier, professional engineer, has joined us and his first day is today,” Sweet said. “We’re excited to have him. Clete is a licensed civil engineer, both a professional engineer in the state of Florida as well as the state of Colorado, with over 25 years of senior leadership experience in public utilities, public works and engineering.”

Saunier, who previously served as the public works director for the City of Santa Paula, California, addressed the Commission and shared his hopes for the future after positive meetings with staff. 

“I’m very encouraged with the potential and opportunity and certainly the dedication and ownership they each take in their positions, and I know that … with your support and your continued lifting up of staff here at the City of Winter Springs, we’re going to accomplish great things in the years to come,” Saunier said. 

From there, matters related to the city’s infrastructure and budgeting were also addressed throughout the night, with Diaz questioning a $17 million budget amendment for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024-2025.

Diaz said he was concerned about the allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, for capital improvement projects as well as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement following comments from the current presidential administration about abolishing the agency. 

Sweet explained that the allocations under ARPA were not new and had already been approved by the Commission previously in 2023 and 2024. He added that the projects funded byARPA had already been identified in budgets previously. 

“I am not concerned that, particularly for the City of Winter Springs, that we’re in any kind of jeopardy of losing ARPA funds,” Sweet said. “They’re in our coffers. The city holds those funds … the finance team has done an excellent job to ensure that the City of Winter Springs is protected against any clawback, protected against any potential of losing those funds.”

In terms of FEMA reimbursements for storm impacts, Sweet said the city has an active disaster declaration under which funds have already been identified and that city staff have been “diligently” working to submit necessary reimbursement requests and project worksheets. 

“I feel confident we’ll see that return on those reimbursements related to past storms, because this is a national impact throughout the country on a number of projects,” Sweet said. “That would be like saying they’re not going to see FEMA reimbursement projects in North Carolina and other major areas of the country that have been impacted prior to the change in administration.”

Finance Director Holly Queen explained the budget allocation was essentially an “administrative function,” moving unspent equity from fiscal year 2024 related to the city’s $12.9 million contract with Carollo Engineers for the design of the east and west wastewater plants. 

”It had already been budgeted in FY 2024, we had to un-budget, reallocate, and now this is the reallocation of those monies in 2025,” Queen said. 

The motion to approve the amendment later passed 4-1, with only Diaz dissenting. 

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