Winter Springs moves toward doubled stormwater rate

Faced with mixed public opinion, the  Winter Springs City Commission came one step closer to increasing the city’s stormwater rate for the first time in 20 years during its last meeting on April 15. 

Initially proposed by Deputy Mayor Cade Resnick as a means to help prepare the city for possible damages from the upcoming hurricane season, which has often left the city with extensive damages and flooding in years past, the new rate would see the city’s minimum stormwater fees doubled, from $5 to $10.

While some residents support the rate increase, like former District 3 commissioner candidate Karen Meyer who said the additional revenue was necessary to fund adequate stormwater services, others like Paula Keyes of Hacienda Village said residents in her community live on fixed incomes and would oppose the new rate. 

“We plan our budget so that we can continue to afford to live what remains of our lives in comfort and with peace of mind,” Keyes said. “We hope our local government does the same when they look at the issues facing our city, and in particular the issue with the rate increase proposed for stormwater. Just raising rates on stormwater usage because you can is not the answer.”

The increase is a move City Manager Kevin Sweet said is necessary as the city is “barely skating by” when it comes to its stormwater infrastructure, which the additional revenue collected from the rate increase would help support as he said it’d be “ludicrous” to think the city could do so otherwise with its current revenue.  

“The reality is we’re in dire need,” Sweet said. “Where we need to address as a city that in 20 years, whatever that reason may be we have not had an increase, we’re facing a real issue.” 

The city has faced widespread infrastructure damages and extensive flooding in the past following storms such as Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, impacting the homes and lives of residents whose safety Mayor Kevin McCann said is the “number one responsibility of the dais.” 

“We can’t allow hundreds of homes to continue to be lost over and over and over again and pretend that this isn’t happening and put our heads in the sand,” McCann said. 

Commissioner Paul Diaz refused to let the motion be made until “every single word and punctuation” of the rate increase ordinance be read aloud by city attorney Anthony Garganese, who complied with the request. 

Garagenese then read the entirety of the two-page document for five minutes straight. 

Diaz previously objected to the proposed rate increase by saying it would “punish” residents, accusing the city of having not a revenue issue but a spending one. 

According to 2022 Seminole County Census Data, Winter Springs has a population approximately 40% larger than neighboring Casselberry, and 160% larger than Longwood, but has an overall budget that’s 10% less than those nearby cities. Compared to Oviedo, Winter Springs, at just under 40,000 residents, has a nearly identical population but a city budget that’s nearly 25% smaller. 

During the commission’s March 31 meeting, Diaz requested line items from the budget be cut to shore up the city’s stormwater fund as opposed to implementing the increase. 

The request by Diaz that the need for revenue not be imposed upon residents through the increase but rather by cutting the budget or transferring money from other city funds continued during the last meeting, and was met with questions and opposition from other dais members challenging Diaz to “find the money.” 

“We just do not have a million dollars to move from the city to this fund, I get it,” Diaz said. “We have to raise a tax, we don’t have money. We have to give people trees, we have to give people little Easter egg hunts and fishing camps and stuff.”

Resnick said that though he felt the city had previously “failed” over the years to do what was needed when it came to preventing stormwater issues, the rate increase would not be about taxing residents, as Diaz had claimed. 

“This is about doing the right thing we haven’t done for the period of time we needed to do it,” Resnick said. “ …But to turn around and say, ‘You know what, we’re cutting this or cutting that, or we can save money here, we can save money there.’ That’s to the detriment of everybody else who may have to worry about things.”

Commissioner Victoria Bruce said while the rate increase is needed and that cuts to the previous year’s budget were unable to be found, she wished to make her stance clear that the city will continue to cut “unexpended expenses.”

“I’m so excited that we all can as a collective body look at the budget for 2025 and find things that might not be needed and then we can have both,” Bruce said. “We can have the $5 increase, and we can also see if we can cut expenses, but we need both at the same time.”

Looking toward the future 

David Hamstra of Pegasus Engineering told the Commission the city currently has 11 stormwater infrastructure projects that have been underway in the last few years that total roughly, before reimbursements, about $12 million. 

“The big one being Tuskawilla Crossings, the pond repair, which will be a $2.5 million project,” Hamstra said. “Wetland Park outfall improvements, which protects the Winter Springs Village [will cost] over a million dollars. And then we have seven or eight projects that are grant funded that total another six or seven million.”

The Tuskawilla Crossings stormwater retention pond was built in 2021, but then suffered a berm failure in August of 2023 which allowed untreated stormwater to enter into nearby wetlands and Lake Jesup. Wetland Park receives stormwater runoff which contributed to flooding issues in portions of the Winter Springs Village and Michael Blake Boulevard, due in part to an “inadequate drainage design”.

A majority of the projects mentioned by Hamstra, Sweet said, were not funded by taxpayers out of the city’s stormwater utility fund but from the Penny Sales Tax collected through Seminole County. 

Sweet said that money, however, cannot be used for maintenance which is why the city must utilize its local funds and look to increase the stormwater rate to continue its operational and maintenance work.

“I know we’ll probably hear the argument that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem,” Sweet said. “But the reality is, since the inception of the storm water utility rate, which none of us up here created, that’s what we have as a platform to maintain our stormwater in the City of Winter Springs.” 

He acknowledged that he did not think the rate increase would end at $10 based on the actual needs of the city to address its stormwater issues and the work already currently being done to do so, but that for now the new rate would allow the city to just break even on operating expenses. 

The first reading of the rate increase ordinance passed 4-1, with only Diaz dissenting. 

Veolia pulls wastewater contract 

While Winter Springs works to increase funds for and improve upon its stormwater systems, the future of the city’s wastewater infrastructure is also shifting following the contract termination by vendor Veolia Water Technologies Inc., which stated its intent to withdraw from its operations of the city’s wastewater systems in a letter submitted April 10. 

Until recently, Veolia was in charge of overseeing the maintenance and operation of the city’s east and west wastewater plants, both of which are in critical need of replacement. The group will stop providing its services to the city effective Sept. 30, 2025. 

During the commission meeting, Sweet acknowledged the open bid for a new wastewater contractor and said that three companies had submitted proposals but did not mention Veolia or the ending of its contract. 

“The proposals will be reviewed and scored by the review committee with the recommendation to engage in negotiations at a future commission meeting,” Sweet said. 

Veolia has come under fire for its management of the city’s wastewater systems in recent months, following challenges such as a FDEP warning letter for potential wastewater compliance issues sent to the city in January. 

In a post to her website, Bruce said the choice by Veolia to submit its contract termination represents a turning point for the city’s future operations. 

“This moment represents progress—and a chance to align our infrastructure with the values we share: sustainability, safety, and community-first decision-making,” Bruce wrote. 

In a letter addressed to Sweet, Veolia said while it had appreciated the opportunity to serve the residents of Winter Springs over the last six years it was the “appropriate time for Veolia to step aside.”

“After careful consideration of the City’s approach to many critical aspects of governance that impact Veolia’s ability to successfully operate and maintain the water and wastewater infrastructure, we have come to the conclusion that our partnership is no longer in alignment with Veolia’s future vision, and it would be best for the City to seek another provider,” a representative for Veolia wrote. 

“As we transition to a new partnership, we aim to find a partner that aligns with the City’s objectives and vision for future development,” Winter Springs public information officer Matthew Reeser wrote in an email to OCN. “We wish Veolia success in its future projects and thank them for their service to the City of Winter Springs.” 

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