Winter Springs’ defense against Tallahassee: no more elected mayor

The city of Winter Springs is moving forward with its own referendum to give the mayor a vote in an attempt to circumvent the Florida legislature.

The Seminole County Legislative Delegation last week approved the Winter Springs Charter Amendment Local Bill, which would put a referendum on the ballot in 2026 that would give the mayor a vote. That bill still must go through the Florida Legislature and be signed by the governor. It would also eliminate a city commission seat in two years, and take away the mayor’s rarely used veto power.

The Local Bill was proposed by Rep. Rachel Plakon, and metadata from an earlier draft of the bill shows the author to be Jesse Phillips, a rumored mayoral candidate in Winter Springs in 2026. Phillips denies writing the bill, but said he did provide input to Plakon’s office on the bill. 

At last week’s delegation, Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur said that if Winter Springs moved forward with its own referendum, the local bill could be withdrawn.

“We don’t go to session until January,” Brodeur said. “Between now and then, the city of Winter Springs can move in a parallel path and do what they’d like to do. Should they decide to do this themselves, at any time this bill can be withdrawn.”

At Monday’s city commission meeting in Winter Springs, commissioners voted 4-1 to have city attorney Anthony Garganese draft a referendum to go on the ballot in November of 2026 that would eliminate the mayor as an elected position in 2030. After that, the five city commissioners would vote to appoint a mayor amongst themselves, a structure similar to the Seminole County Commission, where the chairman is chosen by the members.

The measure must be approved at meetings in November and December to make a deadline of getting a referendum ready before the Florida Legislature convenes in January.

Mayor decries pressure from Tallahassee to change city’s government

McCann said the city has a “gun to the head” to make changes to the charter by referendum or face having the changes made without City Commission or resident input.

“That is the idea – break up the city, divide us, get the city manager to quit, drive us apart, blend us back with the county as they’ve been calling for … so they can get the development that they want,” McCann said. “They are trying to destroy this city, and that is exactly what is going on. Any step in any direction, we have a gun to our head.”

Commissioner Cade Resnick said he’s been told by members of the delegation that as long as the mayor has a vote, in some way shape or form, the local bill would be dropped. And by doing it themselves, it would remove language in the Legislature’s bill that would have possibly opened up the door for the City Commission to give the mayor additional authority over city employees through an ordinance.

“I’m trying to remove the gun,” Resnick said. 

Multiple residents spoke out against the measure, including resident Joan Jansen. She said she’s emailed everyone on the Seminole County Legislative Delegation in opposition to the measure – and recommended others reach out as well. 

“[I]… told them how disappointed I was with their trying to twist our arm or put a gun to the head of Winter Springs,” Jansen said. “Tell them that we don’t believe in being forced by Tallahassee to change the way we’ve decided to govern.”

Want to contact your elected leaders and weigh in on this topic? Find Winter Springs City Commission contact information here. Have a news tip or opinion to share with OCN? Do that here. Seminole County’s Legislative Delegation includes:

Sen. Jason Brodeur, Senate District 10

Rep. Rachel Plakon, House District 36

Rep. Susan Plasencia, House District 37

Rep. David Smith, House District 38

Rep. Doug Bankson, House District 39

Proposal: split Winter Springs into districts

Commissioners also are asking voters to change how residents vote for city commissioners. Currently, all residents vote for all members of the city commission at large; commissioners must live in their district, but every city resident can vote for each commission seat. Under the terms outlined Monday by the City Commission, only residents within a City Commission district would be able to vote for that commissioner. Many county commissions have single-member districts, with a wider pool of voters; it’s not immediately clear how many smaller municipalities have single-member districts.

Commissioner Paul Diaz was the one who first suggested making elections be single-member districts. 

“The single member district allows us to have hyper representation,” Diaz said. “If one side (of town) says we want no development whatsoever, but you have another side of town that will die without infill development. And one side decides they want a moratorium on all development, that moratorium affects all sides of Winter Springs.” 

McCann vehemently opposed that idea.

“This is leading to bigger and bigger problems,” McCann said. “Everything being proposed is going to do nothing but hurt our city and divide us. It’s all bad.”

A time for big decisions

The Winter Springs City Commission also voted to do a full charter review, the first such review of the city’s governing documents since around 2010. But that full Charter Review Commission would be studying the charter and making recommendations for the 2028 election, not next year.

The Winter Springs City Commission only has one meeting in November and one meeting in December to approve the possible new Winter Springs referendum to eliminate the mayor. 

“We’ve got to fish or cut bait now,” Diaz said, arguing the commission needed to vote Monday night and not wait.

Some commissioners agreed that it would be best if voters ultimately do not approve the measures. 

“I’m not happy about it, of course,” Commissioner Mark Caruso said after the meeting. “If someone wants to come in and have voting power, why not run for commission?”

Caruso said when residents ask him, he’ll tell him his personal views. 

“Keep the structure the way it is,” Caruso said. “Is the mayor perfect? No, no one is. … But I think overall this is the path we should be going on, the way we have it now.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.