Winter Springs narrowly approves declaration during Pride month

On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Winter Springs City Commission narrowly approved a declaration Monday in support of the LGBTQ community during Pride month. 

The carefully worded declaration required all five City Commissioners to vote on the issue, rather than a proclamation, which can be done unilaterally by the mayor. It passed on a 3-2 vote.

“June has historically been recognized across the United States as a time to acknowledge the experiences and contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals, including residents, business owners, veterans, first responders, educators, public servants, neighbors, and families within our own community,” the declaration reads. “This declaration does not establish or endorse any specific political viewpoint, event, or expenditure of public funds, but instead affirms the City’s belief that every resident deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and respected in our community.” 

Commissioner Paul Diaz said the declaration was “virtue signaling.”

“It is taking a political stance on a particular document to a particular group,” Diaz said.  

The declaration itself was revised to omit any references to diversity, equity or inclusion. Mayor Kevin McCann said he was prepared to issue a proclamation if the vote failed. 

McCann, who is up for reelection, told Diaz to vote his “conscience.” 

“You don’t have to sign it,” McCann said. “I understand you’re against it. That’s OK. I accept your opinion as much as I accept everyone else in our community and their feelings about this. There will be those that will wish it was stronger. There are those who wish it won’t be here.”

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Commissioner Cade Resnick was in support of the declaration. 

“This document is about inclusion of a community,” Resnick said. “If we can’t see that – we’re here as community candidates. The community voted us here as a whole. Respect – we took out the word inclusion – but respect, inclusion and community is, (in) my perspective, what this is about.”

Several members of the public spoke at the meeting. Oviedo resident David Williamson is the cofounder of the Central Florida Freethought Community, which advocates for the separation of religion and government. 

He pointed to neighboring Oviedo, where the City Council also had a split vote on a declaration for Pride month. Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek has also separately done her own different proclamation for Pride month.

Williamson urged all members of the Winter Springs City Commission to vote in favor of the declaration. 

“I think it’s a cop out, for sure, that people are not willing to acknowledge that the LGBTQ people exist, or they’ve decided that the consequence of admitting that they care is gonna cost them votes on the right,” Williamson said. “I mean, honestly, it’s where we are politically.” 

Winter Springs resident Sean Cassedy cautioned the Winter Springs Commission against signing the declaration. He said the LGBT movement has a “militant” aspect, and the commissioners should sign the declaration “in blood.”

“I just don’t believe that the state, the public entity, should be endorsing a special interest,” Cassedy said after the meeting. “Are you gonna endorse, you know, Baptists? Or you’re gonna endorse one group over another? I just think [the government] doesn’t need to be involved in that.”

Monday’s vote came the same week Orlando is remembering one of the worst attacks on the LGBT community: June 12 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Orlando became the site of, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting in modern history when a gunman entered the LGBTQ nightclub with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 49 people. 

The Winter Springs declaration passed on a 3-2 vote. Commissioners Diaz and Mark Caruso voted against it.

Commissioner Sarah Baker asked for a declaration, which includes a vote of the entire City Commission, rather than a proclamation. 

“I personally brought this to the mayor and asked for it to be a declaration because I thought it was something that our dais could come together and support our community on,” Baker said.  

After the meeting, Williamson said the arguments on the dais and the split vote show that the community is divided. 

“This matters. Kids are dying,” Williamson said. “People are not who they are authentically trying to be as people. And being gay isn’t a choice.”

Winter Springs approves stormwater rate increases

The Winter Springs City Commission also  finalized votes to raise stormwater rates every year through 2030. 

Following a 3-2 vote passing the ordinance, Winter Springs residents will have their stormwater rates rise from $10 to $15 on Oct. 1. The rates will increase every year until 2030, ultimately settling at $20 per month. This is the second year in a row of increases after the fee was $5 for about 20 years prior. 

The vote happened with no members of the public speaking on the issue. Commissioners Caruso and Diaz voted against the increase. Neither spoke at Monday’s meeting, but last month Caruso said at the last meeting that it was the wrong time to be raising rates on residents. 

“I don’t think this is the right time to do this,” Caruso said last month. “There’s a lot of families struggling.”

In total, Winter Springs has 15,580 residential homes paying for stormwater. Of those, 10,500 pay the full price, and another 5,078 pay a reduced rate because they live in a homeowner’s association with a fully functioning stormwater system they maintain. There are also commercial customers who pay what’s called an “equivalent residential unit,” or ERU. They currently pay $10 ERU for every 2,123 square feet of paved-over area.

Winter Springs has a total of 353 ponds, 131 of which are maintained by the city. Only 43 of those are entirely public and 88 are hybrid ponds belonging to homeowners associations that receive water runoff from city roads and public rights-of-way. 

The maintenance program for hybrid ponds will address six ponds annually over the next 15 years. The average projected cost for maintenance on each of these ponds is $152,000, with a total cost of $912,000 every year. 

The plan also includes hiring a new four-person crew and buying them a set of Ford F-150 and F-250 work trucks to carry out the maintenance. 

Commissioner Victoria Bruce voted in favor of the rate increase, pointing to Hurricane Ian as a major factor in the decision. 

“Ian really opened up everybody’s eyes,” Bruce said. ”We have to think about what’s existing. We’ve got to fix it because it’s been neglected, and the city knows that.” 

The most vocal residents, Bruce said, were those living around hybrid ponds. She saw the conditions for herself during an on-site visit to one of the ponds about a year ago. 

“We looked at the control structures, and it’s a joke,” Bruce said, “They are terrible. I mean they’re like bootlegged. … They’re falling apart and we keep putting band-aids on them.” 

Bruce also emphasized the budgetary reasons for the rate increase. 

“We were operating at a deficit. We were having to put money from the general fund into that account, which isn’t really appropriate, but it needed to be done,” Bruce said, “So this additional $5 will allow us to actually do projects that should have been done 10 years ago.”  

Neighboring Oviedo increased its stormwater rates by 25% in 2025.

In other news, the city of Winter Springs:

• Approved hiring K2M Design as the architect for a future hurricane Emergency Operations Center. The 2,200-square-foot building – separate from the police station at 300 N. Moss Road – would be able to withstand 160-mph winds and house 55 police officers and first responders. The project does not have a price tag yet, and the cost for engineering and design work is being reimbursed through federal grants. Check here to read the solicitation for the project. 
• Approved a reclaimed water main extension – allowing homes and businesses along Michael Blake Boulevard to use reclaimed water, which is recycled wastewater that’s treated to be safe for irrigation. The project will cost $146,496, and will include the installation of about 1,100 feet of reclaimed water main pipe along Tuskawilla Road to Fanning Drive, and about 3,000 feet of pipe from Tuskawilla Road to State Road 434 along Michael Blake Boulevard. The city recently experienced a reclaimed water outage because of a maintenance issue that left some customers without reclaimed water for months. 
• Approved minor changes to the site plan for The Learning Experience, a planned 10,000-square-foot daycare approved for the Winter Springs Town Center. 
• Approved minor changes to plans for PNC bank in the Winter Springs Town Center.

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member