Winter Springs mayoral race takes a turn for the negative

It’s qualifying week in Winter Springs, where the slate of candidates up for election in November will get finalized. But the race for mayor is already getting negative as the challenger accuses the incumbent of “illegal” campaign finance violations over what turned out to be a clerical error by the office of the former Supervisor of Elections.

Editor’s note: Oviedo Community News covers issues that readers say matter to them and election coverage has been identified as highly valuable. We plan to investigate or fact check any accusations or alleged misinformation, ensuring that all of the facts are available so that your decisions remain your own.

The issue stems from current Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann’s 2022 election. According to the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Office, McCann’s 2022 campaign took in $9,750 for the campaign and spent $4,999.33  – leaving a leftover balance of $4,750. 

Leftover campaign funds can be returned to donors or donated to charity, or can be moved to a new account for a future campaign. McCann’s challenger Jesse Phillips recently sent an email to supporters about McCann’s “missing” campaign funds. 

“This leaves several possible options,” Phillips wrote. “Surplus money was dispersed legally, but hidden from reports. Campaign expenses were not reported as required by law. Leftover money was pocketed or sent somewhere else illegally.”

The email was sent from the Winter Springs Community Association, which Phillips co-founded with Ken Greenberg, a former Winter Springs commissioner who was appointed to fill an empty seat. That email was labeled as a paid political advertisement.

“Perhaps the report was submitted on time, and just simply lost,” Phillips wrote. “Maybe the dog ate someone’s homework. Who knows? At the very least, these reports are not available as they should be.”

McCann produced the missing final report to Oviedo Community News. The metadata shows the document was created in February of 2023, within the timeframe it should have been filed. And the city’s code requires candidates to file the reports electronically with the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections, which creates the timestamp. 

“I want to make sure everybody understands: I filed everything, and everything was right,” McCann said. “That money, I paid off any remaining bills, and then the last roughly $1,840 I donated to veterans’ organizations, the Oviedo American Legion and the Winter Springs VFW.”

After an inquiry from Oviedo Community News, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock confirmed the report was submitted by McCann on time, but was never “accepted” by the office — a “clerical error of the past SOE administration.”

Chris Anderson is the former Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Pennock referenced. According to a transition report from when Pennock took over as supervisor, this was not the first time a candidate’s final campaign report was submitted but not properly documented. 

“The prior SOE staff never ‘accepted’ the report; it is part of the process that must be done in order for the reports to show up in the file,” Pennock wrote. “I have accepted the report and if you go back into his records, you will find the [report] is showing up there now.”

Phillips did not make the public records requests himself. Greenberg, the cofounder of the Winter Springs Community Association, filed the requests. Greenberg requested campaign documents from the supervisor of elections and the Winter Springs city clerk in July. 

There was a question about who was responsible for keeping the records: The supervisor of elections, or the city clerk. Pennock said it’s the responsibility of the city clerks to make sure reports are filed and fines are assessed.

“The obligation remains with the cities to be the supervisor of elections for their races, which would include record keeping,” Pennock wrote. “However, in our (memorandums of understanding)  with each city, one of our identified offerings is to allow the city candidates to use our electronic reporting system to do the required reporting, vs. them turning in the reports manually to each city clerk.” 

Phillips said that his email revealed a problem, albeit not the one he was indicating. 

“This exposed an issue tracking the pertinent information and making it accessible to the public,” Phillips said. “My view is that I should be able to go on to the Supervisor of Elections website and see campaign finance information. And so whatever happened was a failure of these systems.”

Phillips’ email to supporters went beyond the campaign document, though, bringing up an instance where McCann reimbursed the city for Uber charges, and also that McCann had lawsuits over failure to pay credit cards. 

“Several years ago, my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer,” McCann said, getting emotional. “We lost her income, and we went through a very tough time and had to make choices between my wife’s healthcare and credit card bills, or my mortgage and credit card bills.”

McCann said he wanted to acknowledge that it happened, and has previously said he made the right calls back then.

“It got to the point that even when I was mayor, they garnished my pay at the city, which was incredibly embarrassing,” McCann said. “It had been very difficult, but in the end, I have settled and paid all those debts off. My wife’s health is doing better.”

Summarizing his feelings about being the target of negative campaigning, McCann wrote in an email to Pennock that, “Regretfully, it’s also the ‘silly season’ leading up to an election.” 

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.