Winter Springs Commissioner Paul Diaz wants to see comparisons for county to provide police

At least one Winter Springs city commissioner wants to see side-by-side cost comparisons for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office to take over patrolling the city’s streets. 

Commissioner Paul Diaz made the comments Monday night, as the city finalized its 2026 property tax rate and budget. Under new business, Diaz asked staff to come back with a cost comparison of what it would take to have the county provide policing in the city. 

Diaz said with state constitutional Amendment 3 coming up on the November ballot, which could significantly cut municipal budgets, the city must look at the big-ticket items. The Winter Springs Police Department and the Parks and Recreation Department are top on his list. 

It’s “not nitpicking a thousand here and a thousand there,” Diaz said. “We need to be having a conversation about the tens of millions of dollars.”

Diaz said that if they can’t measure it, they can’t manage it. 

“The reality is every single council and commission in Florida should be asking tough questions,” Diaz said in an interview. “All I’m asking is show me where the money goes. My fellow commissioners don’t want me to see the numbers. Why?”

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Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said he doesn’t want the City Commission to even have the conversation. He said officers won’t want to come work in the city if there are talks of dissolving the police department.

“If I can get three votes to kill the conversation, I’m gonna do it,” McCann said. “I will fight to stop this from happening.” 

McCann said that after Oviedo had open discussions about consolidating its police department, Winter Springs hired some of their former officers. 

“Those are truly damaging academic conversations,” McCann said. “You’re gonna scare these officers and their families.” 

Commissioner Victoria Bruce said it’s a great idea to get the data. But she’s skeptical the city would save a large amount of money by switching to the county — and then the city would lose control over the police department. 

She pointed to Deerfield Beach, where the city is going the opposite way: Creating its own police and fire department because the county costs too much, potentially saving up to $500 million over 20 years, by one consultant’s report. 

But, Bruce added, it doesn’t hurt to look at the numbers. 

“I’d have to listen to the residents,” Bruce said.  

Commissioner Cade Resnick offered an apology to the police officers in the room Monday night. 

“I know that the conversation tonight was hard to hear for your officers,” Resnick said. “But at least know that I know how far we’ve come from where we were as a department, and it would not be my intention to end any of that.”

Diaz also wants to privatize parks

Diaz said another area where the city could save money is in the Parks and Recreation Department. 

He proposed donating the city’s park lands to a private foundation, who would then manage the lands and charge users a fee to use them. 

“Meaning it’s not compulsory,” Diaz said about the taxes. “Every taxpayer is not forced to pay for a park they never use.”

Bruce said she thinks it’s unlikely any foundation would want to take the parks. She said the only way that would be feasible is if the city established an endowment to pay for it. 

“Who the hell would we get to take over the parks?” she asked. “That’s a money pit.” 

Winter Springs has done this before

There is precedent for consolidation. 

Winter Springs is one of four cities in Seminole County that get fire protection services from the county; residents end up paying an additional fire fee in their property taxes to fund it. But so far, all seven of the county’s cities have their own police departments.

Winter Springs Public Information Officer Matt Reeser said there’s no clear date on when the official discussion would happen. And for now, it would just be an accounting of the city’s police department.  

“It would just be an exercise for us,” Reeser said. “We would need the county to come up with their numbers. They’re reticent to do that. They don’t want to go through this whole exercise and then have people back out.” 

County Commissioner Jay Zembower, who represents the Winter Springs area as part of his district, said to do a consolidation, they have to do real analysis of the assets – things like buildings and vehicles – that the police department has, versus obligations, like pay and pension. Anything that costs the county more money would have to be paid for by the city. 

“Typically, when we’ve taken over fire departments, the city has been on the hook to pay the county – sometimes for 10, 15, 20 years before it evens out,” Zembower said. 

Zembower said it’s a bit late for the city to be having these talks. But, he added, with Amendment 3 looming, more cities will likely consider it. 

“If Amendment 3 passes, there’s going to be a lot more conversations like that,” Zembower said. “We’re not all going be able to afford everyone having their own police department.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.