Apopka City Commission to revisit discretionary funds resolution on Nov. 4 

The Apopka City Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to revisit the city’s discretionary funds resolution on Nov. 4.  

Resolution No. 2025-34 outlines four eligible uses of the commission’s discretionary funds and prohibits their use for “political or campaign-related activities” and “personal expenses or benefits.” The commission tabled possible changes to the policy Sept. 16. The resolution came under scrutiny from the commission after Commissioner Nadia Anderson requested approximately $13,000 for Oct. 10’s Heart & Soul Music Festival. 

“For me, this is about being creative with taxpayer dollars and maximizing the return to our community,” said Anderson at the Oct. 7 commission meeting, further saying that the contribution would allow residents to enter the privately produced festival for free. “The city is not producing this event or collecting the event revenue.” 

Commissioner Sam Ruth began the Oct. 21 discussion of the discretionary funds resolution during his commission report.  

“It’s not that I was against any of the events that occurred. It’s just that there’s no bumper rails for it,” he said. “It was the disbursement of the funds for the event that caused the discussion.” 

Vice Mayor Diane Velazquez said the resolution stemmed from an encouragement of public discussion after public comment was moved to the end of the previous administration’s commission meetings. 

“Then they turned the live feed off, and so at that time, Mayor Nesta, who was then the commissioner, held a town hall here in the chamber, and they asked him to pay for the use of the chamber and to have a police officer here while he was holding the town hall,” she said. “He had to pay it himself for a town meeting, so that’s where that resolution came from. It was in the spirit of having town hall meetings with our community and being able to have the facility.” 

Anderson said she had also “tried to have several events where I had to pay out of pocket.” 

“One of the reasons why we discussed it being open was because we wanted to make sure that whatever initiative that each commissioner wanted to support — if four of the commissioners didn’t want to support that, we still could actually have that event,” she said. “But all fairness to myself, I actually was the one who initiated asking questions because it was so vague, and I wasn’t sure, and I reached out to the attorney myself… I do agree that there should be some type of parameters put on the policy.” 

Commissioner Yesenia Baron noted that the resolution does contain eligible and ineligible uses, although it lacks “a minimum in terms of what the city staff or the cost to the city is going to be.” She suggested a limit of $5,000, with Camp Wewa and the Apopka Amphitheater as exceptions. 

During public comment, Apopka resident Sylvester Hall claimed that racism served as the basis for the resolution’s discussion. 

“To hear how someone sitting on this council, this dias here, the things that are being said on social media — it’s like we’re animals,” he said. “A white band can come out there, and these things are not brought up at all.”  

Resident Albert McKimmie followed Hall’s comments, denying racism as a factor in the discussion. 

“I could be called racist, I could be called sexist — but there’s a gentleman over there I defended when he was accused of shooting up somebody’s house. If I was racist, I wouldn’t be defending him at the time,” he said. “I don’t see any racism here. The only racism I see is people who have a chip on their shoulder and believe that they’re second-class citizens.” 

Resident Nikki Maguire urged commissioners to “focus on the mistake that was made” instead of the singular concert. 

“The mistake that was made was in 2025 when you guys voted for something without any guardrails,” she said. “I’m not looking at just the concert because it could have been any one of you who could have done something.”