The Apopka City Council voted unanimously on July 2 to confirm a new economic development director and reassign current employees to head two newly formed departments split off from the public services department following the departure of directors.  

Antranette Forbes, the current St. Cloud economic development director, succeeds Michele Boylan as Apopka’s economic development director. Forbes will begin her new position on Aug. 4.  

Forbes has around 20 years of experience in economic and business development with specialization in business recruitment, municipal operations and program management. 

Since 2019, Forbes has served as the city of St. Cloud’s economic development director. In this role, she “increased CRA taxable value by 29% over five years through strategic infrastructure investments 
and historic preservation programs,” according to her resume. 

Before her appointment, Forbes spoke to each of the Apopka city commissioners and the mayor to learn more about the city and their priorities for it.  

“I’ve said to you all individually, and I’ll say it publicly: my first priority is always to our local businesses first,” Forbes said. “How do we help them grow? How do we help them expand? And then our second one is business retention, because we only bring new businesses in when we work with our existing ones and make sure that they are thriving and successful.” 

Commissioner Nick Nesta commended Forbes’s skills and background, bringing up her work on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program in St. Cloud. Forbes said that and other programs, such as the State House Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program, fell under her duties as St. Cloud economic development director.  

The CDBG program is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which gives funds for low-income people and areas. SHIP gives money to local governments to spur partnerships that yield and preserve affordable homeownership. 

Nesta also asked Forbes about business tax receipts, which saw an increase of close to 30% under Forbes in St. Cloud.  

“I am pro for the data piece of it, not necessarily for the fee,” Forbes responded. “So one of the hardest things when you are entering a new area is to figure out who your business community is and what their needs are. And so the registration process helps, because then I’m able to identify them and then reach out, get demographic information, and get sales data. If I don’t, if there’s no registration or some way for a business to alert us that they exist, then it makes it that much more difficult.” 

Forbes emerged from a selection process that had 34 applicants and eight interviews over two different sessions, interim city administrator Radley Williams said.   

“The city conducted a comprehensive recruitment process identifying quality candidates to lead the Economic Development Department,” Williams said. “The role is critical in advancing the city of Apopka, strategic goals around business retention, traction, workforce development and community revitalization.”  

Residents encouraged Forbes for her future success in Apopka and her ability to improve it. Albert McKimmie said he and perhaps speaking for other city residents, would like to see the reduction of urban sprawl to maintain Apopka’s natural beauty, and encourage more manufacturing businesses to come into the city, which would increase all other facilities that manufacturers need.  

“We are very fortunate in Apopka,” McKimmie said. “We have things here that other people can’t buy. We have a lot of natural beauty. We have the springs. We’ve all sorts of things that I hope we can retain as they are.” 

Public services 

As another action item, the council tapped current city engineer Vladimir Simonovski as director of the public works department and Glen Brooks, the current water resources utilities operations manager, as director of the utilities operations department. 

The selection of Simonovski and Brooks stemmed from the restructuring of the public services department, which is splitting into two: public works and utilities operations. 

Both Simonovski and Brooks are in their second tenure with the city of Apopka in their respective current jobs. Each man has over 20 years of combined service to the city, according to city staff reports. 

Simonovski began with the city as a utility design manager and is now the city engineer. Brooks has served the city through multiple water, wastewater and utility roles. As the current water resources utilities operations manager, he supervises all wastewater plants, water plants and plant maintenance.  

The reorganized public works department will focus on city engineering, development review engineering, utilities engineering, transportation and stormwater engineering, construction management, GIS and assets management, and streets and stormwater management. 
 

 The reorganized utilities operations department will handle water plant operations, wastewater plant operations, plant maintenance operations and utilities maintenance, which includes water, wastewater and lift stations. 

During the July 2 meeting, Commissioner Nick Nesta asked about the previous public works director’s quick turnover and the reasons for the reorganization. Williams explained after the public services director Deodat Budhu vacated the position, the idea was to split that department into three: city engineering, public works and utilities.  

However, when the city hired Momtaz Barq as the public works director last spring, “that didn’t align with when he got here, what he really wanted to do,” Williams said. A few weeks later, Barq quit the position.  

“When that happened again, we went to look and see what that operation needed, and we looked at the work units that were being completed by the public services department as a whole and tried to group these into two areas that made sense operationally,” Williams said.   

 Nesta asked if the city currently has a transportation coordinator on staff. Williams said a new senior engineer and transportation coordinator will begin employment on July 7.  

 Resident Rod Olsen congratulated Siminovski and Brooks on their new positions and stated his concerns about the condition of city assets and the need for a preventive maintenance plan.  

 “My hopes are on these new positions, that we make sure that we have a preventive maintenance plan in place, as well as a metered plan for all the equipment that’s past this normal lifespan,” he said.