Proposed changes include moving to council-manager government
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
The Apopka City Council voted on April 16 the first reading of Ordinance 3072 for putting eight proposed charter amendments on the ballot for voter approval.
City attorney Cliff Shepard reviewed and discussed each proposed amendment with the City Council.
Key points included changing the city’s form of government from mayor-council to council-manager, renaming the governing body from “Council” to “Commission,” clarifying the city clerk’s ministerial role in election qualifying, setting city elections for the first Tuesday in March, establishing term limits of two consecutive terms for commissioners and mayors, making all city employees at-will except those under contracts, and requiring the city clerk and city attorney to be appointed by the City Commission.
The eighth proposed change is about implementing public comment period before decision items on the agenda. Since last summer, the public comment period has taken place at the end of the City Council meeting and not live streamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
“Basically, this [amendment] says that it doesn’t tell you where it goes,” Shepard said. “It just tells you before a decision. That avoids any possibility of manipulation, because you’ve got to have the comment period before you’re going to start making decisions. So not necessarily before an invocation, not necessarily before the Pledge of Allegiance or presentations, but when you start getting to the point where you’re going to have to start voting on stuff, you need a comment period first.”
If voters approve the amendment for changing the government form from mayor-council to council-manager, this will be effective 120 days after the referendum passes.
In the case of the amendment regarding at-will employees, Shepard explained that means one can be fired for any non-discriminatory reason, such as a personality conflict.
“You just have to have a reason that’s not in discriminatory or no reason at all,” Shepard said. “But you can’t obviously discriminate, and that’s what at-will employment means.”
Resident Leroy Bell brought up concerns about the term limits and the need for single-member districts, in which a commissioner represents a section of the city.
“Those were my words at the last [charter workshop] meeting,” Bell said. “You need to serve two terms here in the city, and you’re out of here. If you want to sit and wait four more years out and come back, that’s fine, but that’s wrong. That ain’t what was discussed at the last workshop.”
In discussing the first proposed amendment, changing the form of government, Shepard explained that the mayor’s salary would revert to the commissioner’s salary during the transition period, and that the 120-day transition period will begin on Election Day.
The next step is to bring Ordinance 3072 back to the City Council for a second reading and adoption. The ordinance will also have the date of election for the charter amendments, Shepard said. He also said the City Council may want to have a workshop on single-member districts.
The City Council conducted several public meetings about the charter amendments between January 2024 and March 2025.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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