The Apopka City Council voted unanimously to put all eight proposed city charter amendments on a referendum possibly in November, including whether to change the city’s form of government from mayor-council to council-manager.  

The council voted on the second reading of Ordinance No. 3072 on Wednesday, Aug. 20, following the ordinance’s first reading on April 16. 

Based on the council vote, the public will vote on the proposed charter amendments in the November election if it is possible to get the amendments on that ballot.  

If that can’t be done, the vote will take place in March as an alternative. The council passed a motion to have the city clerk verify if the November election is feasible, and if not, to use the March election as the fallback option. 

“I want to make sure you’ve had the opportunity to consider them, so I don’t just randomly throw out an ordinance and you say you had a chance to vote on each one or consider each one,” city attorney Cliff Shepard told the City Council.  

Besides switching the form of government from mayor-council to council-manager, other proposed amendments are as follows: 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, requiring the city clerk and city attorney to be appointed by the City Commission, and implementing the public comment period before decision items on the agenda.  

Commissioner Nick Nesta asked the reason for the delay of the ordinance’s second reading, which he was given two “I don’t know” replies. Commissioner Nadia Anderson said a motion could have been done to bring the second reading earlier.  

“It should have been brought up …. cause this causes delays again. So political delays,” Nesta said.  

When Nesta asked Shepard about the impact of the charter amendments, Shepard said the only delay would be in the change of government form, which would be effective 120 days after the referendum passes starting on Election Day. The changed form of government would also cause the mayor’s salary to revert to a commissioner’s salary and would include the hiring and training of a city manager, Shepard said.  

Residents raised concerns about how the city charter would create more government accountability and address official misconduct.  

“In this charter, No. 9, we need to have something [about] how we can get rid of corrupt officials,” Sylvester Hall said. “That needs to be in the charter for the people to decide and people can see.”  

The City Council held many public meetings about the charter amendments between January 2024 and March 2025.