Apopka mayoral candidates debate issues at packed house

2182

Covering a wide array of topics including the city budget reserves, red light cameras, and campaign contributions, Apopka mayoral candidates — incumbent Mayor Joe Kilsheimer and challenger Orange County Commissioner Bryan Nelson — squared off in the 2018 Apopka mayoral candidate debate before a packed ballroom at Highland Manor on Wednesday, January 31.

The Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce organized the debate, sponsored by BusinessForce, a political action committee in Central Florida. Orlando Sentinel and Fox35-WOFL personnel moderated the debate. The city election is scheduled for March 13 and also includes races for Seat 1 and Seat 2 on the Apopka City Council.

The debate began with an opening statement from both candidates. Nelson won a coin flip to decide the order of the opening statements.

In Nelson’s statement, he said the city has to get its financial house in order, and therefore he would take a 50 percent pay cut to help fund what the city needs.

“As an elected official, I served as a House of Representative during the great recession, and I will never forget how to take a pay cut,” he said. “I voted to take a pay cut because it was the right thing to do. We did get our financial house in order, and that was what was most important because we want to move forward.”

In his opening statement, Kilsheimer said that after his first election as mayor and getting to City Hall 3-1/2 years ago, there was “a sense of complacency” among the city staff. The mayor said it was mostly because his predecessor, John Land, had been mayor for a long time. Land was mayor of Apopka from 1950 to 2014 except for one three-year period in the late 1960s.

Kilsheimer said that since he became mayor, more than 1,000 jobs have been created in Apopka, a new Florida Hospital was built and is in operation, and the downtown city center deal went through and will soon be under construction. Also, City Hall overhauled what Kilsheimer said was an outdated computer system, the city police department is now state-accredited, and two more fire stations have been added.

“We’ve done all of this while maintaining the second lowest millage rate in all of Orange County,” Kilsheimer said. “I’m very proud of that fact.”

Because the seats at Highland Manor were filled, residents had other options for tuning in to the debate. Victory Church World Outreach Center live-streamed the event in its sanctuary. A local radio station also live-streamed the debate.

After asking questions on the community’s hot topic issues, the moderators asked questions that Chamber members submitted.

An expanded version of this story appears on page 1A of the Friday, February 2, issue of The Apopka Chief