HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-26-1998 Legislative Agenda AGENDA
West Orange Summit Meeting
August 26, 1998 at 7:30 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER
1. Mayor John H. Land - City of Apopka
2. Mayor Jon Vanderley- Town of Oakland
3. Mayor S. Scott Vandergrift- City of Ocoee
4. Mayor Jack L. Quensinberry - City of Winter Garden
5. Mayor Karen L. Ruenheck- Town of Windermere
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
PRESENTATIONS
1. 1998 Legislative Update presented by Oscar Juarez.
2. Legislative Agenda for 1999 presented by Ellis Shapiro, City Manager of the City
of Ocoee.
3. West Orange Airport Update presented by Billy Burch.
4. C.A.M.P. - Planning, East Central Florida Regional Planning Commission, etc.
presented by Mayor John H. Land and Assistant City Administrator Jack H. Douglas,
Jr., City of Apopka.
5. Security and Safety Issues on the West Orange Trail presented by Mayor Jon
Vanderley, Town of Oakland.
6. General Discussion of West Orange Roads presented by Councilman Don Greer,
Town of Windermere.
OLD BUSINESS:
1. Summit
2. Public
NEW BUSINESS:
1. Summit
2. Public
ADJOURNMENT:
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All interested parties may appear and be heard with respect to this agenda. Please be advised that,
under state law, if you decide to appeal any decision made by the West Orange Summit with respect
to any matter considered at this meeting or hearing, you will need a record of the proceedings, and
that, for such purpose, you may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made,
which record includes a testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based. In
accordance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), persons with disabilities needing a
special accommodation to participate in any of these proceedings should contact the Mayor's Office
at 120 East Main Street,Apopka,FL 32703,telephone (407) 889-1703, not later than five (5) days
prior to the proceeding.
Elected Officials
City ofApopka City of Ocoee
%/Mayor John H. Land V Mayor S. Scott Vandergrift
-''Vice Mayor Bill Arrowsmith VCommissioner Scott Anderson
''Commissioner Billie Dean ✓Commissioner Scott A. Glass
Commissioner Mark Holmes </Commissioner Danny Howell
,!/Commissioner Marilyn Ustler McQueen ✓Commissioner Nancy Parker
thssistant City Administrator Jack H. Douglas, Jr. <�ity Manager Ellis Shapiro
Assistant City Administrator Richard Anderson
Town of Oakland Town of Windermere
1V Mayor Jon Vanderley v Mayor Karen L. Ruenheck
Councilman William Dudzinski 1,Councilman Larry Dodson
Councilman Michael Satterfield A..., Councilman Don Greer
Councilman Willie Welch Councilman Tom Johnson
Councilwoman Kathy Stark 'Councilman Bill Osborne
`City Manager Robert L. Tietz Councilman Jerry Van Dyke
'-1'own Manager Cecilia A. Bernier
Town Planner Carl Patterson
City of Winter Garden
''Mayor Jack L. Quesinberry
Commissioner Johnnie Mae Anderson
‘ Commissioner Theo Graham
Commissioner John Harriman
'ommissioner John Rees
City Manager Hollis Holden
Legislative Agenda
Apopka, Ocoee, and Winter Garden
Transportation -The state should continue to support,by any method possible, the completion of both Part
A and Part C of the Western Beltway. The State has provided some right of way monies in the last two
Legislative Sessions and there may be requests in the upcoming session. Additionally, the State needs to
support the Apopka Bypass which becomes the Western Beltway's missing link. By constructing the
Apopka Bypass to match up with the Maitland Boulevard extension, a person would be able to travel south
on I-4 and exit onto the Maitland Boulevard extension. The traveler would be able to exit onto the Apopka
Bypass and then connect with Part A and C of the Western Beltway. This would allow the traveler to return
to I-4 south of Disney. There is also a proposal for the City of Ocoee and the Florida Department of
Transportation to construct an interconnection between the Florida Turnpike, Expressway and a reliever
for Highway 50. The State should consider this a major issue considering the continued high growth area
of western Orange County.
Property Legal Description - State law requires an agency to describe a parcel of property by metes and
bounds. A more acceptable manner for describing property is based on sectional description as provided
by the property appraiser's office. This law should be changed to make both descriptions acceptable.
Apopka's Economic Redevelopment Project - The effect of the buyout of the muck farms located near
Lake Apopka has had an enormous economic impact on Central Florida, specifically the Cities of Apopka,
Ocoee,Winter Garden, and the Town of Oakland. It has been estimated there will be a loss of revenue of
production in the farms in the amount of$62 million annually. The total of regional impact of the loss of
the farms is $110 million annually. Full time equivalent agricultural job loss is 1160. Total regional
employment job loss is 2272. This is a staggering hit to our local economy. In order to help offset this
enormous damage, we are asking Legislature to provide economic incentives to attract new businesses to
this region of Orange County.
In the 1997 Legislative session,there were provisions adopted to provide some funding upon the sale of
the farm equipment. However, the farms closed in July 1998 and the sale of the farm equipment may not
take place until the year 2000 or 2001. The Legislature should provide funding now and reimburse
themselves from the proceeds of the equipment sales.
IFAS Consolidated Research Center-There is a need for funding by the State of Florida to purchase the
remaining 126 acres owned by the City of Apopka to complete the overall IFAS consolidation project.
During 1998, both the House and the Senate appropriated the funds. However, the Governor vetoed the-
allocation.
Annexations - State Legislature should provide an updated method of annexations that provides a
method to eliminate enclaves for the more efficient delivery of service to areas that are surrounded by
cities.
Taxpayer Protection Act - The Taxpayer Protection Act concerns salary, wages, benefits, and pensions
related to public employees. In the past, laws have been passed in the Florida Legislature that affect
salary benefits and pensions of the City Employees. However, the increase in cost in those areas has not
been passed along from the Legislature to the local level. Therefore, the Taxpayer Protection Act
requires the Florida Legislature to conduct an Economic Impact Statement(EIS) to determine the
estimated cost to all local governments. Also, the EIS should indicate if the proposed change is in
compliance with Section 14, Article X of the State Constitution and options on how to finance the
potential increase in cost.
Telecommunication Franchise Fees - This bill has been introduced on behalf of the
telecommunication industry. One of the provisions in this bill would be the franchise fees for
telecommunications would be eliminated. The government could only recover a cost related to actual
costs in maintaining the right of way. We are opposed to this bill.
Additionally, there was a bill proposed during the 1998 session that would eliminate the 10%utility
tax and implement the 7%telecommunication tax on a state wide basis and hold all those cities that
previously had the 7%telecommunication tax harmless, thereby reducing the amount of revenue to
cities with the 10%utility tax.
In the event this legislation is adopted, we feel some provision should be added to hold all cities
harmless against any reduction in revenues. It is also our position that no city would be harmed by a
distribution of state collected tax for the city election to not have previously implemented the 7%
telecommunication tax. Therefore, should the State impose a uniform 7% state wide telecommunication
tax for the cities and counties that have not implemented the 7%tax, but have implemented the 10%
utility tax, will have this distribution based on the first 12 month collection under the new 7% tax. This
will allow the State to determine a fair distribution of the newly imposed State tax.