Winter Springs should be one of the best places in Central Florida to work, raise a family, build a business, retire, and enjoy the community you worked hard to call home.
But the cost of city government has grown dramatically. Utility bills have increased. Longstanding infrastructure problems have become enormously expensive. And too often, the answer from City Hall has been to ask residents to pay more.
A Working Winter Springs is a practical agenda for changing that approach — putting resources closer to the residents, employees, families, seniors, and businesses that make our community work.
The goal is not smaller government simply for the sake of being smaller. It is a city government that is more productive, more accountable, more affordable, and better focused on delivering the basic services residents expect.
A Working Winter Springs Agenda
Seven practical priorities for making Winter Springs more affordable, responsive, and effective.
Lower the Cost of Living
Make affordability a City Hall priority. Work to lower utility bills, stop unnecessary future rate increases, scrutinize city-controlled taxes and fees, and aggressively pursue state, federal, and regional funding before asking residents to pay more.
View the Four-Step Action Plan
- Stop unnecessary future rate increases. If we do not act, residents’ utility bills will increase again.
- Roll back recent stormwater fee increases. Use available, legally eligible Penny Sales Tax funds for qualified hybrid-pond and stormwater infrastructure repairs.
- Reduce trash pickup fees. Maintain adequate storm and emergency reserves without overcharging residents simply to accumulate an unnecessarily large fund balance.
- Conduct an independent water-rate study aimed at reducing rates as the new wastewater plants are built and their financing becomes clearer.
Tools Before Consultants
Invest in productivity before payroll. Make sure Public Works, Stormwater, Utilities, Parks, and other frontline employees have the equipment, technology, and resources necessary to do their jobs before adding administrative overhead or paying another consultant to study the problem.
View the Three-Step Action Plan
- Listen to frontline employees. Conduct a confidential survey so employees can honestly identify the tools, equipment, technology, and process improvements they need to succeed.
- Redirect spending toward results. Direct management to identify responsible opportunities to shift spending away from consultants and unnecessary administrative overhead and toward equipment, tools, and greater workforce efficiency.
- Prioritize core public services. Competitively outsource routine, commoditized back-office functions when doing so can demonstrably save money without sacrificing service, security, or accountability.
A Leaner, Better City Workforce
Protect frontline services while scrutinizing administrative growth. Reward excellent employees, create opportunities for advancement, consolidate positions where appropriate, and build more capability inside City Hall instead of automatically adding staff or outsourcing work.
Merit and Integrity, Not Connections
Strengthen ethical hiring, promotion, and whistleblower policies. City jobs and promotions should be based on qualifications, experience, and measurable performance. Whistleblower policies should be strengthened to provide a confidential, independent review process.
Help People Get to Work
Pursue additional Scout and on-demand transportation, improve connections between neighborhoods, businesses, and employment centers, and compete aggressively for outside funding for practical mobility improvements.
Connect Our Community
Explore free public Wi-Fi at major parks and public facilities using the most cost-effective technology available. Begin with targeted pilot locations, measure usage, and expand what works.
Make Winter Springs Work for Small Business
Create a clearer path through City Hall for local businesses, establish predictable permitting expectations, reduce unnecessary barriers, improve communication during city projects, and make Town Center and our other commercial areas places where businesses can invest and thrive.
A Different Approach to City Hall
A Working Winter Springs is not a promise to create another government program for every problem. In many cases, it means doing the opposite: spending smarter, removing barriers, using technology, equipping the employees we already have, pursuing outside funding, and focusing city resources on measurable results.
Before City Hall asks working families, seniors, retirees, or local businesses for another dollar, it should demonstrate that it is making the best possible use of the dollars it already receives.
One Standard for Every Proposal
Does it make Winter Springs work better for the people who live here?
