>>This week on NewsNight, the future of development in Winter Park with the city's incoming mayor due to be sworn in on April 10th.

Sheila DeCiccio sits down to discuss her vision and some of the key challenges ahead.

Plus, the Florida Supreme Court rules that a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion can be put on the November ballot.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

First tonight, Winter Park's mayor elect, Sheila DeCiccio will be sworn into office on Wednesday after winning a landslide victory in recent elections.

She'll take over facing some important challenges.

Among them, the city's ban on gasoline powered leaf blowers, which is set to come into effect this July.

>>I know that they're noisy.

The reason that it even came to the commission for a vote was during COVID.

Everyone was at home doing their Zoom meetings and the residents couldn't hear and they complained.

And so they asked the commission if we would ban them.

So we did.

But in fact, I said, you just can't do it all at once.

You need to give the landscape companies a chance to transition in.

So we put it off for two and a half, almost three years.

And I think the landscapers just realized, oh my gosh, it's going to be effective in July.

So they came in and said, no, no, no, we can't.

We can't do it.

You'll ruin our business or whatever.

So we said, okay, we'll put it off another six months.

We won't enforce it until next January 2025.

>>Well, amid the threat of state level action to prevent local leaf blower bans, that ordinance is at the center of a debate over preemption of local governments by the legislature.

I sat down with Mayor elect DeCiccio and I asked her about a flurry of state laws chipping away at local control.

>>If you go to Tallahassee versus Miami versus central Florida, we're all different.

And I think by preempting you, just try to put one.

One law to apply for everybody.

And it's very frustrating.

For example, years ago.

Tree preemption.

You know, when you know how many trees you could cut down, Winter Park prides itself on our beautiful canopy.

So it may not apply in other parts of the state, especially if you're in a big city like Miami.

So it's very frustrating.

It's very difficult.

And we would prefer to govern ourselves within.

There's general standards and laws we have to file.

There's a state constitution we can never go against.

So it's frustrating.

>>The Live Local Act, and we'll pivot to affordable housing.

The Live Local Act took some zoning control away from local governments on affordable housing.

What strategies do you intend to employ in Winter Park to try to ease the affordable housing crisis, at least in your area?

>>We have a lot of units right now that would qualify.

The problem is they're in need of repair and we need money to fix what we have.

That's the first thing, and I am working on that.

The second thing is it's just not that much land left in Winter Park.

So what we're trying to do is we're trying to expand our CRA, and one of the areas is towards Fairbanks and I-4 and that way we're working with three Orlando, Orange County, and Winter Park, the drainage, the infrastructure there is a mess.

And so I think everybody would like help getting it fixed once and for all because water flows.

I don't care what jurisdiction you're in.

If we can do that, that might be a primary for affordable housing.

But right now that's still out there and it would take - in order for any developer to come in and do affordable, they're going to be looking for something from the cities.

Those perks, and maybe its infrastructure.

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but infrastructure would be huge because it's very expensive to do.

You know, if they had to come in and do all of that and if the city did that, then it might make it more plausible for them to be able to build.

>>Well, you've talked a lot about the infrastructure that needs to be done to prevent the kind of flooding that we saw after Hurricane Ian.

I mean, what sort of things need to be done in your estimation, to try to prevent that from happening again?

>>Our pipes, a lot of them were laid in the 1920s, 1930s.

They're just old, rusted, leaking.

They need to they need to be replaced.

Our roads are collapsing because the infrastructure underneath those pipes are leaking so much.

So my goal is to let's just get it done.

Let's just bite the bullet.

We have three basin studies being done.

We divided the city into three different areas so that we can get the information back sooner to say what needs to be done.

Yesterday, today, six months from now, and we can put it on a plan.

We can be shovel ready to get grants, money to get this work done.

We cannot kick this can any longer.

Let's face it, it's been 100 years or so since these pipes were laid.

It's time.

>>Well, let's talk about another type of infrastructure, and that's transit.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is renewing his push for a one penny in the dollar.

Transportation sales tax.

Firstly, do you support that idea and do you think it can get support this time that it didn't last time?

>>I support it because I know how much we need, whether it's for SunRail or various for our roads for different things.

I mean, if you're you see all the problems that need to be fixed, you say, where are we going to get the money?

And the penny sales tax might do it.

I don't know if it'll pass.

So I don't know if people are ready to.

I mean, people know that we need work on our infrastructure, but are they willing to pay the extra penny?

That I'm not sure.

>>Winter Park has one of the busiest SunRail stations, I think on the network.

Soon, the local governments will take over primary financial responsibility from the state.

>>That's what that penny sales tax will help towards.

>>Right.

Are you concerned that if there isn't a penny sales tax increase, that the local governments may have trouble funding it?

And could that put at risk other transportation priorities?

>>I can't speak to the other governments, Winter Park will be able to fund it.

Winter Park has put a placeholder for that money every single year.

So we're all we are.

We will be fine going forward without a penny sales tax.

However, since we haven't had to pay for it, we have used that money in other areas.

So we won't have that extra money available.

But Winter Park does put a placeholder every year for that money for SunRail.

>>The final question for you, you're the first woman mayor.

>>That's correct.

>>Of Winter Park.

I wonder what your thoughts are on that.

Do you see that as significant?

>>I do.

I didn't run on the I didn't run on the issue.

What I ran on was my experience, my record and my vision for the city of Winter Park.

And that's ultimately what everyone should vote on, no matter who the candidate is.

But I think it's very important too to say to my daughter, you can be and do whatever you want to do, and it doesn't matter how old you are or when in life you do it, go for it.

Sheila DeCiccio there.

Let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Skyler Swisher, investigative reporter at the Orlando Sentinel.

Thanks for being here, Skyler.

Good to see you.

Beth Kassab of the Winter Park Voice Thanks for being here.

Beth.

You're definitely the person we want to speak to today about all these issues.

Winter Park.

So let's talk about a couple of policy specifics, if we can, starting with leaf blowers.

Why do city commissioners believe holding a referendum on this issue will stave off state preemption?

>>Well, the reason this idea of a referendum came up is because a state senator named Jason Brodeur had a conversation with the city manager of Winter Park and no one else was there.

But supposedly the deal that came out of this conversation was, hey, let the voters decide this issue.

And Senator Brodeur said he would hold back from filing a preemption.

That's not exactly what ended up happening, but that is how the referendum conversation started.

>>And there's more back and forth on this.

Do we have any idea, Skyler, when a referendum is going to happen?

>>Yes.

So the city commission, they they need to approve it on two readings.

They've approved it on one, but they postponed a decision on the second reading in terms of having the referendum.

So the date for that decision will be April 24th, and that'll be when you'll have the new commission and the new mayor in place.

>>So sometime later this month.

During the recent legislative session, you mentioned State Senator Brodeur there.

He added language to the budget prohibiting municipalities from amending or enacting new leaf blower bans until July next year.

I think it is July 2025.

The mayor elect told me that she doesn't believe that language applies to Winter Park.

You've had communications with Senator Brodeur.

What does he say?

>>Right.

So.

So one thing to note is that when Winter Park took action on a Wednesday night to put this referendum in place and hopefully stave off a preemption, the next day is when the senator filed this language you're talking about.

And when I spoke to him, he told me, yes, he believes that this does apply to Winter Park and he wanted to go ahead and file the language, even though the referendum was moving forward at that point, because he felt he used the word belt and suspenders, just sort of a double measure to keep this from happening.

However, the way the city language stands right now, if the referendum does not go forward, if it were to fail on that second reading, then the City of Winter Park's ordinance is set to go into place this July.

So 2024, a year earlier than Brodeur's language and enforcement will be delayed until January and a-- >>To give a bit of breathing room.

>>Which gives a little breathing room.

And already there's been 30 months of breathing room.

This ordinance was originally passed in 2022 and the commission said, let's we know we're not going to put it in place or enforce it right away.

However, Brodeur's language says cities cannot amend or enact new ordinances.

So where Winter Park is potentially exempt here is that theirs is already in place, as are very similar ordinances in other cities across Florida.

>>Certainly the landscaping companies are very concerned.

But as you say, we've seen these similar measures enacted, the mayor elect says successfully in other parts of the state.

Let's talk about the CRA on the on the effort to expand and extend that community redevelopment agency.

The mayor elect told me that it could be key to Winter Park's plans for affordable housing.

Also flood mitigation that we talked about.

I'm wondering if affordable housing is the main priority of the other parties in this expansion process.

Orange County, for example.

>>Yes.

So we've heard all along throughout these discussions, as the commission has talked about, this CRA expansion that Orange County is making affordable housing a priority.

And Orange County gets a big say in this discussion because what the CRA would do is take some of those county tax dollars that those people, property owners and City of Winter Park are paying.

And the county, instead of putting those dollars in the county's general bucket, they would be reserved just for the CRA.

So.

So that's how the county gets a say in the matter.

And they are Jerry Demings has talked a lot about providing more attainable and affordable housing, and the City of Winter Park has been engaged in those discussions as well.

>>And Orange County has to approve an expansion to that to the CRA, correct?

>>They do, and that has not happened yet.

So at this point, it's gone through all of the stops at this at the city level, and it will go to the county next, we think sometime in the next few months.

>>We're talking about a corridor right from along Fairbanks, 17-92 to I-4, sort of an industrial area, correct?

>>Yeah, It extends the CRA quite a bit west.

It started out as very central to kind of what a lot of people would think of as perhaps the core of the business district in Winter Park.

And it's grown out and that money is reserved to help with projects, programing and projects in the CRA.

I know a lot of folks have said, well, that doesn't benefit the entire city, but in fact a lot of the programing does.

It does benefit the entire city and beyond.

For example, the CRA is being used this year to add more staff to the library, allow it to start opening on Sundays again.

You know, these are things that affect a large number of people.

>>Also affecting a large number of people is transportation.

So let's pivot to the transportation sales tax.

DeCiccio was careful to say that Winter Park's obligations on SunRail wouldn't be affected by a failure to pass a sales tax.

But she did say that it could result in impacts on other priorities that the city has to juggle money around.

I mean, do you think the council is going to be proactive in pushing that initiative this time?

>>It sounds like it.

The council, the city commission had a discussion a few weeks back where they openly discussed being more out front in promoting the benefits of this potential tax.

And so it sounds like that's the direction they're leaning in.

They haven't made a formal decision or taken a formal action on that.

And I will say, you know, if the time comes when cities finally have to pay for SunRail, it is going to hurt.

Those towns are using the money in up for other things.

And those things would have to go away or be funded in some other fashion.

And we have known this from the very start of SunRail that one day the bill was going to come due and it's been put off and put off.

And so we'll see what happens.

But certainly a recurring source of revenue for transportation has been a missing piece in central Florida for a long time, and there's arguments for it and against it, but I expect that will heat up again in the next few months.

>>Mayor Demings has been making that point over and over again, but he's struggled, Skyler, to even bring his own commission, the Orange County Commission, along with him.

>>Yeah, he definitely has some work to do in terms of persuading commissioners.

And if you put yourself in their shoes, this was on the ballot two years ago and 58% of the voters voted against it.

So they are a bit wary of having to go back to their constituents and ask them to vote on a tax increase again.

And this would be at a time when people are dealing with rising cost inflation, their property insurance is going up, their grocery bills are going up.

Now you're asking them to pay more in sales tax.

So it could be a tough sell.

>>And commissioners, some commissioners basically arguing that we're just not we just they just don't have enough time to get this done in time to put it on the ballot.

Just finally, I wanted to talk, Beth, about the other big projects in Winter Park, and that's the Orange County overlay, right?

That's the plan for a development from 17-92 to Park Avenue, kind of as a gateway to the downtown area.

That's been a good example, hasn't it, of the broader debate in Winter Park over the kind of development that should take place in that city?

>>Oh, it has.

There's been a lot of discussion about this is just this is a section of Orange Avenue that a lot of people are familiar with, kind of from Rollins up through 17-92, like you said.

And yes, so there's been a couple versions of this overlay, a lot of controversy over doing away with the old version and putting a new version in.

And it has to do with what these buildings could ultimately look like.

That's an older area.

Some folks in town felt like, you know, wasn't really being kept up.

There was a lot of potential there to bring in more more development.

And it looks like that is likely what will happen over the coming years.

But there's been a big effort in Winter Park to make sure that that development is in scale with the rest of the town.

So, yes, I mean, there's been a lot of debate over this and the merits of it.

And it does represent a larger issue of, you know, people trying to take control of what the community continues to look like going forward.

>>Well, important reporting on Winter Park, Beth.

And we'll put a link to your reporting on our website as well.

You can also find my full length interview with Mayor elect DeCiccio on our website as well.

We also discussed the Orange Avenue overlay District.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay.

Next tonight, key decisions from Florida's Supreme Court.

The justices this week agreed to allow two constitutional amendment initiatives onto the ballot at the general election.

Voters will get to decide whether to protect abortion access and legalize marijuana for recreational use.

So, Skyler, let me come to you first on this one, and we'll start with abortion.

You've been writing about these court rulings this week.

The court also ruled interesting that Florida's privacy clause doesn't cover abortion, which allows a six week ban to come into effect next month.

But the ballot measure it approved right.

Would essentially give voters the opportunity to overturn that.

>>That's right.

It's definitely going to give voters a say on this important issue.

And what it would do is protect abortion rights up until viability or if an abortion is deemed to be necessary by a patient's physician.

>>President Biden has called the court's decision, Beth, to allow this six week abortion restriction to come into effect "Outrageous."

I just wonder what it means for women in the state, sort of from a practical standpoint, who are looking for that procedure.

What will it mean for them now?

>>Yeah, So what what we're hearing from providers and people who are really involved in this space is that women, more and more women will have to go out of state to seek care.

The court's ruling this week essentially kind of blacked out most of the South as a place where you can find abortion care.

So that just statistically, we've got 20 million people.

So the number of procedures here is higher.

So it's not like Alabama, you know, people losing the ability to get care in Alabama, that's a smaller number of people.

This will funnel more patients onto what is a kind of dwindling number of clinics.

>>It's interesting to your your colleague, Caroline Catherman has done quite a lot of reporting on this, most recently that the requirement for a woman to visit a doctor twice the 24 hour rule would remain in place even with the six week abortion restriction.

Let's talk about that.

The politics of this, Skyler, if we can.

I mean, the issue of abortion has led to a sort of a juicing of turnout for the Democrats in other places where it's been on the ballot.

I mean, could this initiative and the six week abortion restriction both have political ramifications for Republicans like Donald Trump in November?

I mean, Donald Trump has called Florida's six week ban in the past terrible.

>>Yeah, it's certainly something that they would rather not be on the ballot in Florida.

And it's worth noting that former President Trump is a Florida resident, so he's going to have to vote on this.

So it does put him in a tough spot.

Is he going to go in support of this or is he going to vote against it?

He would rather be having conversations about the border, about the economy.

You know, abortion is not something that he's going to want to be focusing a lot of time on.

>>You also wrote about this week about the Supreme Court allowing the question of recreational marijuana on to the ballot in November.

If it passes, Florida would join 24 other states with legal recreational pot.

What does the polling show in terms of support on that?

And could that also have political ramifications?

>>Yes.

So the University of North Florida did a poll and they found about, you know, 67% support.

There's another poll from the Chamber of Commerce that shows that under that 60% threshold that it would need to pass.

One thing that's worth noting about this is that even though there's a ballot initiative, just because someone, you know, it's kind of viewed as being more favorable for Democrats, but it's possible that, you know, Republicans could vote for this and still vote for Donald Trump.

If you look back at 2016, that was when medical marijuana was on the ballot.

There was a lot of discussion, oh, this is going to help Hillary Clinton to have this on the ballot.

Well, that didn't come to fruition.

So, you know, you might want to be a little bit cautious about reading too much into this being a panacea for Democrats to have these two measures on the ballot.

>>Well, it's really interesting.

It'll be really interesting to see what happens in November with those two amendments.

We'd like to hear from you on this.

What do you think about the Florida Supreme Court's decision on abortion and recreational marijuana?

You can let us know on Social media.

We're at WUCF TV, on Facebook, YouTube, X and also on Instagram.

Okay.

Finally, I wanted to wrap up tonight with an issue that we're follow closely here on the program.

Last week, Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board agreed to settle lawsuits in state court over who controls the district.

It ends a two year legal fight, which began after Disney publicly objected to Florida's parental rights in education law, known to opponents as "Don't Say Gay."

That triggered the legislature to upend the Disney appointed Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Skyler, you've covered this issue extensively.

What does this settlement resolve essentially?

>>So this settlement resolves litigation that was in the state courts, and this had to do with-- >>Specifically the state courts.

>>Specifically the state courts, Yes.

And this had to do with Disney controlled this district for four decades.

And essentially it's been likened to like a Vatican with mouse ears.

They were able to kind of self-govern there.

They're Disney, Disney World, the resorts, the theme parks.

But when the new DeSantis appointed board came on, what they discovered is that the previous Disney board had basically passed these development agreements that tied their hands.

So it kind of locked everything in place and it really negated their ability to modify development plans.

So they filed a lawsuit and they wanted these development agreements declared null and void.

And Disney agreed to that.

They agreed to make this null and void.

They're going to go back to the 2020 plan, but with the understanding that the board will consult with Disney on any sort of amendments or changes to the development plan.

>>There was also a lawsuit over public records, right?

Which has also been dropped.

>>That has been dropped as well.

Yes.

>>This agreement came and this is the interesting part for me.

This agreement came along not long after the new district administrator was appointed to replace Glen Gilzean who, of course, now is the supervisor of elections, Orange County.

What do we know about her?

And do you think her appointment is in some way connected to this?

>>A lot of people who follow it closely definitely think that it's connected.

And yeah, Stephanie Kopelousos.

She was the legislative affairs director for Governor DeSantis.

She is a very strong ally of the governor, but she also worked with Disney before this whole feud to get a carve out in a social media bill.

>>Yeah.

>>So a lot of people are saying, hey, she's someone who can kind of work behind the scenes with Disney.

She's somebody who's not really known as a culture warrior and she has a lot of experience in government.

I mean, she was the county manager of Clay County, so she has local government experience.

She was the head of the Florida Department of Transportation.

So she has a lot of experience with infrastructure projects.

So the thinking is, is that Disney might be a bit more comfortable with her as the administrator than they would have been with Glen Gilzean.

Also, there's a new board member, Craig Mateer.

He's a local Orlando area resident, and he made his money in the tourism industry.

He headed a baggage handling business that he sold for $275 million and worked very closely with Disney.

>>For quite some time.

>>Yeah, that's another perhaps another example of a change that Disney views as being more favorable to them.

>>Really interesting.

I did want to mention briefly at the same time, a separate lawsuit, Beth, brought by LGBTQ+ groups against the so-called Don't Say Gay law has also been settled.

What's that going to mean for how sexuality and gender identity can be taught in Florida schools?

>>So this is one where, again, when there is a settlement, you know, there's not a court ruling and it kind of allows both sides to declare victory in a way.

And so that's exactly what we're seeing in this case.

The governor is saying it's a victory for the state administration because the law still stands.

But the settlement has made it clear that, in fact, teachers can discuss some of these topics, books that aren't specifically pertaining to instruction in the school library or elsewhere are not affected.

Math problems that might use examples that have to do with some kind of LGBTQ scenario or slight reference would not be affected.

So I think for a lot of folks who were pushing for civil rights that they're declaring victory on their side as well.

>>As you say, allows both sides to declare victory.

Just quickly to finish with Skyler, do you think I guess what do you think is the next stage in this relationship between the state and Disney?

I mean, is it going to look more like it did prior to 2022?

>>I mean, what I'm hearing right now is it's going to be people coming together and working and working collaboratively with a focus on the business.

And what we're hearing is that with Universal building an additional theme park that's putting pressure on Disney to do something to make investments.

And what I interviewed state rep Randy Fine, who is a outspoken critic of Disney, and he's saying, I'd like to see us work together on on business issues.

We're hearing that from Disney as well.

And we're not really hearing as much of that fiery culture war rhetoric from the governor.

So it's possible, you know, there's going to be a peace accord and it's going to go back to business as usual.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

>>And of course, Rep Randy Fine was key in pushing forward HB 5057, the parental rights law.

At the center of all of this.

You can find a lot more on our website.

Meantime, join us at wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Beth Kassab, Winter Park Voice.

Thanks for being with us.

Really appreciate it.

Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel.

Good to see you again, Skyler.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

For all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.