Ocoee City Commission, August 18, 2026 minutes

Meeting Overview

Type: Regular Meeting Quorum: Yes (4 of 5 members present) Duration: 6:16 PM to 9:16 PM Location: Ocoee Commission Chambers, 1 N. Bluford Avenue

Record: The minutes are posted as a scanned PDF without a text layer. This record reads them through OCR of the scan (Tesseract 5.3.4, 6 pages, mean word confidence 95.0), and the quoted motions and vote lines were checked against the page images.

Attendance

• Present: Mayor Johnson, Commissioner Kennedy, Commissioner Wilsen and Commissioner Firstner
• Absent: Commissioner Oliver
• Staff Present: City Manager Shadrix, City Attorney Geller and City Clerk Sibbitt

Agenda Items

Consent Item 5: Utility Easement Agreement for 501 Franklin Land Trust (Ocoee Village Project)

• Type: Other (utility easement agreement; consent agenda)
• Request: "Approval of the Utility Easement Agreement for 501 Franklin Land Trust (Ocoee Village Project)."
• Presented by: Development Engineer Keaton
• Action: Approved with the consent agenda. The minutes record the motion as "Move to adopt Consent Agenda Items #1-8; Moved by Commissioner Wilsen, seconded by Commissioner Firstner; Motion carried 4-0 with Commissioner Oliver absent."
• Vote: 4-0 (Commissioner Oliver absent)
• Notable Discussion: None recorded; the item was not pulled from the consent agenda.

Public Hearings Summary

Both public hearings were fiscal, and both resolutions passed 4-0 with Commissioner Oliver absent.

• Resolution 2026-12, code enforcement abatement assessment: Police Chief Ogburn reported "a total of $3,833.16" for the FY 2027 non-ad valorem roll. One resident asked whether a property is auctioned when it carries a lien.
• Resolution 2026-13, fire protection assessment: The minutes list 26 residents who "spoke in opposition of the fire assessment resolution." When Mayor Johnson allowed "another 2 minutes for additional public comments," five people spoke, two of them from the first list; one said he does not mind paying more for services he considers essential.
• Key concerns: why fire revenue rises while public safety spending falls, what Orange County provides for what City residents pay, and non-ad valorem fees against ad valorem revenue.

Key Signals

• The Ocoee Village Project's utility easement is approved. The one land-development item, the utility easement agreement for 501 Franklin Land Trust, passed on the consent agenda, 4-0 with Commissioner Oliver absent.
• The fire assessment passed after 26 residents spoke against it. Resolution 2026-13 sets maximum rates "equal to 70% of the five-year average assessable Fire Budget" and FY 2026-27 rates "to cover 45 % of the five-year average assessable Fire Budget." Assistant City Manager Rumer's presentation put those at a maximum allowable residential fee of $597.16 and a flat residential rate of $383.90. The motion also directs staff "to come back at mid-year" with an assessment of revenue valuations and a report on how the revenues will be used.

Raw Notes

• Consent agenda Items 1 to 8, adopted in one motion: minutes of the August 4, 2026 regular meeting and August 5, 2026 budget workshop; ratifying the fifth trustee of the General Employees' Pension Board; the stormwater non-ad valorem assessment roll for FY 2026/2027; a Clear Village Inc. software support and maintenance agreement; the utility easement above; an educational affiliation agreement with Orlando Medical Institute; award of RFP #26-007 for landscaping, landscape maintenance and mowing services; the solid waste non-ad valorem assessment roll for FY 2026/2027.
• First reading, second reading and regular agenda: none.
• Fire assessment discussion: City Manager Shadrix said the methodology "had been legally vetted" by Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, that fire personnel salaries account for 86% of the assessable fire budget, and that "depending on the outcome in November, the matter may need to be revisited." Mayor Johnson said the City has not raised the millage rate in 11 years and has lowered it to 4.95 mills.
• Commissioner comments touched the Rose Hill zip code change, the City Manager's contract and proposed state tax reform.
• Public commenters are residents and are not named here.
• Source: minutes PDF, CivicClerk ocoeefl, event 695 (scanned; OCR text, machine-read). Agenda items and presenters match the agenda for the same event.