OVIEDO, Fla. — The City of Oviedo is not getting a new police department any time soon after a ballot measure failed for the second time in two years.

What You Need To Know

  • Voters rejected a proposal to further fund the creation of a new police headquarters in Oviedo

  • It was the second such request by officials in two years

  • It's estimated to need an additional $20 million in funding to complete

This time, against a bond referendum that would have allowed for the construction of a new 28,000 square foot police building using general obligation bonds to pay for it, resulting in higher property taxes.

Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman remembers the excitement of moving into the current building in 1990.

He was a sergeant on the road at the time, who was looking forward to the extra space.

But now 34 years later, he explained the department has outgrown the dated facility.

“It also feels like we’re, we’re closing in on ourselves,” said Coleman.

Walking through the building, he points out where they’ve simply run out of space, trying to keep up with the growing town.

“This is our criminal investigation unit. It’s got five detectives, a lieutenant, what we have here is a full room,” said Coleman. “We would have asked for ... two detectives this year, but right now, I don’t have the room.”

He’s tried several times to secure the funds for a new building.

Nearly $11 million dollars in bonds were already decided on by voters in 2016, but it was determined that an additional $20 million is needed to construct a new police building.

In November 2023, voters voted no on a referendum to provide the additional funding.

Now, they just voted no again, despite a $15 million dollar decrease in the cost of the project.

“I respect the wishes of the voters. I understand where they’re coming from,” said Coleman. “But it is frustrating when you’re you see the need, you wanna do what you do, you wanna serve the people of you in a in a much higher level that we currently do, and I think that building would be able to go a long way to that.”

Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek says she was against putting the item on the ballot, believing there’s a better funding source.

If the bond referendum had passed, it would have increased property taxes by about $145 dollars a year for someone that owned a $300,000 dollar property per the city.

“Well, we need to find a way to fund it that doesn’t involve raising property taxes as much and the obvious way at this point, since the one-cent sales tax has been renewed, is to use that funding source,” said Sladek.

While she thinks the building is needed, before making any decisions, she thinks more conversations need to be had.

“I think we need to ask residents,” said Sladek. “I think we need to ask residents, why are you voting no? Is it because you don’t like the way we’re funding it, you’d rather have it be sales tax instead of property tax, or is it that you want to have a different style, public safety response?”

As for Chief Coleman, he’s ready to go back to the drawing board

“So we will figure out a way to do it because the need is here,” he said

He plans to go in front of the council for a bid proposal for a new roof to at least stop the leaking in their current building.