ORLANDO, Fla. — There’s a job opening at Orlando City Hall.
- Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, challengers Sam Ings, Aretha Simons
- Early voting October 28; Election Day November 5
- DECISION 2019 COVERAGE: Learn about the candidates
The title is mayor, the job pays more than $200,000, and the role is bigger than you may think.
“You have a real opportunity to impact your quality of life,” said Dr. Aubrey Jewett, a political professor at UCF specializing in Florida politics.
There are two types of mayoral systems in local government: strong mayors and weak mayors.
“A strong mayor is independently elected,” Jewett said, “Often will run committee meetings and commission meetings, they also most importantly are direct in charge of day to day operations of the city, so all of those things combined make a strong mayor.”
Buddy Dyer has been mayor of Orlando for 16 years. He’s running for another term, and he has two opponents — City Commissioner Sam Ings, and Navy veteran Aretha Simons.
The election is Tuesday, November 5.
Importance of the Orlando mayor
“State and local government is the level of government you know the least about, but has the most direct impact on your quality of life on a day to day basis,” Jewett said.
Orlando’s mayor runs the day-to-day operations, oversees the city’s more than $1.3 billion budget, and more than 3,500 employees.
They lead the appointments of top jobs like fire chief and police chief.
And, they have voting power on the city council.
“If the mayor has a priority, he can make sure or she can make sure those priorities are put in front of the council so they’re at least discussed and actions are taken,” Jewett said.
That gives the mayor power and influence over the city’s policy for issues like affordable housing, homelessness, development, taxes, transportation, public safety and more.
And that’s not all. The Orlando mayor also sits on at least 10 important boards – like the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, the Orlando Utilities Commission, and the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission.
The regional boards that the mayor of Orlando sits on.
“The Mayor of Orlando is certainly the most important and strongest politician in the City of Orlando, but because the mayor sits on all of these regional boards you can argue the Mayor of Orlando is one of the most important and powerful politicians in all of Central Florida,” Jewett said.
Priorities of the mayoral candidates
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says he’s proud of what he’s accomplished as mayor, but there’s more to do.
“We have great momentum, and we need to keep that going,” Dyer said. “Finishing the performing arts center, next phase of Creative Village, working on affordable housing, continuing to work on homeless issues. And then the regular things, keeping crime low, making sure we continue to lead the country in job growth. I’m more excited about this next term than I was my very first term.”
Dyer says so far the city has invested in 14 different developments that have some level of affordable housing in the last few decades, but the problem of affordable housing is not something the city can fix on its own.
“We’re 300,000 residents in Orlando proper,” Dyer said. “The metro area is close to 3 million now, and think about this, we have 1,500 new residents moving to Central Florida every week.”
Challenger Aretha Simons, meanwhile, says it’s time for a new voice.
“People say they are ready for a new voice,” Simons said. “I’ve been helping people in the community start businesses, for-profit and nonprofit business, and I’ve seen a lot of things that need to be changed.”
Simons wants to see changes in wages and housing in the city.
“We are dead last in affordable housing, we are dead last when it comes to minimum wages, out of all 50 states,” Simons said. “We shouldn’t be dead last in anything if everybody knows about our city.”
She also thinks more should be done to bring money in for affordable housing, looking at grants and pushing developers who want to build in Orlando do something regarding affordable housing as well.
“I’m going to say, ‘If you want to build here, lets set up a separate fund so we can help in other neighborhoods that need our help’,” Simons said.
For City Commissioner Sam Ings, running for mayor is about pushing for an honest, open and transparent form of government. He also wants to see more done with affordable housing.
“We’re talking about 16 years ago. Where were we so we could have not gotten into this situation of being ranked 1 in the worst of affordable housing?” Ings said.
Ings blames complacency and not really looking at the issue as a priority.
“As mayor of the city of Orlando, those less priorities become number one priorities,” Ings said.