Contract amended

A volley of amendments to a SunRail funding contract has put the ball in Orange County's court after a Monday meeting where the Winter Park City Commission voted to change its agreement for how and when it will pay into the commuter rail system. Now the city is waiting to see how the county will react.

But there was no consensus from the Commission on what parts of a deal between Winter Park and Orange County would need to be changed, ranging from whether the city should pay for funding beyond seven years and whether the city should be open to what some commissioners called a higher-than-proportionate level of liability for the city if there were to be an accident along the rail lines.

Winter Park Chamber of Commerce President Patrick Chapin said he thinks the Commission went too far in requesting some changes to the contract, despite optimism he felt after hearing suggestions by Commissioners Phil Anderson and Tom McMacken.

"Orange County will turn this down without a doubt," Chapin said. "There were many people who walked out of that meeting frustrated. They wanted to see an agreement that the county could possibly say yes to."

One of the more contentious elements of the amendment — that the city be able to opt out of the contract on a yearly basis if it deemed necessary — drew the most fire from detractors in the Commission chambers.

"Frankly I think the city of Winter Park should reject any notion that says every year we should negotiate whether we're going to pay for this or not," Mayor Ken Bradley said.

But Commissioner Beth Dillaha railed against the idea of the city being on the hook to pay for a station and part of the system if dedicated funding for it were to disappear in the future.

"You cannot tell a future sitting commission that you have to pay for these things," Dillaha said. "You can't do it. It's the law."

Following the meeting Monday, she said that many of the supporters of the system and the current agreement were those who would benefit financially from SunRail, but not necessarily those who would pay for it.

"There were a lot more people speaking who would actually make money off commuter rail rather than riding it," she said. "I represent the people who would pay for it and have to deal with it."

Chapin said that even if Orange County rejects the amended agreement, the process will move forward. He said that ideas for compromise presented by Anderson and McMacken could help in the negotiation process if the county rejects Winter Park's changes.

"We're just going to start up a dialog when Orange County inevitably turns it down," Chapin said. "This is just an intermission. I'd rather have an intermission than a curtain call."