Circuit courts to look at library bond controversy

An effort by Winter Park residents to keep the city’s new library out of Martin Luther King Jr. Park might be a pointless endeavor – at least that’s what the city contends.

Winter Park City Commissioners gave the green light during their Monday meeting to begin a bond validation process within the coming months regarding the recent bond referendum vote setting aside up to $30 million for the city’s new public library. The process gives the city assurance that the bond referendum process is moving forward appropriately, City Attorney Kurt Ardaman said, adding that a judicial approval would protect the city from a party challenging its legality, in turn wasting money, time and effort.

The bond validation process comes in the wake of ongoing controversy regarding a petition started by local residents to keep the library out of Martin Luther King Jr. Park – a site that the city had voted on pursuing late last year, but was not included in the language on the ballot in March.

Mayor Steve Leary said that under the city’s charter, the residents could not challenge the bond referendum vote on March 15 or the vote back last year, due to the petition not being filed within 30 days of either.

“The anti-library PAC that challenged to revise the existing ordinance has already been determined to not have been filed in a timely manner, so our charter doesn’t allow them to proceed in that way,” Leary said. “I think it’s creating a divisive situation in the city, it goes against the voters’ will and it costs the taxpayers of Winter Park. The action we’re considering today will not only expedite the process, but should help control the expense to taxpayers and will allow anyone hoping to contest the voters’ will, including the anti-library PAC, a voice in court.”

But Michael Poole, one of the residents behind the petition, said that what they’re doing is perfectly legal, as it was not filed as a challenge or “reconsideration,” but as an “initiative” – which has no time requirement.

The last time residents pushed an “initiative” through was to keep a minor league baseball stadium out of the same park last June. The group of residents submitted more than 2,000 signatures to keep out the proposed ball park.

Poole made it clear that the group of residents isn’t against a new library.

“Most of us want some kind of new library, we agree that we need a new and refreshed library,” Poole said. “Just don’t build it at MLK Park. There are places within the city that they can use the bond referendum money to build what they designed.”

Poole added that residents aren’t creating a divisive issue – the city did when they proposed building a new library that half the residents in Winter Park didn’t want, he said.

“It’s split the community,” Poole said. “That’s a divisive issue.”