Ocoee to increase solid waste residential services fee

The Ocoee City Commission on Tuesday, Aug. 5, unanimously approved a resolution to increase the annual rate for its residential solid waste services by $42 to $344.42 per household and a transfer of $1.3 million from the city’s General Fund to the Solid Waste Fund. 

This resolution is a multi-layered effort to address the fund’s current deficit and maintain its sustainability for the future. First, the increased annual rate not only would help cover the cost of administering the contracted solid waste services the city provides, but also it is essential to pay back the $1.3 million transfer from the General Fund. The one-time transfer of $1.3 million serves to help restore the financial stability of the Solid Waste Fund.

The restoration of the financial stability of the Solid Waste Fund is a matter of concern for the city because of its effects on its annual audit. During the city’s required annual financial audit for the last fiscal year, one of the few negative notes Ocoee received from the certified public accounting firm performing the audit, Purvis Gray, was regarding its negative position in this fund. The auditors recommended the city continue to pursue recovering from the negative position.

According to a presentation by Public Works Director Steve Krug, an investigation into the negative position found that the fund was operating from a negative net position prior to 2019 — when the city itself provided solid waste services in-house. When the city contracted out these services to Waste Connections, in an effort to contain costs, the negative balance was not accounted for in the administration fee portion of the solid waste services rate. 

However, this might not be the only increase in this service for Ocoee residents. The city’s current contract with Waste Connections is set to expire in April 2027. Krug said during his presentation the solid waste service provider’s cost likely will increase upon the current deal running out. The city plans to explore the market for other vendors and consider other options — such as reducing the amount of trash pick-ups or cutting recycling — to mitigate passing along anymore rate increases to its residents but the expectation is another increase to the service fee in 2027 or shortly thereafter.

Forest Lake Golf Club 

During a presentation at the commission meeting by Parks and Leisure Services Director Mark Johnson, Robert Utsey, principal shareholder of consulting firm ZHA, and Nick Dunleavy, the regional operations manager for Forest Lake Golf Club’s temporary operator Down to Earth Golf, provided an update to the commission regarding new developments at the course. 

Among the updates, the club’s revenue for July was down, as expected, compared to June but saw an increase of $37,000 compared to last year. The course was added to popular golf booking platform Golf Now, which was how 174 rounds were booked at Forest Lake over the last two weeks of July. The club’s new restaurant hours have been implemented, now operating from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the course’s beverage cart operations have improved, as its logistical process for replenishing the carts has been streamlined. 

The city’s Parks and Leisure Services crew also performed a variety of maintenance services to improve the course conditions, such as cleaning up the Palmetto trees, edging and cleaning bunkers, applying herbicides to the tee boxes, twice fertilizing the course’s fairways and driving range and evaluating the course’s cart paths for appropriate roping, in an effort to minimize wear and tear on the carts and course.

Another exciting development is First Tee Central Florida, a youth development organization that uses the game of golf to empower kids through a lifetime of new challenges, now is operating at the club. The eight-week program is open to kids from ages 7 to 18 of all skill levels and offers one class each week at a cost of $95 per student. Scholarships are available. 

The final update given to the commission during the presentation was regarding the procurement of a permanent operator for the golf club. As of the Aug. 5 meeting, the city received proposals from six possible operators and has begun the evaluation process for selecting a permanent operator. The Evaluation Committee will meet Thursday, Aug. 28 to score and shortlist the proposals, with a public notice of the shortlisted firms being released the following day.

There will be a special commission meeting on Oct. 8 for the interviewing and selection of the preferred operator, which will then begin lease negotiations with the city until Nov. 21. The commission will finalize the operator decision Dec. 2, and the selected operator will commence operations of the course Jan. 1, 2026. 

Traffic Safety Administrative Report 

Ocoee Police Chief Vincent Ogburn presented the city’s annual Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Program Administrative Report at the Aug. 5 commission meeting.

Ogburn shared there were 17,995 total violations issued by the city’s traffic infraction detectors, with just 55 being contested — 44 of which were upheld and five still are pending. Ocoee collected a total of $1.73 million in revenue from these citations, $908,518 of which was distributed to the state and $820,713 was retained by the city.

The total cost of the program for the city was $579,409.14. A majority of that amount went toward paying for camera vendor contractual services ($486,442.5), while the salaries and wages for the reviewer ($41,000) and mailings ($34,165.64) represented the next two biggest costs of the program.