Ocoee commission candidates present platforms at forum

Candidates for the District 4 seat on the Ocoee City Commission — incumbent George Oliver III and former interim commissioner and challenger Ages Hart — participated in a political forum organized by the Woman’s Club of Ocoee Wednesday, Feb. 12, at City Hall. 

Ocoee residents had the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns to the two candidates for the lone municipal race on the ballot for the March 11 election at the hourlong forum. The race for the District 2 seat was called for incumbent Rosemary Wilsen after no other candidate qualified to run against her.

OPENING STATEMENTS

As part of the forum structure, candidates were allowed three minutes for an opening statement to introduce themselves and present their platforms.

“I’m a Navy veteran, (and) after serving my country, I worked in corporate America for 25 years,” Oliver said. “I’m currently employed with the U.S. Government. I have four college degrees: two associate’s, a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s degree in business administration. As the District 4 commissioner, I worked tirelessly during three elected terms of office to make our city a better place to live, work and raise a family. … One of my top priorities would be to continue to support infrastructure growth. Our roads and sidewalks are in dire need of upgrades, although we’ve made great strides in these projects, however, there’s still more work to be done. We need to have a written vision and a mission in place to show us how to improve our comprehensive plan. Too many of our residents are struggling to find a place to call home, and we need to take action to ensure that everyone has access to safe and affordable housing. We can maintain affordable housing by keeping our taxes low. I believe that we need to continue to invest in our police and fire departments to ensure that our residents are safe. This includes increasing funding for training and equipment, as well as implementing community-based policing programs that build trust and cooperation between law enforcement and the community.”

Hart followed with his statement.

“I thank Ocoee for giving me the opportunity to raise my family (here), and now it’s time to give back,” Hart said. “I had the opportunity to serve as my opponent resigned to run for mayor, and I had a wonderful experience. At first, it’s only going to be three months, but you know what? It wound up being 11 months. I had opportunity to meet some fantastic people and serve this community, and I’m looking forward to doing it again. There are many challenges ahead of us, but running a city is not a Tesla. It’s not automated. It takes hands on the wheel. It takes building relationships. It takes working together as a team. People call me a peacemaker, and I like that title because by working together, we can get things done. … We have a city plan coming out, and the city will be announcing it in March at our upcoming events, a lot of great things (are) happening. I’ve been out of office, but I’ve been in every City Commission meeting except for one. … I’m looking forward to taking up where I left off at and I encourage you to get involved in your city. There’s so much potential here in Ocoee, and we’re here to right the past — and I want everyone to know before I go any further — Ocoee is a great place to live. All the rumors and things you’ve heard about our past. Hey, we killed hate a long time ago, and the memorial sitting right out there. This is a great place to live, great place to raise your family, and I look forward to the upcoming years where Ocoee will be brighter and better than ever before.”

DEVELOPMENT

A major topic of concern among residents in Ocoee has been development.

One resident’s question for both candidates touched on a topic of major interest in Ocoee: development. 

“That’s a question I’ve been asked a lot as I campaign around,” he said. “The good things going on behind the scenes, a lot of people don’t know about this, but the city put a moratorium on growth so we can get our policies in line with the way we want the city to develop. So, green spaces will be put into the new plan when it’s released in a few weeks … and we’ve talked about this, where, in the future, it will be built in. … Next month, we’ll have more details, but I’m all for it.”

Oliver followed with his response.

“One of the things I’ve always talked about throughout my tenure here as city commissioner is the balance between growth and our ecosystem,” he said. “This is one of the things that I’ve always been a major supporter of: Figuring out how do we actually look at our infrastructure, our development and growth, and how (do we balance that with) our ecosystem, our trees, our green spaces? We did mention that we are in the middle of a moratorium, that does allow us to kind of push back a little bit to look at our comprehensive plan. How do we take that comprehensive plan and look at how we maintain that balance? How do we actually make sure that we are enjoying our green spaces without actually overgrowing our city or developing too much? And I think that that’s an excellent plan.”