Ocoee adopts one-year residency requirement for mayoral, commissioner candidates

After a second reading, the Ocoee City Commission voted 3-1, with Commissioner George Oliver voting no and Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen absent, to adopt an ordinance to amend section 5-3 of the city code to require a candidate to prove at least one year of residency in Ocoee to qualify as a candidate for both city commissioner and mayor.

Although Oliver voted against the ordinance, he didn’t necessarily disagree with the one-year residency requirement. His dissenting opinion focused on the ordinance's possible unconstitutionality, citing various court cases across the country that have struck down this sort of requirement for violating citizens' 14th Amendment rights. 

“There was case law after case law that I looked at for this particular item,” Oliver read from his notes during the discussion portion of the reading. “Duration residency requirements (that) impose a precondition to candidacy in public policy have been found to implicate the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment. So what (these legal opinions) are saying is that looking at a one-year (residency requirement), you may be actually impeding upon the 14th amendment.”

Following Oliver’s statement of concern, Commissioner Richard Firstner questioned whether the vote should be delayed for the City Attorney to review the court ruling Oliver invoked to justify his statements. 

Mayor Rusty Johnson cited that this sort of residency requirement is common practice among most cities in Florida. He also affirmed his approval of the requirement and said the ordinance would help prevent non-residents of Ocoee from running for office. 

Commissioner Scott Kennedy also was in favor of proceeding and approving the ordinance. 

“These (changes) came from the charter review commission,” Kennedy said. “We voted on them, and I believe they were voted on by the citizens. We went through a long charter review process … and (we) compared other cities and other municipalities and the concept of what was a bonafide resident, what was a one-year requirement. I am comfortable with this.”

After Kennedy finished commenting, he made the motion to vote on the item, seconded by Firstner, and the two, along with Mayor Johnson, were the majority side in the vote to adopt. 

The adopted ordinance also includes language in the Qualification of Candidates section of the city code that will require candidates for city government offices to consent to a background check — which will verify the candidate's residency and establish that the candidate has not been convicted of any felony that would disqualify them from holding office under Florida Constitution.

In other news

• Ocoee Assistant City Manager Michael Rumer and Police Chief Vincent Ogburn presented an update to the city’s ordinance regarding golf carts. Stemming from an April commission meeting, the presentation focused on adopting a city-wide golf cart proposal that would allow golf carts to be driven on a much-increased number of city streets and subdivisions. The commission voted 3-1 — with Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen absent and Commissioner George Oliver as the lone no vote — to direct the city’s staff to move forward with drafting an ordinance based on the presentation. 
• The 10-item consent agenda was approved by the city commission after a 3-1 vote, with Oliver voting no and Wilsen not present. Prior to the vote, Oliver motioned to pull consent agenda item No. 2 for discussion, but the motion did not receive a second and the vote on the unchanged agenda proceeded. The item Oliver wanted to discuss was the approval of a resolution that would reschedule the city's referendum on proposed amendments to the city charter to coincide with the regular municipal election day in March 2025, as opposed to the Nov. 5 general city election ballot. This change came after the Orange County Supervisor of Elections informed the city that due to the length of the November election, municipalities could not include referendum questions.