EATONVILLE, Fla. – The Town of Eatonville is looking for a new mayor and two new council members.
Early voting is now open for Eatonville’s town council elections and runs through Friday, with Election Day on Saturday, March 7. You can check your voting status and find your polling precinct through the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.
Eatonville has four council seats, and three are up for election. You can find all the candidates on the Eatonville town website.
Mayor Angie Gardner is stepping down after four years as mayor and has filed to run for the new District 7 seat on the Orange County Commission.
Voters in the oldest continuously incorporated town founded by African-Americans will decide on Gardner’s replacement.
News 6’s Christie Zizo spoke to each candidate about their top concerns for Eatonville, what they thought about the sale of the Hungerford property to Dr. Phillips and how the current mayor handled it, and what they think Eatonville needs to thrive in the future.
Below is our interview with candidate Vice Mayor Theo Washington.
You can find the full interviews for the other candidates by clicking on the names below.
Theo Washington
[WATCH: Full interview with Theo Washington]
NEWS 6: Let’s talk a bit about your background. Where are you from? How long have you lived in Eatonville? What do you do for a living and what are your favorite places in Eatonville?
THEO WASHINGTON: “I’m from Eatonville. I’ve been here all my life and I work for UPS. Been there over 20 years. And one of the main things that I love about Eatonville is how unique it is. Got some things upcoming to make it better. Some venues that we have in the works that will make it even a lot better, too.”
NEWS 6: So what is your experience working with the Eatonville government? I know you’re the Vice Mayor.
WASHINGTON: “I’ve been vice mayor for the last six years. And some of the unique things about working with Eatonville government are the relationships, different personalities that we deal with on a yearly basis. You know, different than colleagues and with citizens. And those are some of the things that you have to learn to grow with being in the politics here.”
NEWS 6: Can you speak a bit about that and explain what you mean when you talk about personalities?
WASHINGTON: “You get different people saying some positive things about the town. Then you get to some that say what we need or what we’re not doing or why things look a certain way. So my main thing is to take those conversations and make them positive and say, ‘Hey, we got this. We’re going to be doing this in the near future. So be looking out for that.’ So keeping them down in the negative.”
NEWS 6: So what makes you qualified to be mayor?
WASHINGTON: “That’s a good question. What makes me qualified to be the next mayor is that the opportunity came at a very unique time. I supported the last couple of mayors as we ran on the ticket, you know, Anthony Grant, former mayor, and Angela Gardner, current mayor I support, was on the same ticket at the time. So now that she’s not running, I think those are the opportunities for me as the most experienced person. They gave me the opportunity to take my journey to the next level and take the town of Eatonville to the next level and make things better.”
NEWS 6: What do you think that next level should be? Also, let’s talk about the present and one of the biggest issues in Eatonville right now has been the sale of the Hungerford property and the fact that the town is not really in favor of the way Orange County public schools handled this. How did you feel about the sale and the way the mayor handled this as well?
WASHINGTON: “On that issue there, I wasn’t 100% in support of what happened there because we were going a different route. The mayor and the administration were supposed to have been going a different route. Then we find out later the route they took was something totally different. That’s why this council was so upset. Dr. Phillips was never part of the picture on their first deal. So I felt like the school board felt like Dr. Phillips was so trustworthy, or they do a lot of stuff around City of Orlando, and that they could be a good partner to do this deal to sell the property to. But, we liked the deal we had on the table, that let us control the land.
“But right now, with Dr. Philips, it’s nowhere controlling the plan. That’s one reason why I felt like we were not kept updated about transparency. We were not really in favor of this Dr. Phillips deal with the school board. Then in the past, they did give us some land, the school board. ‘We’re going to give you guys six acres.’ So that never was talked about in this deal.
“So I don’t know how, what are we staying with that because they gave us land before Dr. Phillips anybody came in the picture, that this is what we’re going to give. You guys get a town. My main thing is there — so we, I want to make sure that we still have that on the table, plus get some other things done that we want in the community, that the town needs. And a lot of those things that they send that they want to put on this property, it’s like, no, you know, not bringing in taxes. There’s a couple things that we talked about too.”
NEWS 6: So it’s not just a question of control. You’re concerned that they’re going to make changes that are not going to help Eatonville.
WASHINGTON: “The four things they want to put on the property is not going really bring any revenue to the community like they said it would. An early learning center. So we have, you know, the school board mentioned something like Hungerford (Elementary School) has 180 seats empty, the school already, and you know they’re closing schools already, we know that. So while we want to build an early learning center, Hungerford has 180 seats empty. So what we can do is we can incorporate the early learning center with Hungerford Elementary School. Why build that?
“And I was so surprised that these meetings they had with the stakeholders they so called, that no one ever said, ‘oh, why the town don’t get a gymnasium, a football field, those things there that we miss?’ That’s one thing that we really need. We don’t have the amenities to do recreation. We don’t have a gymnasium. We don’t have a football field to do outdoor sports. And that’s one of the things we were built on back in the days when I was growing up here. Well, I was coaching here and that we had a football field that we used at Hungerford High School, Hungerford Prep. And we used the gymnasium. So that’s some of the things that we’re missing in this community that would need to be brought back, these recreational amenities."
NEWS 6: So there was a vote and I believe it was unanimous to sort of rein in Mayor Gardner’s powers, make sure that she’s communicating with you guys before she makes deals. Do you think that will make a difference for you when you are elected?
WASHINGTON: "If I’m elected, that’s going to be an issue with me because I will bring everything to the dais. It’s not the hidden things. And what we get here, we get people in power, they may be in power, but they don’t have the purpose. You have to have a purpose of it. Not just being a power that you can do things. There should nothing go on in this town that those five people up there says, this is what we need to do. Administratively, that’s something totally different, because you run day to day. But when it comes to the town property of a town, they put in the town, not just signing to sign anything. You must get, you must get permission. I will say permission to say, this what’s going on in the town, this what this developer wants to do.
“And sometimes people easily swayed or they say bought whatever they want to call it on these kinds of things. And sometimes you will see that if you look, you know, added a different way, but that’s not my goal there, not to hide things and bring stuff to the dais, not good for the town of Eatonville. I never was that type of person. I have integrity, that’s one thing I do have, and that’s the one thing, accountability, that people respected me on. And that’s why 13 years ago, people asked me to run for council, and those people supported me for 12 years that being on council. So that’s one thing I definitely won’t be having a problem with bringing things to the council that’s doing best for the town of Eatoville.”
NEWS 6: So what are Eatonville’s biggest issues in your mind and how would you solve?
WASHINGTON: "The biggest issue we have now is, I’m looking at road projects that we have a lot of damaged roads in our community. And that’s one of the programs I see around. When I’m around City of Orlando, when I’m in Seminole County, I see every round about October, November, they’re doing road projects. They’re paving roads, resurfacing roads. That’s one of the projects that we need to come back, come to Eatonville. We need to get a road project, get our roads done to make them be roads. But because right now our roads are in need of being resurfaced. That’s one of the big issues that I have with the town.
“Of course, infrastructure, that’s already been in place. We got things in place for that. We have funding for it. Now it’s time to implement it. So I think it’s on the papers. It’s on a table. Now we begin those things done. So that’s not an issue, the infrastructure part. But the, my main thing I want to get done, look at is these roads that we have, that needs to be done, that haven’t been done over probably in the seventies... so that’s one of my biggest projects right there that I want to tackle."
NEWS 6: You had talked about needing a gymnasium and needing outdoor fields. I mean, I know you have a basketball court in Eatonville. Is that also something that’s on your agenda? Is adding more recreational areas?
WASHINGTON: “Yeah, definitely. That’s one of the plans for recreation. Definitely add a gymnasium to our community that’s a town recreation. You know, the Boys and Girls Club has a gymnastium, but that’s the Boys and Girls Club. If you know how those organizations work, they’re not — I’m going to say community-friendly with doing activities with the town, you have to have special days, special permits, special meetings to do things there. So we need our own for our own taxpayers who pay taxes to this community."
NEWS 6: What do you think Eatonville needs to thrive in the future? What are the things that will give Eatonville the best chance in the next few decades?
WASHINGTON: “I think what’s on the map, what we have on the table now, bringing in more businesses, bringing in commercial businesses, we already have housing that’s going up, so that’s not a big issue. People talk about housing. That’s not going to be the issue because we have that going up every day, matter of fact, I think we’ve got three or four houses going up at this moment. Um, so, that’s not going be the issue about housing, but our main thing is getting businesses here. Getting businesses here that can sustain and help the town tax base and bringing people to our community.
“We do events that bring people here on a monthly basis and quarterly basis. And people see those businesses at these events and those owners that have these vending booths, that some of them wanna move to Eatonville. But we must build something for them to come to. And like I know that a lot of rent is high. That’s one reason a lot people fold up and go, you know, to start doing a mobile truck, stuff like that. And that’s what a lot of them do. But my main thing is we build some buildings that could bring those companies, those businesses in, those small businesses that will help Eatonville a lot better to be on the nightlife that either people come to Eatonville to eat, they come walk through things like that.”
NEWS 6: This is a final question I was just thinking of, um, Eatonville is a town that it does, it thrives on its history. If you were to go out there and you’re going to have to advocate for Eatonville to business groups, to lobbyists, to, to politics, like, how are you, what, what would you say to advocate, for Eatonville to get people to think Eatonville is a place that people should bring their business, just come and just come hang out?
WASHINGTON: "And the first thing is getting our main street building those, those buildings in place. That’s one of the first things. Cause you don’t have the buildings. If you build, they will come. That’s the saying, but if you don’t have anything, so I can’t really advocate if I don’t have nothing to say, Hey, this is what we need to put in place first. So we need to build these buildings to get these people to come, get businesses to come in. So advocate and going out to somebody, we want you to come here, but where were you going to go? What do I have for you to, where do I have you to go?
“So the first thing we need to start building businesses that we have in our Main Street. Empty lots, you know, town-owned properties that we can build up to get little smaller businesses in that we have on the table for the future. So we can bring small businesses in. So that’s one of the things to advocate.
“And plus with, um, other buildings in Eatonville that we have over here in, like Maitland Center, not Maitland Center, but right on Keller Road. Those businesses have companies come in, Spectrum, we get people over there all the time that come in when they come in and out. But those type of businesses there would be good too. But bringing in the small businesses, like you saying, we have to build some buildings before they can come or have property before they build. Cause right, like I said, rent is crazy for you starting in the business and you’re not getting the revenue or the foot traffic. And that’s one of the things you must have, the foot traffic, before you try to put something into place. And that why we do these monthly events, quarterly events, to bring people to Eatonville, let them know that the traffic is here, we just gotta put it here, put the businesses here.”
NEWS 6: And anything else you want to say to the voters, to Central Florida, about Eatonville, about you running as a mayor candidate?
WASHINGTON: "Well, one thing I would say, you know, I’m a long-time resident of Eatonville. I’ve seen the dirt roads, the orange groves. I seen playing on clay basketball courts. I seen it from, from, from the clay courts to the cement courts to, um, tennis nets, tennis courts with nets broken down halfway. I have seen this place grow from there, even with the pool. I was part of that, having that built up. And that’s something we have to do in the near future to get a new aquatic center, something I really will support, but even though it’s a thriving place and I tell people I’ll put Eatonville first in my decisions. And that one thing I do know is Eatonville first. So I thank you for this interview."