ORLANDO, Fla. – For the first time in decades, thousands of people in the city of Orlando will have a new person representing them at City Hall.
Five people are running to replace District 3 Commissioner Robert Stuart, who is retiring after 20 years in office.
District 3 includes neighborhoods like Baldwin Park, Audubon Park, Rosemont and College Park.
News 6 anchor Lisa Bell sat down one-on-one with each of the candidates in the non-partisan race: Samuel Chambers, Roger Chapin, Chris Durant, Kimberly Kiss and Mira Tanna to ask each of them the same set of questions and dig deeper on certain topics as needed.
Election Day is Nov. 4, with early voting from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2.
To find your polling place, head to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website.
Here’s the conversation with candidate Roger Chapin.
CHAPIN: My name is Roger Chapin. I own my own communications firm, a public relations firm called Chapin Communications. I was born and raised here in Orlando. I went to public schools, I went to Memorial Junior High, I went to Oak Ridge High School, I went off to Florida State University, came back, married my wife, Susan. We live in College Park. We’ve been there 27 years. I have a daughter, Gray, who’s a senior at the University of Florida. I’ve pretty much, I’ve worked here in Orlando my entire life. I’ve worked for Darden Restaurants; I worked for 20 years with Mears Transportation. Now I own my own public relations communications firm, so yeah, that’s a little bit about myself.
BELL: OK, and why did you decide to run for District 3?
CHAPIN: I decided to run for District 3 really to get things done or to continue to get things done. People, elected officials serving on the local level, are really about blocking and tackling. They’re about code enforcement. They are about growth management. They are about stormwater. They’re about parks. I want to make sure that we do all those essential things that government does every day. I want to support our Main Street programs. I want to expand transit and walkability and make sure our communities remain safe for our wonderful neighborhoods we have throughout District 3.
BELL: What do you think is the biggest issue facing the City of Orlando and District 3?
CHAPIN: When I listen to voters, affordability is on their mind. And so, you think as a city commissioner, what does that mean? You know, we’re not in charge of interest rates. We don’t handle insurance. But there are some areas. So, when I think of affordability, I think about expanding transit. I think walkability, where you can walk from your neighborhood to Edgewater Drive or Ivanhoe or Corrine Drive. I think about. utility rates. I currently serve on the Orlando Utilities Commission. We have the lowest rates of any of our competitors, any of the municipal competitors, and any of the investor-owned utilities. So, you think about property taxes, regulations, trying to keep government, make our lives easier not harder. So think about affordability in that manner on a local level.
BELL: So what would you work to change on day one?
CHAPIN: So, day one, I mean, I’ve really gravitated towards the Main Streets in District 3. So, I definitely want to further engage the Main Streets with our neighborhoods and kind of, I think the Main Street programs can bring the neighborhoods in. What I want to make sure doesn’t happen is that City Hall, on a larger city council level, doesn’t turn into a place that’s too political. So, I want to make sure that Orlando continues to move in the right direction and still can be a place for economic growth, where people want to move, where companies want to relocate, where people still want to visit the city of Orlando. So I want to make sure we keep our eye on the ball when it comes to governing really, and getting things done for the citizens.
BELL: And just going back to housing affordability, what specifically do you think that the city could do or should do to lower prices?
CHAPIN: Yeah, so I served on the municipal planning board several years ago. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer put me on the Municipal Planning Board. There are planning tools you can use related to density. So that’s bringing more units online in neighborhoods and areas where it’s density appropriate. I also served on the Downtown Development Board when we built the performing arts center, and we would give incentives to people to live downtown. We would give incentives to people who live near transit to ride SunRail. So those are some of the tools you can do to have more units online to encourage people to live in places where there’s more density and we can get more units online.
BELL: So, I have to say, I’ve been hearing that theme a lot when talking to the district candidates. What is the challenge to making that happen, to making it easier, to changing the density, to getting those incentives? What are the roadblocks that city commissioners are facing to make that happen?
CHAPIN: Yeah, well, growth. You know, growth can be a positive word and can be a negative word. So, I think it’s continuing to encourage responsible growth when it comes to density in these hubs, if you will. You know, where we have a lot of businesses already, where we have people that can walk to dinner and bike to work or walk to work, or be near a transit station. So, I think for the city of Orlando, we’re doing more infill development and we’re not dealing with sprawl, so I think that will also help with pricing. I think there’ll be some innovative planning things that come along. There’s a lot of people talking about parking restrictions. Do you have to have garages? How many spaces for businesses, things like that. I think you’re going to see in the next several years for planners, professional planners of the city.
BELL: And on that note, what do you think the city of Orlando will or should look like 15 years from now, say in 2040?
CHAPIN: Wow, 2040. So, I think the city is on a great trajectory. I think we’re moving in the right direction. I think what we’re going to see is a 20-minute downtown, okay? And by that, I mean, we want to see our downtown continue to grow and become, you know, economically viable. But we’re also going to see these hubs, and you call them 20-minute downtowns, because it takes you 20 minutes to get to each of these hubs. Whether you’re in Winter Garden, whether you’re in College Park, whether in Winter Park, whether you are in Baldwin Park. So, I think we’re going to see a lot more focus on neighborhoods and these neighborhood hubs. So, we’re going to have to have more green space, we’re going to have to have better walkability, more connectivity. We’re gonna have strong neighborhoods where people feel safe and can go out and walk after dark to these neighborhood hubs. But I think the 20-minute downtown model is kind of where I see Orlando going and it’s these very vibrant activity centers within about 20 minutes of each other.
BELL: Gov. DeSantis has called for property tax reform. The governor, along with other state officials, have said that property taxes should be cut, if not completely eliminated, in some cases. Do you agree with that? And if that were to happen, how should the city respond to that?
CHAPIN: I don’t know what the plan is because local governments rely on property taxes to fund obviously the government. And so, when I’m out talking to people, you know, people want wider streets, wider sidewalks. They want stormwater fixed. They want potholes fixed. They want code enforcement. They want police. They want fire. So, I don’t know what the impact is, how they’re going to replace that revenue. People should be very worried about how it’s going to impact local government. That’s not to say that there’s not this affordability issue of property taxes, home values, insurance, but it’s certainly going to be something where you’re going to use a scalpel and not kind of a machete if you’re going to cut around the edges, because you have to be very careful, because local government is closest to the people. So, if they’re going to just do away with property taxes somehow, first of all, it’s going to have to go to a referendum because the governor doesn’t have the power to do that, neither does the legislature. Then you’re giving people the ability to cut their own taxes, so we just need to make sure that we’ve got a plan that is a balanced approach when you cut revenue to replace revenue.
BELL: Is there anything that I did not ask you about that you’d like to share with us?
CHAPIN: So, I ran for the seat 23 years ago and I was unsuccessful, and I didn’t go run for something else; I went back to doing what I thought I could to help, and that was to be involved civically. So, I’ve served on the municipal planning board, I’ve served on the downtown development board when we approved the performing arts center, I served on the oversight committee for the performing arts center, I’ve served on Orlando Utilities Commission, I was instrumental in bringing UCF to downtown Orlando to Creative Village. I’ve definitely got the most experience. I might not be the most energetic or the youngest, but I’ve got the most experience in the race, and with Robert Stuart retiring after 20 years, with Mayor Dyer retiring after 20 years, I can really be ready to hit the ground running on day one.
BELL: Great, and I guess one final thing, Gators or Seminoles?
CHAPIN: Woo!
BELL: You’ve got a house divided, it sounds like.
CHAPIN: I do, so I’m a Seminole, my daughter’s a Gator, my wife’s a Gator, all my in-laws are Gators, my brother’s are Seminoles, so it’s tough. We all pull for each other when we’re not playing ourselves. When I visit my daughter, I’ll wear blue, but it’s not Gator blue. And no logos. Laughs.
For more on this race and full conversations with the other four candidates, head to clickorlando.com.