Prosecutor notes, “Public office is a trust, not a trough”
A special prosecutor has ruled that probable cause exists for Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa to face articles of impeachment following ethics complaints filed by city residents earlier this year.
In a 13-page report released Thursday, Special Prosecutor Mayanne Downs said the findings to impeach exist regarding the Business Boost 2.0 program, which earmarked federal COVID-19 recovery funds to assist local businesses that were hurt by the pandemic. Espinosa voted to create the program in September 2025, then a month later three companies owned or operated by Espinosa’s husband and children received $50,000 in city grant funds out of a total of about $775,000 paid to about 70 companies.
Following Downs’ report, which is a recommendation and not a legal ruling, the other four city commissioners will work to determine the next steps; Downs recommended the city refer the matter to law enforcement, including the Attorney General, Florida Commission on Ethics, the Ninth Judicial Circuit, and other state jurisdictional agencies.
Downs found action could be taken against Espinosa in three of seven allegations made by resident Alex Alemi: Prohibited conflict of interest based on the Mayor’s role in creating, funding, expanding and promoting BOOST 2.0; Failure to disclose financial or other private interest in these businesses; Failure to be guided by the advisory opinion of the City Attorney, communicated Dec. 5, 2025.
“The BOOST 2.0 Grant Counts stand on a different footing,” Downs wrote. “These are public dollars, and $50,000 is a substantial sum … Espinosa does not deny that she and members of her family took this money via grants to their businesses; she says only that she was not warned until after the funds had been received that she should not take them. An elected official does not need to be warned to know the law, or to follow it.
“She took, and has retained, public monies without disclosing her personal interests and in direct contravention of the City Attorney’s advice.”
City records showed that on Dec. 5, as some of the last grants were paid out, then-County Attorney Olga Sanchez de Fuentes sent an email to Espinosa and City Manager Mike Steigerwald, sharing links from the Commission on Ethics Opinions regarding receiving those grants from the same city official serves which, the attorney explained, “Can create a prohibited, conflicting contractual relationship between the officer or employee,” with an offer to meet to discuss further. At the Feb. 3, 2026 City Commission meeting, Espinosa, citing a list of “serious and ongoing concerns regarding the City Attorney’s capability, judgment, responsiveness, and overall quality of work” she shared with city officials in January, made a motion to terminate Snachez that passed with a 3-1 vote.
The termination of Sanchez de Fuentes was listed as an allegation in the citizen’s complaint, but Downs ruled it was an act of the Commission, not the mayor acting alone. In a March interview with the News-Gazette Espinosa addressed the perception that her action was related to the attorney’s questioning the grant.
“I didn’t fire her. I asked for her resignation, because I found that we were at a place where it just wasn’t going to get (better),” the mayor said. “One, two, three months after the money had been issued, do you think maybe you should have had that opinion when we first discussed this? Do you think you should have questioned this back then?”
Downs noted that following the City Attorney’s Dec. 5 input regarding the conflict of an elected official accepting funds such as the BOOST 2.0 offerings, “A meeting followed, the guidance was not withdrawn, and no recusal, return of funds or other corrective action is documented … One need not be a lawyer to know that a public official may not take public monies except under fully-disclosed and affirmatively authorized circumstances.”
In January, the state’s Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight headed up by state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, sent city officials a request for documentation of approval and disbursement of such post-COVID funds. The city made available over 1,000 pages of documents.
Downs concluded her findings noting that, “Public office is a trust, not a trough.”
“The BOOST 2.0 program was created to help Kissimmee’s small businesses survive a pandemic, not to enrich the official who controlled it. No warning should have been necessary; the oath of office is warning enough.”
Espinosa was elected mayor in 2024 after running for that post in 2020 and for County Commission in 2022.
