The Kissimmee City Commission will make Tuesday a busy one, with Election Night, its regular Commission meeting at 6 p.m., and now a scheduled meeting at 5 p.m. for commissioners to consider acceptance of Articles of Impeachment against Mayor Jackie Espinosa.
City officials said there will not be an agenda prepared but that the meeting is to hear from the Commission regarding the findings.
Espinosa did not attend last week’s City Commission meeting, the first meeting since Special Prosecutor Mayanne Downs released her findings, due to a previously planned family vacation, according to the city manager. Fellow commissioner Noel Ortiz was also absent from the meeting.
Downs, appointed by Ninth Circuit Court to investigate the findings, found probable cause Espinosa benefitted from the city’s Business Boost 2.0 program, which she voted with the Commission to create in September 2025 to help local businesses who could show lingering negative impacts from COVID-19.
City records show three downtown Kissimmee businesses, a dance studio run by her daughter, a real estate company run by her husband and a Broadway eatery that has since closed and will be rebranded with new owners, received a total of $50,000 in grant money.
The matter was not on last week’s agenda, but several residents spoke on the matter during the meeting’s public comment segment.
Jimmy Torres, who said his organization represents the Puerto Rican voting block, said the city should allow Espinosa to finish her term “as the will of the people” who elected her in 2024.
“Impeachment should not be considered for the damage it could do to the city and its Puerto Rican community,” he said.
Susana Sanchez expressed “disappointment” in how the city has handled this situation, saying Espinosa applied for the program according to guidelines the city put in place.
“This overshadows the progress and future success of our city.”
City emails showed that prior City Attorney Olga Sanchez de Fuentes reached out to Espinosa and other city leaders on Dec. 5, 2025—about two months after the funds had been approved and paid out—that city leadership accepting such money violated state statutes. Espinosa called for a vote to remove the attorney that passed in a 3-1 vote.
But citizens like Lillian Evans and Stephanie Nelson, loud critics of the mayor even before this investigation started, said the issue was not about heritage and all about improper use of the city’s funds.
“I’m sorry the mayor has to go through this, but I hope she steps down,” Evans said. “She’s not the mayor that I would want for my city of Kissimmee.”
When another speaker asked commissioners why they had yet taken a position on the issue, Commissioner Janette Martinez referenced Tuesday’s meeting as part of a larger process.
“We have to follow the law. There is a process that has to be followed,” she said. “We’ve been advised by counsel, and that’s what we’re doing.
Espinosa’s legal counsel has filed several motions and appeals, saying a local court or prosecutor is authorized to handle the matter, and that the city doesn’t have a process that follows state law. A filing with the Sixth District Court of Appeals to stop the current process and send the complaint directly to the Florida Commission on Ethics has already been struck down.
Attorney Migdalia Perez has not spoken on the matter since the May 19 Commission meeting.
The last point of reference for this in the city of Kissimmee came in 1996, when Mayor John Pollet, after spending almost a year battling charges that he illegally solicited and accepted gifts such as Orlando Magic tickets from companies that did business with the city, was impeached.
