By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

The Osceola County Commission Monday shortened its list for a potential new county attorney to five, following closing of the application period Friday.

The five candidates on the list in no order of priority and the location where they currently work, are: Celeste Adorno, Tallahassee; Vasilis Katsafanas, Orlando; Andrew W. Mai, Miami; James L. Richmond, Tallahassee; and Aleksandr Boksner, Miami Beach.

Candidates on Friday, June 3, will have one-on-one interviews with each commissioner in the first half of the day. In the afternoon, the commission will convene in a public forum to interview all shortlisted candidates, rank them and select a final candidate. The county chairman will then negotiate a contract for a new county attorney facilitated by the county manager.

Board approval of a contract with a new county attorney is scheduled for Monday, June 13, with a targeted start date between June 20 and June 30.

At the same time, the commission will look at attorneys and firms for potential outsourcing of legal work following the recent downsizing of the county attorney’s office. Five firms provided letters of interest. Those firms, according to the county procurement office, are: Brown, Garganese, Weiss, & D’Agresta; Bryant Miller Olive; Fowler, O’ Quinn, Feeney & Sneed; Kaufman, Englett & Lynn; and Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell & Dunbar. The outsourcing proposals have not been short-listed.

More on transportation impact fees

Commissioners Monday again discussed including multi-family projects in the current moratorium on transportation impact fees, prompted by comments against such a move made by Osceola County School Board member and local landlord Tom Long. Commissioners in a 3-2 vote May 2 agreed to look at a reclassification of multi-family construction as commercial development. The intent of the waived fees would be to spur construction activity and generate jobs.

Long urged commissioners to consider the negative impact more multi-family housing would have on an already-glutted residential market as well as the impact additional residents would have on local roadways, especially those that are at a failing or near-failing service level in terms of ability to handle traffic.

“Very few full-time, permanent jobs are created with apartment complexes,” Long said. “We have areas in the county – Poinciana and BVL (Buenaventura Lakes) – that are very depressed. Landlords can’t find tenants now.”

Commissioners voting May 2 to move forward with consideration of expanding the moratorium to include multi-family housing impact fees were John Quiñones, Frank Attkisson and Fred Hawkins Jr.; commissioners Brandon Arrington and Michael Harford opposed the move.

At Monday’s meeting, Hawkins said the legal risks in terms of possible lawsuits of trying to classify multi-family construction as anything other than residential might be too high for him to continue supporting the idea.

“Last week we discussed the idea of putting people to work, but we failed to ask whether this was legally defensible,” Hawkins said, adding that conversations he has had with builders demonstrated to him that the industry does not consider apartments as commercial construction. “I don’t want to be put into a position to defend against a lawsuit. I just want more information before we make a final decision.”

Interim County Attorney George Nickerson said the legal risk for a lawsuit goes up with a reclassification of multi-family construction as commercial because the Osceola County School District for its school impact fees includes this sector as residential.

“The safest way to do a moratorium is to include all building types,” Nickerson said.

Quiñones said he continues to support designating apartments as commercial construction, admitting though that adding inventory to an already saturated housing market may not be a good idea. As to multi-family projects resulting in a lower service level on local roadways, Quiñones said that issue is addressed at a different point in the project approval process.

“If this (multi-family housing) is determined to be residential, I would not support the moratorium,” Quiñones said.

Attkisson asked Long whether the School Board had considered reducing school impact fees due to lower overall construction costs due to the economy. Long responded that the School Board had unanimously voted to reduce the fees 10 percent a number of months ago because costs had fallen but that the commission had not acted on that recommendation.

The commission will further discuss the issue at a May 27 strategic planning meeting.