Espinosa addresses grants for her businesses, role in City Attorney's removal
A city of Kissimmee small-business stabilizing program that utilized federal funds released in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has come under scrutiny by some members of the public—and the state of Florida’s CFO.
Three downtown companies owned or operated by Mayor Jackie Espinosa’s family received $50,000 in city grant funds through the “Business Boost 2.0” program, approved late in 2024 and launched in September 2025 to, “assist local businesses still facing lingering economic challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It was a sort of sequel to the first Business Boost in 2022, approved to address the pandemic’s immediate negative impacts and economic harm to workers and small businesses. It provided emergency stabilization relief immediately following local, state and country-wide shutdowns.
The program solely utilized American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the Biden administration released to the city. Kissimmee set qualifying guidelines—businesses with fewer than 500 employees that were physically located within city limits had to demonstrate financial hardships like decreased sales, increased operational costs, or debt incurred to remain open during and after the pandemic.
Business Boost 2.0 payments were based on the type of business and the square footage occupied—from one-time payments of $5,000 for a home-based business to $20,000 for companies with over 5,000 square feet of operating space.
Espinosa, addressing concerns about how the payments gave the impression she was channeling city funds to her family, said the federal funds had been in the city’s hands since 2022.
“The last administration did absolutely nothing with it,” she said. “They’re not businesspeople. They didn’t understand that everyone in downtown was struggling.”
Documents furnished by the city show three businesses operated by her family members—The Real Estate Gallery, Kissimmee Diner/ Matador Taco & Tapas (received $15,000 each) and Adanse, LLC ($20,000)—provided proof their sales or income all suffered in 2020-22 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, just like other program applicants.
Adanse, a downtown dance studio, is owned by one of Espinosa’s daughters, but the mayor signed the hardship letter. She addressed that by noting one of the studio’s clients is the Department of Children and Families, which offers dance lessons as therapy for victims of abuse.
“My daughter is the one certified to do this. We’ve been working with them for 20 years and we have DCF implications because of this,” Espinosa said. “People don’t have any idea. They think it’s just a competitive ballroom dance studio.”
Espinosa said she advocated for hundreds to thousands of Kissimmee’s businesses, not just the 13 she owns.
“At no point was I thinking, well, let me see how many businesses I can stick in there,” she said. “I would go to my tenants and I’d say, ‘You guys should apply for this.’ My tenants had a hard time paying rent.
“Some people might just need the money to survive until they can sell their business, just need a few months of oxygen because they’d rather sell it as a business rather than sell as a foreclosure.”
Espinosa said she understands the optics of the situation to the public, as this is the first time in the city’s history the mayor has also been the owner and operator of numerous local businesses.
“And it’s the only one pandemic we’ve had like this,” she said. “It’s hard to make ends meet, so now I can pay staff, and that’s one thing I’m very proud of, because I've essentially got 13 different managers."
Of course it’s going to look bad, until you explain the particulars.”
Kissimmee resident Lillian Evans has been one of a small handful of residents who have challenged Espinosa on the ethics of her accepting grant funding for her own businesses. She said it doesn't matter that these are federal funds and not city taxpayer dollars.
"That money needs to go to other people. She's a government official, she shouldn't be accepting it," said Evans, who said she has filed a complaint with the state's Florida Commission on Ethics regarding the matter. "The state said they shouldn't be accepting it. I want the city to be run right, and I don't think (Espinosa) is the right mayor for that."
Records show the city paid out $775,000 to about 70 companies in 2025, with four more pending payments awaiting missing documents. In 2022 during the first Business Boost program, 53 companies received $315,000.
According to city spokesperson Alibeth Suarez, all small businesses within city limits meeting the eligibility criteria were invited to apply, and applications were reviewed to confirm eligibility, size parameters, and documentation of financial hardship connected to COVID-19 impacts. Grants were paid out starting in September as applications were reviewed and awards approved.
On Dec. 5, 2025, 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 a 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 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.
Espinosa addressed the perception that her action was related to the attorney’s questioning the grant.
“No, there’s a whole history of things that happened, which I finally put in writing and submitted (to Steigerwald). 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? The attorney decided to get an opinion after the money had been dispersed, after I had stressed my concerns about other things.
“Why didn’t you question it in September? Why wait? Why are we questioning this in December?”
Calls to Sanchez de Fuentes, who left the Feb. 3 meeting immediately after her ouster, have not been returned.
But, prior to that, on Jan. 15 the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight and the state’s Department of Financial Services, headed up by state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, sent city officials a request for documentation of approval and disbursement of federal, state and local post-COVID assistance funds—such as Business Boost—going back to 2020. The request included copies of the application forms and “documents regarding the evaluation and approval of applicants or applications, to include but not limited to, memoranda, scoring rubrics, communications about applicants or applications.”
Last week through a public records request, the city made available over 1,000 pages of documents it transmitted to FAFO per its request. Many were applications for Business Boost funds and the accompanying tax and business documents, as well as correspondence between the city’s Economic Development Department and the applying businesses. Hundreds of city businesses, from professional services to wellness and medical offices to restaurants and other retail entities, applied for funds.
Those documents showed that part of an affidavit applicants to Business Boost 2.0 filled out affirms their company was not owned or controlled by government entities in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, the Venezuelan regime of (now ousted president) Nicolas Maduro or Syria.
And, since the request went back to 2020, some of the documents refer to businesses being accepted into the GrowthWheel assistance program run by the UCF Business Incubator.
When asked why she thought of the state’s oversight agency asking a city how and why it was using federal funds, Espinosa said she would completely understand the state’s oversight of how it’s spending the city’s money.
“I get they have to investigate things like this. And we overdocumented our case,” the mayor said. “It showed we seem to be doing things pretty darn well.”
DOGE published a “Report on Local Government Spending” in January 2026—just before its documentation request to the city. While DOGE did delve into other local governments like the city of Orlando and Orange County, no Osceola County boards were mentioned.
It’s been the only FAFO discussion of local government matters.
