Expect a spirited, fully-involved -- and lengthy -- Kissimmee City Commission meeting tonight (Tuesday), as the agenda includes a number of notable, hot-button items.
Commissioners are expected to:
- Give final approval for re-establishing the city's Civilian Police Oversight Board, including who can serve and the credentials they must have;
- Hear a first reading on amending the city's noise ordinance, which residents and merchants alike have brought up over the past months;
- Hear a first reading on another ordinance that could make it necessary for bar and restaurant owners in the downtown district to acquire a special permit to sell alcohol after midnight, and assure those establishment are in full compliance of all other laws and regulations;
- Hear from hotel officials regarding the four proposals for downtown hotels; two proposals each at the Kissimmee Civic Center site and at Toho Square, where the city's parking garage currently sits. Members of the local hospitality workers are expected to gather outside of City Hall before the meeting and then attend the meeting to oppose a proposal from Skyview Companies that they say would not provide the same benefit to the city as a another by the Kissimmee Place Development Group, proposing a bigger Hyatt Hotel development.
A couple of notable hearings will take place at the Osceola County Courthouse on Tuesday and Wednesday. First, Richard Ferguson, the father of a teen, then 15 years old, who investigators say let the unlicensed teen drive his vehicle the evening of Sept. 3, 2023, is scheduled for a Tuesday pre-trial hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday ahead of a trial scheduled to begin July 15.
Investigators say Ferguson's teen son caused a crash at San Miguel Road and Laurel Avenue in Poinciana that killed four people, including three children and their grandmother. Ferguson was arrested in February and charged with four counts of manslaughter.
Ri'Shard Laroy Ferguson, now 16, turned himself in and was taken into custody at the Juvenile Detention Center. He is charged with four counts of vehicular homicide, causing a crash with serious bodily injury and driving without a driver's license.
And Stephan Sterns, the man accused of sexually abusing Kissimmee teen Madeline Soto, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Wednesday at 9 a.m. That hearing, regarding 60 charges of sexual battery, molestation and unlawful possession of child sexual abuse material, was scheduled back in April, when Judge Keith Carstens heard a number of defense motions to suppress evidence they say police acquired through an illegal search. Carsten said he would issue a written ruling on those motions following the April hearing, but has yet to do so.
An additional 1:30 p.m. "add-on" hearing for Wednesday was also scheduled this week.
Court records show a "joint motion to continue" has been filed, but not may available yet to view by the Osceola Clerk's Office.
Sterns is also charged with Soto's 2024 murder and is scheduled to stand trial for that in September. He has pleaded not guilty and faces the death penalty if convicted of killing Soto.
Sterns' defense team filed dozens of motions in the murder case, addressing the legality of the death penalty, instructions to jurors, and other things that surround the case. Additionally, the team last week filed a motion in the sexual battery charges case to remove newspapers from the courthouse during Sterns' trial proceedings.
"This case has garnered extensive media coverage throughout Osceola County and the surrounding areas, with developments in the case consistently making front-page headlines in local newspapers including, but not limited to, the Osceola News-Gazette," the motion reads, naming this publication specifically.
The motion goes on: "On March 4, 2025, newspapers were prominently displayed in the courthouse with the headline "REMEMBERING MADDIE," referring to the alleged victim in this case. Such emotionally charged headlines in the courthouse itself create an atmosphere that substantially prejudices the Defendant's right to a fair trial."
