Apopka’s newly-elected Mayor Nick Nesta has announced a “temporary hiring pause” for most vacant city positions as the city wrestles with its budget.
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But one of Nesta’s controversial, and expensive, new hires won’t be impacted as the city’s new communications director Steven “Trooper Steve” Montiero started work on Monday.
The announcement comes after city commissioners failed to agree last month on a property tax hike large enough to fund a set of new positions proposed by Nesta, although they did ultimately adopt a smaller increase to be revisited in September. Nesta said at the time of that decision there would have to be budget cuts.
A public announcement of the hiring freeze was posted Wednesday on the city’s website, Facebook and Instagram pages, stating the pause would remain in effect through Oct. 1 as officials continue planning for the new fiscal year starting that day.
“We understand this may raise questions, particularly for those who have recently applied for a position with the city,” it stated. “This temporary pause is part of a broader review of how city government is structured and how we can best position our employees and departments to serve our growing community as efficiently as possible.
“The goal is not simply to add positions or eliminate positions. The goal is to build the right structure.”
When requests for comment from Nesta were made Thursday morning, it was Montiero who responded on Nesta’s behalf.
Montiero insisted the freeze has “actually has absolutely nothing to do with budget or any type of financial talks.”
Budget documents include about $8.54 million slotted for new positions with about $2.98 million saved from position reductions. Nesta has defended the staffing budget as a matter of catching up on the city’s needs after leaving positions vacant for too long and shifting those responsibilities to existing employees.
“The mayor’s really focused on restructuring, at the moment, to make it more efficient,” Montiero said. “There’s a lot of discrepancies that he’s picked up over the last couple of months. And I think operating in an old-school mentality is not what Apopka needs at the moment.”
The freeze will not impact recruitment of a community development director, which the city announcement stated is an important leadership position for the city’s future. Nesta also asked for patience during this period from those who’ve submitted applications for vacant positions.
“If any commissioner wants to speak on this, that’s totally fine for them to do so, but at the end of the day the mayor’s the full-time guy sitting here really trying to get into the minutia of everything here at the city,” Montiero said.
Anderson, arguably the commission’s most vocal critic of the preliminary budget’s millions in new spending on positions, had suggested the idea of a hiring freeze in recent commission meetings, citing Orlando’s freeze as an example.
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But she criticized the way Nesta announced the freeze, saying she’s been unable to provide additional information to residents calling her with questions.
“I would think at least we’d have a discussion with the commission prior to this decision,” Anderson said, adding she definitely plans to bring up the issue at the next regular commission meeting on Wednesday.
She also said Thursday afternoon she received what she called an “apology email” from Jessica Loomis, senior executive assistant in the mayor’s office, for not sending commissioners news about the freeze two days earlier, when it went to the rest of the city staff.
Loomis forwarded the email sent Tuesday to employees, along with a message on behalf of the mayor and herself. It was signed only by Loomis.
“I would like to begin by apologizing for our oversight regarding the below email communication that was sent to city staff on Tuesday,” it said. “When this email was sent to ‘all-users,’ Mayor Nesta and I thought that included the commissioners as well.”
The Facebook post announcing the freeze drew many favorable comments, though some questioned the timing.
“We elected Mayor Nesta because we need change for Apopka to move forward. This doesn’t happen overnight,” one commenter wrote. Another said, “I’m glad he’s doing a deep dive into this. I’d rather see him proactive than reactive!”
But others noted the irony of implementing the freeze just days after Montiero started his job as the city’s new public information director.
Montiero, currently a volunteer reserve trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol, and former traffic safety expert for CBS WKMG News 6 gets a base salary of $180,000 annually — far above the $133,350 paid to Nesta, who took the gavel April 28 — and more than his counterparts working for Orange County, Orlando and similar-sized Central Florida cities.
“Maybe if they didn’t just hire a content creator at $180K they could hire other staff. Depending on the position, they could hire 3 to 4 staff members with that money,” one Facebook post stated.
The city’s public announcement and email on the freeze did not mention the November statewide ballot referendum, which could increase the current $50,000 homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. If approved by 60% of voters, the constitutional amendment would take effect Jan. 1 and slash tax revenue generated for local governments. School tax revenue would be shielded from the new exemptions.
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