Monday marks the beginning of early voting for most Central Florida counties, including Orange County.

Voters in Orange County will be electing a new mayor for the first time in eight years. They’ll also be deciding how to vote on the property tax amendment.

If Amendment 3 is approved, Orange County projects its revenue would be cut by $165 million in 2027 and $275 million in 2028.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

News 6 anchor Lisa Bell asked both candidates running for Orange County mayor — Chris Messina and Tiffany Moore Russell — how that could impact their new job.

Chris Messina: “Okay, let me start by first saying that I am 100% supporting Amendment 3 and I’m encouraging everybody who’s watching this to vote for it. I think it’s time that we, in government, help our hardworking taxpayers by letting them keep more of their money. So year one, with the passage of Amendment 3, on average, the average Orange County homeowner will have $1,000 a year savings. That’s gasoline for a year. Year two, they’ll have a $2,000 average savings, and that’s groceries, gas, essentials for a family of four for a month. So it’s a very substantial relief for our hardworking taxpayers who are facing an affordability crisis.”

Chris Messina: “Now, the projections that you’re mentioning, those projections depend on the assumptions that are made and all those projections assume no growth, which is not true because over the past year, so from ’25 to ’26, our tax revenue grew by 13%. So if you multiply that by the tax revenue, you’re looking at over $200 million. So there’s your shortfall.”

Tiffany Moore Russell: “I do not support Amendment 3 and for example, Amendment 3 puts at risk the Housing Trust Fund that the county has invested in because those are discretionary projects, right? And so I don’t support Amendment 3. I do not believe that’s the best answer to responding to the affordability issue that voters are asking for because Amendment 3 is not going to reduce their insurance costs. Amendment 3 is not going to reduce the price of gas. And so, I think it’s, you know, disingenuous to tell voters that Amendment 3 is going to give them savings with over 45% of residents in Orange County actually renting. They don’t own a home and so I do not support Amendment 3.”

Tiffany Moore Russell: “What it would require me to do is think creatively, think outside the box, but also be fiscally prudent when it comes to making tough decisions. And so what actually was interesting is my first year as the clerk of court, I had to cut my budget three times in one year and so that taught me the importance of innovation, challenging your staff to think of ways to find savings. So, at the clerk’s office, we got rid of printing paper and so if it passes, you know, we will look at things like how do we delay capital projects, right? How do we delay capital improvement projects? How we do them timely, how do we deploy those projects? How do we consolidate some departments, right? Do we need to have a logistics person in each department? How can we centralize some of those services? So, we have to look for savings as well as do we freeze hiring and a zero-based budgeting moving forward? And so it is making tough decisions if you’re having to find that revenue, if it should pass.”

Bell also asked both candidates their views on Tourist Development Taxes, affordable housing and transportation. To see their full interviews, click on the videos below.

Here’s the full Moore Russell transcript:

MOORE RUSSELL: I am Tiffany Moore Russell. I’m running for Orange County Mayor. I am a third-generation Orange County resident, graduated from Dr. Phillips High School. I am a licensed attorney, graduated with Florida State University College of Law. I am married. I have two teenage sons here raising my family in Central Florida.

LISA BELL: So, what makes you the best candidate for Orange County Mayor?

MOORE RUSSELL: You know what makes me the best candidate for Orange County mayor is I have two levels of experience that makes me qualified on day one. As a former county commissioner, where I served District 6 for eight years, I bring the legislative experience. I understand the role of Orange County government in establishing ordinances that drive how our community lives and grows.

As a commissioner, I was instrumental in getting funding from Tallahassee for water projects in the Mercy Drive area or for securing the first official cricket field in Orange County and so that brings that legislative experience, understanding how to get funding and secure that funding for the county. But as the clerk for the last 12 years, I bring executive experience to the role where as the clerk, I was responsible for making sure my employees came to work during COVID. What did that look like to be an essential employee or service during that season of the pandemic, but as well as addressing pay and understanding how do we increase access to justice and respond to the needs and demands of the community and so with that, as a clerk, I managed a complicated budget. I also participated in our statewide budget process, which is funding budgets for 67 clerks across the state and for two years, I served as the budget chair. So, I will bring both legislative and executive experience to the role being in the Orange County mayor ready on day one.

BELL: What do you think are the key differences between you and your opponent?

MOORE RUSSELL: I think the key difference is experience, understanding the county structure, understanding this community. For 20 years, the community has trusted me with their vote to lead in different roles. And I think that’s what makes the difference. I understand from whether it’s District 6, where I grew up in Tangelo Park, or now where I live in District 1 in Horizons West, where I’m seeing the traffic challenges and the issues across this community, and so I think, that’s, what makes the difference. I understand this community I’ve navigated the county budget process. I mean, that experience, you cannot learn on the job. I mean, we are almost the third, the fourth largest county in the state, and we just cannot risk electing someone who does not understand how to navigate county governance and so I think that is what makes me more opposite of my opponent.

Budget issues and Amendment 3

BELL: You mentioned traffic and you mentioned budget. What do you think is the biggest issue facing Orange County in the next 12 months?

MOORE RUSSELL: The biggest issue in the next 12 months is affordability. That is the common issue we’re hearing across this campaign. Residents are looking for solutions for the inability to rent in this county, the cost to rent, the cost to purchase of A home, as well as our transportation, which has plagued us for years. I think it will continue to be an issue, but what’s an overarching issue that kind of is like this cloud over us of any type of innovation or progress or planning is Amendment Three. If it passes. How do we make decisions, how do we move forward? And so I think how we’re able to fund those issues and projects are gonna be instrumental to Orange County’s future.

BELL: And that leads me to my next question, which is Amendment 3. If voters approve that, Orange County is projecting a $165 million loss in revenue in 2027, $270 million in 2028. How would that impact your role as Orange County Mayor?

MOORE RUSSELL: What it would require me to do is think creatively, think outside the box, but also be fiscally prudent when it comes to making tough decisions. And so what actually was interesting is my first year as the clerk of court, I had to cut my budget three times in one year and so that taught me the importance of innovation, challenging your staff to think of ways to find savings. So, at the clerk’s office, we got rid of printing paper and so if it passes, you know, we will look at things like how do we delay capital projects, right? How do we delay capital improvement projects? How we do them timely, how do we deploy those projects? How do we consolidate some departments, right? Do we need to have a logistics person in each department? How can we centralize some of those services?

So, we have to look for savings as well as do we freeze hiring and a zero-based budgeting moving forward?

And so it is making tough decisions if you’re having to find that revenue, if it should pass.

BELL: You mentioned affordability is the number one issue, specifically housing affordability. Do you support Amendment 3?

MOORE RUSSELL: I do not support Amendment 3 and for example, Amendment 3 puts at risk the housing trust fund that the county has invested in because those are discretionary projects, right?

And so I don’t support Amendment 3. I do not believe that’s the best answer to responding to the affordability issue that voters are asking for because Amendment 3 is not going to reduce their insurance costs. Amendment 3 is not going to reduce the price of gas. And so, I think it’s, you know, disingenuous to tell voters that Amendment 3 is going to give them savings with over 45% of residents in Orange County actually renting. They don’t own a home and so I do not support Amendment 3.

Tourist Development Taxes

BELL: Let’s talk about Tourist Development Tax dollars. Once again the county is projected to get about $400 million in tourist development taxes. Where do you stand on further expansion of the convention center and funding of Visit Orlando and do you plan on actively pushing state lawmakers to change the law to allow more flexible spending on other needs?

MOORE RUSSELL: So as a former district six commissioner, I am a champion for our tourism industry. I understand the economic engine it is for this community, the number of jobs that it generates, whether it’s those who directly in the industry or indirectly. And so one, I do support Visit Orlando. I think it’s a necessary industry that we need to market the convention center in our area because someone has to do it. They are a third-party vendor. If not, the county will have to create those services and I don’t think we want to get in the business of marketing. I support Visit Orlando and I support the convention center. So as the mayor, I look forward to looking for a strategic plan for the future of what I consider the Convention Center district. Where do we want to see ourselves in 2040, 2050, to maintain our status as a great destination for those who, whether it’s Microsoft or McDonald’s or the National Bar Association bringing their convention business to Orlando? We have to remain competitive and we must remain the number one destination for people to choose from and so where are those opportunities, where do we have gaps, and how do we have improvement? Now, to the question of whether we diversify TDT, I also believe we must recognize that those who work in the industry, it’s time that we support them as well. And so many of those who worked in our hotels, our theme parks, are spending two hours on the bus. So I am a big supporter of addressing tourism-related infrastructure impacts, and that’s transportation, that’s looking for workforce housing for those who works in tourism, and so I’m open to diversifying it in those areas only, making sure we can support those who work into it.

BELL: What about law enforcement, specifically in the I-Drive tourism area?

MOORE RUSSELL: If it’s tourism impacted, I will support it.

Data centers

BELL: Let’s talk about data centers. They are a hot topic right now. What is your stance on data centers and specifically having a data center in Orange County?

MOORE RUSSELL: So I think that’s a very general term, right? Because data centers vary based upon the size and their purpose, right. So at the clerk’s office, there’s a smaller version of that that houses our data, because we’re now in the cloud. We don’t have paper anymore in the courthouse, right, so someone is housing our digital court records. But I do not support the big data centers, the AI data centers that is being proposed today. And so I did commend the county for pushing for a moratorium just to pause. Allows for us to study the issue and determine what is the best fit for Orange County and so I do not believe the large AI data centers are appropriate for our community for what we’re trying to do moving forward.

BELL: What are your biggest concerns about those large data centers?

MOORE RUSSELL: It’s the water usage, it’s the demand on our power sources, whether it’s going to impact our water supply and the quality of our water, right, what’s feeding into our aquifer. And so it’s all of those environmental concerns that’s an issue for me, as well as is it a right fit for our community? Right? Where are you going to put a data center? No one wants a data center next to their home or next to a school. And so I just doesn’t think, I don’t think it matches the brand of Orange County and will fit in our community.

BELL: What about flock cameras being deployed in Orange County? What’s your stance on that?

MOORE RUSSELL: I also don’t support flock cameras being deployed. I support law enforcement using those tools necessary to patrol and find us safe. But I also think we should balance that to the privacy of our voters and our residents.

BELL: Rural boundaries have been a big issue facing not just Orange County, but a lot of counties, especially in Central Florida. Do you believe rural boundaries should be preserved? If so, how do you plan on doing so given the legislature’s attempt to block those protections?

Rural boundaries and the environment

MOORE RUSSELL: Well, I do believe we should preserve our rural boundaries, that we’ve already defined what they are in this community. We have now communicated expectations to those who live in those areas and so I think we should preserve those that we have communicated. And I think how we protect them is to actually incentivize and encourage development back in our inner community. Support revitalizing some of our inner neighborhoods, our older communities, reinvesting in Azalea Park or Holden Heights or Pine Hills or South Apopka and get them to not want to invest in more of a pushing on our rural boundaries. And so for me, a priority will be reinvesting in our inner neighborhoods, revitalizing our inner urban core neighborhoods, where we already have infrastructure, we already have roads, we already have access to public transportation and, so I think that’s a very good strategy to redirect those from not impacting our rural boundaries.

BELL: I mean the flip side of that argument is the property rights of those property owners wanting to use that property in the manner that they choose.

MOORE RUSSELL: Well, I understand respecting their property rights, but I think the key is that we’ve already communicated to the community that this is a rural boundary and we’ve articulated what is allowed in that community. There has been transparency, there has been communication, and we should manage those expectations. And so, as a former county commissioner, I was part of some various heavily contested votes back in the day on rural settlements and whether we want to allow a high school in a particular community and so once we’ve already defined those boundaries, those neighbors have the opportunity to weigh in, and I think once we define those, we’ve already communicated what’s allowed in those areas.

BELL: On that note, do you believe the Central Florida Expressway Authority made the right decision in voting to run a toll road through Split Oak Forest? And do you have any plans, if you were elected mayor, to challenge that decision?

MOORE RUSSELL: So I think the final proposal that was submitted was the best proposal. It mitigated a greater impact to Split Oak. I think the original plan that I saw went directly up the middle and that was being proposed, it’s still an impact but not as aggressive as the original plan. I think it was the best modified approach to addressing the issue and if I’m elected mayor, I will not challenge the decision.

Public transit

BELL: Alright, let’s talk about SunRail for a moment. What is your view on SunRail? There are calls that it’s too much, too much of a burden. There are other people who say it needs to be expanded. How do you feel?

MOORE RUSSELL: So I was on the county commission when we voted for SunRail and so I saw the vision back then. We decided years ago, in order for us to move into more of an advanced community, we need multimodal transit around this community and rail was the direction we wanted to go. And so, I think I support SunRail, I think it’s a great engine for this community to move people to the airport, move people to I-Drive, into places of work in downtown. And so, I’m supportive of increasing SunRail, increasing funding to see that it’s running seven days a week and that we’re responding to the demand in order for us to move people. We’re talking about transportation, we talk about the traffic, and the best way to reduce our traffic is to get people out of their cars and get them into other means of transportation. And so I’m a supporter of SunRail and would like to see it move forward and become more advanced as far as providing more services to the community.

BELL: Let’s talk about LYNX real quick. Are you happy with how LYNX is being run right now? Do you feel like that needs to evolve or change as well or just maintain the status quo?

MOORE RUSSELL: I think we should always be looking to evolve. I think that we should make sure that our bus system is matching what’s happening in our advancement when it comes to rails and roads. So I’ve been very open about supporting the STAR Plan. I believe that we have to invest in transportation to see the kind of system we want to have. And so for me, I think, we should have data-driven systems when it come to LYNX. And we should be always looking at our riderships, we always should be looking at routes, what makes the most sense, and what is the best route based upon the data. Where are the people needing it the most and how do we reduce their time on the bus? That is key for me and so I think LYNX is what we need and we have to find ways to continue to support it, but we should always be looking to improve our public transportation.

BELL: Describe what the STAR Plan is?

MOORE RUSSELL: Sure, so the STAR Plan is rapid bus routes and it’s interesting it was started by those community leaders. It wasn’t a government-led initiative, but it’s to direct certain bus routes based upon high traffic volume and get them to major economic engines where jobs are created. And so there’s a plan on Colonial Drive, Silver Star, so there are different high volume routes that’s the STAR Plan. But right now the Board of County Commissioners voted to go back to staff to seek a feasibility study, which is going to cost money, so the next commission will decide whether they fund a feasibility study to see how they can actually implement the STAR Plan.

BELL: What about trying to drop more of a ridesharing program? I know Seminole County has experienced, experimented with that, but where you actually have something like an Uber or a Lyft come and pick you up.

MOORE RUSSELL: So I’m not prepared yet to copy what Seminole County has done. I think first and foremost, we’re a different size county. Orange is much larger than Seminole County. I don’t believe the Scout Plan actually services the entire Seminole County. So for me, I would want to see some more data about the success of the program. I would love to hear reviews from those who actually utilize the program, is it saving Seminole County funding? But what is the customer review on the program as well? So for Orange County, we’re talking about 1.5 million in population, a much larger county than Seminole County, and so I believe it’s best for us to make sure we have a diverse bus system that deals with our major traffic thoroughfares as well as maybe smaller busses and more rural communities. But I do not believe we can go to a SCOUT-type systems as Orange County is a much bigger community.

BELL: What would you change on day one if you were elected Orange County Mayor?

MOORE RUSSELL: On day one, let’s see, what would I change? Well, the first thing I would change is I would be implementing my transition team and making sure that the website is transparent about what’s happening with the transition team and creating more accessibility and accountability to the public and transparency.

BELL: Let’s talk a little bit about the outgoing mayor, Jerry Demings. How would you grade the job that he’s done as Orange County Mayor and how would you govern similarly or differently?

MOORE RUSSELL: So if I had to give the mayor a grade, I would give him a B plus.

BELL: Okay.

MOORE RUSSELL: And you know, I think the mayor has been a great steward for those who worked in Orange County. I’ve talked to many employees who love Mayor Demings, thought he’s been very supportive. They felt seen of him. I commend him for making an effort to pursue the transportation tax. The last time, I thank how he led us through COVID, which shows strength and leadership. And so I would, you know give our mayor a B-plus. How I govern differently is I’ll talk about the transportation initiative. I think my approach would be to maybe work more closely with our local mayors in building that plan early on and bringing them in the collaboration process early on to move forward to what we’re going to present to the community. And so for me is more collaborative approach with our partners on how I would lead and moving Orange County forward.

Jobs and attracting industries

BELL: Is there anything else that I did not ask you that you would like to share with our viewers?

MOORE RUSSELL: Well, we didn’t talk about jobs.

BELL: Okay, so let’s talk about jobs. What would you do to recruit more high-paying, high-skilled jobs to Orange County?

MOORE RUSSELL: So first I think we need to acknowledge that we have great industries today here. We have our tourism is a great industry. We have a manufacturing industry. Our modeling and simulation out in east Orange County is doing well. And Medical City, right? We have great what’s happening in Lake Nona. And so for me is to make sure we can attract those businesses to help sustain those industries we have today that we’ve already invested in. And so I think a key for us is to make sure that we’re improving on our neighborhoods, that we are a community that will be attractive to those organizations. I do think we need to provide more incentives to attract businesses that want to come to Orange County because our competitors are doing it as well. But also we need to make some improvements internally at Orange County for those who need to get building permits or planning because that has become an impediment to those who want to move and invest in Orange County. So I think those are ways we have to do that. But we also have to address our workforce here in this community because most companies will say, what is the skill set for your workforce? And so we need to continue to invest in CareerSource, in our trades and other training opportunities to help our career force improve their skill set to be prepared for the jobs we want to attract to this community.

BELL: Your opponent talked extensively about trying to recruit the Space Academy to Orange County. Is that something that you would pursue as Orange County Mayor?

MOORE RUSSELL: You know, I think what’s important is what do we need today, right? And so today, those are looking for jobs that are going to be able to allow them to rent today, that are gonna allow them to be afford a home today. And so, it’s making sure we can support small businesses in this community, have the resources they need that are hiring and employing people right now. And so for me, it is making sure I can address those issues that are going to happen right now within the year.

BELL: Those are some big issues to tackle like, you know, of course you mentioned housing affordability, but the workforce training and if you’re dealing with potential budget cuts from Amendment 3, how do you accomplish all that?

MOORE RUSSELL: So that’s what we lean on our private partners. I think there are great community partners that will be willing to work with Orange County to continue to address those issues. And you heard me mention earlier, as clerk I’ve had to deal with tough fiscal years as the clerk. It doesn’t stop your vision, it doesn’t stop your strategic plan, it just may require you to think differently in how you deploy your strategies and your goals. And so I may not be able to do everything at one time, I may have to then have a phased approach and so, I still would prioritize having more training opportunities whether it’s working with our unions, working with, you know, our OCPS K-12, our Valencia, UCF, we have great community partners that I think we can help elevate and enhance training opportunities.

BELL: What prompted those budget cuts? Because all we hear from the state chief financial officer is that the budgets have just ballooned year after year after year across the state.

MOORE RUSSELL: So I think what’s interesting is our different constitutional officers or elected officials, our budgets are designed differently. And so for the clerk system, the clerk’s budget comes from fines and fees. They do not come from sales tax or property taxes. And so if case filings are down, if projections are being down that we will not have a certain level of filings, the budget, the revenue is down. And most of the money that clerks collect, only a third is kept by the clerks. The remaining goes to our judges, our state attorney, and another third goes to general revenue in Tallahassee. And so over those years, if the budget revenue estimating conference comes out and says, ‘clerks, we’re seeing that projections will show you a good 10% decline,’ the clerks didn’t have a reserve. We could not increase filing fees, or we could not increase the ticket price, and so we had to live with those cuts. And so my first year as the clerk, I had to cut my budget three times in one year. So what I learned from that is, how do I find efficiencies without laying people off? How do I find savings without furloughing my employees? And so that was the best on the job training to prepare me to be Orange County mayor and what we’re about to face in the future.

What the clerk of courts does

BELL: And I think there are some people who really don’t understand what the clerk of court does. So can you explain that?

MOORE RUSSELL: Sure. So the clerk is a constitutional officer in the state of Florida. We are the official keeper of the court record. So if you ever imagine a courtroom, you have your judge, you have your state attorney, your public defender, you have your bailiff or your sheriff. But the clerk Is there to capture what happens in our court system. We’re neutral. We just want to make sure we have an accurate record. And so the clerk, is the keeper of what happens in our court system. That’s where you file your divorce papers, your evidence. We’re responsible for preserving evidence in our system in case there’s an appeal. We have to work with numerous state agencies. We share data to other agencies. For example, if someone is Baker-acted, we’ll have to timely notify FDLE, it’s called a MECOM report, to make sure that person is not eligible to purchase a gun. And so to us, we see ourselves as the central engine to the data highway, because we have provide quality data, whether it’s to our supervisor of elections, FDLE, or any other constitutional officer to do their job. And so to sum it up, the clerk is the keeper of the court record. We also have the collector of fines and fees, and we have a host of others, there’s over 1,000 statutes in Florida that list the clerk name, what we shall do.

BELL: Okay and so but it is very different and a separate budget and it’s run completely differently than say the state attorney’s office or even the sheriff’s office that provides security at the courthouse.

MOORE RUSSELL: Correct. So we’re all constitutional officers as defined by our Florida Constitution, but at our funding, we’re the one constitutional office that is funded by fines and fees. Everyone else goes to the Board of County Commissioners, and the state attorney and public defender deals with Tallahassee.

BELL: So we talked a little bit about, you know, job workforce training. Is there a specific industry that you would try to lure as Orange County Mayor?

MOORE RUSSELL: I would want to continue to enhance what’s happening in Medical City, what’s happening in our modeling and simulation industry out by UCF. I’m making sure we can attract those businesses that support them. Continue to support, you know, our manufacturing. How can we find small manufacturing opportunities here that can bring in more high-skilled, wage-paying jobs?

BELL: After speaking with both you and your opponent, you actually have a lot in common and are saying a lot of similar things. Amendment 3, he feels differently, but I feel like, you know, there was a lot of similarities. The data center specifically, he had kind of a similar response, flock cameras, rural boundaries, even with the Split Oak Forest. Does that surprise you?

MOORE RUSSELL: It doesn’t surprise me. I think what distinguishes us, I mean, you know, is that he hasn’t proven he’s able to actually get the job done. And I think that matters, right? I think part of being Orange County Mayor is the ability to work with their state legislators, being able to work with your members in Congress. And for me, I can show I’ve been able to get the job done, even building the new Winter Park branch courthouse. I have navigated the county’s process. So I think we can agree on topics, but I think the key now is who has the experience necessary to run Orange County and actually deliver on those things we talk about.

For example, when I was on the county commission, I partnered with the late Fred Brummer and Scott Boyd to create the Neighborhood Improvement District for Pine Hills to determine what do we want to see for Silver Star, Pine Hills Road and Colonial. We want to entryway, how do we want to encourage private investment to make sure that we improve our physical outlook in Pine Hills, and we can change the brand of Pine Hills. And so I think that is what local government should be doing, and then once we’ve built that trust for those who want to do private investment, making improvements in the building and permitting department, then I think we’ll see developers or those who own those commercial properties want to see those changes necessary. But we have to make sure we’re putting things in place that builds a structure to allow that type of redevelopment.

Pine Hills

BELL: What would your plan for Pine Hills be?

MOORE RUSSELL: For me it’s to make sure we can grow the neighborhood improvement district, actually give it more teeth to penalize those who do not comply with our code, for example, provide some more investment to improve on their, what I call their commercial corridors. I think that’s what’s necessary for Pine Hills. I would love to also enhance any neighborhood improvement programs to allow those homeowners to participate in those because Pine Hills has good bones, I like to say good bones, good structure, solid community, a very active HOA, with a lot of the small HOAs part of them. And so that’s all what you need for any great community, is a great neighborhood investment, neighborhood involvement, I think is for now for us to provide structure for commercial investment, to revive that community. I think they are looking for more commercial where they can shop in their own neighborhood. No one wants to grocery shop outside their community, right, and so making sure we can attract those businesses is gonna be necessary for Pine Hills.

BELL: Obviously there is a perception for people outside of Pine Hills that it’s not a safe place to be.

MOORE RUSSELL: Correct.

BELL: And how do you change that?

MOORE RUSSELL: I think it’s one day at a time. I mean for us to start seeing the change, and then we start to change how we communicate about Pine Hills, that we ask the media not to, you know, just display it in a way that’s negative, because all that impacts the brand, right? And so supporting our schools in Pine Hills. Supporting Evans High School, and all of our elementary schools, and with great neighborhood improvements, I think we can see a change in how Pine Hills is perceived.

BELL: Okay, is there anything else you want to talk about? Can you think of anything? No.

MOORE RUSSELL:Just don’t ask me who’s going to win the game on Saturday between Florida State and Miami.

Here’s the full Messina transcript:

CHRIS MESSINA: Hi, I’m Chris Messina and I’m running for Orange County Mayor. I live in Winter Park. I have three children. I’ve been married for, they’re all in Florida schools, I’ve been married, for 25 years to my amazing wife, Julie. Most recently I’ve been a high school football coach right here in Orange County and vice chair of Orange County Watch. My background though is in business. I founded and run high tech based businesses, trade associations and foundations. Educationally, I have an MBA from Harvard and a master’s in city planning.

LISA BELL: So what makes you the best candidate for Orange County Mayor?

MESSINA: It’s a combination of first vision. I have a real vision for what could we do in Orange County. I believe that we can really be a 21st-century economy with a range of really good jobs beyond tourism, including tourism, but in areas like space, high tech, and other related areas. So the first is vision. The second is my experience as a businessman. So my background’s been in business and founding and running and growing high tech complex businesses and I really believe that we need a businessperson and not a recycled politician right now for Orange County. And the third reason is my education. So I have my education is ideal in some ways for this job. I have a master’s in city planning as I’ve mentioned and also I have an MBA in business and so that’s taught me how to deal with very complex situations, allocate money, cut costs, build great teams, all things that we need to do in Orange County.

BELL: So just to expand upon that, what would you say are the key differences between you and your opponent?

MESSINA: Okay, so number one, I’m a business person. I have three decades of experience in business. She has three decades experience in politics. So she’s a politician. I’m business person, and so we’ll leave, it’s really up to the voters to decide, do you want a businessperson leading the county or do you want a politician? So that’s the first. Second is a vision for what’s possible. So I’ve always been very much of a visionary. I see Orange County as the space tech capital of the country. I think that we can redevelop all of our blighted, most of our blighting strip malls and make them great places to live, work and play. I believe that we could use technology to address our transportation problems. So I believe that, we can have a great downtown. We don’t have a great downtown right now and with focus on it and development and investment, we could have a great downtown and I’m actually working on that right now to make that happen. So the vision and then second third is my experience which I’m sorry my education which I’ve mentioned which I think is More really suited well for leading a county. It’s in business and in city planning.

Jobs and Space Academy

BELL: So you talked about some of the things you want to focus on. What do you think is the biggest issue facing Orange County right now?

MESSINA: I think the biggest issue is really jobs, really having a variety of well-paying jobs. So right now in Orange County, we’re at the very bottom for median wages. So we’re 49th, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, out of the 50 major metro areas for wages, for average, for median wages and that shouldn’t be. With all the blessings that we have in Orange County, that really shouldn’t be so we need good jobs, high-paying jobs not jobs that pay $17, $25 or $21 an hour, we need jobs that that are paying two and three times that that allow people to build generational wealth because if you have a good job lots of things are affordable if you don’t have a good job virtually everything is unaffordable and I know because early in my career uh, actually when I was younger and right out of school, I really struggled financially. It was really hard. I was living on pasta.

BELL: So you mentioned the Space Academy, which is an interesting idea, but I feel like Orange County would face pretty strong competition from our neighbors in Brevard County and elsewhere in the country to lure something like that into our community. But how else do you create high paying jobs? There has been an effort for a long time in our area with Lake Nona and the medical city and all of the industry that has moved into that area, but what specifically do you do to attract those high-paying jobs?

MESSINA: Well, first of all, you have to reach out to the businesses and you have to present to them the attributes and values that we have and assets that we have here in Orange County. So we have the second-largest university in the country, in UCF. It’s a great university. It has a very strong program in space. The Florida Space Institute is headquartered there. The Hypersonics Institute is headquartered there. But beyond that, it’s very strong in simulation and so we need, we are not doing a great job of marketing ourselves to the broader community. On the space question, it is a battle. We originated this idea over a year ago and it finally percolated up to the president who then two, three weeks ago launched a commission to locate the space academy. So clearly this idea has traction. It’s going to be a battle between us and Texas primarily, between Florida and Texas, to first see who’s going to get it. And then I think Florida has a leg up. I think we are the better location for it and then, I think it will be, there will be a decision and some jockeying between us and the Space Coast.

I think each of us have advantages. If the Space Academy is located here, Brevard is still going to benefit and the Space Coast will still benefit. If the Space Academy is located in the Space Coast, we’re still going to benefit in Orange County. So it’s just a question of degree. But I really think Orange County has all the main important attributes to successfully locate that here. Now beyond that, on the jobs front, we have a program we’re calling Orange County Works to provide a subsidized trades, skilled trades education to everybody who needs one or wants one from junior AND high school through middle ages. This is modeled after the Osceola Prosper’s program and we’re going to allocate the same amount of money, which is $10 million initially, but we’re gonna have it more focused. It’s gonna be exclusively focused on providing a skilled trades education. We have a shortage that’s been estimated by various sources, over 2,000 skilled trades workers. So those are good jobs. A third-year plumber makes $100,000 with their certification. So, you can build generational wealth with that, and that’s an area that we’re really gonna invest in because we can’t build a 21st-century economy without people who can build things.

BELL: Who runs the Osceola Prospers program? Is that the county or is it the school district?

MESSINA: The county. It’s a county program and it has a little bit of a distinction in the sense that it’s targeted only at graduating seniors and it covers community colleges as well as trade schools. I think that’s a little too unfocused. So I believe that we should focus exclusively on trades education because that’s where the shortage is.

BELL: And going back to the Space Academy real quick, are you suggesting that was your idea and it’s gone to the president?

MESSINA: Yeah, yeah, it was our idea. You can look Fox News covered this over a year ago. I wrote an editorial in Armed Forces Press over a year ago and we were continually you know marketing it. Now whether or not the administration goes down and says well this guy here in Central Florida and his team came up with this idea that’s not really important. What’s really important to us is that this is an idea whose time has come and we are perfectly positioned here in Central Florida and particularly in Orange County to host it.

BELL: Let’s talk about your idea of revitalizing strip malls because that’s interesting. We certainly do see a lot of what appears to be empty storefronts all across Central Florida. How do you do that?

MESSINA: Okay, well, first of all, you have to collaborate with the local communities. So one of the biggest of these malls, West Oaks Mall, is in Ocoee, and so we’d have to collaborate with the city of Ocoee on that. But then you assemble a team and you reach out to the owners and use a combination of flexible zoning and creative financing to make it happen. But, the advantages of these strip malls is they’re on main transportation corridors. They have water, sewer, electric. They’re on bus lines. They’re generally in the urban core. So we can actually solve three problems at once or address three problems at once with that. First is transportation because by putting jobs right where people are going to live, they’re not going to have to go on the cars or take long bus rides to get to their work. Number two, we’re taking areas that are blighted and produce no tax income for localities or very little marginal tax income, revitalizing them and then all of a sudden they become a source of local revenue. And the third thing is they stop being a blight on the community because when these big malls are abandoned, they become sources for, vectors for crime, and they also convey a sense of abandonment in these areas.

Amendment 3

BELL: Let’s talk about real quick some of the challenges and the headwinds that may be facing Orange County. Obviously in November, Amendment 3 will be on the ballot and if voters approve Amendment 3, the estimates show that Orange County alone, their revenue would be reduced by $165 million in 2027, $275 million in 2028. So I mean how do you achieve these things when you’re facing a potential sizable cut in revenue?

MESSINA: Okay, let me start by first saying that I am 100% supporting Amendment 3 and I’m encouraging everybody who’s watching this to vote for it. I think it’s time that we, in government, help our hardworking taxpayers by letting them keep more of their money. So year one, with the passage of Amendment 3, on average, the average Orange County homeowner will have $1,000 a year savings. That’s gasoline for a year. Year two, they’ll have a $2,000 average savings, and that’s groceries, gas, essentials for a family of four for a month. So it’s a very substantial relief for our hardworking taxpayers who are facing an affordability crisis. We talked about the first part earlier about jobs, that jobs is probably the most important thing to address it, but the next is we need to reduce the cost burden on the taxpayers, and that starts with the government.

Now, the projections that you’re mentioning, those projections depend on the assumptions that are made and all those projections assume no growth, which is not true because over the past year, so from ’25 to ’26, our tax revenue grew by 13%. So if you multiply that by the tax revenue, you’re looking at over $200 million. So there’s your shortfall.

So the people who are promoting this either don’t understand budgeting, don’t understand the specifics of Orange County budgeting or they’re fear-mongering. And there’s been in my opinion a lot of fear-mongering about ‘oh public safety is going to be cut, fire, police they’re really going to suffer,’ but why would you do that those are essential services. Public safety, police, fire, EMS and essential infrastructure those are the last things to cut. So, we have a budget in Orange County right now that’s approaching $9 billion. The public service, the emergency services portion of this is about $1.1 billion. So we fund public service and public safety and essential infrastructure. They need to be funded first and then we look at all the other stuff.

So let’s talk about all this. So there’s not an issue with public safety. It’s an issue of priorities and it’s an issues of making sure we fund those priorities first, which we will do in a Messina Mayoral administration. But let’s look at the other things. And in the other thing, there’s actually quite a bit of waste. So the Florida CFO has done an analysis that shows that there’s $190 million of waste over the past year. And over the past several years, $747 million worth of wasteful spending and they calculate that because they look at how the rate of the budget growth versus the rate of the population adjusted for inflation. So, Amendment 3 is actually going to be good if it passes it will force the counties and localities to actually make some important adjustments and get rid of waste and that’s a huge part of our campaign we’re going to go in with a forensic audit team zero based, but we’re going to look at every program based on is it necessary and if it’s necessary, is it achieving its goals and then we’ll decide on the funding of it.

BELL: To your point, the CFO has used those numbers and said, this proves that there’s waste, but he has not said this is wasteful and specifically pinpointed or identified things that are waste.

MESSINA: Yeah, and that’s the point of the forensic audit, is to specifically identify those points. But I’ll give you some, just some points. So over the past, in one of the last budgets, most recent budget cycles, we, Orange County in a no-bid contract, sent out a contract for somebody, a politically connected person to teach 30 senior citizens how to use a computer for $10,000 each. It was a $300,000, no bid contract. That’s something that in my administration, we would do through an adult, sure, we want to educate seniors on how to use a computer. We would do that through an an adult school, a contract with an adult night school for $150 a person. So there are lots of these little wasteful programs. Now at a big scale, we have over 400 buildings that are vacant or largely vacant or underutilized in Orange County. So we need to do something to triage those buildings because we’re paying to maintain them. A new roof or just maintaining a roof on a building is thousands of dollars a year and then there’s all the other upkeep that comes along with it.

BELL: What would you do with those buildings?

MESSINA: Well the ones that aren’t necessary we need to look at selling them because we also have some places where we need to make investments. So, specifically, I’ll just give you one example out in Wedgefield, they’ve had a three decade problem with their water supply. The quality of the drinking water is very bad out there and the wastewater systems on the verge of collapse. So one thing we should do is look at selling those buildings and reinvesting in our water supply. Also we have a sewer system, a wastewater system, that’s failing in some places across Orange County. So, I got called recently by a contractor who said, ‘hey you got to come down here there’s a massive sewer line break here by Aquatica and it’s not being reported and it’s not it’s still not being fixed and we’re running 100 pump out trucks a day through here.’ So I went down and looked at it, and sure enough there’s a pretty massive sewer line break and it still hadn’t been fixed it got it got fixed the next day because the we called a press conference I don’t know for sure if you guys covered it.

BELL: We were there. What about turning some of those empty buildings into affordable housing?

MESSINA: I think we can consider doing that with some. So for instance, there’s a building across, there are some buildings right in the downtown core that were used for various government services, but in areas where that potentially we could house homeless mothers with children because they need a safe place and there’s a real shortage for transitional housing. Affordable housing though– so I’m talking about transitional housing there– affordable housing, the idea with the strip malls, refurbishing the strip malls is to include multiple income housing, so multi-income housing so that there would be a mix of high-end housing, but also affordable housing.

BELL: At these strip mall locations?

MESSINA: Yeah, there won’t be strip mall locations anymore, but at some of these locations. In addition, with affordable housing, there’s the Live Local Act, and there’s also what’s called Yigby, Yes in God’s Backyard. So the Live Local Act says in commercial areas designated that are commercial, in the live local districts, you can put affordable housing in in commercial and industrial spaces, and that’s an area that we can leverage. The Yes in God’s Backyard Act says that you can put affordable housing on church-owned property, and so these are two areas that we would be supporting and encouraging.

Tourist Development Taxes

BELL: Let’s talk about tourist development taxes. For years, Orange County has generated millions of dollars from tourist development taxes. I think the next year they’re projected to generate $400 million. There are restrictions from state law guides where that money needs to be spent. Would you be willing to push the legislature to change some of that to use that money differently?

MESSINA: I think that’s probably unnecessary and that will be quixotic, meaning a quest that ultimately could prove fruitless. I think what we should do is we should though broaden the uses within the parameters of the law where we’re spending tourist development taxes. So, specifically, I’m thinking space tourism. So I went to the Artemis II launch. There were 150,000 people, most from out of state, that came to see that launch. So that’s an opportunity for an additional use for the TDT dollars, the tourist development tax.

BELL: So is it just how we market these projects?

MESSINA: I think it’s how we market, but also I think we need to expand our vision of what we can do with TDT dollars. The one area where I think that we can broaden out is around transportation between let’s say the airport and major tourist locations. So there’s an underground tunnel being built by the Boring Company between Universal and Epic. And I know some of the large hotels want to get a stop on that line so those kinds of projects I think potentially could be used for, be a use for the tourist development tax because they are supporting direct tourist infrastructure.

BELL: What about affordable housing?

MESSINA: I think that’s a bridge too far, and I think we have many other ways of addressing affordable housing like I just talked about with the Live Local Act, with the Yes in God’s Backyard Act, redeveloping all the blighted strip malls. So we have other tools. We don’t need to use the TDT dollars for that. We have to remember the TDTs are funded by tourists. And I think there’s been maybe an unfortunate view here that says ‘the tourists impose all these costs on residents,’ but the tourism has made Orange County what it is today. It’s turned it from basically a citrus growing enterprise into the world’s largest tourism destination and that’s a really special and important thing. My view when I talk about diversification is to not undermine that, but to layer on a 21st-century, tech-based economy and that’s what we’re working really hard to bring forward because it’ll benefit all Orange County taxpayers and it will benefit the tourist industry.

BELL: What about using some of that money for law enforcement?

MESSINA: Again, I don’t believe we need to because when you go through the budget, we have more than enough money in the budget being generated by our property tax and other tax revenues to support law enforcement. Yes, we have to support law enforcement. There’s some things I would like law enforcement to do more, for instance, I think we need to start foot patrols in downtown Orlando because people don’t go to downtown anymore. And one of the reasons why I’m so high on and supportive of the Church Street redevelopment is because it’s basically the main downtown corridor spine that runs all the way out to Camping World Stadium. And we need that to become a sports and entertainment megaplex and destination because we can’t have a great Orange County without a great Orlando, and we can have a great Orlando without a great downtown.

Data centers

BELL: You’re a tech guy, how do you feel about data centers?

MESSINA: Small ones we need. I’m sure you have a data center here, right, running your operations. It’s the hyperscale data centers, the ones that are football fields in size, those I don’t feel are right for Florida and the reason I don’t feel they’re right is not necessarily energy because they can make their own energy with solar and other small power, associated power generation plants, but it’s the impact on water.

So I’ve seen personally first-hand what happens when you have a problem with a water supply to a data center it’s pretty scary and the temperature goes way up, systems fail and then you have discharge of water and the problem is what’s in the water. In order to run those data centers, they have to add biocides– basically bacteria killers– but they will kill things out in the environment and they have to have propylene glycol, it’s like derivative antifreeze that you put in your car to make it flow through, and we can have that going into our water supply.

BELL: So we shouldn’t have data centers here in Florida. Where should we have?

MESSINA: Oh, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have data centers, I am saying the hyperscale, the giant data centers. So I really like Elon Musk’s idea to put it in space. And the reason I think that’s such a good idea is because space is near absolute zero. And we are, right now, we’re on the cusp of being the space tech center of the country.

BELL: That seems like it would take decades to build enough data centers in space to power AI needs here on Earth.

MESSINA: I’m not sure it would. When you think about the pace of technology and who thought at one point that you could recapture a rocket booster landing or have a self-driving electric car or a watch where you can make phone calls, the pace in technology is pretty significant. So I would not bet against that. And having said that, we can still, we do need every office building, every new hospital system, they need their own data center and so regulations on hyperscale data centers, they have to be crafted in a way that those data centers are protected because we need them.

BELL: Do we have any hyperscale data centers in Florida?

MESSINA: There are some proposed, there’s one going up in Eatonville, but it’s not hyperscale, it’s more of a mid-tier in terms of size, I believe it’s 100,000 square feet.

That’s the orange building along I-4 that you’re talking about.

MESSINA: Yeah, and that’s already been approved so that that that’s that’s going in, but there are some proposed for parts of rural Florida, and I think they’re rightfully concerned the residents down there about their water supply.

BELL: How do you feel about Flock cameras and license plate readers?

MESSINA: So, in general, my concern about flock cameras is what happens with the data. When the data is collected and used to build a database where you can profile literally anybody and then tie it to their Google searches and other things, that’s really a concern. So I oppose them in that sense. I think license plate readers make sense, well, for instance, when you’re going down the freeway so you can be charged for your use of the toll road. They also make sense in what I think are high crime areas. So I know downtown, so we talked about the need to revitalize downtown. One of the problems with downtown is there are sometimes gangs that assemble and they assemble in the parking garages and they have weapons in their cars. And so I believe that if we had some kind of license plate reader system on these most heavily used downtown garages and we let people know, when you come in here, your license plate is gonna be read, so we’re protecting basically, to the maximum extent, privacy rights. So that’s how to balance public safety versus privacy rights, and I think that’s an important balance to have.

BELL: And I think that is one of the big concerns people are noticing these cameras what appear to be cameras popping up in their neighborhoods and elsewhere. There’s no signage, there’s no one saying who put it there, what it is, what it’s doing.

MESSINA: Yeah, yeah, no, I’m opposed to that, and I’m opposed to having the widespread use of these Flock cameras and I’m glad that many communities are starting to remove them and Florida is one of the leaders, actually, in the nation in terms of removing Flock cameras.

Rural boundaries

BELL: What should Orange County do when it comes to rural boundaries?

MESSINA: Okay, well so right now the rural boundary still exists. There was a preemption law passed SB 180, which you may be familiar with, and that overrules the rural boundaries, but it’s being tested in the courts, and it depends how that plays out.

BELL: Do you support those lawsuits?

MESSINA: I have to look at the lawsuits because the problem with lawsuits is that they can be, when it’s the county, they can literally be a black hole of energy, effort, and money with a very poor outcome. But the question is, do I support the rural boundaries? I do because the majority of our residents in Orange County voted for them. And the important thing to remember is that what the rural boundary means is it’s a higher threshold for approving a development. It doesn’t stop the development. It just makes it, it puts a higher threshold on it and that’s what the Orange County voters voted for and I support that.

BELL: Do you believe the Central Florida Expressway Authority made the right decision in voting to run a toll road through Split Oak Forest?

MESSINA: So no, I didn’t believe that was the correct decision, but since the decision’s been made, I also don’t believe we would benefit by entering into a lawsuit, which is one of the tactics that’s being proposed. And I know they’ve offered a pretty significant amount of land as an offset. So I think we need to make lemonade from lemons, take that deal, put it behind us, but learn from that because I think it’s really important if the county makes a commitment that the county honors the commitment and in this case for whatever reason that didn’t happen.

BELL: So I believe as Orange County Mayor you would sit on the Expressway board, you would have not supported that decision?

MESSINA: Based on the facts I know now, but they’re potentially, to be fair, they’re potentially could be other critical facts that I don’t have in front of me. But my decision will be based on basically an agreement that had been made to protect that forest.

Public transit

What is your position and what do you think Orange County’s position should be when it comes to, we’ll start, we’ll talk about transportation first when it come to SunRail.

MESSINA: Well, I think SunRail is challenging because the estimates that I’ve seen to bring SunRail to viability are $1.4 billion, and that’s taxpayer money and right now Brightline has defaulted on its bonds and is about to file Chapter 11.

BELL: But Orange County has not, in my, it’s my understanding, given much money to Brightline.

MESSINA: No, and it’s going to be a bunch of hedge funds that get wiped out in Brightline, but the point I’m making is that it’s very hard to have financially viable railroad systems right now. I believe that we are a technological innovation away from having a financially viable railroads system and what I mean by that is an innovation, for instance, that what SpaceX did with capturing the boosters totally changed the economics of space launches. And so we need some innovation like that in railroads. And I know the Boring Company that’s going underground, that’s a significant approach and one that we could potentially take advantage of. But in terms of some, I’d have to, we’d have to look at it to see are there incremental improvements that we can make, such additional stops or I know there’s been a problem with the crossing systems, we’ve had a number of unfortunately fatalities in the crossings, so those would be places that I could see that we make investment in.

BELL: Are you aware of some technological advancement that would make it more economically viable?

MESSINA: I wish I was. Not currently, but I’m not the world’s expert on all technology.

BELL: Well, some people have, you know, suggested expanding it to weekends. You know, you talk about downtown Orlando and drawing people to that area, even to the theme parks.

MESSINA: But see, SunRail is second. That has to follow the crowds, not lead the crowds. So when you talk about transportation, transportation improvements, one of my concerns is, so with something like the SMART proposal, if you’re familiar with that, which is a comprehensive approach to transportation, but the way they do that is by making it worse to drive your cars. I think we need to make it. better to use mass transit. So that’s one reason that I’ve been so high and proposed over four years ago that we re-engineer the Lynx bus system to make our busses smaller sized, equip them with technology, point-to-point technology, predictive technology, more like Uber and what Uber and Lyft use so that we can totally change the model so that my friend in Pine Hills, who takes two hours to get to his job at the airport, because he has to take one bus down to the hub, switch to another bus, that he can go straight from his home in Pine Hills or his neighborhood to his job at the airport in 45 minutes instead of two hours.

BELL: How would you do that?

MESSINA: Actually, Seminole is starting to do this with their SCOUT program, so they partnered with a ride-sharing app called Freebee and so that’s what I believe we should join in that pilot. And by the way, it’s generated already $10 million in savings because when you have the big buses, they cost a lot to buy and they cost a lot to maintain.

BELL: They’ve had a lot of bumps in the road though, not to be punny with that. The wait times have been (long), we’ve done stories on.

MESSINA: Yeah, no, I know. But that always happens when you when you do a transition. It’s not going to be a hundred percent perfect but they’re making a lot of progress with that.

BELL: Should LYNX have a dedicated funding source?

MESSINA: Well, LYNX currently has a nearly dedicated funding source, which is Orange County, but if you’re talking about a tax, a special taxing destination, no, I don’t believe so.

BELL: And TDT being directed?

MESSINA: Well, TDT is a dedicated funding source that’s been established by the legislature, and it’s a 6% tax on all hotel and Airbnb and vacation rentals.

BELL:But should some of that money be used for LYNX?

MESSINA: It depends. If it’s a prededicated corridor between, let’s say, the airport and a tourist destination, yes, it could be. But if it’s more general, a broader area, I think that would be a stretch to take it out. But having said that, I can think we can be much more efficient in our TDT spending.

BELL: So you know we’re wrapping things up here shortly and I just want to just to give voters a little bit perspective if you could share with us you know your views on how you think Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has run the county and how you would maybe do things similarly or differently than from what he has done?

MESSINA: Okay, so I give, I’ve said this publicly, I give him really high marks for being affable and you know he’s a friendly guy, you can talk to him, people enjoy talking with him and he’s generally unflappable and so I gave him high marks for that. I don’t think he handled COVID well, I think there was constitutional overreach there. I said that publicly and so if a situation like that occurs, my focus would be on individual freedoms over government mandates.

BELL: What specifically with what he did in COVID?

MESSINA: I think the requirements for closing the playgrounds and the schools, I think the requirements for Orange County government employees to get the COVID vaccine, I oppose that and let them make their own decisions, but I don’t think the government has a right to impose that. I think he’s been in some ways incrementalist in terms of his approach, I’m much more of here are some new things, we’re at the cusp of a new era, let’s take advantage of that. So I’m much more, I would say, of a visionary, bigger picture idea in terms of, so that would be my focus. Because I believe that we have an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of trends in space and technology and in urban development, and I believe we really should take advantage of those.

BELL: And going back to the Space Academy, you know, obviously Florida probably is at the top of the list when it comes to where something like that would be located. What argument would you make to the leaders who are making that decision that Orange County is a better fit than any other county in the state?

MESSINA: Well, first of all, we’re in the heart of Florida. We have major roads criss-crossing our area. We have the best airport in Florida, and one of the biggest in the world. We also have the second largest university in the country, in UCF, which has major initiatives in space technology. And they can provide the development for the curriculum, faculty, staff. We have a very significant military presence here. And an aeronautics base. And we already have a number of large and small companies that are doing work in space technology. So I think we have all the right ingredients.

BELL: We talked about a lot today. What would you do on day one if you were elected Orange County mayor?

MESSINA: Sure. Well, we’re actually starting to already work on some of these things, but we would literally audit what we’re doing in terms of our spending so we can have a clear position on what we need to, where we really need to invest. Go pedal to the metal on bringing space tech and the space academy here and so this would probably be week one because it would take some time to get some people together. We’re going to call in developers and builders and say we want to target we don’t want to be reactive anymore on development we want to be proactive on development and we would like you we here are three places three to five places in Orange County where there are major large blighted strip malls and if I named them you would probably recognize most of them and say, we want you to work with us to prioritize redeveloping these areas. And also we would bring in the team that’s currently working on the redevelopment of the whole Church Street corridor, and along with Orlando mayor leadership, and say, what do we need to do to make this successful? Let’s get going.

BELL: You mentioned the West Oaks Mall, what are the other areas that you would target?

MESSINA: Well, so Fashion Square Mall, but the ownership structure there is pretty complicated. The Colonial Promenade Mall, the one right next to the Executive Airport, it’s massive and very vacant. So those are three immediately that are at kind of the top of the list. So we’re very focused on specifics. It’s not pie in the sky with us because if you have a big vision, you also have to have the team and the ability to execute on it, and I believe that’s what we have with our Messina mayoral team.

BELL: Is there anything else you would like to share with voters that I did not ask you about?

MESSINA: Wow, there’s so much, but what I’d like to say to voters is just thank you for everything you’re doing to build Orange County and we’re committed to all of you. Wherever you are, it doesn’t matter. Any of the characteristics that you maybe have been defined by, whether you’re on the street with a cardboard sign or you’re living on Isleworth, each one of you is really important to us and our administration will work really hard for you to see a better day in a place where children, families and businesses thrive and we are honorable in everything we do.