The impeachment case against Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa collapsed Tuesday when the city commission deadlocked 2-2 on whether to move forward with a trial-by-commissioners over her receipt of thousands of dollars from a city grant program.
Vice Mayor Angela Eady and Commissioner Janette Martinez voted in favor of the impeachment process, while Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Alvarez III and Commissioner Noel Ortiz were opposed, leaving the first-term mayor in place for lack of a majority against her. Espinosa did not participate.
The vote also left a special prosecutor’s conflict-of-interest allegations unresolved after roughly $25,000 in city investigation costs. A state probe of Espinosa is continuing.
More than 150 people packed the Kissimmee commission chamber Tuesday evening for the hour-long meeting, some waving signs reading “We [heart] our Mayor,” with others hoisting placards proclaiming “Shame on the Mayor.”
No public comment was permitted, but emotions ran high. Police moved to the front of the room at one point to protect commission members.
Espinosa addressed the issue briefly at the regular commission meeting that followed the special session regarding her possible impeachment. She thanked her family, her campaign team and Commissioners Alvarez and Ortiz by name.
“Thank you for everyone that’s gone out and voted and exercised their civic duty,” she said. “Your voice matters. Your voice changes things.”
“This entire moment, you saw a lot of hate. Yet you saw a lot of love,” she said. “The only thing stronger than hate is love.”
The meeting opened with court-appointed special prosecutor Mayanne Downs reading her findings into the record. Downs was appointed April 27 by a Ninth Circuit judge after city commissioners voted to begin the process. A citizen’s complaint about Espinosa’s actions had set that decision in motion.
Downs, who regularly serves as Orlando’s city attorney, told the commission Tuesday she had “no client, no faction and no dog or cat in this fight,” framing the vote as a procedural step.
“This is a little like when you get a ticket,” Downs said. “It doesn’t mean you’re guilty. It doesn’t mean anything other than that you’re being given notice that you have to proceed with the legal process.”
Downs found probable cause in her July 23 report that Espinosa, elected in 2024, violated city ethics codes by taking part in official actions to fund and expand a small-business grant program while three businesses tied to her and her family collected over $50,000 from it. The grant program, funded by federal pandemic money, was championed by Espinosa her first year in office, according to the report.
According to Downs’ report, Adanse LLC, wholly owned by Espinosa, received $20,000. Kissimmee Diner Inc., registered under Espinosa, received $15,000. The Real Estate Gallery LLC, registered under her husband, received $15,000.
Downs recommended not only articles of impeachment but also that the city refer the matter to law enforcement and that Espinosa be required to repay the money. Downs said during the Tuesday meeting that Espinosa hasn’t paid back the money.
Espinosa’s attorney urged commissioners to reject the articles and let the Florida Commission on Ethics, not the city, resolve the matter first.
Tuesday’s vote blocks the city’s impeachment track, but the same grants remain the subject of a separate complaint before the state ethics commission, set for a probable cause hearing Aug. 28.
Espinosa has contended that the ethics commission is the proper venue for the investigation. Her attorney, Migdalia Perez, petitioned the Sixth District Court of Appeal to stop Downs’ investigation, arguing the state had authority. But the court denied Espinosa’s petition, and so both the special prosecutor and the state commission proceeded.
Espinosa’s attorney argued during the meeting that the votes Espinosa participated in funded a program open to an entire class of city businesses, not the mayor’s application specifically, and that no commission vote approved her own grant.
The mayor, her attorney said, “is fully prepared to reimburse the city” if the Florida Commission on Ethics finds against her.
Downs pushed back on the jurisdictional argument, telling commissioners the ethics commission “doesn’t have your authority to deal with your code,” and that Espinosa’s team had already made – and lost – the same argument at the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
During deliberation, Commissioner Martinez openly agonized over Kissimmee’s dilemma.
“We are looked at as a joke. We spent thousands of dollars because we said, ‘Let’s go forward,’” she said. “So let’s go forward. Who’s going to reimburse us for all the money that we just spent to get the truth?”
Before the motion to vote was called, Commissioners Alvarez and Ortiz announced over their microphones that they wouldn’t move forward with impeaching Espinosa, each respectively framing it as their “opinion.”
Tension in the chamber spiked as members of the public began to snicker and shout. Commissioner Eady slammed the gavel calling for order. Some community members began to stand at their seats.
Several Kissimmee police officers moved toward the front of the room to protect the dais. The meeting adjourned without incident.
Minutes after the vote, Commissioner Alvarez praised Espinosa in an interview with the Sentinel, calling her “the best leader” and adding, “I’m totally proud of her.”
Commissioner Eady, however, told the Sentinel she was disappointed.
“We took an oath to protect, defend and obey the Constitution and I just don’t feel like we’re moving forward with that,” she said. “You want someone that represents your best interests and we cannot continue on the path we are on right now.”
Outside the chamber, Jose Castro, an organizer with UNITE HERE Local 737, the hospitality union that hung flyers around city apartment complexes ahead of the meeting urging residents to attend, said he was “very disappointed” with the commissioners.
“They had a good opportunity,” he said, adding that he had voted for Espinosa but believed “what she did was wrong.”
Tuesday’s meeting would have been only the second impeachment in the city’s history. In 1995, then-Mayor John Pollet was suspended over gifts – including Orlando Magic tickets – from companies holding city contracts. Like Espinosa’s, his case ran on two tracks. A state judge found in 1996 that he violated Florida’s gift law, and locally, he was impeached after nearly a year of fighting the charges.