After two meetings failed to get the unanimous vote needed, Nesta\u2019s staff presented\u00a0a lower rate that didn\u2019t need unanimous approval.<\/p>\n
But it will mean far less tax revenue coming into city coffers next year. And a looming statewide vote in November asks residents if they want to slash property taxes, which if approved by 60% of voters would mean about $60 million less revenue for the city over the next five years.<\/p>\n
Nesta\u2019s new hires prompted controversy, too, including that of new communications director, Steven \u201cTrooper Steve\u201d Montiero<\/a> \u2014 who\u2019s $180,000 annual salary exceeds the $139,000 paid to the mayor. Nesta also plans to hire a chief of staff.<\/p>\n Nesta became mayor April 28<\/a> after he defeated former Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore in the April 14 runoff with about 62% of the vote. Former Mayor Bryan Nelson served eight years and sought a third term but failed to advance to the runoff.<\/p>\n Leroy Bell, a well-known Apopka activist who frequently speaks at meetings, was no fan of the previous mayor. In fact, he campaigned for Nesta and served on his mayoral transition team.<\/p>\n But at recent commission meetings, he\u2019s often boisterously raised concerns about Nesta\u2019s spending plans.<\/p>\n Bell said he believes Nesta isn\u2019t keeping some commitments made during his campaign, among them transparency on city finances.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just want the young man to do what he said he was going to do, that\u2019s it, point blank \u2014 give us the forensic audit.\u201d<\/p>\n When reached Friday, Montiero said the city has started its own in-house audit of accounts. He said the city has reached out to the state with a request to look it over and provide further direction.<\/p>\n At the Aug. 19 commission meeting, Apopka resident Rod Olsen also urged city leaders to be wary of \u201cuncontrollable spending.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery dollar in this budget belongs to us citizens, this is our money,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cI believe every cost center should be justified, every existing position needs to be reviewed, every new proposed position needs to be justified.\u201d<\/p>\n Nesta has defended millions proposed for new staff as a matter of catching up on the growing city\u2019s needs after leaving many positions vacant far too long \u2014 and spending millions on overtime. Plus he said Montiero is vital in refining how the city gets information to residents.<\/p>\n But Aug. 11 he announced a short hiring freeze<\/a> for most vacant positions through Oct. 1 \u2014 the start of the new fiscal year.<\/p>\n Apopka started growing quickly in the years between 1999 and 2008 because there was land available and the area was affordable. The city welcomed the development and corresponding increases to its tax base, he said, but didn\u2019t plan for future costs of that growth. And the longer projects are delayed, the more they cost.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m dealing with right now \u2026 the fact that 10 to 15 years ago no plan was put in place, no money was set aside,\u201d Nesta said.<\/p>\n He said one of his priorities is access to water \u2014 especially on the northern side where residents can\u2019t get enough reclaimed water for watering lawns and gardens because the underground pipe that carries it there is too small. The city plans to replace it with a larger pipe at a cost of about $3 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been prioritizing making sure developments can get water, no problem, but my current residents are having water-pressure issues,\u201d Nesta said. \u201cDevelopment\u2019s not the issue, it\u2019s our lack of planning.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the city needs to prioritize spending \u2014 which boils down to what residents see as the priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we in charge of running events, and offering grant funding, and doing parades and Christmas lights and all that?\u201d he asked about what residents want from the city. \u201cIf yes, then I need more money to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Nesta has lived in Apopka since his family moved here when he was a child in the early 1990s, a time when the city population was around 15,000. He met his wife, Lauren, here and they have young twin daughters. He\u2019s a graduate of the University of Central Florida and started his business here \u2014 Nesta Real Estate Consultants<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apopka\u2019s new mayor, Nick Nesta, won the job by a wide margin and looks to have most of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10514,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-385501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-apopka","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-nesta-family-01.jpg\")
Nick Nesta, who took office as Apopka’s new mayor April 28, 2026, sits with his wife, Lauren, and their twin daughters. Nesta served as a city commissioner since 2022 and won the mayor’s job April 14 by a wide margin in a runoff against former Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore. (Courtesy of city of Apopka)<\/p>\n