September 1, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Recap

The September 1, 2026 Town Council meeting — what the Council did on each agenda item. No roll-call vote was taken, so this recap carries no vote table. Details below are taken from the meeting recording.

Who was present

All five members were at the dais: Mayor Critton, Vice Mayor Thomas, and Council Members Jordan, Randolph, and Mack. Each spoke during the meeting, and each gave a report at its close. The roll call itself is not on the recording. The Town's broadcast carries no usable audio for its first eight minutes (see the note on the recording below). The meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM by the Mayor's announcement.

Presentation: the last 2026 Mount Scholarship award

Presented, but not on the recording. The scholarship presentation fell inside the broadcast's silent opening minutes, so what was said is not recoverable from the Town's recording. That the award was made is confirmed later in the meeting. Council Member Mack congratulated the recipient, a student he said he had coached for four years and who is leaving for college on an athletic scholarship, and Council Member Jordan thanked the families of the scholarship recipients. As in the agenda breakdown, this recap leaves the recipient's name to the Town's own announcement.

Presentation: Dr. Phillips Charities on the Hungerford property

Dr. Bahíyyah Maroon, who chairs the advisory committee for the charity's Eatonville initiative, gave the standing update. She described progress as "steady as she goes." The closing on the land is going through and "on track," she said, and within two weeks every Eatonville resident would receive an information sheet at their door describing each component of the plan. She listed a heritage park, an early learning center, a health care hub, office and retail space, an Eatonville museum, a town hall, and housing, with a way to send back questions. She also announced another "dinner and conversation" at Macedonia Church on October 7. No Council member asked a question.

The lawsuit challenging how the property's transfer was approved, set for trial October 27, was not raised from the dais during the presentation; one speaker raised it in citizen participation. The presentation's background is in the agenda breakdown.

Discussion: HostDime's missed deadlines and a possible Amendment No. 3 — round two

No vote, and no motion acted on. The item ended with an informal consensus: the Town Attorney and administration should meet with HostDime, tell the company the Council wants the daily penalty raised from $250 to as much as $500, and report back on what other remedies the Town has. Mayor Critton said she would update the Council under her own report at each meeting. WFTV described the outcome as the Council tabling a vote; on the recording, no motion was seconded and nothing was put to a vote.

What was confirmed from the dais. Council Member Randolph, the item's sponsor, opened by saying the Council was "not here to make any decisions." She said no certificate of occupancy — the Town's sign-off that the finished building can be used — has issued, and that the Town has "not collected any levy on any fees." She asked Chief Administrative Officer Marlin Daniels for the running total. His answer: "As of today it's 99,250." That is the figure the agenda breakdown computed from Amendment No. 2's $250-per-day clause, 397 days past July 31, 2025. The packet had not said it. Randolph also said she thought the "$500 per day" in the packet's recommendation was a typo, carried over from last year's discussion. On the $200,000 utility reimbursement, Randolph said the Town had paid it; the Town Attorney said that was her understanding as well, and the Mayor said it had been paid. Council Member Mack said he "definitely didn't agree with that," and Randolph later said she had not been in agreement with it either; the Mayor replied that it "may be something we might want to negotiate with them."

One timeline point repeated from the packet: Randolph described July 31, 2025 as "the original date" the project was scheduled for. As the breakdown noted, that is Amendment No. 2's deadline; the recorded 2016 agreement set completion and the start of operations by June 30, 2019.

What the Town Attorney said. Asked what it would take to raise the penalty, the Town Attorney said the $250 a day is liquidated damages — a delay payment both sides agreed to in advance — set by an amendment both parties signed. A higher figure would take a third amendment that HostDime agrees to. "It would have to be voluntary," she said, with something given in exchange. Under the amendment as it stands, the damages keep accruing every day with no maximum. They are payable before a certificate of occupancy can issue, and no demand letter is needed to collect them. The only thing that would stop them accruing is delay caused by the Town, and there was "no evidence of that to my knowledge." She said the original agreement had provided for a forced sale as a remedy, and that the amendment adding liquidated damages was the trade-off made at that point. "At this point the town's remedies are the $250 a day," she said, while nothing said that night waived any other remedy the Town holds. She agreed to bring the Council information on its options if HostDime declines to amend.

She also said recent state legislation on data centers would apply to the facility regardless of the development agreement. She did not name the law, and the point is not settled on the record: on July 21 the Mayor said the facility does not fall under the data-center law then being discussed, and Cheatonville's HostDime brief sets out why that law's threshold appears to sit well above this building.

What the Mayor read into the record. Mayor Critton read from the 2016 agreement — Section 3, paragraph A, subsection (i) — that the $200,000 reimbursement is in the original agreement and repeated in the first amendment. She asked whether the original site-plan commitments carry over through the amendments. The Town Attorney said they do: only Section 8 was replaced, and "everything else stands." The Mayor summarized where that left the Council: it can recommend terms for a good-faith third amendment, but nothing changes unless the developer agrees. The Town Attorney added that this does not limit any other remedy the Town reserves — "we're not waiving any of those" — and the Mayor agreed.

Sidewalks, flooding, and community engagement. Randolph raised flooding on the roads around the site and the missing sidewalk on Wymore Road. She pointed the Council to the site-plan conditions in the packet's development-agreement exhibits, which require that "a sidewalk along the parcel's frontage on Wymore Road" be shown on the plan. She asked whether a third amendment could add community-engagement terms; the Town Attorney said the Council can propose such terms but cannot compel them. Mack described flooding after heavy rain severe enough that he drives around the area to avoid it. The Mayor said Vivar and Public Works Director Mundy had addressed flooding, water use, and generator testing at the August 18 meeting, and that the company had committed to give the Town a schedule of generator testing so residents could be told when to expect it. She said Public Works has an unresolved water management district concern it is working through with the company and the Town engineer, that "nothing happens until he does what he's supposed to do," and that she would have Public Works pass along its conversations with Duke Energy, the Florida Department of Transportation, Orange County, and the engineer of record to Randolph, who was absent August 18. No generator-testing commitment appears in any document in the packet.

Mack's remarks. Council Member Mack said he had asked HostDime's chief executive, Manny Vivar, at the August 18 meeting to appear at every first- and third-Tuesday meeting with a status update. CAO Daniels said Vivar had called to say he could not make it. Mack objected that no one had told the Council — "I got to hold somebody accountable." He said the company had promised, verbally, Wi-Fi for every resident and then called it unsustainable. No Wi-Fi term appears in the 2016 agreement or either amendment in the packet, and the $200,000 he objected to is the agreement's one-time reimbursement for the water and sewer lines HostDime had to build to connect to the Town's system, which Amendment No. 2 records as paid. He said the completion date had slipped month by month, that the company had told him September, and that he had pinned it to September 1: "Today I said September 1st and he's not here." He said he was "putting [a] motion on the floor" to raise the penalty to $500 a day. No second was offered; the Mayor yielded to the Town Attorney instead, and the motion was never put to a vote. Mack asked the CAO to have Vivar email or call each Council member with a status update and an expected completion date, and to copy every member on the reply. The Mayor said she and the Town Attorney would see the next day about setting up a meeting with the company. Mack later said he would accept having administration bring back options first, "but the number I talk I'm dead serious about." WFTV reported after the meeting that Vivar texted that he would provide an update on Wednesday.

Where it ended. When the Mayor polled the members on a dollar figure, one member said they wanted to know the Town's remedies "before we stick a number on it and limit ourselves." A member then proposed that legal and administration meet with the company, convey that "the will of the council" is to raise the fine to potentially up to $500 a day, and work toward a third amendment. The Mayor agreed. Asked whether something could come back by the next meeting, she pointed to the budget calendar and declined to commit to a date, saying she would update the Council at each meeting instead. Background on the agreement chain is in Cheatonville's HostDime brief.

Citizen participation

Six speakers. The Mayor had flagged a walk-on item before the speakers, then paused for citizen participation. Topics, in order:

• The Hungerford property's history. One speaker, citing a family connection to the land, spoke about the lawsuit over it and asked the Council to "do the right thing."
• The budget. One speaker spoke on the budget.
• Archaeology and historic boundaries. One speaker urged the Council to press for completion of a 2003 state archaeological survey that identified artifacts on the Hungerford property, to extend the Town's historic-district boundaries to include it, and to stop repeating that the Town is "corrupt."
• Septic, sewer, and water. One speaker described a years-long effort to get a family member's home connected to sewer, and said the water is undrinkable and the bills far above a neighboring city's.
• HostDime, two ways. One speaker asked whether the agreement is still valid at all now that its deadlines have passed, said the Council had given away its leverage when the forced-sale remedy came out of the agreement, and urged members to "let the experts be the experts." The same speaker addressed Council Member Mack directly about his remarks on elected pay at the previous night's workshop, saying the office is a public servant's. A second speaker opened by defending staff — budget items are administrative before they reach the Council, she said, and asked members to "stop targeting and badgering staff." On HostDime, she said she had pushed for the $250 figure at the time: a proposal to require the $200,000 back was "slapped down," and the $250 version was what passed, by her account three votes to two. She said there was never a written Wi-Fi agreement, and asked who would agree to raise a penalty on themselves.

Mack responded in his report that the two speakers who addressed him should "hold me accountable."

Walk-on: a budget-amendment resolution that drew no motion

No motion, so no vote. Before citizen participation, the Mayor had flagged a walk-on item she said she "rarely" asks the Council to consider; she took it up after the speakers. Town Clerk Veronica King read the preamble: a resolution amending the adopted budget for the fiscal year that began October 1, 2025 — the budget adopted by Ordinance 2025-5 — "to provide for personnel and salary adjustments" for the HR/Risk position. The Mayor asked for a motion. None came. "Hearing no motion," she moved on, then told the Council the resolution was the formal version of a payroll-duties realignment discussed at a budget workshop.

Nothing about this item is in the posted packet, and the Town's meetings portal shows no addendum; how the agenda was amended to add it is not on the recording either. The resolution's number is unclear on the recording — it sounds like 2026-46, which would follow the two adopted August 4, but no document confirms it. The position appears in the Town's salary schedules as a part-time "HR / Risk" line in Administration, budgeted at $26,250 in the current year; what the adjustment would have been is not on the record.

Staff reports: the audit, and a sixth budget workshop

Chief Administrative Officer. CAO Daniels said the Town's audit was being finalized. Forms had gone to the auditors for an adjustment on something he said was "roughly about $1.2 million off" — the captions do not make clear what — and he expected a finalized audit within a week or two. He did not say which fiscal year's audit. He added that "a lot of things have been done that should have been done a certain way" and that the Town is correcting them.

Town Attorney. Nothing new — continuing updates on the HostDime matter, on policies and procedures, and on the Clerk's office.

Town Clerk. King said "tonight was our last budget workshop" and that she sensed the Council was "not ready for our first hearing," and asked for dates to continue. The first hearing was described from the dais as Wednesday, September 9; as of September 2 the Town's meetings portal lists no budget hearing. Members also discussed whether the hearing dates themselves could move, and were told they are set around other taxing authorities' hearings — the captions are unclear on which dates. Mack said Wednesdays and Fridays do not work for him. Others at the dais noted that Monday is Labor Day and, after some back-and-forth, that the Historic Preservation Board's Thursday meeting had been cancelled. The Mayor asked whether anyone opposed "budget workshop number six being Thursday, September 3rd." No one did. It is set for 5:30 PM at Town Hall; the posted agenda is broken down in the sixth workshop breakdown.

What remains, as described from the dais: "We went through salary." The capital fund is "already in place" and water and sewer revenue is "pretty much there"; the two funds that still need numbers are water and sewer expenditures and stormwater expenditures. Members were asked to send recommendations ahead of Thursday so the numbers could be worked in advance. Mack said his position was unchanged from a week earlier, that he had nothing more to add, and that as far as he was concerned he did not even need to be there. The chamber's upgrades were also described from the dais — new carpet, fresh paint, and a mural of historical photographs planned for the back wall within a week or two — work Mack later credited to the Clerk.

Council and Mayor reports

Vice Mayor Thomas kept it short: come to the budget hearing and sit with the Council.

Council Member Randolph said she appreciates the Dr. Phillips updates but is "very deeply concerned" about "where are we as a government." The developer's team is doing the community engagement the Town itself should be doing, she said, and the Town has not sat down with Dr. Phillips Charities about water, sewer, and roads, who pays for them, or whether the workers who maintain the finished facilities would be Town employees. She asked whether the tourist-tax funds she said were "awarded a little over a week ago" cover infrastructure or only the museum. (On August 25, the Orange County Commission voted to accept its task force's recommendations, which put the Eatonville museum first in line for $60 million; Central Florida Public Media reported that commissioners will return to vote on actual allocations at a later meeting. Cheatonville's brief on the requests predates that vote.) On the budget, she asked "where is the money going to come from" for the salary increases, said capital improvements have barely been discussed, and said she would send about 20 items in advance of Thursday's workshop.

Council Member Mack offered condolences to a CRA board member's family, restated his position on HostDime, congratulated the scholarship recipient, and asked administration to bring back something workable for the family whose septic-to-sewer problem was raised in citizen participation. He again raised the water rate, suggesting a monthly credit — he floated $2 — for a problem he described as the Town's fault. He asked when the police facility at Catalina Park would open, a building at Catalina Park the Council has asked about before and one he said he raises at nearly every meeting. He said he objects to the process by which a new police lieutenant was promoted, not to the person, and wants to meet with the officer. He thanked the Clerk for the chamber upgrades and recommended Council Member Jordan, who has served as his alternate, as the Town's representative on the Community Action Board.

Council Member Jordan thanked residents for attending, called the budget workshops "very educational," said she would like to see more programs like the scholarship for the town's youth, and invited residents to Thursday's workshop.

Mayor Critton yielded first to Randolph on the Beautiful Gate mammography event — Saturday, September 12, 9 AM to 3 PM at the Denton Johnson Center, free with or without insurance; the number given on the record for a nurse's line is 407-858-1421. The Mayor then announced the kickoff of a girls' mentoring program for grades 5 through 12 on September 19 at 10:30 AM at the Denton Johnson Center, run with an established mentoring group from the area, and a September 11 deadline for applications to the Town's historic marker task force, which are on the Town's website and social media or through the Clerk's office; she said the Deputy Town Clerk is working with the National Park Service on the marker project. She described a visit with CRA Executive Director Johnson to Rebuilding Together, which is rehabilitating homes in the town. On Hungerford, answering Randolph, she said Dr. Phillips Charities is still in its due-diligence phase ahead of closing, that the process should be allowed to run, that residents have their own part to play, and that at least five Eatonville natives or residents sit on the charity's advisory board. She said Baker Barrios, the firm behind the Town's master-planning process — which she said "got stopped dead in its tracks" and which the Council considered unfinished — has been invited back in October, after the budget, and that the process's website, envisioneatonville.com, is still online with its materials. She closed with condolences, and the meeting was adjourned on a voice vote at 9:20 PM.

The budget workshops around this meeting

The fifth budget workshop met at 5:30 the same evening and was not broadcast; the Town's livestream began with the 7:30 meeting. What the public record shows about it comes from the regular meeting: the Clerk's statement that the Council was not ready for its first hearing, the list of what remains, and a walk-on resolution that came out of the workshops and drew no motion.

After the workshop, the Town's meetings portal carried a 22-page packet for it: budget worksheets marked "includes 8-31-2026 workshop changes" and a salary schedule marked "after 8-31-2026 workshop." The PDF's own creation stamp is 5:30 PM on September 1, the workshop's start time. Its headline is what is no longer in it. The raises for the Mayor and Council seats that the fourth workshop's packet proposed are gone from the schedule, and the General Fund forecast that once balanced to the dollar now shows a $187,929 deficit. The figures are laid out in the sixth workshop breakdown.

A note on the recording

The Town's recording of this meeting runs one hour and forty-six minutes, but its first eight minutes carry no usable audio. That covers the call to order, the roll call, the invocation, the approval of the agenda, and the scholarship presentation. The sound begins during the Dr. Phillips Charities update. Everything above is drawn from the Town's recording and its automatic captions; short quoted phrases are as captioned, and where the captions are unclear this recap says so. No minutes of the meeting have been posted.

Sources. Meeting recording · September 1 meeting packet · Fifth budget workshop packet · Sixth budget workshop agenda · Town meetings portal · WFTV, September 1 · Central Florida Public Media, August 26