Eatonville Town Council
The Town Council is the elected governing body of the Town of Eatonville, Florida — five members who adopt the budget, pass the resolutions and ordinances that govern the town, and meet in public at Town Hall, 307 E Kennedy Blvd. The same five members also sit on the board of the town's Community Redevelopment Agency.
Every Council meeting covered here gets an agenda breakdown before it happens and a recap with the recorded votes after. The Town's governing documents — including the Town Charter — are reproduced in the Library.
Council meeting coverage
most recent firstSeptember 15, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Recap
Neither public hearing was opened. The rental-homes ordinance was tabled after the Town's attorney told the Council that a 2023 state law reserves the regulation of residential rentals to the state, and that the draft could not lawfully be enacted as written. The farmers-market ordinance was tabled too, because members wanted a printed zoning map first. The night's only two resolutions were walk-on items that never appeared in the posted packet: a request for a federal audit of the Town's post office, and an emergency resolution hiring a new law firm for six months at $10,000 a month.
September 15, 2026 Town Council Workshop and Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
One evening, one ordinance, twice. At the 6:30 workshop the Council discusses a proposal to make rental homes in town register every year, pass an inspection and get a license. At 7:30 the same 13-page draft comes back for its first reading. The draft is a marked-up copy of a 2023 ordinance, and its signature page still lists that year's Council. Also on the agenda: farmers markets in a second commercial zone, a HostDime update, and two sets of summer minutes.
September 9, 2026 Town Council First Budget Hearing — Agenda Breakdown
After six workshops, the Council takes its first votes on next year's budget. Two things are decided: the property-tax rate, and the budget ordinance on first reading. The rate is the same 7.2938 mills the Town has charged for more than a decade, but because property values rose, Florida's rules count it as a 6.38% tax increase this year. The General Fund that was $187,929 short a week ago now balances, mainly by counting $384,972 of the Town's reserves as next year's income — and it adds a new $95,000 Project Manager job at the same time. The second and final hearing is set for September 21.
September 1, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Recap
No votes. The one item put before the Council for action — a walk-on resolution amending the current year's budget for a personnel and salary adjustment — died when no member moved it. The HostDime discussion put a number on the record that the packet never had: $99,250 in daily penalties accrued as of meeting night, none of it collected. It ended with a direction to the Town Attorney and administration to meet with the company, not a vote. And the Town Clerk said the Council was not ready for its first budget hearing, so a sixth workshop was set for Thursday, September 3.
September 3, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
A sixth workshop nobody had scheduled a week ago. It was set from the dais on September 1 after the Town Clerk said the Council was not ready for its first budget hearing, and its agenda is the same single line as the last three. What is new is the packet now posted for the fifth workshop, a file stamped 5:30 PM on September 1, the moment that meeting began. Its worksheets drop the proposed raises for the Mayor and Council, put the Finance Director back at $82,082, and show the General Fund $187,929 short of balancing, under a printed reminder that state law requires a balanced budget.
September 1, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
The fifth budget workshop has one working item — a presentation and discussion of the FY2026-27 budget, by Administration — and, as of August 30, no packet behind it. It comes the night after the fourth workshop, whose salary schedule proposed raising the Mayor's pay from $13,188 to $32,970 and each Council seat's from $6,594 to $18,000. Two hours later, the same five officials sit for their regular meeting. The question the posted record has not answered is which instrument would adopt those raises.
September 1, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
Two presentations, one discussion, and no action items on the printed agenda. The HostDime item returns from August 18 — same title, same cover-sheet timeline that conflicts with the agreements attached to it, same proposal to discuss a third amendment with penalties up to $500 a day. What the packet still does not say: whether a certificate of occupancy — the Town's sign-off that the finished building can be used — has issued, and whether any of the $250 per day that would be owed if it has not, about $99,250 by meeting night, has been collected.
August 31, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
The fourth budget workshop's packet is the first document of this cycle to name proposed salaries position by position — and the headline is a raise for every elected seat: 150% for the Mayor, about 173% for each Council seat. The workbook forecast that balanced next year's General Fund to the dollar carried $40,751 for those five salaries. This schedule proposes $104,970, and nothing in the packet says what absorbs the difference.
August 25, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
The third budget workshop has one working item — a presentation and discussion of the FY2026-27 budget, by Administration — and, as of the day before the meeting, no packet behind it. Whatever gets presented, the questions the posted record leaves open are the measure of it: two departments whose slide totals never matched the workbook, a CRA budget marked "not presenting," a contingency account forecast to zero, and a General Fund forecast that balances to the dollar without explanation.
August 18, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
The second budget workshop pairs a slide deck — four departments presenting their FY2027 plans — with the budget workbook from the first workshop. Where the slides give totals, they don't match the workbook's; and the workbook's margins are worth reading on their own: the CRA's rows are marked "not presenting," and the forecast lands the General Fund on a to-the-dollar balanced budget the packet never explains.
August 18, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
No resolutions and no award votes this time. The evening is presentations and one discussion item: Councilwoman Randolph wants the Council to review the amendment chain that moved HostDime's deadline from 2019 to 2025, and to consider a third amendment — with daily penalties of up to $500, double the current rate. The packet's own timeline of those amendments does not match the agreements attached to it.
August 11, 2026 Town Council Budget Workshop — Agenda Breakdown
This is the first of the Town's budget workshops for the fiscal year starting October 1. The packet includes five years of budget-versus-actual numbers, and several accounts are already running far above or far below what was budgeted.
August 4, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Recap
The Council tabled Resolution 2026-41 (Hungerford/SPLC lawsuit support) a second time — the fourth sitting for a version of this resolution in seven weeks — voted to engage TG Law as Town Attorney, and appointed Attorney Greg Jackson as Special Magistrate. HostDime did not appear for its scheduled presentation, prompting a dais exchange over the Town's utility-reimbursement commitment to the company.
August 4, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
Two hires, one bidder each. The Council discusses both legal-services proposals at a 6:30 workshop and votes on both at 7:30 the same night, along with the tabled Hungerford transparency resolution, back for a vote, and a new Heritage Tourism District.
July 21, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Recap
A full-quorum Council heard a walk-on update from Dr. Phillips Charities, passed a title change for the Records Coordinator 3-2, let a related salary resolution die for lack of a second, and tabled a third resolution supporting the Hungerford Sunshine Law lawsuit — the first two versions failed on recorded votes.
July 21, 2026 Town Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
A workshop on property-tax ballot messaging and frozen HUD grants leads into a regular meeting where a third Hungerford transparency resolution comes back for a vote.
July 7, 2026 Regular Council Meeting — Recap
Four members at the dais, one on Zoom without a vote. A corrective ordinance passed, the consent agenda got tabled, and two of the night's most contested items — the Development Review Committee and support for the Hungerford lawsuit — both failed 2-2.
July 7, 2026 Regular Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
Two meetings back to back — a 6:30 workshop and the 7:30 Council meeting. Here's a plain-language walk through what's in the packet, and what's worth a question before anyone votes.
June 16, 2026 Regular Council Meeting — Recap
What the Council did on each agenda item, with the recorded votes.
June 16, 2026 Regular Council Meeting — Agenda Breakdown
What's on the agenda for the June 16 Regular Town Council meeting — each item in plain language, and what's worth watching.