Mayor Demings Delivers 2019 State of the County to Great Turnout at Orange County Convention Center
On May 16, Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings welcomed nearly 1,500 citizens and community leaders to the 2019 State of the County address at the Orange County Convention Center.
“My earnest commitment as your Mayor is to do everything in my power to move Orange County forward” said Mayor Demings at the Linda Chapin Theater in the West Concourse. “Now is the time to move forward, and not go back. Now is the time to build a better quality of life, not only for us, but for generations to come.”
During his remarks, Mayor Demings said he is prioritizing the needs of local residents to build the community together on the three pillars of innovation, collaboration and inclusion.
“As we build our community together, we want Orange County to be known not only as the premier place to do business, but ground zero for the entrepreneurial spirit and a hub for innovation,” said Mayor Demings. “We want to be intentional about fostering a culture of top notch customer service in our Orange County Government operations.”
Highlights of his speech include reducing residential permit turnaround times and general trade permit action; launching a unified strategy to increase the inventory of affordable housing in the community through the Housing for All Task Force; allocating an additional $20 million for children’s services; increasing the living wage for Orange County Government employees to $15 an hour by the end of 2021; earmarking $42 million for arts and cultural projects; and proposing a sales tax referendum to support a fully funded transportation network.
Visit www.ocfl.net/SOC19 to read the speech and watch the entire address. Watch the video recap.
Photos of the 2019 State of the County address are available on Flickr for use by the media.