City Council Highlights – June 24, 2024
Last updated on June 24, 2024
City Council Update 6.24.24
McNamara Employee of the Year Award Winners
We're fortunate to have so many members of our City of Orlando team who positively impact our community each and every day. Through the Dennis McNamara Employee of the Year Awards, we recognize city staff for their extraordinary commitment and service.
We'd like to call on Human Resources Director Ana Palenzuela to share more about the award and its history, before we recognize our honorees.
Today we are also celebrating an employee who has served the City of Orlando for more than three decades. We'd like for Allen Johnson and Charles Leone from Orlando Venues to share more on Ollie Rives, who is retiring after 32 and a half years.
Check Presentation from Congressman Soto
Before we start the Mayor’s Update, we would like to acknowledge we have a very special guest with us today – Congressman Darren Soto – whose district includes much of southeast Orlando and who is constantly supporting our efforts and advocating for Orlando’s needs.
Congressman Soto has been hard at work for us in Washington D.C., and he is here to announce some of the results of that hard work with another federal appropriation for our city.
Earlier this morning, we celebrated the swearing in of District 5 Interim City Commissioner Shaniqua “Shan” Rose during an Oath of Office ceremony here in chambers. We are happy to have you join our council and look forward to working together on projects and programs that help serve our residents.
Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee Update
Since our last meeting, the city hosted the 8th annual Pulse Remembrance events which included the CommUNITY Rainbow Run and several events for victims’ families and survivors and the broader community on June 12.
In the city's first year hosting the Community Rainbow Run, we had
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2,000 participants,
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more than 30 vendors and sponsors,
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and raised $55,000 toward a permanent memorial.
Most importantly, the Rainbow Run and other events gave our community the opportunity to come together to honor the 49 and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy and was a display of our diversity, strength and that we are still Orlando United.
We’d like to acknowledge the city staff who worked so hard on those events.
We also announced a process to create a Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee to help guide our work and get to a conceptual design for a memorial by the end of the year.
We received more than 150 applications representing a diverse mix of families and survivors, community leaders and those with technical expertise like architects, mental health professionals, clergy and artists.
A group of consultants will be reviewing those applications and recommending those who will participate on the Committee of approximately 10-15 members. We anticipate announcing the Committee in early July with their first meeting being in mid-July.
The committee meetings will be available for the public to attend virtually or in-person, in English and in Spanish.
Our next council meeting is not until July, so I wanted to share that our 47th annual Fireworks at the Fountain show will take place on Thursday, July 4 at Lake Eola Park from 4 to 10 p.m. You can come join the community for live entertainment and family friendly activities that evening - all ending with a fireworks show starting at 9:10 p.m.
Commissioner Sheehan Birthday
July is also a special month for birthdays and Commissioner Sheehan will be celebrating one on July 6.