Her Platform | OrlandoFirst.city

28Platform SubjectsEvaluated for municipal feasibility

7Civic PillarsHousing, Transit, Safety, Economy, Climate, Families, Governance

5Direct City LeversSole Mayor & Council authority

23Outside Actions NeededRequires State, County, or Board legislation

Editorial photography for Affordable Housing & Homelessness Solutions

Most commitments require City Council action; homelessness delivery is regional, and a mandatory local TOPA needs state authorization.

Affordable Housing & Homelessness Solutions

Eskamani proposes converting underused buildings, allowing more housing types, reducing parking mandates, and offering affordability incentives. She also proposes a local tenant purchase policy, eviction assistance, home-repair and weatherization aid, Housing First and treatment expansion, and more shelter and drop-in capacity. In describing her legislative record, she cites opposing state preemption of local rent stabilization, but she does not separately promise an Orlando rent-control ordinance.

The strongest parts are missing-middle zoning, parking reform, selected adaptive reuse, eviction counsel, and targeted Housing First work. The package also contains an undefined nontraditional-housing promise, incentives without measurable terms, repair proposals that overlap an existing city program, a locally preempted TOPA mechanism, and homelessness expansions with major regional capacity and recurring-cost requirements. The platform separately mentions rent stabilization in its account of Eskamani's legislative record; that policy is locally preempted and is treated as unscored context because she does not promise an Orlando rent-control ordinance.

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Editorial photography for Economic Prosperity & Anti-Poverty Solutions

One voluntary recognition program can begin administratively; five promises need Council decisions, four depend materially on outside systems or providers, and the contractor living-wage requirement needs state-law change.

Economic Prosperity & Anti-Poverty Solutions

Eskamani proposes neighborhood financial counseling, rental and utility assistance, an income pilot, living-wage designations, worker legal aid, employment supports, education-to-employer pathways, first-time-buyer assistance, shared-equity ownership, and community-benefit conditions on incentives. She also calls for support for worker organizing, investment in small community-based businesses, and work with historic neighborhoods to prevent displacement.

The strongest proposals build on operating financial-counseling, workforce, buyer-assistance, and shared-equity models, although each still needs a funded Orlando scale. The weaker parts combine undefined benefits, a voluntary employer badge, or partner-controlled services without a delivery model. Florida's September 2026 wage law blocks the promised contractor mandate, while lawful direct-subsidy conditions and measurable incentive agreements remain available.

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Editorial photography for Public Transit Expansion, Walkability & Traffic Relief

Three street-safety promises can move through Orlando and City Council on city roads; seven transit, fare, data, route, and regional-rail promises depend on outside operators and funding partners; the stated TDT mechanism needs state and county action.

Public Transit Expansion, Walkability & Traffic Relief

Eskamani proposes more pedestrian-safety spending, separated bike lanes coordinated with road work, crosswalk and sidewalk improvements, longer and more frequent LYNX and SunRail service, a discounted transit-pass pilot, new Main Street routes, a one-stop transit app, worker fares and local stops on the proposed Sunshine Corridor, and dedicated transportation revenue through broader Tourist Development Tax authority and regional funding.

The strongest parts use established street-safety tools and build on Orlando programs already underway. Better frequency has applicable outcome evidence, while later-night and weekend service still lacks an isolated effectiveness record and a defined Orlando operating plan. LYNX, SunRail, FDOT, City Council, and regional funders control material approvals and money; the fare pilot has access benefits and capacity costs, while the other undefined service, corridor, app, coordination, and revenue proposals remain insufficient to evaluate.

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Editorial photography for Small Business Support & Empowerment

The package mixes administrative actions, Council-funded programs, and promises that depend on private participants.

Small Business Support & Empowerment

Eskamani proposes faster city approvals, disruption aid, microgrants, technical assistance, language access, markets and mobile vending, low-cost storefronts, local purchasing and hiring, cooperative ownership, and living-wage recognition.

The strongest parts are measurable approval reform, targeted provider capacity, language access, and lawful vendor access. Disruption aid and microgrants can help selected firms but need Council-funded limits and careful evaluation; storefront leases and ownership transitions depend on expensive private deals, while Local First and wage recognition lack evidence that voluntary labels change behavior.

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Editorial photography for Diversifying Orlando's Economy

The mayor can launch an advisory council, but spending and policy need Council action and four promises depend materially on outside institutions or private actors.

Diversifying Orlando's Economy

Eskamani proposes city investment in emerging industries, college and employer talent pipelines, startup organizations, an Innovation & Industry Council, neighborhood programs, broader procurement access, Job Growth Zones, apprenticeships and reentry training, and maker hubs.

The platform identifies real diversification tools, but most promises do not specify what Orlando would fund, change, or measure. Sector partnerships and registered apprenticeship have credible outcome support, while firm incentives show limited broader growth and recent reentry results warn that nominal training access may not improve work. The city already operates incentive, procurement, workforce, opportunity-zone, and business-support channels, so a serious plan must define added capacity, Council cost, partner obligations, lawful conditions, and promise-specific results.

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Editorial photography for Reimagining & Revitalizing Downtown Orlando

Six promises are city programs or rules requiring Council or CRA approval, while six also depend materially on private owners, regional agencies, providers, employers, or other governments.

Reimagining & Revitalizing Downtown Orlando

Eskamani proposes downtown housing and affordability, round-the-clock outreach and homelessness services, a flexible activation fund, an innovation corridor, safer walking and bicycling, stronger regional transit and a circulator study, cultural funding and easier event permits, and project benefits intended to limit displacement.

The platform combines useful city tools with outcomes Orlando cannot guarantee. Supply incentives, selected conversions, mobility construction, public facilities, outreach, events, and CRA grants are available only with defined sites, programs, costs, and measures; supportive housing has a strong housing-stability case but is expensive; transit requires regional agreement; and project benefits require mechanism-specific current-law review. Housing and innovation-district research shows market-dependent affordability and mobility effects, so Orlando must measure local conditions rather than presume displacement or protection.

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Editorial photography for Community Safety, Crime Prevention, & Gun Violence Prevention

Five promises require Council approval, six depend materially on outside institutions or partners, and three can begin administratively. The OPD chief can restore a board that reviews police policies and procedures; Council action is conditional on added resources or code changes, and only a separately proposed misconduct-investigation oversight design would require state-law change.

Community Safety, Crime Prevention, & Gun Violence Prevention

Eskamani proposes a public-health safety framework built around community and hospital violence intervention, non-police crisis response, youth jobs and services, voluntary firearm-safety actions, risk-order enforcement, police oversight and training, immigrant-serving partnerships, a first-responder advisory council, and first-responder staffing and retirement commitments.

The platform combines several useful tools with sharply different evidence and authority. Orlando can build on existing CVI, crisis response, youth employment, voluntary storage education, OPD management, a chief-created police-policy review board, and service contracts, but scale requires recurring staff and Council funding; hospitals and schools must agree to their components; firearm rules and any separately proposed misconduct-investigation oversight face state limits. Crisis response and supported summer jobs have favorable evidence within narrow designs, CVI results vary, the reviewed adult HVIP evidence is insufficient, local buybacks do not show a meaningful violence effect, and the remaining bundles need defined mechanisms before they can be judged. Separate first-responder staffing, burnout, pension, and retiree-security commitments cross City Council, pension-board, and collective-bargaining authority and remain unscored because the platform supplies no mechanism, baseline, or cost.

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Editorial photography for Preventing Sexual Violence, Intimate Partner Abuse & Human Trafficking

Orlando directly controls its own employment system. The other seven promises require Council funding and materially depend on community partners, independent providers, regional employers, law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts, healthcare systems, shelters, housing operators, or state and federal authority.

Preventing Sexual Violence, Intimate Partner Abuse & Human Trafficking

Eskamani proposes stronger anti-harassment systems for city employees, consent and healthy-relationship education, expanded shelter, legal-aid and counseling access, non-police crisis options, long-term survivor housing, coordinated anti-trafficking operations, safe-exit services, and recurring training for frontline workers.

The platform combines one directly controlled city-employer reform with seven commitments that require Council funding and outside institutions. Orlando already funds a $55,000 prevention-education and outreach program, but the campaign does not define what its broader public-awareness partnership would add. Structured youth prevention and Domestic Violence Housing First offer useful models only if Orlando selects an actual intervention; the broad housing promise does not. Task-force evidence supports careful multidisciplinary work while documenting uneven results and harm risks. The remaining promises name desirable access or coordination without the service units, providers, eligibility, staffing, safety rules, capacity, costs, or outcome designs needed to predict delivery. Orlando should keep city employment, education, shelters, attorneys, clinicians, survivor crisis response, housing, police investigations, prosecutors, courts, healthcare, and regional transit authority separate in both budgets and public results.

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Editorial photography for Strong Public Schools & Early Education

Orlando can create a city-side task force, and Council can fund changes to the crossing-guard program or city childcare processes. Seven commitments depend materially on OCPS, road owners, state early-learning and licensing systems, healthcare providers, nonprofits, or private operators.

Strong Public Schools & Early Education

Eskamani proposes expanded afterschool and summer learning, more Community Partnership Schools, full-time school nursing or licensed counseling coverage, upgraded crossing guards and Safe Routes projects, school-linked violence intervention, broader early education and pre-K access, simpler city processes for childcare providers, neighborhood early-learning centers and worker support, and a City-School Partnership Task Force.

The platform contains useful municipal tools, but it treats a city partnership role as though it were control of a school and early-learning system. Orlando already runs youth programs, crossing guards, neighborhood initiatives, and Community Violence Intervention, while OCPS already operates Community Partnership Schools and student health systems. Safe Routes is the clearest evidence-supported city case. Structured afterschool expansion is plausible, but the combined afterschool and summer promise is mixed because RAND's randomized summer results were limited and its stronger attendance and dosage findings were exploratory correlations. Community Partnership Schools, violence interruption, and pre-K can work under some designs but have mixed or implementation-sensitive results. The campaign explicitly proposes a full-time nurse or licensed counselor at each school and separately says the city would work with OCPS and private philanthropy to help ensure a nurse staffs every city public school, but the campus baseline, either-or standard, employer, caseload, OCPS agreement, cost, and funding remain unresolved. Each proposal should identify Orlando's exact contribution and leave curriculum, school operations, student services, state licensing, and provider decisions with the institutions that control them.

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Editorial photography for Universal Childcare & Support for Families

Orlando can fund parenting classes, supply distribution, and workforce services with Council approval. Universal childcare, multi-owner hubs, health and aging navigation, legal aid and reunification, benefits enrollment, and mental-health support depend materially on state agencies, courts, providers, payers, independent facilities, and regulated workforces.

Universal Childcare & Support for Families

Eskamani proposes universal access to affordable, high-quality childcare and a citywide network of Family Resource Hubs. The hubs would offer multilingual parenting classes, diapers, formula and hygiene supplies, prenatal and postpartum referrals, senior and caregiver assistance, support to help families age in place, legal aid and family reunification help, job-readiness and career navigation, workshops on budgeting, tenant rights and credit building, SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and childcare-subsidy navigation, and mental-health support across family services.

The platform combines one major childcare-system promise with nine different hub services. Orlando can fund targeted programs, but it does not control DCF licensing, age-based staffing ratios, School Readiness eligibility and payment, benefit programs, courts, clinical networks, independent schools or libraries, or provider capacity. The clearest evidence-supported proposal is a defined multilingual parenting program. Universal childcare needs an eligibility rule, seat and workforce plan, provider rate, facilities, quality system, enrollment process, and durable recurring revenue; the available Quebec evidence is mixed rather than a guarantee of benefit. The other hub services should be separated into actual interventions with named populations, operators, capacity, costs, and outcomes rather than presented as one access menu.

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Editorial photography for Public Health & Disability Services

Eleven canonical promises depend materially on schools, county and state health or emergency agencies, LYNX, licensed providers, insurers, employers, property owners, utilities, or other partners. Three require City Council funding. The five unscored contextual commitments are disclosed separately and do not enter this distribution.

Public Health & Disability Services

Eskamani proposes mobile health units and screenings, maternal and infant health work, school-nurse support, grants for trauma-informed therapy, crisis intervention, and peer support, a larger provider network, mental-health support across city initiatives, non-police crisis response, disability-service coordination, broader accessibility work, inclusive recreation, housing and workforce programs, fresh-food initiatives, naloxone and treatment access, emergency infrastructure, and resilience hubs. The same platform also commits to city-employee mental-health training, elopement-prevention policies with public safety and schools, universal-access design across city initiatives, decriminalizing undefined survival-based behaviors, and multilingual and accessible emergency communications; those five commitments are preserved below as unscored context and are excluded from the fourteen-promise distributions.

The platform contains useful municipal tools but spans health care, school staffing, disability access, food systems, transit, and emergency resilience across different controllers. The strongest evidence supports targeted mobile access, qualified school-health capacity, lawful naloxone distribution, and carefully triaged crisis response; each still needs an operator, scale, budget, and outcome standard. The accessibility audit is broader than Orlando’s existing rights-of-way plan and requires owner-specific remediation across sidewalks, parks, transit, and buildings. Orlando already operates one mobile REACH resilience hub, so a proposed neighborhood network must define what it adds. The remaining canonical commitments and five preserved unscored contextual commitments need specific mechanisms, authority boundaries, capacity, costs, and outcomes before they can be judged.

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Editorial photography for Supporting Orlando's Seniors & Aging in Place with Dignity

Two promises are city-controlled expansions that require Council appropriations. Seven depend materially on regional transit, housing and service partners, the Florida aging and health systems, Orange County emergency management, utilities, or communications channels outside the mayor’s sole control.

Supporting Orlando's Seniors & Aging in Place with Dignity

Eskamani proposes expanding home repairs and accessibility retrofits, senior-priority pedestrian and transit infrastructure, affordable supportive housing, senior centers and intergenerational hubs, home-based care coordination, wellness checks, meals and rides, caregiver respite and training, emergency supplies and medical-device power, and multilingual accessible evacuation alerts.

The platform combines useful municipal tools with services already governed by Florida’s aging network, regional transit, housing partners, Orange County emergency management, utilities, and licensed providers. Targeted home modifications have the clearest evidence. Home-delivered meals have comparatively stronger support for dietary intake and food security than for broader social or independent-living effects. Four heterogeneous very-low-quality respite trials could not support a firm conclusion, and most other commitments lack a specified mechanism, added capacity, cost, and outcome. Orlando should publish the existing city and partner baseline, then state exactly what it would add, who would deliver it, how residents qualify, and how completed service—not announcements or referrals—would be measured.

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Editorial photography for Preventing Displacement & Gentrification

One dashboard can begin through city administration. Nine promises require Council land-use, funding, land, tax, or transaction decisions; three depend materially on courts, providers, nonprofit housing entities, developers, or other taxing authorities; and the campaign has not identified a legally reviewed city delivery path for broadly restricting private housing acquisitions.

Preventing Displacement & Gentrification

Eskamani proposes eviction counsel, a rental registry, emergency rental aid, community land trusts and cooperative housing, deeply affordable housing on city land, housing on empty commercial lots, homeowner tax, repair and heirs’ property support, inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, affordability covenants, limits on speculative acquisition, early multilingual planning and community-benefit agreements, a displacement-risk dashboard, and historic-neighborhood preservation.

The platform contains several useful tools, but it treats unlike mechanisms as one anti-displacement package. Legal counsel and emergency aid can stabilize selected households, and net new housing has promising but bounded support. CLT evidence does not grade the bundled cooperative model, and a lawful city-land path does not establish deeply affordable production outcomes at an unspecified scale. Inclusionary requirements, density bonuses, and covenants are design-dependent; the registry, bundled homeowner package, legally undefined acquisition limits, community-benefit mandate, dashboard, and preservation proposal remain too undefined to evaluate. Orlando should identify eligible residents, sites, units, legal instruments, full cost offsets, partner capacity, recurring money, and displacement outcomes for each promise rather than present process or authority as proof of effectiveness.

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Editorial photography for Protecting Orlando's Natural Beauty & Climate Future

All three outcomes require more than mayoral administration. Orlando controls city land, parks, trees, lakes, wastewater and stormwater, facilities, fleets, local plans, and programs; Council controls material spending and legislation. OUC controls potable-water production and distribution and material utility infrastructure, while Orange County, environmental regulators, water-management districts, other providers, and private owners control additional parts.

Protecting Orlando's Natural Beauty & Climate Future

Eskamani says Orlando should protect its natural resources, become climate-resilient, and ensure access to clean air, clean water, and green space. The section presents these as guiding outcomes and points to separate clean-energy, resilience, and zero-waste sections for more specific proposals.

The platform states legitimate environmental goals but does not yet supply three auditable policies. Orlando can act directly on many city assets and services, but broad natural-resource protection, citywide resilience, and clean air, water, and green-space access depend on distinct mechanisms and outside controllers. The reviewed studies show why specificity matters: defined greening and mitigation projects can produce measured benefits, while results vary by design, place, scale, maintenance, and population. The campaign should identify the assets and neighborhoods, threats and baselines, responsible actors, projects, permits, costs, operating duties, deadlines, distribution effects, and outcome thresholds, then credit each project once in the more specific policy topic where it is delivered.

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Editorial photography for Clean Energy & Electrification

Orlando can manage city buildings, fleet purchases, city sites, contracts, and voluntary programs after Council funding. Seven promises materially depend on OUC, state rules, property owners, providers, or other partners; three are city programs that still require Council appropriations. The mayor's OUC role is one vote on a five-member Commission, and Florida limits local fuel, appliance, charging-station, building-code, and net-zero policy.

Clean Energy & Electrification

Eskamani proposes pursuing Orlando's existing clean-energy goals, expanding solar and city-building efficiency, using the mayor's OUC board role to accelerate the utility's fossil-fuel transition and grid work, launching household assistance and efficiency programs, building more electric-vehicle charging, electrifying the municipal fleet, and offering voluntary incentives for homes and workplaces.

The platform combines several credible municipal tools with broad utility and private-market outcomes that a mayor cannot promise alone. City-building retrofits are the clearest near-term lane; targeted household efficiency and class-by-class fleet replacement also have supporting evidence when delivery and measurement are defined. Solar, assistance, charging, private electrification, generation transition, and grid resilience require distinct projects rather than one clean-energy narrative. For each, the campaign should publish the controller, baseline, added asset or benefit, OUC or Council decision, state-law screen, capital and recurring cost, customer and rate effect, reliability or service safeguard, construction or delivery schedule, and measured energy, bill, emissions, access, or outage result.

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Editorial photography for Climate Resilience, Smart Growth & Water Protection

Orlando administration can create the plan update and advisory task force; Council legislation or funding is required for six development, drainage, and public-process promises; five water, stormwater, wetlands, and conservation commitments materially depend on state permits, utilities, property owners, or outside governments.

Climate Resilience, Smart Growth & Water Protection

Eskamani proposes green stormwater infrastructure, drainage upgrades, greenways, permeable surfaces, natural flood buffers, low-impact development, sustainable-design incentives, smart growth, community input, updated neighborhood risk planning, a resilience task force, stronger water protections, septic-to-sewer conversion, conservation, and reclaimed-water expansion. She separately promises stronger protection for Orlando’s lakes, trees, and wildlife corridors and equitable access to clean water for all communities.

The platform combines credible tools with an undefined delivery program. Orlando can plan, regulate lawful land uses, operate city stormwater and wastewater systems, and build funded projects, but Council, DEP, water-management districts, OUC, Orange County, owners, developers, and federal or state funding control material parts. Research supports site-selected drainage, green infrastructure, compact growth, and efficiency while documenting storm, site, scale, transfer, infrastructure, and affordability limits; the septic expansion lacks a directly applicable completed outcome. Orlando’s current stormwater table, Lake Arnold pilot, and Rosemont project provide concrete local baselines that campaign additions must reconcile. The separate lake, tree, wildlife-corridor, and clean-water-equity commitments remain unscored until their mechanisms and measures are defined.

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Editorial photography for Zero Waste, Circular Economy & Environmental Justice

Orlando can explore reuse events, administer existing city-event plastics policy, and continue its cleanup program. Business assistance and investment priorities require Council funding, while collection, food recovery, and composting depend on Orange County, haulers, processors, donors, recipients, and users. Florida preempts broad local container, packaging, plastic-bag, and polystyrene rules outside stated public-property and contract lanes.

Zero Waste, Circular Economy & Environmental Justice

Eskamani proposes expanding organic-waste collection, food recovery, and composting; exploring repair workshops and clothing swaps; limiting plastics at city events; helping businesses move away from disposables; continuing cleanup partnerships; and prioritizing Black, Brown, and low-income communities in environmental investment.

The platform combines valid waste-reduction goals with three different realities. Orlando already operates city-event plastics, recycling, composting, repair, and cleanup work; broader product regulation is constrained by state preemption; and meaningful organics scale requires rates, routes, processing, contamination control, county and private capacity, and measured net cost. EPA supports preventing and recovering edible food before disposal and supports properly designed composting. Austin route-level evidence shows that higher diversion can coexist with program cost above estimated avoided-methane benefit, while the study's national cost estimates are an extrapolation rather than observed national program results. The strongest next step is to define the new service or policy in each promise, publish current Orlando baselines and pilot results, identify controlling actors and capacity, and report material, environmental, distribution, and cost outcomes separately.

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Editorial photography for Recreation & Parks: Investing in Joy, Health & Community

Orlando controls parks operations, city property, recreation programs, engagement, maintenance, tree work, and city projects, but nine promises need Council funding or land and capital action. Tree canopy, restoration, and regional trail delivery also depend materially on utilities, owners, road agencies, regulators, and partners. Only the planning protocol can begin primarily through city administration.

Recreation & Parks: Investing in Joy, Health & Community

Eskamani proposes universal ten-minute access to safe and accessible parks, new pocket parks and gardens, renewed play spaces, more affordable recreation and youth jobs, community-led amenity design, stronger lighting and upkeep, broader disability and cultural access, expanded tree canopy and restored natural areas, better trail connections, and locally shaped public art.

Parks are a strong municipal delivery lane, but direct authority does not convert this thirteen-part platform into a funded program. The clearest evidence supports targeted park improvements, defined affordable recreation, durable and well-sited canopy, and safe connected trails; youth jobs produce clear short-term work and income but uncertain lasting effects. ParkScore reports only 70.7 percent of Orlando residents within a ten-minute walk and sizable park-space equity gaps, while the city already has a large facilities inventory, an active park project pipeline, sixteen-center summer camp, an ADA inventory, a 25-to-40-percent canopy program, an extensive trail system with a 2026 plan, and a public-art program. The campaign should therefore publish the incremental sites, services, participants, land and partner commitments, staff and maintenance capacity, capital and recurring costs, deadlines, and measured use, access, safety, employment, canopy, ecological, and community-decision results.

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Editorial photography for Hurricane Preparedness and Response

Orlando can direct and fund its own emergency systems, city assets and communications, but three city-led expansions require Council appropriations. Five promises materially depend on Orange County, FDOT, FDEM, FEMA, utilities, shelter and health operators, road owners, nonprofits, contractors or private recovery actors. Florida requires municipal emergency programs to coordinate with the county and remain consistent with and subject to the county plan.

Hurricane Preparedness and Response

Eskamani proposes investing in emergency-response systems and critical infrastructure, coordinating across governments, improving evacuation routes and inclusive shelter capacity, expanding household education and multilingual outreach, and building post-storm systems for supplies, utilities, debris and recovery.

Hurricane preparedness is a core public responsibility, but the platform describes outcomes without an operating plan. Orlando can maintain its EOC and city assets, fund staff and contracts, communicate locally, exercise city functions, clear city rights-of-way, issue permits and support recovery. Orange County leads the county emergency plan and shelter system; FDOT and other road owners control major corridors; OUC and other utilities control restoration; FDEM, health agencies, FEMA and private actors control additional capacity, aid and rebuilding decisions. The campaign should publish a controller and capability matrix, exact system and infrastructure projects, evacuation and shelter baselines, language and accessibility standards, pre-positioned contracts, capital and recurring budgets, exercise findings, corrective deadlines, and public measures for warning reach, clearance, usable shelter, supply delivery, restoration, debris, permits, aid and reimbursement.

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Editorial photography for Trade, Travel, & Economic Development

Orlando can direct existing international affairs, and Council can fund missions, workforce programs, and business assistance. GOAA controls airport assets and operations through a seven-member board, airlines control routes, regional and state bodies control ground-access decisions, and firms, employers, buyers, lenders, and training providers retain essential private decisions.

Trade, Travel, & Economic Development

Eskamani proposes growing international business, trade-association, and sister-city partnerships; creating small-business trade delegations; improving airport infrastructure, routes, facilities, and ground links; investing in trade-linked workforce training; and helping small and minority-owned firms reach supply chains and capital.

This topic contains one direct city lane, three Council-funded program lanes, and four airport lanes controlled materially by GOAA, airlines, federal aviation rules, and regional transportation bodies. MCO is already a 57.7-million-passenger airport with more than 170 nonstop destinations, Orlando already maintains international affairs and business incentives, and federal and state export programs already serve local firms. Registered apprenticeship is the only promise with a promising effectiveness finding. The other seven, including the undefined capital-access mechanism, lack enough promise-specific evidence for an effectiveness judgment. A credible plan should name the market, mission, asset, route, mode, employer, buyer, lender, appropriation, partner commitment, incremental baseline, and durable outcome for each promise and count every project, firm, dollar, contract, export, and job once.

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Editorial photography for Equality, Inclusion & Protecting Civil Rights

Orlando can administer Chapter 57 directly. Four expansions require Council funding, two depend materially on independent providers and federal or state systems, and six protected-class-targeted workforce, program, grant, appointment, or training promises encounter Florida’s January 1, 2027 local-government restriction unless narrowed to a lawful exception or state law changes.

Equality, Inclusion & Protecting Civil Rights

Eskamani proposes stronger enforcement of Orlando’s nondiscrimination rules, LGBTQ+ health and community support, immigration legal aid, reentry services, citywide language and disability access, a more representative workforce and boards, employee resource groups, staff training, multilingual listening, and participatory budgeting. Beyond the thirteen promises reviewed and scored on this page, the platform separately promises community-accountability pathways, investment in grassroots organizing, and equity across every city policy, budget, and action; those three commitments are preserved below as unscored context and are excluded from the topic distributions.

This topic combines enforceable city duties, fundable services, shared systems, and six promises that conflict with or require narrowing under Florida’s 2027 local-government restrictions. The strongest public path is concrete: publish Chapter 57 performance, define department language access, purchase specified legal and reentry capacity, accelerate named accessibility barriers, use lawful merit-based employment and open-board processes, connect multilingual input to decisions, and design any participatory budget through Council. Each proposal needs its own controller, lawful mechanism, service or asset baseline, unit and total cost, provider or staff capacity, outcome, privacy protection, and deadline.

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Editorial photography for Reimagining the Tourism Development Tax for Orlando's Future

Broadening statutory uses and funding housing require state-law change followed by Orange County action. Transportation and resilience may fit the existing public-facilities lane only through project-specific tourism findings, TDC review, a two-thirds county vote, a confirmed match, and other conditions. Community-benefit terms depend on the funder and transaction and are further limited by Florida wage and public-works law.

Reimagining the Tourism Development Tax for Orlando's Future

Eskamani proposes state and local reforms to broaden Tourism Development Tax uses, including affordable housing near job centers, public transportation, climate-resilient infrastructure, and community-benefit agreements for public tourism investment.

The platform identifies real choices about who benefits from tourism revenue, but it is not yet a spending plan. Orlando's mayor may advocate and request county action; the Florida Legislature controls new uses and Orange County controls its tax plan, reserves, appropriations, and debt. The existing sixth-cent transfer sends half to Orlando for arena debt, not a general city allocation. Eskamani's two filed bills each died without a vote and only sought to remove the 40 percent advertising condition, leaving the authorized-use list and county project controls intact. Record FY2024-25 collections of $384.6 million coexist with debt, replacement, stabilization, and obligated reserves, while the 69 percent October 2020 year-over-year fall shows why recurring commitments require protection. Each proposed housing, transportation, resilience, or community-benefit use needs exact legal authority, a named project or transaction, lifecycle cost, competing-use analysis, responsible actors, and measurable results.

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Editorial photography for Arts & Athletics: Elevating Orlando's Cultural and Recreational Life

Orlando can improve its own permit workflow directly. Council must fund arts investment, city facilities, and adult and senior recreation. Public art on non-city property, arts education, film production, youth sports, and major events require property owners, schools, providers, Orange County, rights holders, venues, leagues, families, or private producers.

Arts & Athletics: Elevating Orlando's Cultural and Recreational Life

Eskamani proposes expanding public investment in artists and cultural institutions, adding public art, building arts education and career partnerships, reviving film and media production, streamlining film permits, investing in parks and athletic facilities, growing youth sports, supporting adult and senior recreation, and pursuing major sporting events.

This platform combines legitimate city services with five materially shared delivery lanes. Arts education and youth sports have promising evidence when the intervention and participation are defined; parks and facilities work best when capital is paired with programming and access. Film revival and the compound event-and-venue promise remain insufficiently specified: former film incentives and publicly funded venues supply conditional cautions, not findings about undefined service or existing-facility event models. Each proposal needs a distinct appropriation, owner, operator, partner agreement, lifecycle cost, participation measure, and attribution rule rather than one cultural and tourism success story.

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Editorial photography for Animal Welfare & Compassionate Communities

Six promises are available through Orlando ordinances, contracts, capital projects, or appropriations after Council action. Four depend materially on Orange County shelter, animal-control, emergency-management, criminal-enforcement, domestic-violence provider, or other outside capacity.

Animal Welfare & Compassionate Communities

Eskamani proposes stronger rescue partnerships, expanded low-cost spay and neuter and trap-neuter-return services, cooperation with Orange County on shelter outcomes, more adoption and fostering, stronger cruelty education and enforcement, pet-inclusive survivor housing, wildlife-conscious development, more dog parks and hydration stations, and pet-accommodating disaster shelters.

The strongest city role is to purchase defined additional capacity through Council-approved contracts, grants, facilities, or interlocal agreements and publish the result. Orange County already runs the core animal-control, shelter, veterinary-assistance, TNR, rescue, foster, adoption, and emergency-shelter channels; Orlando should identify a city-specific gap before adding money or duplicating operations. Each promise needs an assigned controller, service and population baseline, provider or staff capacity, unit and total cost, welfare and safety standards, nonduplicative outcome, and deadline.

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Editorial photography for Government Accountability, Transparency & Term Limits

Four commitments fit direct mayoral administration. Nine require Council procedure, legislation, appropriation, or permanent capacity. Term limits require shared action by Council or petitioners and majority voter approval in a charter referendum.

Government Accountability, Transparency & Term Limits

Eskamani proposes expanded meeting access, department goals and dashboards, later Council meetings, district participatory budgeting, digital tools, community input and civic education, stronger ethics oversight, term limits, aligned elections, and a new civic-engagement office.

This platform combines legitimate administrative upgrades with Council-controlled rules, a voter-controlled charter change, a state-authorized election ordinance, major technology procurements, and an undefined oversight system. Orlando already streams Council, supports digital participation, plans dashboards, maintains digital and engagement teams, and tracks lobbying and procurement. Florida enacted Form 6 disclosure for municipal officials, but the Commission on Ethics says enforcement is presently enjoined and those officials must file Form 1. The strongest practical findings are narrower: participatory budgeting can produce real participation if Council commits money and delivers projects; structured civic education can improve learning; and concurrent municipal elections increased European Parliament turnout in one study, though that does not directly establish an Orlando mayoral-turnout effect. The closest audited city chatbot instead found inconsistent answers and weak testing evidence. Every commitment needs a baseline, responsible actor, cost, service level, and measured result, while term limits require exact charter text and voter approval.

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Editorial photography for Volunteerism & City Engagement: Powering Change Through People

Orlando can directly organize employee service days and city cleanups or meetings. Seven promises require Council-funded staff, contracts, systems, or events, while nonprofit and institutional partnerships depend materially on outside organizations.

Volunteerism & City Engagement: Powering Change Through People

Eskamani proposes a One Orlando Civic Corps with training, flexible participation, and recognition; a mayoral volunteer-support department; nonprofit resource sharing; civic-skills workshops; a volunteer portal; interpretation, child-care, and transportation support; institutional partnerships; an annual week of service; employee service days; and neighborhood cleanups and town halls.

Orlando has authority and existing infrastructure to expand volunteer service, and the strongest evidence supports narrow programs with committed hosts, professional management, participant support, and measured projects. The platform does not yet distinguish expansion from duplication, define most operating models, price the recurring inputs, protect against labor and liability failures, or identify resident outcomes beyond participation and events.

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Editorial photography for Supporting Public Employees

The mayor can create feedback systems, convene labor meetings, and order an equity audit. Council must fund HR technology, professional development, and education support. Pay, leave, pensions, health coverage, mental-health capacity, remote-work terms, and outside worker supports also depend on bargaining agents, pension governance, providers, civil service, or other operators.

Supporting Public Employees

Eskamani proposes higher frontline wages, paid parental leave, pension protection, enhanced health coverage, modern HR systems, career and education support, expanded mental-health resources, employee feedback, consistent remote-work opportunities, monthly labor meetings, a workforce-equity audit, and connections to housing, transportation, and child care.

This platform combines three direct management actions with ten funded, negotiated, fiduciary, technical, or provider-dependent commitments. Paid parental leave, defined mental-health programs, and structured hybrid work have promising evidence, while the remaining proposals need specific mechanisms and Orlando baselines. A credible workforce plan would cost each recurring benefit, preserve bargaining and civil-service processes, distinguish pension solvency from benefit rhetoric, maintain department coverage, and measure vacancies, retention, employee access, service performance, equity, and cost for each promise separately.

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Editorial photography for Data-Driven Governance & Measuring Success

The mayor can direct department goals, benchmark publication, feedback practices, lawful disaggregation, and staff training. Council approval is required for material dashboards, a scorecard, a staffed performance office, open-data investment, and adopted budget changes. Civic-tech delivery also depends on independent university, startup, vendor, and data-owner decisions.

Data-Driven Governance & Measuring Success

Eskamani proposes measurable goals for every department, public benchmarks and timelines, real-time mobile dashboards, community feedback, a Community Impact Scorecard, disaggregated service data, a Mayor's Office of Performance and Innovation, civic-tech partnerships, staff training, open-data investment, and results-based budgeting.

This platform contains useful management tools, but measurement must be connected to decisions, program evaluation, and service outcomes. Orlando already operates an open-data portal, budget division, and digital-city planning functions, so each new product or office needs a diagnosed gap, responsible owner, Council-backed resources, privacy and security controls, maintenance, and an outcome test. The strongest elements are limited outcome goals and applied staff training; the largest claims remain undefined, costly, or vulnerable to target gaming and disclosure risk.

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