Candidate Profile: Joseph McMullen

Were it not for a coin toss, Commissioner Joseph McMullen might have made history in in 2022, breaking Oakland’s 16-year election drought. Instead the coin toss results motivated the challenger to run for Seat 1, and it was former Commissioner Rick Polland who ran in the town’s first election in 16 years (he won handily) while McMullen was quietly re-seated on the town commission.

So it’s been since 2006 when McMullen, 58, claimed Seat 4. But this year, after 20 years on the town commission, McMullen has finally drawn an opponent: Anne Fulton, his neighbor in John's Landing and the resident who launched a recall campaign against him (and Polland) in 2024. (Polland resigned from the commission on Dec. 30, 2024.)

McMullen is sanguine about facing an opponent — even one who tried to oust him.

“Elections give people the opportunity to look closely at the issues, the proposed solutions, and how local decisions affect their daily lives, today and into the future,” he told VoxPopuli in an email after qualifying in November. “Residents involved in local issues are key to making a community a home. That’s why I first got involved in local government, and why I’ve stayed involved. I welcome anyone who wants to participate in our democracy and contribute thoughtful, proactive ideas for our community, including a challenger.”

McMullen told VoxPopuli in that same email that there were four parts to his “why” for stepping up for re-election:

• to build upon the progress of the past several years
• to keep our economy strong through sustainable development and sound fiscal management
• to [seek] mindful commercial and infrastructure development
• to connect homes to the sewer system and alternative water sources.
  

The election for Seat 4 and six charter amendments takes place March 10. Mail-in ballots must be returned to the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on that day. Early voting takes place daily March 2-8, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. See our guide for locations.

Town commissioners serve part-time for four years and earn a $50 monthly stipend, plus health insurance. There are no term limits.

Oakland’s man in the Capitols

A son of Miami who attended Florida A&M University on a marching band scholarship, McMullen may best be known in Orange County as the force behind HAPCO Music Foundation, a nonprofit, begun in 2007, that provides scholarships, master classes, clinics and performances for disadvantaged middle- and high-school students in music, visual and culinary arts in Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Divorced and with a daughter at his alma mater, McMullen is a pharmacist by profession — currently Centene Corporation’s pharmacy quality performance manager. He has a masters in health administration from Florida International University and is pursuing a doctorate in pharmacy from Shenandoah University in Virginia.

But in Oakland, McMullen is the town’s eyes and ears for policy at the county, state and national level. He briefly considered a run for the Florida state house himself when the Orange County Democrats approached him about challenging disgraced Republican Rep. Carolina Amesty in District 45 in 2024. (Leonard Spencer ran, and won, instead.)

McMullen has said in town commission meeting minutes — he declined to be interviewed for this voting guide — that it’s important for Oakland to be “part of the conversation” in Tallahassee and with more than just the town’s own state legislators pushing the town's narrative.

McMullen has said that he wants people to understand that there is a lot happening outside of Oakland that is going to affect residents. As an example, he pointed to the camping/public sleeping ban that went fully into effect in January 2025, with punitive measures for people who are homeless caught camping in public parks or sleeping in public areas. He noted that he’s met with a consortium comprised of mayors and commissioners from Longwood, Orlando, and Kissimmee to seek solutions to the regional housing crisis.

In 2014 and 2022, McMullen was honored with the Florida League of Cities’ Home Rule Hero Award. On his campaign site, McMullen states that he “has advocated for municipal home rule through annual state lobbying efforts since 2012, ensuring Oakland retains its local decision-making power.” However, laws like the anti-camping ban and Senate Bill 180, which came out of last year’s session and prohibits construction and development deemed “more restrictive or burdensome” than development standards that existed prior to Aug. 2024, demonstrate the challenges of preserving home rule when Tallahassee continues to dictate terms on more areas in the local purview like crosswalks, shade for outdoor workers, school library books and construction.

Budgets and finances

Town commission meeting minutes show that the commissioner values and advocates for fiscal responsibility. He has said the town must find a way to pay for its special events. He voted twice, in the minority, against spending additional monies to remove the sediment from the John’s Lake Outfall canal.

McMullen consistently pushed for a dedicated grant writer who could apply for state and federal funds to help offset the costs associated with the town’s septic to sewer and alternative water projects and build up the town’s reserves. For FY 2025-2026, $30,000 was put into the budget to hire a grant writer who was on board as of September 2025.  

And McMullen appears very concerned that a ballot amendment to eliminate property taxes could leave the town unable to sustain the public safety services and other infrastructure required to support residents. The upshot of that could be that unique, charming Oakland gets subsumed by a larger city.

On his campaign site, McMullen states under Accomplishments that he “maintained a balanced budget with clean audits, ensuring tax dollars are spent efficiently on high-priority needs.”

This needs some context. Budgets are developed annually by the town manager together with department directors, with the commission functioning as a governing board, voting to approve it once staff members have done the pencil work. The finance director prepares materials for the annual audit conducted by PurvisGray. This isn't the level that commissioners typically get involved in.

For the last two years, the town’s millage rate has been 6.7 mills — the highest since 2017 and the highest in the West Orange County area. (For comparison, the millage rate in Windermere, also a predominantly residential community, is 3.7425 mills.)

Some of Oakland’s high millage rate for FY 2024-2025 can be attributed to an increase in Orange County’s fire fee. At one point commissioners considered raising the millage to 6.9 mills to cover the increase, but the staff sharpened their pencils and found places to trim back — consolidating staff positions, eliminating unfilled staff positions, switching health insurance companies.

Without the fire fee increases, the millage would still be 6.3 mills, and in FY 2024-2025, $200,000 from reserves was required to balance the budget, leaving the contingency fund, which is tapped for emergencies, with $59,000. For FY 2025-2026, $500,000 was taken from the reserve fund to pay the remaining balance of the Orange County fire fee ($200,000) and balance the budget ($300,000). The estimated contingency fund is $302,590.

The point is that "maintaining the budget" is largely staff work. McMullen’s contribution, according to the minutes, was to request that the travel budget not be cut.

McMullen has positioned himself as a champion of the town’s septic to sewer conversion program and the alternative water project to shift residents away from using potable water for irrigation. On his site he says that the funding he’s secured has “successfully eliminated outdated septic systems and modernized utility infrastructure to protect local waterways and groundwater.”

Again, some context: Per the public works department, 71 septic systems have been removed to date. That’s just about 8 percent of the 921 septic systems that still need to be removed, a process that’s anticipated to cost an estimated $71.5 million and take the next 20 to 25 years.

About that recall

So, why did Fulton launch a recall campaign against McMullen after he nominated Commissioner Sal Ramos to retake the seat he vacated to run for mayor in 2024? We talk with Fulton about that in her profile, which you should read.

But there are two things that Commissioner McMullen has never answered:

* When Vice Mayor Mike Satterfield, Commissioner Rick Polland and McMullen together nominated Ramos to the commission after he'd lost the mayoral race, it appeared to be a coordinated effort to put him back on the commission. Both Satterfield and Polland denied working together when asked. Asked directly if there had been a coordinated effort to put Ramos on the commission, McMullen exclaimed, "That's illegal!"

That is true. It's also not the same thing as a denial.

* Eleven residents applied to be nominated for the open seat, and VoxPopuli obtained the scoring sheets through a public records request — McMullen and Taylor were the only ones to turn theirs in. Applicants were scored 1 to 5 on professional experience, community involvement, volunteer engagement, public speaking and educational background. All are subjective categories, with the exception of education.

On McMullen's scoring sheet, Motley came out 1 point behind Ramos, 24 to 25. McMullen had awarded Motley a 5 for her law degree, but he also gave Ramos a 5 for his high-school diploma. After re-nominating Ramos, McMullen told VoxPopuli “friendship was not on the ballot.”

But he never responded to VoxPopuli's emailed questions about his scoring rationale and how a high-school diploma equates to a juris doctor.