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Elected three times to represent Orange County’s District 3, where she was born and raised and where she’s raised her own family, Mayra Uribe, 52, told VoxPopuli that it’s the mayor who really runs the show and she has a “vision for Orange County.”
Uribe faces Winter Park businessman Chris Messina, former Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, and Orange County Clerk of Courts Tiffany Moore Russell in the nonpartisan Aug. 18 election. If no candidate earns more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a run-off on Nov. 3.
The Orange County Mayor serves for four-years and earns $248,089 annually.
A first-generation American — her mother is from Argentina and her father from Colombia — Uribe grew up in a political household, volunteering for Mary Johnson, the first Hispanic to sit on the Orlando City Council and later the Orange County Commission. After high school, Uribe went to work as an aide to Bill Nelson for 10 years. “ I handled immigration, State Department, transportation, FEMA, major, major issues that affect our community,” she told VoxPopuli in a recent interview.
Uribe lost her first run for the county commission in 2010. She tried again in 2017 after nearly dying in childbirth with her son. The worst had nearly happened and it changed her worldview.
“What am I scared of? Losing? It can't kill me,” she said.
Uribe has already faced her first significant challenge over the timing of her resignation from the county commission. The Orange County Democrats wanted her to resign early to allow for a special election and prevent a gubernatorial appointment. Uribe refused — and objected to the party’s involvement in a nonpartisan election.
She told VoxPopuli that she had projects — parks, a homeless shelter — she wanted to ensure were funded; she wanted to participate in the county budget process and have a say in where the tourist development tax dollars were allocated. And she said her constituents depended on her for back-to-school drives and the 500 turkeys her office gives out at Thanksgiving.
“ Just an incredible amount of pressure [was] put on me,” Uribe said. “And you know what it made me learn? It made me learn that if I couldn't stand up for a little thing, what kind of mayor would I be to stand up for the hard things?”
Here, Uribe answers questions from VoxPopuli and the News Collaborative of Central Florida.
The number-one issue is affordability, which deals with both the high cost of living in this county and the need to attract higher paying jobs for our citizens.
Housing costs, both rental and home ownership, have exceeded the 25- to 30-percent threshold of the average income of our residents.
Growth of homeowner starter homes. For affordable housing that is owner occupied., we need to encourage, limit, or require a percentage of new houses be no more than 1,500 square feet. We need to grow the inventory of starter homes for our kids and the younger generation to have the opportunity of homeownership.
• Infill, transit interaction with new units, redevelopment of 1950s used car lots that stretch on existing state roads are the targets for townhomes.
• Recognize that we need more compact dense housing with readied transit.
• My team will engage with the state and other states to develop and expand the financing of owner-occupied units.
The number two issue is transportation with environmental protection. On transportation, I support strengthening and modernizing the Lynx transit system to better meet the needs of a growing Orange County, but expansion alone is not enough without meaningful reform and improved service efficiency. We need a more reliable, user-friendly system that includes smaller and more efficient buses, improved digital and web-based scheduling tools, and better-connected transfer stations, especially in the Eastern and Southern parts of the county. We also need express routes that reduce travel times. Transportation funding conversation must be grounded in accountability and focus on tangible improvements such as pedestrian safety, lighting, intersection upgrades, green spaces and trails, better traffic signal timing, and critical roadway improvements in high-impact corridors. We will improve the daily commute time by 10-15 minutes each way with simple smarter transportation solutions.
On environmental protection, I strongly support preserving Orange County's rural boundary and have demonstrated that commitment through my votes, including serving as the deciding vote on multiple occasions to prevent urban sprawl. As mayor, I will continue to lead efforts to protect our rural communities while promoting smart, responsible growth within our existing urban areas. Preserving our rural boundary also means protecting our wetlands, improving flood control, and safeguarding our natural resources with consistent, science-based standards across the county. It is time that we have one set of rules for wetland and flood control in Orange County, as those areas cross jurisdictional boundaries.
The number 3 issue is fiscal responsibility. While not glamorous, the third issue is maximizing the return to our citizens on their tax dollars. We need to efficiently spend. We need to live within our means. As mayor, my budget priorities will begin with protecting core services that residents rely on every day, including public safety, fire rescue, corrections, transportation, and critical infrastructure. For example, let’s look at public safety. While it will always be a funding priority, the increased costs need to be minimized. I have no problem paying the deputies and fire fighters and jail guards appropriately. But, at the same time, we need to find efficiencies in those budgets. I believe we have a responsibility to ensure every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely. I will implement a “zero-based budgeting approach” that requires every department to justify its spending, identify inefficiencies, and eliminate waste rather than simply increasing budgets year after year. Instead of tackling the waste and inefficiencies in the system, many budgets were increased by 20-40 percent under the current mayor. Under my leadership, this won’t happen again. I will also pursue greater operational efficiencies by centralizing and modernizing back-office functions across county government and exploring innovative approaches to reduce rising insurance costs, which now exceed $200 million annually for the General County Government, the Sheriff, Fire, Corrections and Constitutional Officers.
I want to make Orange County a better place where our children will want to and be able to work and prosper. I support private industry. I will hold people accountable in the spending of tax dollars. I challenged the status quo on tourism marketing spending, and they went after me for that when I simply thought they were granted too much money, and when two years later they would not return $20- t0 $40 million to the general fund that was improperly spent, I voted against giving them a free pass. I am now raising my children here and have been a champion for people. I know what it takes to make Orange County better with attainable housing, transportation, and good-paying jobs. I have made tough choices where my focus is on putting people first, not the status quo.
That is the Number 1 issue affecting our citizens. The cost of property insurance, transportation, and basic commodities is rising, making it difficult for working families, retirees, and young people to get by. As mayor, I’ll prioritize growing the workforce and affordable housing, making permitting easier to bring down housing costs, investing in transportation solutions that save residents time and money, and promoting economic growth that brings more higher-paying jobs in varied industries such as tech, auto, and manufacturing. I will also seek to minimize unnecessary regulatory burdens on small businesses, strengthen workforce development partnerships, and ensure public monies are spent wisely and transparently. The county can’t solve every affordability concern alone, but we can make wise local decisions that bring down the cost of living, improve economic opportunities, and support Orange County as a place where families can afford to live, work and prosper.
Florida's affordability challenges are real, and homeowners deserve meaningful property tax relief. I have yet to be provided in written detail on the effects on Orange County. As a homeowner, I support the raising of the homestead exception. And our county is better situated than Seminole or Osceola Counties with the amount of commercial taxable properties. But it is going to cause real problems in other counties and small cities within the county. I would have preferred an open discussion to provide offsets such as increasing taxes on tourism as the governor mentioned. Our citizens want efficient government. Some past practices need to change and efficiencies expanded. Constitutional votes are hard to take back. So, I am still uncertain as to whether we can govern with loss of revenue. I am waiting for more of the detail which has not been forthcoming.
Affordable, reliable utilities are critical to our residents’ quality of life and Orange County’s economic competitiveness. The general public should not subsidize the delivery of energy to data centers. We need to make sure that residential customers aren't unfairly stuck with increased energy costs as demand for electricity increases from data centers and other major industrial users. I think utility regulators need to demand more openness in how rates are set, look hard at the long-term impact of large energy consumers and make sure those that create big additional demand are paying their fair share for the infrastructure expenses needed to accommodate them. At the same time, Florida should continue to invest in grid modernization, energy efficiency and robust infrastructure to improve dependability and help limit long-term costs. We should be supporting innovation and economic progress while not saddling families, elderly and small businesses from subsidizing those uses.
Balancing expansion with the conservation of our natural resources is one of the greatest environmental concerns facing Orange County. As our population continues to grow, we must maintain our lakes, springs, watersheds, wetlands and drinking water, manage stormwater better and invest in resilient infrastructure that lowers flooding and protects our ecosystem. Smart growth implies combining economic development with conservation by protecting environmentally sensitive regions, increasing green spaces and ensuring new development is supported by the infrastructure needed to maintain sustainable communities. As mayor not only is conserving our environment about conservation, it's also about protecting public health, improving our economy and preserving the quality of life that makes Orange County a great place to live, work and raise a family. And, a hidden issue is that we need to protect our community’s water supply from development and for preservation of recreation. This has been silenced. We need to acquire areas where our water supply is recharged. I will engage on this issue, and develop a plan and start such purchases.
I’ve been meeting with a lot of folks in the manufacturing association — auto industry, space industry, chips. All of these folks are dying to come here. They do not feel welcome here.
They said when they deal with the county, they can't get any assistance. They can't get responses. It's like pulling teeth.
I met with one of their executives, and he goes, Do you understand we have states asking us to relocate there because of the quality of jobs? (And these are $80,000 and up jobs.) And it's very frustrating to talk to a government that doesn't even seem interested in wanting to have us here?
That is a common thread because we have become so subservient to tourism. When the average wage in tourism is $39,000, then you know what that means economically. I'm gonna completely change how that works. One, if you're creating any jobs, and you're gonna create jobs because of your building or your growth, you're a VIP for me, okay? We're gonna come in, and you are creating jobs that are $80,000, that kinda, that kinda job, I wanna know how I can connect you to the community to find people.
Start identifying kids in ninth grade and exposing them to the kind of options they can have and be successful in life without having to go to college if college is not for them. We don't need to wait till senior year to figure out you're not going to college. They can tell in ninth grade what, where that child is, how he's testing, and how he's doing education-wise Let's capture that child there and start training them in a way — and not do it the way we're doing now.
Now we're like, Oh, we'll put them at the Orlando Vo-Tech. Like, not even good enough to be with your peers. Stop that. When I was in high school, we had auto, we had shop we had typing. We had all those things in my high school as part of my curriculum to create a better professional person out the door. There's a lot of programs like at Valencia that do it. And so when we talk about possibly helping those kids get that foundation, let's do it through that state school where we can get a lot of those fees covered.
You talk to the residents. You engage the businesses. You engage the cities. I’ve gone around and met with lots of city managers and city mayors. They feel very disconnected from the county. And our number one pedestrian should be at the table with us — kids, the school system. You want to ensure that there isn’t one child on his way to school that can’t get to school safely, whether they want to ride a bike, whether they want to walk, skateboard, get on the bus whatever. They have to be at the table, and we've never included them.
We’re stuck with SunRail. There was an agreement done decades ago before we ever came into office. Right now, we’re subsidizing SunRail with around $17 million a year of general funds — about $40 a rider — because no one's riding it because it doesn't really benefit much. Let's be honest, probably one of the best investments is to get SunRail to go to the airport. And it needs to be open nights and weekends. But that also takes creating partnerships with private sectors. It means AdventHealth and Orlando Health should be part of this because we can't be expected to continue to pay for it all.
So the industry says, Well, this can only be used for the convention center, the Camping World, the Kia, blah, blah, blah. That's not true because we actually ended up giving more money to the arts. We actually supported UCF, because UCF has major games, and they contribute to that pot of money, and they well deserved it. So does the arts. So does the Mennello Museum. So do all of these things. But what happens is the industry will say, Well, you can't use it for anything else. Look at the law. But if you look further, you can, because infrastructure actually benefits and connects tourism. When you have better infrastructure and you have better public safety, tourists actually benefit from it. And outside of just paying a toll, they contribute zero to anything in this town, and it's not right. I'm not saying tourism should pay for it all, but they should be a contributor to the pot. They should, because they're gonna benefit a lot from it.
I'm a first-generation American. I am the only one in my family actually born in this country. It's a huge thing. My parents came to this country, I couldn't even imagine my parents going through this. But the type of profiling that took place with this is what's more disturbing.
No one should feel like they can't go to church or the grocery store. I've never supported that. But what is your status? Do you have a driver's license? There's a man, really nice guy. He got arrested because he was driving without a license. He got pulled over. And they took him. He should have never been driving, and he was in a car with people who could drive. Sometimes we can't control that circumstance, but we can control how to protect ourselves.
I feel that we should have figured it out a lot faster and a lot sooner because there was a lot of innocents that were taken and people who were put in situations, and even people who were legal who were put in situations, and we could have been more proactive about our community. I know plenty of people who have lied or came under a false passport and things like that. I was very mad at a lot of Hispanic attorneys that took advantage of immigrants and took their money.
I don't think the mayor handled it well. When you've got someone looming something over you, you don't disrespect that person. You actually say, Let's have a discussion. If you're going to show up to a gunfight with a knife, what really did you accomplish besides making us all look like idiots because you ended up folding at the end of the day? That's number one.
Number two, what kind of legal staff did we have reviewing this that it took them almost a year to figure out there were different ways to do this? And if our legal staff didn't know, that's when you immediately call counsel and say, We need some assistance with a federal indictment or a federal issue. Because it's that same staff that figured out we could do a BOA [basic ordering agreement]. It's basically a 48-hour hold, and we release them.
That's what upset me. That so many people suffered because we didn't step up and say, What are all of our options here? What we did is he waited till the last minute when DeSantis was on his way to Orange County with the attorney general to remove him. How many people and how many families suffered because we weren't prepared or didn't get proper legal counsel to help us through that federal issue? That's what's upsetting to me And so I would have a federal attorney on retainer or someone we can contact, so if this does happen, to say, Help us here.
Orange County Commissioner, District 3, 2018-Present
Elected official
Oak Ridge High School, 1991
