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Correction: A previous version of this story said that term limits didn't apply to commissioners elected prior to 2022. That's incorrect. Starting in 2022, commissioners can serve two four-year terms, regardless of how long they've been in office.
Before he gaveled Ocoee’s city commission meeting closed Tuesday, Mayor Rusty Johnson, 80, announced that, per the city charter, Commissioners Rosemary Wilsen, Richard Firstner and himself were not term-limited as previously understood. Because of that, he said, he plans to run again for mayor once his current term ends in 2027. It would be his fourth term.
“Back during election time, I was told that after 2027, I wouldn’t be able to run for mayor again. That’s not true,” Johnson said from the dais. He said he learned that the charter would permit another term about three weeks ago.
“I’ve had a lot of people I’ve talked to about it. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it. And I am going to run again,” he said.
Johnson later told VoxPopuli that a question from Commissioner George Oliver III about his own term limits — presumably because he vacated his seat in 2023 to run for mayor and was re-elected in a special election in 2024 to fill out the remaining year on his term — prompted a fresh look at the eligibility language.
Ocoee voters instituted term limits in 2018, and they became effective in 2022.
Under § C-11 in the city charter (the section that deals with candidate eligibility), it states, “Effective with each first full term commencing following January 1, 2022, the mayor or a commissioner who has held the same district office for two full terms is prohibited from appearing on the ballot for election to that office.” [Italics added.]
What that means, Ocoee city attorney Rick Geller told VoxPopuli by email, is that “term limits do not include any terms of office that began before January 1, 2022.”
That applies to every commissioner except District 1 Commissioner Scott Kennedy, who was elected in 2023.
Johnson was first elected mayor in 2015 in a special election to replace Mayor S. Scott Vandergrift who resigned for health reasons. Prior to that Johnson served 29 years as a city commissioner, first in District 1 (1986-1997) and then in District 3 (1997-2015).
Asked if Oliver’s refusal to commit to a full term as District 4 commissioner if re-elected during the Feb. 12 Political Forum — a possible sign of his own plan to make a second run for mayor — factored into his decision to seek a fourth term, Johnson said no.
“I’m not doing it because of him. I’m doing it because of this city,” said Johnson who won the 2023 mayoral election with 61 percent of the vote to Oliver’s 27 percent. A third candidate, Chris Adkins, pulled 12 percent.
Johnson told VoxPopuli that he always wanted to seek another term but was told he was term-limited. Now he can, and he wants to see the projects the city started — the road projects, the sports complex — come to fruition. He said he'll serve “as long as I’m in good health.”
“I know I can do what is right for Ocoee,” he said. “I know what we have to do for the next five years.”
