Florida created its first recall process for community development district boards
Florida created its first recall process for community development district boards
2026-09-10 · Florida · Legislation
What happened. Florida enacted the first process for recalling members of a community development district board of supervisors. CS/CS/SB 1180 was signed in June 2026 and took effect on 1 July 2026 as Chapter 2026-164, Laws of Florida. It passed the Senate 37-0 and the House 112-0.1
Until this law, there was no mechanism at all to remove a CDD supervisor mid-term.
How the recall works
The grounds are malfeasance, neglect of duty, incompetence, felony conviction, drunkenness, or inability to perform the duties of office. Ten percent of registered CDD voters must sign the petition; the county supervisor of elections verifies the signatures; and a supervisor facing recall may file a defence of up to 200 words.
Why CDDs matter to Florida homeowners who have never heard of them
A community development district is a special-purpose local government created to finance and maintain infrastructure — roads, drainage, utilities, amenities — in a new development. It is a governance layer many Florida homeowners live under without realising it, because it is separate from the homeowners' association.
The distinction that matters most is financial. A CDD levies through the property tax bill, not through the association. Owners in a community with both a CDD and an HOA pay two sets of obligations, collected by two different mechanisms, governed by two different boards, under two different statutory regimes.
A CDD is not a Chapter 718, 719 or 720 association, and the community-association statutes do not apply to it.
The dispute that produced the bill
The legislation followed a fight at the Concorde Estates Community Development District in Osceola County. Residents allege the district spent roughly $900,000 in 20 days in December 2024 — about half its annual budget — with no board vote and no receipts. WFTV reported that the Osceola County Tax Collector deposited nearly $2 million into the district account in December and that nearly half was spent within days.2
Residents further allege more than $500,000 in what they describe as excessive and potentially unlawful compensation to the district president and family members, against a statutory cap of $4,800 per board member per year, and describe individual cheques of $10,000, $15,000, $25,000 and $120,000.
These are allegations. Board chairman Victor Cruz has said independent financial audits “have not identified any findings of fraud or material misappropriation of funds.”
Where the investigations actually stand — and what does not yet exist
This is the part most coverage gets wrong, so it is worth stating precisely.
The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee voted unanimously on 17-18 November 2025 to request an Auditor General operational audit of the district. That audit's findings are due for the 2027 session. No audit report exists today. Any claim citing Auditor General findings about Concorde Estates is citing something that has not been published.
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office referred its investigation to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, reported in February 2026. There has been no public FDLE update since, and no public case number.
Residents Aidee Velez and Debbie Zertuche drove the complaint; board member Robin McNeil requested the audit; and Sen. Kristen Arrington, whose district includes Kissimmee, carried it to the committee and filed the recall bill.
Not an isolated district
Suncoast Searchlight's reporting identified two other districts where residents raised similar complaints — Belmont Lakes in Broward County and Harrison Ranch in Manatee County — and reported that nearly 90 developer-organised special districts between Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties issued $2.9 billion in bonds over five years.3
That figure is the reason a recall mechanism matters. CDDs carry substantial public debt, levy on the tax roll, and until 1 July 2026 their supervisors were effectively unremovable between elections.
How a recall would actually run
The mechanics reward preparation, and three points are worth understanding before starting.
The denominator is registered voters within the district, not homeowners, not lot owners and not association members. In a district still partly under developer control, or with a substantial non-resident ownership, that number can differ sharply from what residents expect.
Verification runs through the county supervisor of elections, which imports the ordinary petition disciplines: signatures must match registrations, and the form matters.
The grounds are specific. Malfeasance, neglect of duty, incompetence, felony conviction, drunkenness or inability to perform. Disagreement with a spending decision is not on the list, though conduct underlying a spending decision might be.
The other CDD provision in the same act
SB 1180 also provides that synthetic-turf rules do not apply to community development districts enforcing deed restrictions on synthetic turf.
A related correction is worth carrying, because it circulates persistently. Chapter 2025-140 (HB 683) created a synthetic-turf provision binding local governments; the words “condominium” and “homeowners' association” appear nowhere in that act. HOA artificial-turf rights come from s. 720.3045, as amended in 2024 — not from HB 683 and not from SB 1180.
What owners in a CDD community should do now
- Establish which entity governs what. Read your tax bill: the CDD assessment appears there as a non-ad-valorem line. Amenity ownership, road maintenance and drainage are often the district's rather than the association's, and residents frequently complain to the wrong board.
- Attend and read. CDD boards are public bodies subject to Florida's public-meeting and public-records laws — a materially stronger transparency regime than Chapter 720. Agendas, minutes and financial reports are public records you can request without an association records demand.
- Check the compensation cap. The $4,800 per supervisor per year figure is the statutory reference point in the Concorde Estates allegations, and it is a number any resident can compare against published district financials.
- Know that the association route does not apply. DBPR has no jurisdiction over a CDD, and neither does Chapter 720's pre-suit mediation process.
What to watch next
Two dates. The Auditor General's operational audit of Concorde Estates is due for the 2027 session, which convenes on 2 March 2027 — that is when findings, if any, become public. And the first recall petitions under the new process will show whether a ten percent threshold is a workable one in districts where residency and voter registration diverge.
Related Florida HOA Topics
Stay on top of Florida HOA law
Every week: new Florida legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.