Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager,

Please read below regarding former Commissioner Cannon’s nomination to receive the Key to the City.

Item 500: Consideration of Presenting Kevin Cannon with the Key to the City. 

When I learned that Kevin Cannon was under consideration to be awarded the Key to the City, I was appalled. If you were to ask most, if not all, City Commissioners in all six cities in Seminole County, our County Commissioners, and State Representatives to describe Winter Springs government and politics during Mr. Cannon’s time in office, you would hear words like toxic, dysfunctional, and even corrupt. This was especially true since 2018 and 2020, when Mr. Cannon was successful in getting his friends elected who were more than willing to support his agenda. 

On many occasions, Mr. Cannon tried to intimidate his critics, usually Winter Springs residents, with legal tactics such as cease and desist orders that were meritless. In 2021, Mr. Cannon, along with the entire Commission and Mayor, weaponized our city government against their political rivals and predecessors to deflect blame away from their own failures and incompetence by serving subpoenas and conducting a “Show Trial”. This public theater, paid for with public funds was an abject failure as it merely shed light on how corrupt our Mayor and Commission had become. The irony of it all, was that Mr. Cannon was a City Commissioner for the duration of the time-period in question and should have been subpoenaed as part of the investigation, if it was honest. 

In 2020, Mr. Cannon threatened all 394 households in the Winding Hollow subdivision that he would try to collect, as a licensed private Attorney, $2,000 to $3,000 per household if his client’s lawsuit prevailed. At that time, Commissioner Cannon threatened to take approximately 

$1million (stated in his legal filing) from an entire neighborhood of citizens that he swore to serve while defending a man (former WH HOA President) whom that neighborhood was suing for stealing from them. The document that I just referenced was filed July 10th, 2020. We were four months into the government lockdowns for the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of Americans had lost their jobs, many in Winter Springs, and a sitting Winter Springs Commissioner was trying to get rich off the citizens, many of whom had just lost their job. This is not the act of a selfless citizen representative who deserves to be honored for service to his community by being awarded the Key to the City. To the contrary, he deserved to be kicked out of office, and he was. 

If all these facts were not evidence enough to deny Mr. Cannon recognition for service to his community, then the fact that he was arrested for assaulting his wife should seal it. Obviously, any one of these facts disqualify Mr. Cannon from even being considered for recognition in our community. Mr. Cannon’s nomination, however insulting, was not a surprise considering the Commissioner who made it. That Commissioner was Ted Johnson, who himself had an Election Fraud complaint filed against him a few months ago for using his elected office and public funds to support and promote his 2020 election campaign, and I believe those election law violations are felonies under Florida Law. 

These are just some of the reasons why Mr. Cannon should not be awarded the Key to the City.

Best Regards,

Geoff Kendrick

Former Winter Springs Commissioner