Kelli Marks for 1st Orange City Woman Mayor

Welcome to Kelli Marks for Mayor 2024 campaign page! She is so excited to run for your first woman Mayor of Orange City! If you ask anyone around town, Marks gets things done! Marks's goal for you is to show the residents that they do have a voice, smart and responsible development, keep taxes low, support public safety, and work with our state legislators on allocating money to Orange City's infrastructure and projects. Marks has been a part in the decision to re-pipe the city to maintain clean and good water quality. With the septic-to-sewer project the current council approved, this is a good start. Marks has been a proven leader and is an advocate in our community for change. She believes that if the citizens are behind her, that we will see a positive change. She was Vice Mayor for two years on the council and is ready to make an impact.

Some of the projects that she has worked on are:

Smart and Responsible Development- Marks went to the city manager and requested to slow down development. Thanks to our current council, we have a temporary moratorium on development in Orange City. Due to the "Live Local Act" that the State of Florida has pre-empted. We will not be able to stop development completely, but at least it is temporarily stalled.
She supports Public Safety- When she first came on the City Council, she took tours of all of our Public Safety facilities. This is when she realized that our Police and fire stations were operating out of facilities that were less than adequate and needed attention. This year, Marks took part of a facilities plan to build a new Police station and Fire house with the current council. This is progress! In addition, a new Public Works facility that is much needed has been added on the facilities plan.
Clean Water- Marks took part in voting to add the Green Sand Filter to help in cleaning up our water system. Water is Life! We have a lot to do still!
More Social Media Presence- Since she joined the City Council 5 years ago, she added a city Facebook page to have another outlet of communication with our residents. Now, All current City Council members have a city Facebook to do the same. Also, our Public Information Officer has sharing communications to get the news out to our residents of events and happenings more and more. She suggested to our city council to live stream our council meetings for our residents, who can't make it out in person on the night of our meetings. As a result, the council approved our meetings to be live streamed on UTube. The residents, now can see the expressions and comments of the City Council members and watch our entire meetings at their leisure from the comforts of their home.
Sidewalks to make it safe for our residents- Marks requested sidewalks be added to East Landsdowne Ave to keep our residents safe. Residents that walk to the nearby Dollar General were walking ion the road, due to no sidewalk. This is in process!
Crosswalks on Graves- Marks has asked to add crosswalks on Graves to practice safe crossing for our residents on a very busy road.
Voted against a Special Assessment tax- for Kentucky Avenue residents, who are mostly on a fixed income.
Voted no to "No Smoking in the City Parks"- She believes that their should have been a compromise to have a designated smoking area and this proposal was not a one size fits all. We represent ALL residents.
She would like to work on our Building Permit applications go to an online platform -To ensure an efficient process for the contractors.
She would like to work on our Sign ordinance updated to be more business friendly.
She would like to work on updating our City Charter -It has been a long time coming for that!
She was a part of the "Downtown Beautification Project"- to add benches, lighting, and off-street parking to enhance our City and contracted events right in the heart of our city.
She handed out over 2000 flags to our residents to honor our fallen Veterans on Memorial Holiday 2023- and to invite residents to show unity in the community by displaying the flags at several homes as a unity project.
She is the President and Founder of Backpack Buddies-Marks saw a need in the Orange City community and reacted quickly. With the help of hundreds of volunteers she started feeding residents from her living room during the Covid-19 Pandemic and feeding over 500 children weekly at 6 local schools. She offered food giveaways monthly to our local families in need. She has made partnerships with many prominent companies who still till this day support families and children in need. Now this organization has two employees and resides at a 5000 sq Ft facility.
She is the current President of a local Woman's Club, V.I.A Orange City Woman's Club-which has been in existence for 130 years. She is determined to keep this club going for a very long time. This club is known for Sisterhood and Service and Marks, took part in putting together "Our Story" of Orange City. This book shares the history of Orange City from the 1800s till present.
She supports Community Engagement/Events for our residents - She was able to bring the Easter bunny in on VCSO Air One helicopter to our residents for Easter this year through her non-profit and offered a FREE Kids Fest for the 4th year for our kids and their families to enjoy. Also, she would like to see a community center built in the future for our residents to enjoy. She has over 20 years experience in the Events industry and loves to see the smiles of our residents at the city events that are held.
Stay tuned! More to be added soon!

Let's make history together! Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have at Marks4Mayor@gmail.com

If you would like to help with the Marks campaign, please fill out the volunteer form.

Let's do this Orange City!