“I’ve tended to be a quieter commissioner,” says Cheryl Grieb, Kissimmee’s first gay elected official. “It’s tended to work well for me, because it’s like E.F. Hutton: When I do speak, people listen.”
Grieb, who has lived and worked in Osceola County for most of her life, was first elected in 2006. She is up for re-election in August.
Her post is significant to all LGBT people living in small Florida towns. Kissimmee has well over 50,000 people, but for most of its life, its population was barely over 5,000. In fact, it would’ve likely remained a small town if Walt Disney World hadn’t moved next door in 1971, about the same time a young Grieb and her family came to Central Florida from New Jersey.
“My mom was very strong. My father passed away two years earlier, and he left her with kids ranging from 10 months old to 12 years old,” Grieb said.
Grieb’s mom started doing real estate, later owning her own business. Grieb graduated from Osceola County High School, attended a semester at University of Florida, and then came back home to take a position at the front desk of her mom’s business. In 1991, Grieb bought the business. She sold it just over 12 years later.
Grieb never touts her sexual orientation, but she’s never hides it, either. Instead, she and her partner Patti Daugherty seek to improve the city’s downtown, battle rural sprawl, and help the local economy.
“I thought my being gay would come out during the election, and it did not become a big issue,” Grieb said.
There has only been a single incident, which occurred last summer. Fellow commissioner Art Otero made a motion to change the Kissimmee city logo to include the worlds “In God We Trust.” At first, Grieb was supportive, knowing they worked in an area that largely espoused spiritual and religious values.
However, at a July 28 commission meeting, Otero revealed more of his personal opinion on the matter: “This nation has been moving toward more liberal postures such as homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion and the legalization of marijuana.”
“I never felt that it was an attack on me personally,” Grieb says. “I know a lot of people feel that way, and it was unfortunate.”
The logo change was dropped. The official reason was the $200,000 cost to Kissimmee, which has felt the recent economic pinch. Kissimmee is the seat of Osceola County, which has the largest foreclosure rate in Central Florida.
“The economy as a whole is on everyone’s minds at the moment,” she said. “We’ve worked to have self-discipline as city employees and as citizens. We have a great city manager; we’ve done well overall with our finances.”
Grieb said, though there have been a few people laid off, the city tries to move employees around instead of putting them on unemployment. Grieb also uses her real estate knowledge to intelligently manage local growth and said she wanted to work with the city to ensure growth while maintaining some of Kissimmee’s charm.
“We basically changed an ordinance for the project saying they had to be 300 feet away from Broadway,” she said. “You can’t have those tall buildings that are going to dwarf, cover and shadow the old building. So we got the best of both worlds for that.”
It was that project that first energized her work as Commissioner.
Even though her sexual orientation hasn’t been an issue, Grieb recently asked her fellow commissioners to explore a domestic partnership benefit package. The mayor and other commissioners, even Otero, gave the nod to move forward.
“It’s not going to be just for gay partners; it’s for unmarried heterosexual partners as well,” she said. “We have a lot of elderly folks who for one reason or another cohabitate, and this will help them.”
So far, her levelheaded approach has served her well.
“I am the type of person who has to absorb information for a while, mull it around, look at pros and cons, look at consequences, and then come out with what I think and why,” Grieb says. “I feel people here appreciate that.”
