Jay Stainer, the City of Oviedo’s water conservation coordinator, told the Water Expo audience that the city enforces two local ordinances — one for potable irrigation and one for reclaimed water — and that enforcement is progressive: the first violation is a warning, subsequent violations can incur fines that are placed on a resident’s water bill and may lead to shutoff if unpaid. "The first one's a warning," Stainer said. "When I wrote the ordinance years ago, I put in the ordinance that we actually take the fine and put it on your water bill. And what does that mean? ... If you don't pay the fine... we shut your water off."

Stainer explained schedule rules: reclaimed‑water customers may irrigate three days a week under the city ordinance; potable‑water customers follow St. Johns River Water Management District rules (twice a week in summer, once a week in winter). He said the city can tighten schedules during droughts and that reclaimed‑supply shortages can limit reclaimed‑water availability because the city’s plant and interconnects with Seminole County have finite capacity.

On incentives, Stainer said the city will revive its H2OV2 incentive program (starting in the new budget year on Oct. 1) to help homeowners retrofit landscapes. The program pays up to $1,000 for retrofits in potable‑water service areas and offers other incentives such as free rain gauges, irrigation tune‑ups, low‑flow showerheads and toilet flappers. Participants may receive an automatic $50 for meeting retrofit goals, and an extra $50 for exceeding goals by 10 percent, he said. He asked homeowners and HOAs to work with their architectural review boards during retrofits and said the city provides free audits and technical assistance.

Stainer described demonstration projects that reduced irrigation volumes: one park (Friendship Park) used to require 4,000 gallons per irrigation event and, after installing a low‑irrigation surface (“Forever Lawn”), required none. The city reported that 14 landscape retrofits reduced irrigation from about 2,800,000 gallons to 1,700,000 gallons (a 41 percent reduction), and that a small well cohort showed a roughly 70 percent drop in annual use after retrofits.

He encouraged residents to apply for rebates, sign up for audits and to use smart controllers and micro‑irrigation. Stainer also said the city plans to tighten new‑construction turf limits from the current 30 percent high‑water‑use allowance to a forthcoming 20 percent threshold for irrigation zones.

Stainer closed by asking residents to participate in outreach events and school programs and by inviting HOAs to apply for district and city HOA rebate programs.