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The Mid-Decennial Redistricting Advisory Committee did its work. Now it’s up to the Orange County Board of Commissioners to decide which of two very similar maps — Map 1A and Map 7B — presented to the commission Sept. 16, will be used to redraw the county’s voting districts.
The redistricting committee was tasked with developing maps to recommend to the commission following a November ballot measure that mandated additional representation on the county commission. Commissioners are expected to make the final decision at the Oct. 14 public hearing. A plan must be adopted by the Nov. 1 deadline.
When Mayor Jerry L. Demings asked for a consensus during the meeting, District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore and District 3 Commissioner Mayra Uribe said they favored Map 1A while District 1 Commissioner Nicole Wilson and District 6 Commissioner Mike Scott favored Map 7B.
District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad and District 4 Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero said they could support both maps.
Demings said while it would be wonderful to have a unanimous vote, he, too, could support either map and would “go with what I perceive as the majority of the board.”
“If we can't get a unanimous vote, we can't get a unanimous vote,” he said. “ … [But] I'm not fearful of any one of the maps for the people who live here, that somehow they won't have representation.”
Demings added that he was pleased that the county commission board wasn’t “just trying to rethink and relitigate everything.”
Redistricting committee member James Auffant, who created the original Map 1A, echoed that, saying, “We spent 23 weeks doing this. Be careful trying to change the hard work that we've done. I would appreciate that.”
Both maps are similar in that they alter the makeup of Districts 6, 3 and 4 and maintain Winter Garden, Oakland, Windermere, Tildenville and Horizon West in District 1 and Ocoee in District 2. But they shuffle around the district placement of Winter Park.
Map 7B keeps Winter Park within District 5 and pairs it with East Orange County communities like Bithlo, Christmas, Goldenrod and Wedgefield. Map 1A places Winter Park in the new District 7, along with Eatonville, Maitland, Fairview Shores and Pine Hills — a change that the city’s elected officials say they prefer.
“The gerrymandering in Map 7B to include Winter Park would make Texas proud,” Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio told the county commission Tuesday. “There is absolutely no compatibility, collaboration, contingent, border or community between us [and the District 5 east county area.]”
Winter Park City Commissioner Craig Russell agreed, saying Map 1A places the city with communities that share its "character and challenges,” while Map 7B ties it to rural communities in East Orange County whose priorities are “fundamentally different.”
