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Orange County’s Mid-Decennial Redistricting Advisory Committee approved three maps during its July 30 meeting at the Orange County Administration Center, the most decided in a single meeting by the committee tasked with turning six districts into eight.
That brings the total number of accepted maps to six, with submissions by committee members Tom Callan, Jason Henry and James Auffant. All were approved following lengthy public discussion and the committee's successful tackling of all eight proposals on the agenda.
Seven more maps will be reviewed during the committee’s meeting tonight, Aug. 6, after which members will start narrowing down the numbers of maps to present to the Board of County Commissioners.
“A lot of us [during the last redistricting] voted maps through because they were a good starting point and something to work with,” said Committee Co-Chair Camille Evans. “We may be able to up or down some of those maps until we get to two or three maps that we decide to really start tinkering with.”
Discussions to amend accepted maps will take place Aug. 12 and Aug. 28. The committee’s final recommendations are due Sept. 16.
Callan had two maps before the committee on July 30, opting to present both in the same turn.
Though his first submission had garnered the endorsement of Winter Park’s city commissioners and manager during the public comment period, it was Callan’s second map (labeled Map 4 on the Orange County redistricting page) that ultimately passed with an 11-3 vote, minus absent committee member Alejandro Pezzini.
“It's kind of just a nip and tuck idea behind doing this,” Callan said, comparing the two maps. “I don't know which one I like better. Tell you the truth, I don't know if I like either — the more I look at them, the more I could make a couple changes here or there.”
Callan-2 Map splits Belle Isle, Ocoee, Orlando and Winter Garden, in addition to splitting four communities of interest, including Alafaya, Lockhart, Oak Ridge and Pine Hills. Nine voting precincts would also be split, something the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office has previously asked committee members to avoid.
Discussion was mixed, with some committee members, like Angel de la Portilla and Joseph Kilsheimer, supporting advancing Callan’s proposal with amendments to avoid splitting communities like Ocoee and Lockhart.
“I think it's important to have a unified eastern district that represents a lot of those issues that are on the east side, so I am going to go ahead and vote to advance this,” added committee member Rishi Bagga. “I don't think I'd support it in its current form, but I think we can make some changes.”
Callan said the biggest difference between his maps was found in Callan-2 Map, where he’d retained the areas of I-Drive and Tangelo Park within District 6, and clarified that a portion of Pine Hills had needed to remain in District 2 to help balance the population.
Pine Hills residents have continually asked to be unified within one district, something Auffant believed could be achieved through the map amendment process by pulling the Metro West area out of District 6.
Henry disagreed with Auffant, calling Metro West an "important part” of District 6. He added he was “on the fence” about the Callan-2 Map, noting concerns regarding the county’s growing population.
“There's a lot of new multifamily units being built along the north I-Drive area, which is going to increase the population in a few years [and]....be different than what historically has been in District 6,” he said.
The sponsored Henry-1 Map (labeled Map 5 on the Orange County page), submitted by Winter Garden resident Roberta Walton Johnson, also received substantial public support from residents of District 6, which encompasses Pine Hills, Orlovista and Oak Ridge.
“We've talked a lot about maps and what people wanted, what communities are gonna be split, what communities are gonna be kept together,” Henry said. “You have a community here tonight that's telling you, ‘Hey, we got a map that we actually like’ … This is a collection of voices that have come together to show what they would like to see for their district.”
While many commenters noted that the map may still need some tweaking, they said it reflected the desires of the community.
Orange County Clerk of Court Tiffany Moore Russell urged the committee to “safeguard the integrity” of communities like Pine Hills and Tangelo Park by not removing or splitting them as it would “deprive” residents of the work they’d done to advance the area. She said that as a former District 6 commissioner herself, she believed the Henry-1 Map “protects District 6 the most.” And she asked the committee to ensure that “every neighborhood, whether in the heart of the city or along its edges, has a seat at the table.”
Johnson, who lived in District 6 for more than two decades, added that the map still addresses the needs of areas across the county, like the future growth of the Horizon West and Lake Nona communities.
This map splits Apopka, Ocoee, Orlando, Winter Garden and Winter Park, in addition to the communities of interest Clarcona, Holden Lakes, Orlovista, Union Park, Williamsburg and two voting precincts.
It also continues to split the community of Pine Hills, though the meeting’s discussions saw little to no pushback from the District 6 residents in attendance on that matter. Perhaps that’s because the Henry-1 Map would fulfill a different community desire — establishing two Black plurality districts. A plurality district includes a demographic that is just shy of a majority but that can still influence an election when joined by voters from other demographics — in this case in Districts 6 and 7.
Some committee members like Callan appreciated Henry’s configuration of the new District 6, but ultimately weren’t swayed by the rest of the map’s choices.
“My biggest beef with this is the splitting of the urban core into so many pieces,” Callan said. “That really dilutes the voting power of the residents of the urban core, so for those reasons, I'll be voting no on this.”
But other members like committee co-chair Evans saw potential for the Henry-1 Map.
“I agree there are some fixes that are needed, but like we've done with other maps that have made it thus far, I think that we need to have some good, strong ones in the queue for consideration going forward,” Evans said. “I think this is worthy of a vote of approval.”
Worthy it was — passing the committee with a 9-5 vote to accept.
District 6 concerns also popped up during the presentation for Auffant’s second sponsored map, which was submitted by Orange County resident Pedro Rodriguez Diaz. It was described as a collaborative effort with a friend that had been in the works “for a while.”
“The biggest concerns that were brought about by the board in all of the past meetings was [wanting] to represent each area fairly and connect them in ways that culturally make sense,” Diaz said.
He added the pair had focused on Districts 6 and 8 during the map’s creation, largely because of the debates about both in prior meetings.
“To maintain that [District 6] core, we made sure to connect Tangelo Park with a bit of a segment from the Pine Hills area,” Diaz said. “This did result in splitting of the Pine Hills community, however, we decided to minimize the splitting as much as we could [and made] Pine Hills the center focus of the new District 8.”
The Auffant-2 Map (labeled Map 6 on the Orange County page) would only split Orlando and Pine Hills across the districts, but would split a total of 25 voting precincts.
The map received minimal discussion from committee members, with Bagga opting to support the map’s advancement in order to make certain amendments before it passed in a 9-5 vote to accept with Pezzini absent.
View all accepted maps here.
Aug. 6
Aug. 12
Aug. 28
All meetings take place at 6 p.m. in the Board of County Commissioners Chambers at the Orange County Administration Center at 201 South Rosalind Avenue. Meetings are also live-streamed on Orange TV.
