“Orange County is a majority minority county,” Alicea said. “Over 60 percent of residents identify as Hispanic, Black, Asian or multiracial.”

Given those demographics, she said, at least five minority majority districts should be drawn by the committee moving forward.  

While race cannot be considered as the predominant factor in redistricting, Alicea said, it must be considered to ensure that minority voting strength is not diluted. 

“We're especially concerned about efforts to pack communities of color into single districts, which diminish their voice and influence across the map,” Alicea said. “It is entirely achievable to keep communities like Pine Hills, Conway and Azalea Park together, while also creating at least two majority black districts and three majority Hispanic districts.”

During the committee’s April 23 meeting, eight Democrats of the Orange County Legislative Delegation requested that the committee include two predominantly Black districts and at least two predominantly Hispanic districts to ensure that communities of color are fairly represented in the redistricting process. 

Orlando resident Samuel Vilchez Santiago, who is also chair of Orange County Democratic Party, told the committee that representation for Hispanic communities also needs to consider equity needs.

“We need to maintain the level of Hispanic representation,” Santiago said. “The Hispanic community is growing but at the same time we have to really think about where these different Hispanic communities are grouped when doing the mapping. If you put a low-income Hispanic community next to an affluent Caucasian community, it's going to be really difficult for that Hispanic community to be able to elect their commissioner of choice.”

Splitting cities

With those considerations in mind, the committee began discussing two maps submitted by committee member J. Gordon Spears — one he created; the other, sponsored by Spears and submitted by the League of Women Voters of Orange County.

Beginning with his own map, Spears said keeping certain municipalities together during redistricting is the right thing to do, but communities of interest should not be diluted while doing so. 

“There is one community that's way bigger than any other community in Orange County, and I'm talking, of course, about the City of Orlando,” Spears said. “While I think that it's very important that we respect the boundaries of the smaller communities, we also need to respect the boundaries of the City of Orlando and not dilute the voting power of the citizens of Orlando into many, many different county districts.” 

A majority of the committee rejected Spears’ map over diversity concerns. 

“We have here five white districts, one African American district, and two Hispanics,” committee member James Auffant said. “Even though, between the Hispanic community and the African American community, we're close to 60 percent, and if you add the others, we're close to 70 percent, this is, in my estimation, not a fair distribution.”

The “driving force” for the map from the League of Women Voters of Orange County was district history and a desire to keep communities together, according to the organization’s representative Eugene Stoccardo. And yet their map split the municipalities of Belle Isle, Ocoee and Winter Garden between districts. It also split the communities of Alafaya, Conway, Pine Hills and Union Park, which concerned some members. In addition, the map shifted incumbent District 6 Commissioner Mike Scott out of his district. Assistant County Attorney Shonda White had explained at the April 23 meeting that keeping commissioners in their districts was a “low priority,” but moving Scott out didn’t win the map any converts.  

“As member Auffant always reminds us, 70,000 people have to be removed from each of the districts,” committee member Bobby Olszewski said. “That is not lost on all of us, and I think there's a wise way to be able to carve out those 70,000 from each of the current districts … I think splitting up the cities of Ocoee and Winter Garden is not a wise idea when we're making a map for these eight new commission districts.”

Earlier in the meeting, committee co-chair Camille Evans said the committee had received letters from Winter Garden Mayor John Rees and Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson requesting that their cities, remain together within one commission district. 

“You asked for advice as to what could be done to improve this map,” Auffant told Stoccardo. “Don't divide Ocoee, don't divide Winter Garden and don't divide the communities that you divided, particularly Pine Hills.”

A motion to reject the League of Women Voters of Orange County map received majority approval from members, making it the third map to fail.   

The committee meets next on May 7 at the Orange County Administration Center in the Board of County Commissioners Chambers to discuss the map submitted by committee member Rishi Bagga. You can view all maps here.

The committee will continue to meet at the Orange County Administration Center until the redistricting plan is adopted in September. Meetings are open to the public.