Although the agenda item – authorization for the County attorney to enter into a fee agreement with George Meros of the law firm, GrayRobinson – was pulled without explanation from the Orange County Commission board meeting on Tuesday, that did not prevent Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) from schooling Mayor Teresa Jacobs and the rest of the Commission in how a representative democracy ought to function.
Without fanfare, Grayson urged the Board to take a closer look at the proposed expenditure of $340,000 to defend against a lawsuit brought by LatinoJustice, over the redistricting plan adopted by the County in 2011. The lawsuit contends that, notwithstanding the near doubling in size of the Latino population in the county from 18.8 percent in 2000 to 26.9 percent currently, Latinos still do not have a Latino-district in the County Commission. The suit also claims that, in District 3, the County Commission chose to adopt a redistricting plan with a Latino population of 41% (down from 45% in 2000), notwithstanding the submission of at least one community plan with an over 50% Latino voting age population.
“While I appreciate that you have removed the $340,000 [agenda item] that you proposed to spend on high price lawyers and a well-connected law firm….this is money that can be used for other and better purposes,” said Grayson.
Grayson said currently, about 20% of citizens in Orange County didn’t have health coverage, 40% of Latinos lacked health coverage and that there is a health crisis, as well as a housing crisis in Orange and Osceola County.
“We cannot possibly justify $340,000 to do work that should in fact be done by the County Attorney and his staff,” he said.
Grayson reminded the Commission that it was only last year the people of Florida voted overwhelming to end gerrymandering by a 63-37 vote and expressed his concern that hundreds of thousands might be used to defend against a lawsuit that has merit.
“For too long, over 100 years now, we see people in power manipulate the circumstances. They can choose their voters; that is not democracy,” he said, to rousing applause. “Democracy is when voters choose their elected officials not the elected officials choose the voters.”
Grayson also urged the Board to take the responsibility of redistricting and give it to an impartial body to carry out. “It is not appropriate for this body to determine this body’s district lines. That doesn’t make any sense.”
The Congressman also blasted the Commission for its failure to put on the ballot the earned sick leave initiative, despite a petition that had garnered the signatures of 52,000 Orange County residents.
“This body went through all sorts of gyrations and contortions to prevent that from happening,” Grayson charged. “Much of what you did internally, the way you consorted with lobbyists is now a matter of public record or on its way to becoming so.”
“I ask you to consider the morality of what you have done,” he said.
Grayson continued: “In every one of your cases – 50,000, or 100,000 or 200,000 people are relying upon you to do the right thing. You are supposed to be representing them. They have no where else to turn.”
“You have to discharge your responsibilities in a way that reflects the will of the people, not try to subvert the will of the people – whether it’s in regard to gerrymandering, with regard to anything that the people want. With regard to democracy, there simply cannot be any alternative except through accepting the will of the people,” Grayson said.
While the next steps are unclear, Jacobs said that the County has a “strong and long history of electing Hispanics,” although no Hispanic currently serves on the Commission.
“I don’t accept our community is that discriminatory,” said Jacobs. “That’s not what I see when I walk around.”
Jacobs added that, which ever redistricting map was approved, the Commission would have faced a legal challenge.
The Commission also heard comments from fifteen other Orange County residents and several members of the Alliance for Justice, including Doug Head, Carlos Guzman, Raoul Ramos, David Rucker, Lawanna Gelzer, Trini Quiroz and Jim Callahan, almost all of whom urged the Board not to waste taxpayer dollars in defending against the redistricting lawsuit, but instead to settle the matter fairly with LatinoJustice and District 3 residents, who are also parties to the suit.
