The Orange County Redistricting Advisory Committee held its first public hearing at the Pine Hills Community Center to confer with the community about public and board created map suggestions.
A little over 25 people were in attendance for tonight’s meeting where five different map proposals were considered, four from the committee and one from the public. Each map was explained in detail including how the new lines will affect race and population percentages from assistant county attorney Whitney Evers.
Once Evers finished her presentation on how each map would be considered from the perspective of the law the committee then proceeded to present the aforementioned redistricting proposals.
Kenneth Dwyer, President of the Pine Hills Community Council, has concerns about one map that would move district six northwest.
“The Apopka area has a development program where they can develop their program and leave Pine Hills and Orlo Vista out of it. But if the district moves south and west then Ocoee and Winter Garden would be included in the development program,” said Dwyer.
“I have a feeling that they are making district six more of a drive through area as opposed to an area to come to,” Dwyer continued.
For most residents in attendance for tonight’s meeting their concern was for the inclusion of their respective communities. While district six encompasses more than just Pine Hills those who live in the area have apprehension regarding how their voting bloc will be represented during the 2012 election process.
As district six currently stands there are 92,120 black residents within the district, 31,663 Hispanic residents, and 42,744 white residents. Percentage wise blacks make-up 59 percent of the total residency and with each proposal this would drop at least six percentage points.
That drop may be due in part to a fall in the overall African-American population and not just the way the district lines are being proposed.
The process of redrawing political boundaries for commission districts happens at least once every ten years based on the most recent Census numbers. This redistricting advisory committee is charged with making suggestions as to how the new commission district lines should be drawn and then presenting that information to the county commission.
County Commissioner Tiffany Moore-Russell, who represents district six, was in attendance for tonight’s hearing but left before the meeting was over.
As to the overall success of the hearing committee chair Derek Bruce said that he was pleased with the turnout from the public and the dialogue between the committee and the community.
“We got a lot of substantive comments on specific proposals where people said, ‘hey I see the map that has been proposed, I think something should be different’ and that’s going to be very helpful to us as we go through the process of trying to winnow down a mass of proposals to a number that is digestible for the board of county commissioners to consider,” said Bruce.
Chairman Bruce added that each public hearing is important because the way the lines are drawn will determine how the community is shaped, how it looks, and how each county commissioners communities will appear.
This was the first public hearing in a series of meetings that the committee will have in the coming weeks. The next meeting will be in district three at the Colonial high school auditorium from 6pm to 830pm.To find more information regarding the redistricting advisory committee and a list of
For more information on redistricting, please visit www.ocfl.net/rac.
by JH
