Indicating they have never been consulted by an Orange County mayoral candidate on critical issues affecting the African-American community, five prominent elected officials in Central Florida on Friday gave their support to Bill Segal, one of the candidates in the race for mayor of Orange County.
State Senator Gary Siplin, State Representative Geraldine Thompson, Eatonville Mayor Bruce Mount, and Orlando City Commissioners Samuel Ings and Daisy Lynum all said that they were pleased to support Bill Segal who had sought their input into bringing African-Americans more into the mainstream of the economic and social development of Orange County.
“It is the first time that a mayoral candidate has asked for my endorsement”, Senator Gary Siplin said. “We have a $72 billion state budget in Tallahassee which has an impact on Orange County…I am pleased to give ideas on how funding might be utilized for the benefit of the county, including African-Americans.”
The elected officials opined that access to jobs and the participation of minority-owned businesses was extremely limited over the years and expressed their satisfaction with Segal’s commitment to reverse this situation.
“Our endorsement of Bill Segal is the right thing to do at the right time”, Commissioner Lynum said. “We will hold him to his word.”
Segal, for his part, said that he values diversity and was honored to have the endorsement of these elected officials. If elected mayor, he gave an undertaking to strengthen the mayor’s office, making it more reflective of the diverse population of Orange County. The candidate gave a commitment as well, to beefing up the M/WBE Office (minority women-owned businesses), which is grossly under-resourced and currently unable to undertake out-reach activities, which Segal viewed as particularly important.
The candidate, who has anchored his campaign on job creation and public safety, reiterated that his top priority would be bringing new jobs into the area, as well as protecting existing jobs.
“Small businesses are the back-bone of Orange County”, Segal said. “I will do my best to make sure we retain the employers we have here and try to bring in new employment, new good employment.”
Segal said that communities like Eatonville and Pine Hills presented great opportunities for enhanced growth and development and looked forward to working with leaders and communities in bringing this about.  He gave an undertaking to working toward creating greater and safer neighborhoods, while providing more options for kids after they get out of school, all with the view to reducing juvenile crime.
The press conference was hosted by Pretty Women Consignment located at 6616 Old Winter Garden Road in the Oakhill Village Shopping Plaza.
It’s obvious which candidates don’t care about the Black and African American community when they know us but will not consult us. These candidates who all chose not to consult us have a vision for our community that obviously doesn’t include us. It’s fundamental really. If it’s not obvious who we should support, I would suggests we shouldn’t support any candidate not in the above picture.