Note: This report is a work in progress - I will add more details to THIS page during the next week, including dates of public hearings, link to news articles, additions to the "issues" lists. If YOU have a comment regarding the proposed district boundary maps, post it under this article and I may add it to the article. My intention is to include all issues and info so residents can use it to send comments to the respective board members or make public input statements at the public hearings that will be scheduled in about two weeks to select district boundaries. I would also recommend you ASK your elected official what they think, because there may be other considerations they know about.
Tavares, FL - August 19, 2011 - This article is about the LOCAL Lake County district boundaries that will be changing for the County Commissioners AND for the Lake County School Board. Political boundaries must be changed every 10 years per State law to equalize the current population in the new districts. Lake County now has about 280,000 residents, so district boundaries must be redrawn so each of the five districts is about one fifth of the new population count. Each Board has five members, but the boundaries of their districts are NOT coordinated between the two Boards and will not be the same due to different decision criteria used by the two boards.
We are not covering the selection of STATE or Federal districts in this article. There is enough in the local papers.
Both Board districts must be redrawn to reflect a similar population count for each redrawn district. Since population has grown more in South County and the Triangle area, that results in the need to change boundaries.
As a general rule, both boards start by instructing staff to create an initial map that INCLUDES each existing commissioner in one of the new districts. If, instead, the proposed map had five districts, but two of the Commissioners (like Jennifer Hill and Jimmy Conner) were in the same new district, they would have to run against each other to select a winner. That isn't a popular option with incumbent officials. So, home location of existing Board members can result in some convoluted new boundaries.
Redrawing of District boundaries doesn't affect voters much, since they get to vote for all five positions in each of the Boards. Thus you could find yourself in a different Board district but still can vote for the official in your old district.
Each of these Boards will have a public meeting where the public can provide input, and the dates are below, plus I have added some issues and comments regarding the choices.
Lake County Board member districts
There are five County Commissioners, so these are the proposed maps for the five:
District 1 - Jennifer Hill (Leesburg area)
District 2 - Sean Parks - South Lake County/Clermont
District 3 - Jimmy Conner - Tavares, Howie
District 4 - Leslie Campione - Mount Dora, Sorrento
District 5 - Welton Cadwell - Umatilla, north Lake County from Lady Lake east.
These are the scanned choices of maps at the DailyCommercial website - they have more detail.
http://www.dailycommercial.com/www/img/081711redistricting.pdf
Here is the Link to the Lake County website, but the maps they show are not as detailed, BUT you can click on boxes and add city boundaries, etc since this is using the County's online GIS system. It also has a tab so you can see the CURRENT district map boundaries to compare to the new proposals.
Issues Regarding the choices for County Commissioner Districts:
- Currently, I don't think there is a consensus among the five County Commissioners on which map is appropriate. Thus you might ask them to get background.
- The South County has 40% of the new population, and various leaders want two district specifically drawn for them without extending them up to Leesburg.
- Jennifer Hill is expected to announce she will NOT run again for office. Thus her district theoretically could be drawn without her home being in it, and be specifically drawn as a second district in South county. However she has NOT yet announced her decision, which reduces alternative boundary designs. As a result, you get a convoluted map like number 4 & 5, with Jennifer's home in the far north of her district, and it's boundaries run all the way down to the lower south border of the county. Some pundits suggest those two maps were drawn to ensure Leesburg controls half of south county.
- Some proposed maps include retirement tracts like the Plantations in a south county district, when they prefer to be in a Leesburg district since their mailing address is Leesburg and they use water from the Leesburg water district.
- There are backroom comments that some of the districts are being drawn to make Jimmy Conner face a strong new candidate in his next election next year. Look for the two maps where Jennifer and Jimmy are in the same new district (maps 1 &3 ) Many voters in Jimmy's district don't want to "lose him" but political strategy groups may have other plans. Gee, Jimmy, what did you do to tick them off?
My Recommendation:
- If Jennifer Hill doesn't run, I like the logic of map 1 or 3, which leaves Jimmy Conner in the District but it runs to Leesburg, and that is where a strong opponent may come from.
- Thus, to mitigate the above, I think probably maps 4 or 5 will be selected.
Lake County School District Board - has five members
District 1 -
District 2 -
District 3 -
District 4 -
District 5 -
Here is their webpage on the redistricting plans. Look at the August 15th meeting slideshow, which is VERY good, with staff details on each proposed district, and you can clearly look at the detail slides to see where you might be in the new boundary plan. The Board selected option 7 by consensus as the ONLY choice to show voters. If you like a different plan, then tell them at the upcoming meeting.
The School District board met last Monday on August 15th and selected only ONE map to show the public for a decision at a public meeting.
Issues related to Lake County School District boundary maps:
- It appears the School Board has reached a consensus on a single map to discuss at the upcomng public hearings. It is number 7 in the links mentioned above for the August 15th meeting. Thus, unless there is some public outcry, I expect option 7 to be selected.
- Board member Jim Miller earlier proposed a map that had districts that followed city boundaries and was pretty logical. However, it resulted in several Board members who would not be in their old district and would have to run against each other. That wasn't popular and wasn't used.
- Miller also proposed that the School District and the County Districts follow the same boundaries and that wasn't even considered by the Lake County Commissioners. Thus boundaries for the two boards will be different.
- At a recent meeting, the School Board discussed several proposed boundary maps and only selected one to show the public at the upcoming public meeting. It was option 7 which is in the above mentioned August 15 online slideshow. If you look at each map, there is a box at the top that explains the logic for the design.
- The option 7 which was selected, tried to keep High Schools with their cities and include the FEEDER schools to the high schools in the same district. Thus the elementary and middle schools that "feed" students to a high school were all included in the same district if possible, which is a logical approach.
Recommendation:
- I think since option 7 was approved by all the Board members, it will probably be selected. It would still include a
