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Concerns that the 2020 Census information is too “outdated” to be used in the county redistricting process surfaced as a central issue Thursday when the Orange County Redistricting Advisory Committee met for its third meeting at the Orange County Multicultural Center in Pine Hills located in District 6.
“I am here as I have learned that some on this committee are perfectly fine spending a lot of time and millions of dollars to turn our current six districts into eight while using obsolete data from the census taken in April 2020,” Orange County resident Hattie Bryant said during public comment.
Dr. Latanya Nichols, president of the Pine Hills Community Council Board of Directors, also objected to relying solely on data from the 2020 U.S. Census.
“We know that those numbers have changed; they are not the same,” she said. “When we think about our residents … whatever that number might look like, it is not that now. And we also know that the demographics have changed; we know that our household incomes have changed."
The 15-member advisory committee was created in January following a November ballot amendment to increase representation on the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. The committee is tasked with creating two additional county districts from the existing six to make eight county districts total. The committee will be drawing new district maps using the public software system called Dave’s Redistricting App, which is loaded with demographic data from the 2020 U.S. Census.
Assistant County Attorney Shonda White said that the committee is required to use the 2020 Census data.
“Both [state] statute and federal law require use of decennial census data, and that's because it's deemed most reliable,” she explained. “We can use the American Community Survey as well as the [Bureau of Economic and Business Research] data that is published by the University of Florida. But it's important to remember that these [additional data sets] are estimates.”
The American Community Survey is an annual demographics survey conducted by the U. S. Census Bureau, while the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research provides state and local population estimates and projections.
Priti Mathur, a representative for the advisory committee’s mapping consultant ARC Bridge, volunteered that the 2020 U.S. Census had the racial and ethnic information necessary for map-making, which elicited audible calls of disagreement from the audience. She quickly acknowledged the audience reaction.
“I’m not saying that we should stick to Census 2020,” Mathur said. “We should because that is a legal requirement, but we can get additional data, which is more updated.”
Committee co-chairman Tico Perez asked attendees to refrain from interrupting the consultant, adding that efforts would be made to ensure members have access to multiple data sets. And he reminded meeting attendees that the process needed a starting point.
“A starting point in this case is going to be the 2020 Census data, because it has all of the additional racial data and other data that we need to make the maps,” he said.
The committee can refer to additional data sets while creating their maps, but adding them directly to the map-making software could burden the system, noted Scott Skraban, Orange County deputy director of planning, zoning and environmental protection.
“We can provide the information so that it's easy, or we can add it into the Dave’s Redistricting software, which could potentially slow it down and make it a little more confusing,” Skabran said.
The advisory committee will hold its next five meetings in Districts 1 through 5, allowing residents of each district the opportunity to offer input on the redistricting efforts without having to go downtown. Those who cannot attend meetings but would like to make comments can fill out and submit an online public comment form here.
The deadline for committee members to submit maps for consideration is 11:59 p.m. July 3. The final map will be adopted Sept. 3.
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Upcoming District Meetings
DISTRICT 2: Wednesday, April 2, 6 to 9 p.m., John Bridges Community Center, 445 W. 13th Street, Apopka
DISTRICT 4: Thursday, April 10, 6 to 9 p.m., Meadow Woods Recreation Center, 1751 Rhode Island Woods Circle, Orlando
DISTRICT 5: Tuesday, April 15, 6 to 9 p.m., Goldenrod Recreation Center, 4863 N. Goldenrod Road, Winter Park
DISTRICT 1: Wednesday, April 23, 6 to 9 p.m., West Orange Recreation Center, 309 SW Crown Point Road, Winter Garden
DISTRICT 3: Wednesday, April 30, 6 to 9 p.m., South Econ Recreation Center, 3850 S. Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando
