As a resident of Osceola County for over 30 years, I’ve been appalled to see its Board of County Commissioners deteriorate into a body that lacks transparency and ignores citizens’ input in their decisionmaking process. This was particularly and openly demonstrated throughout the 2021 Osceola county redistricting process.
In functioning democracies, voters should be responsible for choosing their elected leaders. Instead, in the United States, politicians have an unfortunate history of trying to pick who their voters are, utilizing gerrymandering tactics to crack or pack entire communities during the redistricting process in order to facilitate their reelections and the likelihood of winning of their party’s candidates. In Osceola County, through the redistricting process, our County Commissioners did not only try to pick their voters but also their opponents.
During an early December meeting, the Osceola BCC unanimously voted to adopt a new county district map that had not been previously discussed in public, effectively bypassing the Redistricting Advisory Committee (RAC) that they had appointed in September. A month earlier, during the Nov. 6 BCC meeting, the RAC, after meeting for close to two months, presented two final new map recommendations for public discussion. At that meeting, the Commissioners requested County Manager Don Fisher to draft and post a new map. As a result, this new map never got the same level of scrutiny from the public as the RAC’s recommended maps (Options A and B) that had been presented and discussed in at least three prior public meetings.
So, what changed from map to map? The District 4 southern boundary was moved about four blocks north, leaving my recently purchased home out of District 4, the same district where I own seven businesses. Why does this matter? I am running in 2022 to represent District 4 in the Osceola County Commission against incumbent Commissioner Cheryl Grieb, who just happened to be the listing agent on the new home my husband and I purchased early in November. In other words, Ms. Grieb had prior knowledge of where I was going to move to as redistricting was happening, and out of nowhere, we got a new map that places me, her only declared challenger, in a new district.
I don’t think that was a coincidence. Osceola County Commission District 4 will now have a 58 percent Hispanic demographic composition, with most voters being of Puerto Rican descent. I happen to be a bilingual Puerto Rican businesswoman and viable candidate running against an Anglo incumbent in an increasingly diverse district. Most importantly, the new map cracks the communities and neighborhoods of downtown Kissimmee, openly violating the need to place communities of interest together in redistricting.
Our elected officials have a responsibility to protect our democratic system at all levels. And that’s not what’s happening in Osceola County. Luckily, Osceola voters will get a chance to change course come August and November. I hope we vote to defend and protect our local democracy.
Jackie Espinosa is a candidate for Osceola County Commission District 4.
