Advice for Winter Park’s new mayor: Embrace inclusion

Congratulations to Winter Park’s new mayor, Phil Anderson. Winter Park’s residents are passionate and there was a significant increase in voter turnout in this race, especially among the younger residents of Winter Park.

There is one area where Anderson can prove he will be a mayor for all residents: diversity and inclusion.

Last year, the residents of Winter Park approved several changes to the city’s charter that reflected a desire for the city’s government to be more diverse, including making the language in the charter more gender-neutral and changing the appointment power of the mayor.

Prior to the 2020 election, the mayor of Winter Park appointed all citizen Board seats. These advisory boards cover numerous aspects of Winter Park: our lakes, economic development, the Winter Park 9 golf course and the Planning and Zoning board that recommends whether or not the Winter Park City Commission approves residential and commercial real-estate projects.

The voters of Winter Park overwhelmingly approved this change to the charter. As a result, the citizen boards of Winter Park added more women and people of color to its citizen boards. While this was a good start, the process for appointing citizen boards can be improved. This improvement can start by making sure that the boards accurately reflect Winter Park’s demographics.

Unlike many of our neighboring communities, our current application does not ask for any demographic information. You cannot achieve true diversity without factoring in age, race and gender. A simple addition to the application following proper data-collection protocols would allow the mayor to appoint citizen boards that accurately reflect the diversity of our community.

Our new mayor should also be intentional about encouraging younger professionals to apply to the citizen boards. The average age of Winter Park residents is 44 years old. Having more board members who are in their early to mid-career stage brings a different perspective to each board.

Inclusion is another area where our new mayor can show some leadership. City Commission meetings start at 3:30, a time when many residents are working. Public comment has traditionally started at 5:00 p.m. These times do not account for the realities that preclude residents from participating in city government.

The commission should change the start time of their meetings to 5:30 p.m. and explore how technology can be utilized to increase citizen engagement. During the campaign, Mayorelect Anderson said that he is in favor of using workshops to discuss important city business. He should ensure that the workshops are properly noticed and not conducted during times when the residents are working at their jobs. In addition, all workshops should allow ample time for public comment. Anderson should form an equity board that will examine and offer recommendations on how Winter Park can achieve these goals.

Finally, our new mayor will preside over the opening of the city’s new library. We are incredibly grateful to outgoing Mayor Steve Leary for his leadership in delivering a new library to the residents of Winter Park at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The significance of this move to Winter Park’s west side is an opportunity for our library to continue to deliver strong curriculum to all of our patrons. We look forward to working with Anderson on keeping the library as an inclusive place for all residents on their lifelong journey of learning and discovery.

Dr. King said that a good leader is not searching for consensus, but a molder of consensus. We wish our new mayor success and hope that he molds consensus around diversity and inclusion in Winter Park.

FEMA vaccination site was quick, easy

I want to thank the Sentinel for the article that appeared online Tuesday about the FEMA COVID-19 vaccination site at the Valencia College West Campus (“A day at Orlando’s FEMA COVID-19 vaccine site: Bracing for waits, locals instead find speedy shots”).

My wife and I had been trying to get an appointment since the end of January, because of the horror stories about people without an appointment waiting in line for five hours and then being told the number of vaccinations had been exhausted.

So when your article said how smoothly things were going at the Valencia site, I decided to check it out the next day. I was in and out in 30 minutes and the lines moved swiftly and efficiently. I took my wife the following day; no appointment necessary. If it hadn’t been for your article, we would have still been trying to get an appointment.

Voting-rights bills need a little help

You can never have enough election integrity. And if voting restrictions are your chosen weapon, you need to at least have a level playing field. So as a Democrat, I’d like to propose these amendments to voting bills currently being proposed by Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Precincts near gated communities will be closed. Those residents will now be required to vote in low-income neighborhoods with a four-hour wait. No ballot harvesting allowed. Parking will be available near the bus stop.

Every ballot will contain a single question to ensure voter integrity: Who won the 2020 presidential election? Those who answer factually will be counted. Those who answer “Donald Trump” will be disqualified.

Early voting will be expanded to include six weeks of Sundays and bring “Polls to the Souls,” with mobile precincts, sameday registration and drop boxes set up near Black and Latino churches and community centers.

Polls will be open until 11 p.m. to accommodate voters working two minimum-wage jobs.

Any candidate who declares a landslide victory before all votes are counted and continues to declare victory for months after losing an election and incites his followers to storm the Capitol and overturn the election will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Demings’ stance on fines is anti-business

I have long been critical of Mayor Jerry Demings fining businesses for violating his dictatorial rules on COVID-19 protections (“Mayor blasts DeSantis for waiving fines,” March 12). He is a bureaucrat who has received his government paycheck throughout COVID-19 with no loss of income, as business owners face. Demings is woefully disconnected from the struggles that businesspeople face daily that have been magnified by COVID-19.

I applaud Gov. Ron DeSantis for eliminating these fines imposed by liberal, anti-business politicians.