- April 24, 2024
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After two joint meetings, five hours of total discussion and 17 maps later, the Volusia County Council and Volusia County School Board have decided to adopt different maps for redistricting, a decision that will cause more split precincts and ballot styles, particularly for the west side of the county.
While the boards were hopeful about agreeing on a combined version of the respective maps each favored, at the joint meeting held on Thursday, Oct. 28, neither side could agree on the same combined option. The Volusia County Council voted 5-2 to adopt plan "FI-5" — with Council members Fred Lowry and Heather Post voting against — which splits the city of DeBary between Districts 1 and 3.
The School Board largely favored plan "FI-4," which would keep the city of DeBary in one district and instead move Orange City into District 5 from District 1, which were the main differences between the two maps. A motion to adopt plan "FI-4" failed at the County Council level with 4-3 vote, because according to the county's charter, a two-thirds vote is needed to approve changing district lines. Council members Danny Robins, Barbara Girtman and Lowry voted against.
County Councilman Ben Johnson said both boards made a "gallant attempt" in trying to adopt the same map.
“We tried and it didn’t work," Johnson said. "I commend everybody for sitting down and coming to the table and talking about it. I think at this time any further discussion on this is basically wasting everybody’s time when we need to start implementing our plan.”
From the start of the meeting, Lowry said that the task before both boards wasn't just difficult. He said it was "impossible."
“Lake Helen and DeLand don’t want to be split up," Lowry said. "I completely understand that. I’ve gotten all kinds of emails today from Enterprise and Osteen and they don’t want to be split up and they don’t want to be with the East side. You’ve got Orange City that doesn’t want to be split up and you’ve got DeBary that’s tired of being split up. There’s no map that satisfies all four of those criteria, so I don’t know. To me, we’re just going to have to bite the bullet.”
School Board member Anita Burnette asked if it was possible to combine plans "FI-4" and "FI-5," but county attorney Sebrina Slack said they could not edit maps during the meeting.
“This is pretty much the best effort we could do," she said.
School Board Attorney Ted Doran told the School Board that, if they were already going a different direction from the County Council, they could review other maps at their meeting that would suit the school district's needs better than "FI-4" and "FI-5."
Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis pled with both boards to adopt the same map. There will be cities that are going to be upset either way, but adopting one map for both boards would simplify the elections process for the citizens. She grew emotional as she thanked the boards for trying to reach a consensus.
The County Council did have a vote to reconsider their plan, but it failed since Girtman, Robins and Lowry voted against.
School Board members made two attempts to try to agree with the County Council. First, School Board member Carl Persis made a motion for the School Board to consider adopting plan "FI-5" as well, but the motion died for lack of a second.
Then, School Board member Linda Cuthbert passed her gavel to Board Member Jamie Haynes in order to second a second motion by Persis to adopt plan "FI-5," but it failed 3-2, with Burnette, Haynes and School Board member Ruben Colon voting against.
Persis said it was disappointing to leave the meeting without agreeing with one another on district boundaries. Looking at the maps, Districts 2, 3 and 4 were all virtually the same.
“If the representatives from 2, 3 and 4 would all vote the same way, I mean, it’d be done," Persis said. "There’s no difference.”
To not agree on a map because of a "few blocks," said Persis, seems shortsighted.
County Council Chair Jeff Brower also expressed his disappointment.
“It’s a failure for the voters," he said.
