Letters to the Editor

Thanks for supporting arts

Thanks to Isaac Babcock for a terrific piece (“Quick Play” on June 2) regarding the Winter Park High School drama department’s recent Festival Of One-Acts!

As the new drama teacher at WPHS, I am greatly encouraged by the strength of our growing theater company, and the accolades for the students’ work are well-deserved. In a community known for its commitment to education, we must find a way to develop community-wide support for the arts in the school system, though we currently find it hard to overcome the bright lights and lure of the football field.

Support for the arts at WPHS needs to be demanded by the parents and community members who truly value the arts and deem them a necessary part of the Winter Park and Maitland experience, especially with today’s youth culture pulling kids away.

We applaud The Observer for proving itself a dedicated leader and making the arts in our schools worthy of front-page coverage. Next year promises to be an amazingly vibrant and visible part of the Winter Park scene for WPHS drama, and we invite all of our neighbors, families, advertisers and alumni to find yourself at the high school next year entertained and enlightened.

Thank you, friends! Please keep us in your plans next season — we’ll be saving you a seat!

—Robert Dutton, drama director

Winter Park High School

Sour grapes or acidic politics?

Ed Sabori’s June 2 letter to the editor (“Commission on right track”) characterizes the opinions expressed in three letters to the editor that appeared in the May 19 edition of the Observer as “sour grapes-type comments.” The comments were intended to inform the citizens of Winter Park of events and actions that have taken place at the Winter Park City Commission following the most recent municipal election. The actions presented were factual. If the truth, as presented, is a bunch of sour grapes, perhaps it is time for the citizens of Winter Park to sweeten these grapes by curbing the current partisan political climate, reflected in the behavior patterns and actions of some of Winter Park’s elected officials.

So that readers of your newspaper continue to be accurately informed of events, I would like to rebut several points made in Mr. Sabori’s June 1 letter:

Qualifications of Commissioner Steve Leary. Ms. Bytell’s letter to the editor did not state or imply that Mr. Leary was not qualified to serve as vice mayor. Rather, she cited the fact that the two incumbent commissioners, Carolyn Cooper and Tom McMacken, were more “seasoned,” i.e., they had more knowledge and experience regarding issues currently facing the city of Winter Park.

Behavior that may be construed as inappropriate relative to the Sunshine Law with respect to former Commissioner Margie Bridges. If behavior that may be construed as inappropriate by a former commissioner is grounds for denying such former commissioner a seat on one of the city’s boards and preventing a Winter Park citizen from actively participating in the political process, the mayor of the city of Winter Park should not be too quick or harsh in criticizing behavior that may be construed as inappropriate, whether based on the Sunshine Law or other provisions of the Florida statutes. Mayor Bradley’s strong advocacy for SunRail has been viewed by some Winter Park citizens and even fellow commissioners as a conflict of interest as defined in the Florida statutes. The perceived conflict of interest arises from Mayor Bradley’s senior management positions at both Florida Hospital and its division Winter Park Memorial Hospital, both of which will reap significant benefits from the SunRail project.

Accomplishments of the City Commission: The accelerated track record cited by Mr. Sabori, especially since the last municipal election, has been partly at the expense of increased partisan politics and orchestrated by a majority voting bloc dominated by Winter Park’s mayor with votes being cast in unison by the bloc. Selection or rejection of members for city boards, which is at the sole discretion of the mayor of Winter Park, in tandem with a majority vote from the commissioners, is also reflecting the partisan political environment with appointees appearing to have met the litmus test of support for the majority voter bloc.

It is much easier to have quicker, streamlined decisions if one controls a majority voting bloc, each of whose members received less than 18 percent of the vote of all eligible citizens and less than 3,500 individual votes.

The reduction in electrical rates is not due to improved efficiencies that have been achieved by Winter Park’s electrical utility but rather to a pass through by the utility to Winter Park residents of a fuel rebate obtained from Progress Energy Florida, the provider of fuel for the utility. The rebate was due to higher fuel costs that had been incurred by Winter Park’s utility, which were passed on to the utility’s electrical customers, while Progress Energy Florida’s nuclear generating plant was out of service for maintenance.

For the Observer’s readers who may still consider these comments just more sour grapes and not an accurate description of the events described, this writer would encourage such readers to attend live sessions of the City Commission meetings or listen to simulcast audio recordings and be themselves the ultimate fact-checkers.

—Barbara S. Bytell

Winter Park

The facts on redistricting

The Florida Legislature is constitutionally mandated to divide the state into no more than 120 Florida House of Representative districts and 40 Florida Senate districts. Additionally, the Florida Legislature is charged with drawing the congressional districts throughout the state. The number of congressional seats is determined by the state’s population by the United States Census Bureau. The state of Florida has gained two new congressional seats due to our population growth over the last decade. The redistricting process takes place once every 10 years.

Voters across the state approved Amendments 5 and 6 to the Florida Constitution during the 2010 election. These amendments laid out new rules that the Legislature must abide by when redrawing districts. Specifically, no district can be drawn to favor an incumbent lawmaker or a political party. Districts cannot be drawn to exclude racial or language minorities or inhibit these groups from electing the representative of their choice.

Each district must be contiguous, meaning one could travel from one end of the district to the other end without crossing into another district. All districts will be equal in population and will utilize existing political and geographical boundaries when feasible.

The Florida Legislature has published a number of redistricting resources available to the public. This includes a breakdown of all current districts and how over- or under-populated these areas are. Each Florida House of Representatives seat will need to serve 156,678 constituents, up from 133,186. The Florida Senate seats will need to serve 470,033 constituents as opposed to 399,559. On the congressional side, Florida will gain two additional seats in the United States House of Representatives, which will bring our total up to 27 seats. Each of the 27 Congressional seats will serve 696,345 constituents. Currently, both Congressman Dan Webster’s and Congresswoman Sandy Adams’ districts are overpopulated significantly, 15.7 percent and 14.8 percent respectively, while Congresswoman Corrine Brown’s district is under-populated by 5.4 percent. The above congressional districts are likely to see significant changes during the redistricting process since much of Central Florida’s districts are considered significantly overpopulated.

You can stay actively involved in redistricting throughout the process utilizing a number of various websites and public meetings. The Florida House of Representatives has rolled out an interactive website where you can build your own district and submit the information to the Legislature for consideration. Please visit www.floridaredistricting.org for more information.

Finally, the redistricting committees will be holding public meetings around the state beginning later this month. Orlando will host two public redistricting meetings on Wednesday, July 27, from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center. If you would like more information on redistricting or any other state issue, please contact my office at 407-884-2023. As always, it is an honor to serve you.

—State Rep. Bryan Nelson

District 38