Citizens line up to support single-member districts and a ceasefire resolution during Alachua County Commission Public Comment

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the April 23 meeting of the Alachua County Commission, large groups showed up to speak to the board about single-member districts and a ceasefire resolution during Public Comment, leading one Commissioner to propose that the County divest from Lockheed Martin stocks.

Due to the number of people, Chair Mary Alford limited each speaker to two minutes; three minutes is customary. However, speakers could yield their time to another speaker, allowing that speaker to have more time. The comments below are organized by topic.

At-large districts

Kali Blount went first, supporting the proposal for a ballot referendum to change Alachua County Commissioner elections from single-member districts to at-large elections; the change to single-member districts was just made in 2022 by the voters. Blount said that a sign appeared on the first day of Early Voting in 2022 that said the NAACP supported the referendum; then he was handed a handbill that said Commissioner Chuck Chestnut favored the referendum; then he received a mailer stating that Rodney Long supported the referendum. Blount said, “The PACs that put out this stuff are affiliated with [Rep. Chuck Clemons] and [Sen. Keith Perry], and I bet you’re going to see them running for Commission, because several years ago, they stifled you from spending money on political education on issues. That was an advanced plot to change this county from blue to red and to get their next positions, and I wanted to file an ethics complaint, but, you know, I don’t get paid for that.”

Sharla Head said the voters “have already spoken, and I desire that the single-member district remain, due to the fact that I would like to be able to hold my individual leader of my particular district accountable for what he or she may or may not do.”

Dan Richman asked Commissioners to imagine that Rep. Kat Cammack’s district (heavily Republican) were split into five districts: “Would you want the entirety of the current district voting for all five? Or would you want your own smaller district voting for your own rep? Because let’s be honest: in this scenario, if the entirety of the current District 3 voted, you would get five Kat Cammacks. If you split it up, where each one got their own rep, you get three or four Kat Cammacks and then one or two dissenting voices. Now ask yourself: if you do not want five of the same politician in this scenario, why do you advocate for the opposite here? Is it because you happen to hold a majority?”

Nicole Reddick said she opposed putting Commissioner districts back on the ballot “due to the fact that us, as blacks, we should be able to choose who we want to represent our community.”

Pastor Michael Griffin also opposed putting Commissioner districts back on the ballot: “It’s kind of a simple question in my mind: How does the person know what you need unless they are where you are?”

Frances Williams said she supported single-member districts “and I’m opposed to any changes. Pastor [Kevin] Thorpe would have won, had he been elected under the single-member district.” [Len Cabrera’s 2022 analysis found that Thorpe would have beaten Ken Cornell in the 2014 Democratic primary if only District 4 votes were counted.]

Darryl Alfred said, “Looking at the history of single-member districts across this county, it’s easy to see why at-large voting systems have been replaced with single-member-district voting systems. The national NAACP for decades has opposed at-large voting in favor of single-member-district voting… In the City of Gainesville, single-member-district voting was instituted, supported by the Democratic Party, NAACP, and the majority of voters. This has been supported by the diversity of elected officials since the passing, and as Charles Chestnut is quoted to say, ‘It’s not about racism, it’s about fairness.’… A 52% majority of politically-diverse citizens in Alachua County have approved single-member districts as the way forward. The County Commission needs to accept this reality and let the people of Alachua County be represented by who they see fit.”

Another man supporting single-member districts said, “There needs to be a change – for someone to hold a foot to the fire. We want Alachua County to be better, but you’ve got to practice what you preach, and that’s what I’m about.”

Terri Foreman said, “The best way to ensure my Commission represents the unique complexity of my district is to make sure he or she carries a majority of my district votes and not the votes of everyone on the outside.”

Marlon Bruce said, “Today you’ve heard from a sea of African American voters telling you what they want. And I think it would not only be blind, it would be a miscarriage of your duty, as a majority white board, to look at these fine people and tell them that they’re wrong… [and] that we don’t believe you knew what you were doing, we will do it over for you… The voters have spoken.” He said the board should keep the current system, and “should the voters come back and tell you again later that it was an error, we will address it then. But let it stand.”

A woman named Latoya said she supported single-member districts and opposed any proposed changes.

Armando Grundy-Gomes had extra time from previous speakers who had yielded their unused time to him, and he said he had opposed single-member districts when he was on the Charter Review Commission in 2009-10, but now, “What changed? You changed.” He said the County Commission, “collectively, as a governing body – it’s groupthink. For the so-called African American or black people in this community, there has not been effective governance… This is a blue county, governance is done by Democrats… they identify themselves as ‘progressives,’ and they say they care about the quality of life of people that look like me.”

Grundy-Gomes referred to the allegations of misinformation in the 2022 campaign on the single-member district referendum and said, “Rodney Long did favor single-member districts in the City of Gainesville because District 1 is because of Rodney Long… The national NAACP is in favor of single-member districts – facts!… I’m in favor of single-member districts because I want to change the groupthink.”

Telford Cartwright called in and said he supported single-member districts because “it puts pressure on that Commissioner… to focus on that district.”

Bill Gracy said he supported single-member districts because “when we have a single-member-district representative, they’re more likely to listen to our needs and our wants and our desires in our particular district.”

Ceasefire resolution

Tess Tumarkin, a local nurse, handed Commissioners an updated resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza and said she and the others in the room were asking the board to put the resolution on an agenda. She also provided a letter signed by close to 200 healthcare workers in Alachua County and a list of 50 other groups who support the effort. 

Dr. Rubab Islam, a psychiatrist, gave the board a list of healthcare workers “killed by Israel attacks on Palestine since October 7, 2023.”

Three people ceded their time to “Dr. Bashar.”

Dr. Bashar Alzghoul, who is a Pulmonologist and Intensive Care Physician at UF Health Shands, said he returned from Gaza a week ago and urged the board to pass a ceasefire resolution. He said, “Small voices add up” and described what he had seen in a hospital in Gaza. 

Cesar Moya, Pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville, said his congregation had endorsed the ceasefire resolution: “As Mennonites, we are committed to seeking peace and justice and following the non-violent teachings of Jesus.” Although none of the previous speakers had made any mention of the hostages held by Hamas and the updated resolution similarly does not mention the hostages, Moya referred to an amended resolution, previously considered by the County Commission, that called for the immediate release of all hostages.

A medical student named Steven supported the ceasefire resolution. A pharmacy student named Maria said the resolution is not political but is “the belief in the statement, ‘Hospitals should not be bombed.'” She said they were willing to work with the board on the wording of their proposed resolution. She added the “hard truth” that “it’s an election year… and you may think that the election itself is months or years away and people will forget how you respond to our requests to put the ceasefire resolution back on the agenda, but I guarantee that we will remember those of you who supported genocide… I will not be voting for cowards who, six months into watching a genocide unfold live before our eyes, will do nothing to publicly condemn it.”

A woman named Anna yielded her time to Abigail Fletcher, who said that although Cornell has said he supports efforts for peace but does not believe the board should get involved officially, “this board is already involved, as you have used our Alachua County tax dollars to invest $189,000-plus to purchase stock in Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli military with fighter jets and missiles; the more bombs dropped, the more their profits rise. So the blood of Gazans is on all of our hands.”

Cassandra Urbenz said she was serving as co-president of Graduate Assistants United at UF and said she supported the ceasefire resolution. She said there are no universities in Gaza today and added, “You cannot say that this is not important enough to take a moment to say something. With a large portion of the Gainesville community being associated with the University of Florida at one point or another, I want to note that this is a higher education issue… This is a workers’ issue.”

Leah Cohen from the Agricultural Justice Project also supported the ceasefire resolution and said that the dynamics at work in Gaza also “play out here to justify inhumane conditions we permit in our food and agricultural systems.”

Christian from Rave 4 Palestine said, “Global concerns are local concerns, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza is an issue that transcends borders and demands immediate action… This resolution serves as a means to build pressure on the Biden administration and on elected officials, forcing politicians to respond to the demands of their constituents.”

Paul Ortiz, a history professor at UF, spoke on behalf of United Faculty of Florida, the faculty union at UF; he also represented Gainesville Veterans for Peace. He said, “If we want to address violence in this community, we have to address the violence that we’re supporting in Gaza right now… We have to be serious about stopping the violence that we support with our tax dollars because every dollar this County spends on supporting the war in Gaza and the military is money from our public schools; it’s money from our affordable housing; it’s money for our homelessness services.”

Amber called in to say she is a Jewish Alachua County resident who represents “multiple local groups, but in particular Gainesville Radical Reproductive Rights Network, in support of the ceasefire.” She said Alachua County has been “complicit” in committing genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians, “and it’s the bare minimum that the Commission can do to just support a ceasefire, as well as an end to the occupation and an end to the genocide.”

Mary Claire Jackson said she was speaking on behalf of the Levin College of Law Chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild to support both the ceasefire resolution and single-member districts. She said, “Commissioners are meant to communicate their home county’s concerns to the state legislature and federal policymakers.”

A woman named Farrah spoke on behalf of the UF Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and said, “The university is not on our side, but the students are… Do you guys know that 99% of the world’s carbon emissions came from only the first 60 days of Israel bombing Gaza and that 50% of those emissions came from U.S. cargo planes sending weapons to Israel?… This is our problem: in every sense, from the destruction of our planet to the immoral actions of our government and military, we must be able to say that enough is enough. We are a small town, but adding our voice to the sea of other voices will make a difference.”

A man named Bill who said he lives in District 1 said he had previously spoken against the resolution and believed that it was a “red herring… What resolutions like this do is, they put all the blame on Israel without acknowledging the fact that all of this is happening today because of the actions that Hamas took on October 7 and that if Hamas surrendered and gave up the hostages and released however many hostages are left still alive – if they did that, then all of this would end… These resolutions are really all part of a national effort to basically delegitimize the state of Israel.”

Robbie said he was speaking for PSL Gainesville: “We demand that you pass the ceasefire resolution, condemn the ongoing genocide that’s being perpetuated by the illegal Zionist state, and immediately divest all investments from the country of Israel.”

Board response

After 66 minutes of public comment, the board responded. Commissioner Anna Prizzia thanked the speakers for their “continued and unwavering commitment to trying to stop – or at least voice your opinion in the goal of stopping the genocide.” She said the Commission had “worked hard… to make sure that that resolution was balanced in its voice and that it included the fact that Hamas was the instigator of this violence right now and to recognize that everyone has a part to play in creating a ceasefire… I think that the ceasefire resolution that was brought forward to us did have the language that was asked for, and I continue to support it.”

Cornell asked one of the speakers to send him a list of other cities or counties in Florida that have adopted a ceasefire resolution. He added, “I also want to state for the record: I don’t know if we have a policy, but I do not support our investments in any military providers, especially Lockheed Martin, and is there anything we as a board can do to instruct our investors about that?”

County Attorney Sylvia Torres said, “There was a bill passed in 2023 that said that local government entities cannot make a decision about investments except in consideration of pecuniary factors, which specifically says it’s not based on political or ideological or environmental issues.”

Cornell responded, “I think it’s a bad investment. Is that a good enough reason?”

Torres said the Clerk would be the person to clarify that. Cornell referred the issue to the Clerk “to tell us what our options are, because I don’t want our money going to the military industrial complex. Never have, never will.”

Prizzia agreed, “I think it’s worth having that conversation more broadly, to understand where our money goes and look at it holistically. I understand that we can’t make a decision based on idealistic values, but we can make decisions based on how we want to see our investments make returns for us.”

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said the ceasefire resolution supporters should use their energy to appeal to “Rick Scott and Marco Rubio and Kat Cammack, because these are the ones who have their direct hands on the government in Washington that we don’t have.” She said she had been concerned at the disrespect shown to Rabbi Goldman when the ceasefire supporters met with the Jewish community, “and I just didn’t want to see that grow in this community.”