DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Daytona Beach, accusing the city of gerrymandering its commission districts to favor the current commissioners.
The ACLU is suing on behalf of several city residents. The lawsuit alleges that the city government purposely redrew the commission districts to protect incumbents and ensure they didn’t have to run against each other.
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As a result, the map splits traditional communities of interest, the lawsuit claims. For instance, the Beachside area is split into three districts, with each district connected to the mainland, instead of being one district. The lawsuit says this is because three commission members all live Beachside, and if the area was made into one district they would have to run against each other.
The campuses of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Bethune-Cookman University are also split between two districts.
“For me, the shocking part was the fact that Bethune Cookman, they decided that they wanted to have it divided, split up so you can have people in one dorm and people in another dorm floating in another district. Which makes no sense whatsoever on the campus,” said plaintiff Alice Sakhnovsky.
The lawsuit says the plan to keep incumbent commissioners in their own districts was discussed openly in city commission meetings with the consultant hired to handle the redistricting, with the first meeting being Jan. 5, 2022.
In that meeting the commission also told the consultant to draft the redistricting plans to minimize population deviation between zones, underpopulate zones where significant growth is forecasted, preserve the core of existing zones, and keep communities of interest together.
The lawsuit is also significant because it’s the first under a state law passed last year that says local governments cannot redistrict based on protecting incumbent officials.
“The communities of interest like Beachside, that is a single community, the community of Bethune-Cookman is a single community, we don’t want to see those votes diluted in the name of supposedly giving them more power, no what is does is give the incumbents more power and that is against the law,” said plaintiff Nicholas Sakhnovsky.
News 6 reached out to the city of Daytona Beach for comment but did not hear back.
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