'We need representation': Loss of Black voice on Lakeland commission of concern
LAKELAND – For the first time in more than 55 years, Lakeland is on the verge of not having a Black person serve on the city commission. Sam Simmons failed to win over voters in the Dec. 5 runoff to be elected to a full four-year term in office.
“That was my concern all along,” Terry Coney, president of Lakeland’s NAACP branch, said. “If Commissioner Simmons lost, we go back in time to 1968 or there about to the last time we had an all-white city commission.”
In the runoff election, Simmons received 42% of the vote versus challenger Guy LaLonde Jr., who won with 57.5%, according to results posted by Polk County Supervisor of Elections office.
“Coming out of this election, I realized it’s much bigger than me,” Simmons said. “It’s bigger than what I am.”
History of Lakeland's Northwest District
When LaLonde is sworn into office, the Northwest District’s long chain of Black representatives will be broken:
Simmons was appointed to fill the Northwest District seat in October 2022 when former Commissioner Phillip Walker resigned after an unsuccessful run for Florida House District 50.
Walker came into office by winning a special election held in November 2009, because then-Commissioner Gow Fields had successfully run to become the city’s first elected Black mayor.
Fields had served as the Northwest District commissioner dating back to 1992. He was first appointed in January 1992 to replace Rev. Willie J. Williams, who resigned to become minister to a Tampa Church.
Williams was preceded by Carrie R. Oldham, who was appointed in 1977 and went on to become the city’s first female Black mayor.
Oldham had stepped in for the late Charles A. Coleman, who died in July 1977 while holding the mayor’s office. Dr. John S. Jackson was Lakeland’s first Black commissioner, before being internally selected as mayor in 1972 and holding that office for two years. Jackson served on the commission from 1968 to 1975.
Simmons said the continued need for a Black voice on the city commission became core to his campaign.
“We need representation. We tried to get the message out, tried to get enough people to come out and vote. If so, we may have won this race,” Simmons said. “I tried to get the message out that we needed to continue to have representation from the African American community on the city commission. It really concerns me.”
Related: Guy LaLonde decisively wins Lakeland's NW District. Clifton Dollison wins in Winter Haven
Simmons’ campaign message about the need for representation may have reached his core audience: the Northwest community. A closer look at the Dec. 5 runoff election results by precinct reveal where each candidates’ groundswell of support came from.
In the Northwest District polling precincts – 112, 121, 204, 205, 209 and 210, and 212 – Simmons won about 54% of the ballots cast. Votes break down along racial lines with Simmons dominating the four precincts where Black voters are the majority, and LaLonde winning the three precincts where white voter registrations are higher.
“What it means is I won the Northwest District,” Simmons said. “But we don’t have single-member districts so it really doesn’t matter.”
All of Lakeland’s commission seats are voted on at-large by all registered city voters dating back at least 40 years, according to City Clerk Kelly Koos. While Black residents make up nearly 20% of the city’s population, they are less than 15% of the city’s total registered voters.
“We know each and every time there has been an election and its at-large that we in the Northwest community – the inner core of the Northwest community - don’t stand a chance,” Doris Moore Bailey said, a Northwest community leader and activist.
Northwest: At-Large or Single-Member District?
Community leaders of the Northwest district have grappled with a question over time: Would a true district-based system or single-member district help ensure diversity on the city’s commission?
Lorenzo Robinson, president of the Paul A. Diggs Neighborhood Association who has run twice unsuccessfully for city commission, said he pushed the idea of a single-member district voting in the past.
“Everybody else should not be voting on somebody to represent the Northwest,” he said. “That should be someone who lives in the area and people voted for that person who lives in the area.”
Robinson said he broached his ideas with city officials, but single-member districts never gained much support or backing. Approximately 66% of cities nationwide elect their representatives at-large, with about 17% using a district-based system and another 17% using some combination of at-large and district-based.
Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said he describes Lakeland as an “at-large district residency system” where candidates for office must live within a specific district but all city voters can vote in each district’s election.
Traditionally, many voting systems were district-based but cities and municipalities transitioned to at-large systems in the early 1990s, according to Jewett.
“At-Large became the more popular as theoretically when you elected someone at-large they have to be responsible to the city needs as whole,” he said. “They are looking at the big picture, not the parochial concerns of one segment of the community.” Until 1986, Florida’s state constitution prohibited elections to be held on single-member district, where people living in an are elected a representative from among themselves. Dr. Alzo Reddick, former Florida House District 40 representative, introduced an amendment to the state constitution that made single-member district voting an option for municipalities.
Reddick, 86, grew up in Polk County and attended elementary school in Bartow.
"Before that, Black people couldn’t get elected," he said. "I did everything I could during my time in the legislature to make things better for people of color."
Under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, Jewett said there have been a number of local lawsuits requiring municipal governments to adopt true single-member systems in areas where at-large voting system kept resulting in a 100% white council despite significant Black, Hispanic or other populations of color.
“There’s a lot of research out there that shows a district-based system – a true district-based system – typically allows more diversity on the council,” Jewett told The Ledger. “It does matter the size of the minority population and concentration, if it’s equally spread out across a city."
Roughly 20% of Lakeland’s residents identify as Black or African American, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. That results in about 9,400 registered Black voters citywide.
More than half of the city’s registered Black voters, approximately 4,885 or 51.7%, live in the Northwest District, according to data compiled by Polk County Supervisor of Election’s Office. Nearly a third live in just two precincts, 204 and 205, which run along the west side of U.S. Highway 98 N, north of Memorial Highway to south of Interstate 4.
“Minorities can win at-large. In modern America, it’s absolutely true sometimes minority leaders can be elected in an at-large district. We’ve seen it happen” Jewett said. “You still find voters, at least in part, making their decisions based on race or ethnicity.
Jewett said research shows that many voters feel that a person of color can best represent some of the challenges Black voters and Black communities continue face. It’s been a question of debate how much that should be taken into account.
“We’re one of the fastest growing cities in the nation right now, and we don’t have an African American representing the City of Lakeland,” Simmons said. “That’s unfortunate.”
What's the future hold?
Simmons said he’s hopeful his colleague on the commission will take up some of his priorities, including a new building for the Police Athletic League, and make sure they stay on the agenda.
“I have confidence that my colleagues will look out for the African American community, I really do,” he said.
Mayor Bill Mutz said he's been grateful to have consistent representation of the Black community on Lakeland's commission dating back to 1986 and realizes the election is bringing change to that.
"I think it does two things: One is a reflection that there is a broader group of people in the community than Black or African Americans, as well as it might point for the future charter review committee on importance of considering voting by district," Mutz said.
The city's Charter Review Committee meets every four years to review the city's laws and consider possible updates. Mutz said each commissioner will get to make two recommendations for possible review, he will make three recommendations. The mayor said he believes it may be time to consider with whether it transitions from at-large to single-member district voting for the city's districts: Southeast, Southwest, Northeast and Northwest.
"I think it's an opportunity to consider this item in the charter review committee on possible single-member districts," he said. "Because I think it is a sentinel event that allows us to understand the value of it, with regards to district representation."
As commissioner-elect, LaLonde said he wasn't fully aware of the optics of the Northwest District and concerns about racial representation until he was deeply involved in his campaign for the runoff election. He said the issue of racial representation never came up from when he first applied as a candidate to be appointed.
"I cannot change the color of my skin, who my parents are or how I was raised," LaLonde said. "I will work tirelessly nonstop to gain the trust of all people within the Northwest District and City of Lakeland."
LaLonde is holding a Community Leader Roundtable Dec. 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at The Well, 114 E. Parker St. He said the event is open to the public, especially Northwest community leaders and pastors, as he hopes to discuss what issues the area is facing and discuss ideas for solutions moving forward.
"We have to get more people engaged in the community, in all the city's communities," he said.
If the event has a good turnout, LaLonde said he is considering hosting a roundtable discussion on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.
Coney said he believes it will fall to the NAACP and other organizations to start at the beginning of next year, educating residents on the process of voting, the importance of civic engagement and what that means on the community, state and national levels.
“If you don’t vote, you disengage yourself in the process,” he said. “I was raised if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”
Coney said he’s torn when thinking about whether Lakeland would benefit by moving from at-large to single-member district system.
“It’s interesting, for 55 years it has worked,” he said. “Even those ones who were appointed, they all ultimately got elected.”
Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Loss of Black voice on Lakeland commission of concern to some
